E13: Legendary Leader: Neen James

Thanks for joining us today on Street Smarts with Harvey Mackay. Where the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. And now here's your host, managing partner and co founder of harveymckayacademy.com Cliff Jones.

Hello, everybody. Cliff Jones with Harvey McKay Academy. And we are three to have Neen James with us today. Neen, welcome.

G'. Day. What a treat it is to serve all the wonderful people that are in the academy.

Well, Neen, thank you for being with us. Neen is an author and speaker extraordinaire, author of the book Attention Pays, how to drive Profitability. Keyword productivity. And I love accountability. Productivity, Profitability, productivity, accountability. So, Neen, we're here to talk about attention. Why you chose to focus on attention or the lack thereof. Clearly you're committed to changing the lives of many people as you travel around the world speaking to large companies. Why'd you pick attention? And why is that such a big deal today for leaders?

You know, I think, Clifford, that what's happening is we're living in an attention deficit society. People are suffering from being overwhelmed, they're overstressed, they're overtired. In our book that you mentioned, Attention Pays, we call this the over trilogy, where what's happening is people are struggling to get anything done. Companies are not making the money that they need to make. They're losing their top talent. And what's happening is, when you think about how this impacts us personally, professionally, and globally, I realized my work was always in the area of productivity. Clifford, you know and I know that Harvey and all of the team there, you are always focused on making sure that we get the most done, but that we focus on the right things. And I realized, you can't manage time, but you can manage your attention. And then I realized that's what we need. So we need to move from an attention deficit society to an attention surplus economy. And in the book, we talk about exactly how to do that.

So you start off with part one. Does attention pay take us through part one of the book? Cause there are four, three key parts to the book.

Think about the fact that when it comes to the benefits of paying attention, when we pay attention, companies make more money. Entrepreneurs increase their particular client their footprint. We are able to attract and retain the top talent. We have deeper relationships with people. We take care of the planet on which we live. There are so many benefits to paying attention. We can negotiate deeper connections with our vendors. They're more responsive to us. We can have more fabulous relationships with our family and our friends. We can make a greater contribution in our community. And what I realized was there's so many benefits to attention. And that's where we really came up with this. Now there's some major costs when you don't pay attention, Clifford, which we started to talk about, the fact that nine people die every day because of distracted driving, that's crazy. You know, when you think about our devices, our cell phone, our devices, technology is not the enemy of our attention. We are. And we have to consider how do we truly pay attention to what matters. You know, Clifford, I wonder if some of your people would be surprised to learn we touch our cell phones on average 2,617 times day. That's crazy. According to D Scan in 2016, the study that they released, that's how many times on average we touch it. There are so many reasons why we need to get attention to pay, but it starts with us as leaders. It starts with really thinking about attention in maybe three ways. Personally, it's about who deserves your attention. That's very much about being thoughtful professionally, it's about what deserves your attention, which is about being productive. And then the third way we pay attention is globally. That's about how you're paying attention in the world. And that's about being responsible personally, professionally and globally. And when we pay attention, attention pays.

I love that. So you also talk about listening as part of the equation, entire chapter and listening. Talk to our listeners, our viewers, about power of listening.

You know, I was reminded about the value of attention from my five year old friend. I was simply sitting next door in the kitchen of my friend Eileen, and she has three boys, her youngest, Donovan, he's five. Eileen and I were attempting to have a cup of coffee. And the challenge was Donovan, a five year old, kept inserting himself into the conversation. And anyone who's watching or listening to this knows exactly what I'm talking about. And he kept asking me all these questions and I thought I was answering him, but not to his setup. But then he got so annoyed at me, he was like, neen, you're not listening to me. He got so mad, he jumped into my lap, he grabbed my face in his tiny little hands and he turned it towards him and he said, neem, listen with your eyes. I mean, seriously, he was fired. I mean, that's amazing to me. And so it really challenged everything. And I think we as leaders need to listen with our eyes more. He reminded me, clifford, we don't just listen with our ears, we listen with our eyes. We listen with our heart, we listen with our soul. And he has taught me that valuable lesson. And probably one of the most quoted, most tweeted lines of every keynote I do, no matter where I am in the world, is Donovan's brilliance when he told me to listen with my eyes.

I love that line, listen with my eyes. Tm. It's a great line.

Yeah. Listen with your eyes would be a good trademark, wouldn't it?

That's phenomenal. And my market. Okay. Second part of the book, you talk about being thoughtful. Tell everybody the context of thoughtfulness as it relates to attention and getting better results. Productivity.

If you think about the three ways we pay attention, I mentioned personally, professionally, and globally, if we focus on personal attention first, this is truly about who deserves your attention. This is absolutely about being thoughtful. I love a good system. I think systems create freedom. And so I created this term called systemized thoughtfulness. Now I'm saying systemized, not systematized. It's the Aussie way to say it. No extra T required. So systemized thoughtfulness. Now what this is about, it's about making time in time to let people know that they matter to you, to give them your undivided attention. So let's talk about some easy ways you could do that as a business owner. Easy ways for systemized thoughtfulness is look across all of the touch points you have with the particular clients that you serve and then look to see are there ways you can really personalize that. Systemized thoughtfulness is the simplicity of using people's names. Whether it is your team members, whether it is people in a teleconference, whether it is your client when you meet them, maybe it's your barista when they hand you your coffee in the morning. But consider using people's names. I think one of the systems that I've had in my life, my entire life, when anyone is in a place of service, my security guards, receptionists, baristas, waiters, people who bag our groceries. Whenever I can, I always use their name. Because what I've noticed, Clifford, is that people kind of light up when they hear their name, right? And so a very, very easy system is use people's names so much more. Other systems that I have in place and many of my clients have taken on board as a result of me working with them, is always carry stamped stationery. The power of just writing a handwritten note. You and I know how powerful that is and how people remember that kindness. In a digital world, I believe analog systems get attention. And so handwriting a note to a team member, to a client, to thank them for their business to housekeeping, if you stay in a hotel, and thank them for taking care of you. I always, always write handwritten notes, even love notes for my husband. When I leave, I travel. You know, I get basically paid to travel. I spend all my time in airports, convention centers, and hotels. And when I leave, I make sure I leave little notes around the house for my husband. Now, whether he likes it or not, I'm not 100% sure, but I do know that it makes him smile and it reminds him I'm thinking about him when he's away. I have parents that I know that pop little notes in their lunchbox of their children, and so that when they open their lunch, they have that little reminder someone's thinking about them. Systemized thoughtfulness is about looking for ways and creating systems so that you can do it on a regular basis. For example, because I fly so much, as soon as I sit in an airplane seat, I start texting clients and people that are important to me just to let them know that I'm thinking about them. And those texts at the airport, it's an automatic part of my travel routine. Systemized thoughtfulness is about finding ways to make people realize they matter to you.

You practice much of what Harvey McKay himself has practiced and taught for many years. You know, way beyond the McKay 66 to what you're talking about. It's caring, thoughtful acts, and often random, right? You go into productivity and you talk about significant moments. Teach us about significant moments and why they're important at home, at work, everywhere we go.

You know, I think that random acts of kindness are great, but wouldn't it be better to have systemized thoughtfulness? Wouldn't it be better to have things you do every single day? And to truly focus on what matters, we need to consider how we're investing our time. Because you and I get the same amount of time every day. And the amazing thing about time is you and I get 1,440 minutes in a day, and it doesn't matter. Anyone listening to this doesn't matter how old they are, how young they are, what's printed on their business card. Maybe they don't even have a business card. It doesn't matter because time's going to happen whether we like it or not. Time is the great equalizer. But I do believe we have a responsibility to make the most of the time that we're given on this planet. So one of the ways that people can consider another system is to create a strategic appointment with yourself. So Every day invest 15 minutes in an appointment with yourself. And here's what I'd like people to do. I'd love you to invest 15 minutes to identify your top three not negotiable activities. So before your head hits the pillow tonight, what's your top three not negotiable, must get done activities today. Now, I have tried every app planner system, paper, digital. I've tried everything Clifford. And you know the way that I manage mine. It's a simple little post it note. And what I do is I write on my post it note today I will because I'm making a commitment to myself. It's an agreement, it's a contract that I'm basically signing that says today I will. And then I write down my three not negotiables. Now, I carry that silly little post it note with me all day. And the reason I chose a post it note is I love the satisfaction of crossing something off my list. But I also believe that it is a decision filtering system. When I look at that little post it note, it reminds me to stay on track because I can stick it on anything. I can take it with me to all my meetings, I can take it on the plane. That silly little post it note helps drive my behavior so that I remain accountable for what I said I would do at the beginning of the day. So consider if you want to be more productive, looking at time in 15 minute increments and have one strategic appointment with yourself every day for just 15 minutes to identify your top three negotiable activities.

All right, fourth part of the book, Global Responsibility Impact. So three major power words concepts talk us through the fourth section of the book and how it relates to goal, responsibility and attention.

Yeah, so the third attention style is global attention, which is about how you pay attention in the world. It's about being responsible. Now not everyone is a Greenpeace card carrying Tesla driving recycler that's listening to this and that's okay. Maybe the planet is not your passion. However, we have a responsibility to make the most of the resources that we're given. And I believe that we all serve, whether it is serving in our community, in our church, our temple, the synagogue, and taking care of the planet that we have. And so for me, global attention is about starting in your community. What are some things you need to pay attention to in your community? It could be that there's an opportunity to serve in your school or be involved in one of the shelters or in community gardens. I do believe that we have a responsibility globally to take care of the limited resources we have, which means the simplicity of implementing recycling programs at your office, having recycling trash cans at home, and showing and role modeling to others the importance of not wasting resources. So for me, being Australian, I think this is very near and dear to my heart and also a huge animal lover. I want to make sure that we protect the planet that we have so that my goddaughters will be able to meet these species and see these animals that are slowly becoming extinct because we are not paying attention to the way we are using our resources and the way we are clearing things. So what I would love individuals to think about is what can they personally do to pay attention to the community in which they live, to the planet on which we live, and that sometimes it's just little tiny things that make a big impact.

Nene James, author of Attention Pays speaker reviewing your book. 4 parts, 177 pages, 8 chapters. All about how paying attention, listening with our eyes, helps us basically be more profitable, more productive, and more accountable. I love the third one because when we're talking about team and teamwork and hiring all the things that leaders, you're in front of Fortune 1000, the biggest companies to the smallest companies, entrepreneurs. This impacts everybody, doesn't it?

It does. And I believe that accountability is really a core responsibility we all have. And so accountability could be as simple as staying accountable to yourself, making that daily commitment to get things done. It might be accountability to your team and making sure you're all working towards the most impactful activities that will help you achieve your team objectives. Maybe it's being accountable to another person. Maybe you're in a relationship and there's certain accountabilities you put in place. A very simple thing I've done my whole career is I've always had an accountability partner. So my accountability partner, what I do is every Monday I send her my list of goals that I will achieve this week. It focuses on both personal and professional. On Friday, I email her the results of everything that I said I would do. Now, you and I both know that often happens in, let's say, January. People make those crazy New Year's resolutions, and maybe one of them, Clifford, is to get fit. And so they have these great aspirations. I live on the east coast. It's cold in January. And so what often happens is people set these great New Year's Eve resolutions where they're going to start getting fit, and they join a gym. And for the first few days, you know, they do it. And then about a week into it it's cold outside. They hit the snooze button and they don't want to go to the gym. But the difference is this. When people tell a friend they'll meet them at the gym at crazy early in the morning, they are less likely to cancel because they're making themselves accountable to someone else. Even though they'll break a commitment to themselves by telling someone else that you'll meet them at the gym, you are less likely to cancel. I truly believe in accountability. I believe public accountability drives private accountability. When you declare to someone what you want to be held accountable for, you are more likely to put the time and attention that is required to achieve that. You can believe that I do not want to send my accountability partner on Friday an empty email, and I definitely don't want to have to explain to her that I didn't do what I said I would do. So what we need to think about is how can you build accountability into your life? How can you get your little people to be more accountable? How can you get your leaders to be more accountable? And how can you get more accountability in your community, your church, your temple, your synagogue, your school? I believe accountability drives results. When we tell people what we're going to pay attention to and then we deliver on that, Obviously companies make more money, obviously we get more done, and definitely we become more accountable in your work.

As you sell lots of books and speak to corporate leaders, employees around the world, is there one particular pearl of wisdom? Harvey McKay would call them a street smart that our listeners or viewers could take away with them today? Before we tell them how to get a hold of you and buy your.

Book, I would repeat what we talked about before, and that is you can't manage time, but you can manage your attention. It's about the choices we make and the actions we take. I believe when leaders choose to invest their attention personally, professionally and globally, we make a greater impact on the planet.

Okay, well, thank you for that. And Neen, how do people get ahold of you for speaking engagements? How do we get ahold of you to buy the book?

We are so fortunate. There's only one Neen James online. So if you go to neenjames.com you'll find everything about me. You can follow me on social media and if you really want to see my adventures, you can follow me on Instagram. The book is available everywhere, where your favorite books are, are sold. And at the moment, at the time of recording, it is most cost effective to buy it through Amazon. But we also set up some special resources for people in the Harvey Mackay Academy, so I'm sure you will make those available to people as well.

Absolutely. Well, Neen, will you come back and see us sometime in between?

I'd be honored. Thank you so much for having me as part of this amazing community. I love the work you're all doing in the world.

Well, Neen, thanks for being with us. We'll see you soon.

Thank you.

Thank you for listening to Street Smarts with Harvey MacKay. If you've enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you consume your favorite audio. Don't forget to leave a positive rating and review before you sign up for your free membership@harveymckayacademy.com to learn more about Harvey Mackay, make sure to visit www.harveymckayacademy.com. thanks for listening and we'll be back soon with a new episod.