Giving feedback without intent, transforming self-limiting beliefs, boosting productivity with Copilot Pro
January 21, 2024
Welcome to the weekend edition of my newsletter - ideas, mindsets, and technology to innovate your best self and unlock high performance.
Newsletter Updates
First, I want to share a few updates on my newsletter structure to improve the organization of articles. The menu has been updated to reflect the three primary areas of content: Books, Career, and Tech. Past career-related articles have been organized under the Career section. Given how important AI and technology have become to careers and performing at the top of your potential, the new Tech section will focus on using technology to up-level your productivity and impact. Upcoming content will include instructional articles and videos on how to apply leading AI tools.
All existing subscribers will receive posts from these three sections, but you can modify your free subscription to opt out of a newsletter section.
🌐 I reverted my newsletter to the default Substack domain (https://jamesgray.substack.com). I apologize for the inconvenience, and I will review the pages to ensure all links are operational.
🎧 Use the Substack app to listen to the audio version of this newsletter.
🌟 I hope you find one nugget to practice this coming week.
✍️ Share your comments at the bottom of this post.
📚 Books: How to give feedback without assuming intent
I want to share a nugget I found in the book Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends, and Colleagues by David Bradford and Carole Robin. This book encapsulates the content taught in the Stanford Graduate School of Business course Interpersonal Dynamics. The nugget was how to give feedback when there is a conflict with another person.
You have to stay on your side of the net.
The authors explain that there are three different areas of understanding or realities, that exist when two people interact. The critical point is that each person can only know two of the three realities. The first reality is intent - the needs, motives, emotions, and intentions of the person demonstrating behavior causing the conflict. The second reality is the behavior, and that area is seen by both people. The third reality is the impact that a person’s behavior has on the other person, including emotions and responses. This area is only known by the receiving person.
The authors recommend using a tennis net metaphor when making feedback statements. Share feedback on the two areas you are an expert in, the behavior seen by both, and its impact on you. Don’t go on the other side of the net to make statements about the other person’s intent or motives, as that will become accusatory. This is a simple and powerful metaphor for providing the gift of feedback and developing stronger relationships at work and beyond.
🚀 Career: How to transform self-limiting beliefs
Beliefs are what you accept as true. These may be facts or ideas, and thoughts we see as reality. Our beliefs are held deep inside us, influencing our daily decisions and what we pursue in life. Empowering beliefs enable us to break through challenges and thrive. Self-limiting beliefs hold us back from growing and living our true potential.
Read the full article on beliefs here:
✅ I want to share a helpful Google Sheets template you can use to break through self-limiting beliefs and transform them into self-affirming beliefs (SLB) through behaviors, mindsets, and rituals.
This week, an improved template emerged through collaborative discussions with a coaching client exploring their beliefs. After identifying his self-limiting beliefs, it was not straightforward what to do next. So, we designed a template to create a linkage between the SLB and what can be done over time to change or neutralize the belief and unlock higher performance.
Go from left to right when completing the beliefs template:
Priority - not all SLBs are created equal, and you likely cannot work on them simultaneously. Prioritize the SLBs such as H, M, L.
Self-Limiting Belief - Describe the belief you see as true, but is limiting your growth and happiness. The SLB is likely not 100% true, and there are often conditions under which you feel this SLB.
What led to this belief? - Describe the incidents, memories, or reasons leading to this belief.
Negative consequences of this belief - What are the negative impacts you have experienced from this belief?
Self-Affirming Belief - What is an empowering new way to look at this? What is the evidence that this belief is not 100% true?
Rituals to reinforce this new belief - 1. small rituals I will commit to daily. 2. behaviors I will let go. 3. mindsets I will adopt. Changing or neutralizing an SLB will require conditioning, and rituals are one technique you can leverage.
Positive impact/Signs of Progress - What will be the positive changes and outcomes?
Notes - any notes you want to remember when doing this exercise.
Category - One-word categorization, most for easy to recall purposes.
Persona - What personality can you bring to the table for the time required? We are a fusion of multiple personas and to perform when and where it counts, we must enter the stage with the right persona. See the visual on this post.
Early Warning Signs - Early warning signs that you are operating outside this persona. This may give you insight into trigger conditions that amplify the SLB.
Neutralizing your self-limiting beliefs is a critical skill for boosting your impact, spirit, and progress toward your career vision. My coaching client shared how empowering this exercise was to deepen self-awareness and apply this immediately to his work.
What self-limiting beliefs hold you back, and how will you neutralize them?
🤖 Tech: Microsoft Copilot Pro
Microsoft released Copilot Pro this week, which brings AI productivity capabilities to Office tools, including Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
Microsoft Copilot Pro is a new AI tool that offers a range of features to enhance productivity and provide personalized AI assistance. It seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Word, acting as a personalized writing companion to enhance various document-related tasks. Some of its key features include:
Summarization: Copilot can generate concise summaries based on existing text documents, aiding in quickly understanding and communicating complex information.
Tone Suggestions: The tool suggests appropriate writing tones, whether professional or informal, adding a personalized touch to your documents.
Thesis Support: Copilot provides arguments to defend a thesis, aiding users in focusing on critical communications.
In Microsoft Teams, Copilot becomes a valuable assistant, optimizing meetings and conversations for enhanced collaboration. Its features include:
Meeting Topic Generation: Copilot generates a list of possible topics to discuss in meetings, ensuring organized and productive discussions.
Meeting Structure Creation: Copilot can create meetings based on chat messages, helping organize discussions and address key points.
Meeting Summaries: It assists users in constructing more persuasive and well-supported documents.
In Outlook, Copilot enhances productivity by summarizing emails and flagging important information. It can also be used to summarize cases and conversations in customer service scenarios.
These features are designed to boost efficiency in meetings, emails, presentations, and Excel, making Copilot a valuable tool for various work-related tasks. The service was officially launched on January 15, 2024, and is available for $20 per month per user.
You can subscribe to Microsoft Copilot Pro at:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/b/copilotpro
The free version of Microsoft Copilot that uses OpenAI GPT-4 is available at:
https://copilot.microsoft.com/
The free Copilot version will save you $20 from subscribing to the OpenAI ChatGPT Pro with GPT4 features.
I use the Microsoft Edge browser and find it easy to hop into Copilot by clicking on the Copilot logo in the upper right corner.
I will share how-to videos of Microsoft Copilot Pro and other AI tools I use daily in upcoming posts.
👀 Thanks for reading Graymatter, and I would love your help sharing my work with others!
I look forward to hearing your feedback and ideas.
- James