Rational Persuasion: An Effective Tool for Turning Your Ideas into Our Ideas

Rational Persuasion: An Effective Tool for Turning Your Ideas into Our Ideas

"Persuasion is often more effective than force." – Aesop, ancient Greek writer. Personal power comes in a number of different forms, from the positional power of the manager and high-level executive to personal power, where you use your individual influence to help accomplish team goals. Influence itself comes in a variety of flavors: for example, collaboration, consultation, inspirational appeals, rational persuasion, and a number of less team-friendly options. All have circumstances where they represent the best choice, but the best overall influence pattern for team use—especially if you're not the official leader of your team—is rational persuasion. Rational persuasion is exactly what it sounds like: without making threats, misusing your position, or ingratiating yourself to your … [Read more...]

The Information Flood: 5 Lifelines to Save Leaders

The Information Flood: 5 Lifelines to Save Leaders

The only way to overcome "infobesity" is to triage merci­lessly, reducing the amount you take in forever. Keep these tips in mind as you work toward stemming the info-tide. Limit Your Exposure to External Information at Work. Instead of checking social media during your lunch and breaks, actually take those breaks. Eat, talk to people, go for a walk—just get away from your desk. You have enough work-related information to deal with. If you check the news, don't let links and ads to drag you off in unproductive directions. Check Your Email As Little As Possible. Focus on email several discrete times a day, rather than keep­ing your inbox open and constantly monitoring it. I process email five to seven times a day, getting the inbox down to zero (using Outlook's "Move to Tasks" … [Read more...]

Get Ready for the Next Day at Night

A great way to make sure you have a productive day is to set yourself up for success the night before. Here's how. (C) 2016 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved. www.TheProductivityPro.com … [Read more...]

Whip Your Meetings Into Shape: 4 Tips for Maximizing Leadership Productivity

Whip Your Meetings Into Shape: 4 Tips for Maximizing Leadership Productivity

As you can likely attest, most business meetings waste pro­ductive time and last far longer than they should. But until we learn to communicate telepathically, meetings will remain a necessary evil—not only as a means of exchanging ideas and information, but also as a way of building relation­ships with others. That doesn't mean you have to like them, but you can cer­tainly make them more tolerable by applying these tips: Decide If the Meeting Is Even Necessary. Can you handle the issue with a few emails or a conference call? If so, do it. Why call a full meeting if you don't need one? Start On Time. If people don't arrive on time, tough. Start when you agreed to, and don't start over just because individuals arrive late. Latecomers can check the minutes later to find out what … [Read more...]

Emphasizing Life in Your Work/Life Balance

Emphasizing Life in Your Work/Life Balance by Laura Stack #productivity

"It's just like a magic penny, hold it tight and you won't have any/Lend it, spend it, and you'd have so many/They'll roll all over the floor!" —"Love Is Something If You Give It Away," a classic children's song.   The whole point of being more productive is not stuffing even more work into your extra time. American workers have already achieved their most productive levels in history, thanks to the Industrial and Electronic revolutions. One of the core values that drives me, both at work and #OutsideWork, is the belief that the best way to show your love is with your time—both to others and yourself. What does it profit you to earn a million dollars, if you destroy your health and your family in the process? There really are some things money can't buy, though you do pay for … [Read more...]

Tightening the Slack: 4 Tips for Motivating Your Productivity Vampires

htening the Slack: 4 Tips for Motivating Your Productivity Vampires by Laura Stack #productivity

Sometimes setting a motivational fire within the team can be useful if it jolts people out of complacency—or sheer lazi­ness—and gets them back to work. Since teamwork rules in the business environment, having team members who don't shoulder their share of the load can jam the work process gears, bringing productivity to a halt. Not only do slackers slow team efficiency, their attitude may infect others. Don't automatically assume your slackers realize what's happening. Their poor performance may not be deliberate. They may be so worried about something at home they can't do a good job at work. Possibly, they lack the right training to do as well as they should. Perhaps they're over­whelmed, not a good fit for their jobs, or bored. Maybe they don't recognize their own incompetence. So … [Read more...]

Eliminate The Later Factor

You'll get to it later? Let's think this through and see if we can find a better solution. (C) 2016 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved. … [Read more...]

Bridging the Workflow #SkillsGap

Bridging the Workflow #SkillsGap by Laura Stack #productivity

"The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed – it is a process of elimination." —Elbert Hubbard, American writer and philosopher. The #SkillsGap I see most often in my practice as a productivity expert is managing workflow. Too many people lack a decent time management and organizational system, and it seems we all have too many inboxes. Both represent huge timewasters that shoot holes in our productivity, forcing us to work longer days just to catch up. Once upon a time, the average worker had only a few inboxes (using the term loosely) demanding his or her attention: the paper one on their desk at work, a paper to-do list at work and home, and a mailbox at home. Nowadays, the two-edged sword of technology has created … [Read more...]

The Carrot and the Stick: Choosing the Right Motivators

The Right Motivation by Laura Stack

Forget offering bored employees the same old brass rings to grab for. Make them want to go for the gold. I don't necessarily mean financial motivation, though that may help. What they really need is purpose: a chance to excel at something that matters. Here's how to help them avoid boredom: Keep the Communication Lines Open. Touch base regularly with your top employees, allowing them open access to you. Stay alert for signs of boredom. Ask them what they're working on that excites them—or what would excite them if nothing currently does. Offer Them Tasks With a Real Chance of Failure. You likely have blue-sky projects that could be extremely profitable if done well. They're challenging enough that most people can't achieve success, so hand these to your bright but bored. The … [Read more...]

Taking Your Team from Good to Superior

Taking Your Team from Good to Superior by Laura Stack #productivity

Why do merely good companies still outnumber the superior ones by a factor of hundreds to one? The problem isn't the concept of moving from good to great to superior; it's the implementation. Leadership frequently fails because we can't see our greatest flaws. It's not just a matter of not seeing the forest for the trees; too often, we can't see our flaws because we aren't humble enough to accept a forest exists at all. So I recommend the following four practices: 1. Set Aside Your Ego. You are not your company, your division, or your team. You lead and represent them, and therefore have an obligation to provide vision and guidance in all things. So when you make a decision, don't assume that because it works for you, it works for everyone. Step up to the plate, lead by example, and … [Read more...]