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Clear Expectations: Enhancing Your Team’s Sense of Satisfaction

Posted on 10/01/2015 by ·
Clear Expectations: Enhancing Your Team's Sense of Satisfaction by Laura Stack #productivity

"When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute." – Simon Sinek, British-American inspirational author and speaker. As I explain in my upcoming book Doing the Right Things Right: How the Effective Executive Spends Time, executives are no longer limited to the C-Suite of a company. Strictly defined, an executive is anyone who executes business strategy to benefit their organization. In our Brave New Business World (to paraphrase Aldous Huxley), the gap between leadership and workers has decreased significantly in recent years. But whatever the business conditions, it's always helpful to put your heart into achieving your team's goals. In part, this means helping make sure the whole team is willing, not just able, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: , ,

Laura Stack’s Productivity Pro eNewsletter, September 29, 2015

Posted on 09/29/2015 by ·

Here is the weekly roundup of activity from Laura Stack’s blog, columns, podcast, and other featured articles. Scroll down to read the complete roundup of productivity resources to help you create Maximum Results in Minimum Time. This week on the Blog Quick Group Decision-Making: A Brief Guide  One of the hobgoblins of teamwork is groupthink. This occurs when a team rubberstamps the decisions of the team leader or a particularly strong personality without debate. Groupthink destroys creativity and innovation, and it often occurs because people have learned that fighting for something isn’t worth the effort. If they get punished for even trying, or no one listens to them anyway, they will stop giving input. This results in a declining, hidebound team that just goes through the motions … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged:

Quick Group Decision-Making: A Brief Guide

Posted on 09/28/2015 by ·
Quick Group Decision-Making: A Brief Guide

"Most of us are going through life without interrogating whether our decision-making processes are fit for purpose. And that's something we need to change - especially when the stakes are high and the decisions are of real import." – Noreena Hertz, English economist. One of the hobgoblins of teamwork is groupthink. This occurs when a team rubberstamps the decisions of the team leader or a particularly strong personality without debate. Groupthink destroys creativity and innovation, and it often occurs because people have learned that fighting for something isn't worth the effort. If they get punished for even trying, or no one listens to them anyway, they will stop giving input. This results in a declining, hidebound team that just goes through the motions and falls apart when the guiding … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Avoiding Indecision and Analysis Paralysis

Posted on 09/25/2015 by ·
Avoiding Indecision and Analysis Paralysis by Laura Stack

Don't get sidetracked by overthinking and indecision. How? Listen in today. (C) 2015 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved. www.TheProductivityPro.com … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity, Podcast · Tagged: ,

A Bit of This, a Bit of That: The Method of Multiple Working Perspectives

Posted on 09/24/2015 by ·
A Bit of This, a Bit of That: The Method of Multiple Working Perspectives by Laura Stack #productivity

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." – Marcus Aurelius, ancient Roman philosopher. In many sciences, including fields as varied as archaeology, psychology, and geology, scientists conducting research use a perspective called "the method of multiple working hypotheses." In other words, they don't test just one idea at a time; they test several. They begin with multiple hypotheses that may explain the results they experience or have experienced in the past. Then they narrow down the field as they proceed. Sometimes they narrow it down so well they eliminate all their original hypotheses and have to generate more. As you tackle new tasks for your team, you can use a similar approach that I think of as "the method of multiple … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: , ,

Laura Stack’s Productivity Pro eNewsletter, September 22, 2015

Posted on 09/22/2015 by ·
Laura Stack The Productivity Pro

Here is the weekly roundup of activity from Laura Stack’s blog, columns, podcast, and other featured articles. Scroll down to read the complete roundup of productivity resources to help you create Maximum Results in Minimum Time. This week on the Blog Email Communication and Etiquette: How to Use Email Productively with Your Team  Email has revolutionized global business, allowing for detailed 24-hour communication where telephone communication isn’t practical, freeing us from bending over backwards to match up times zones across a large planet. Most of the same people who understand its advantages probably also consider email the bane of their existence, since they receive hundreds of messages a day. Like most technology, email has proven a double-edged blade, its nearly miraculous … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General · Tagged: ,

Email Communication and Etiquette: How to Use Email Productively with Your Team

Posted on 09/21/2015 by ·
Email Communication and Etiquette: How to Use Email Productively with Your Team #Productivity

"One look at an email can rob you of 15 minutes of focus." – Jacqueline Leo, American magazine editor and media producer. Email has revolutionized global business, allowing for detailed 24-hour communication where telephone communication isn't practical, freeing us from bending over backwards to match up times zones across a large planet. Most of the same people who understand its advantages probably also consider email the bane of their existence, since they receive hundreds of messages a day. Like most technology, email has proven a double-edged blade, its nearly miraculous advantages often offset by pure annoyance. With a few precautions and a modicum of care and protocol, email offers invaluable benefits for team communication ( ←CLICK TO TWEET), whether your team works together in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Avoiding Micromanagement

Posted on 09/18/2015 by ·

Micromanagement is a productivity killer. How do you avoid it? Tune in today! (C) 2015 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved. www.TheProductivityPro.com … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Podcast · Tagged: ,

Looking Ahead: Acting as Your Team’s Visionary Thinker

Posted on 09/17/2015 by ·
Looking Ahead: Acting as Your Team's Visionary Thinker by Laura Stack #productivity

"The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world." – Malcolm Gladwell, Canadian writer and theorist. Over the last two decades, authors have written hundreds of books and articles about how and why leaders must be visionary thinkers, able to pull reasonable expectations of the future out of their crystal balls and implement plans to guide their teams appropriately. But why don't more publications urge all team members to act as visionaries? This lack of initiative probably stems from fossilized ways of thinking. Both leaders and business theorists have begun to realize the roles of team leader and average worker have begun to converge, at least within the white-collar sector. Leaders more readily consider worker ideas nowadays; increased power and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General · Tagged: ,

Laura Stack’s Weekly Productivity Pro eNewsletter – September 15, 2015

Posted on 09/15/2015 by ·

Here is the weekly roundup of activity from Laura Stack’s blog, columns, podcast, and other featured articles. Scroll down to read the complete roundup of productivity resources to help you create Maximum Results in Minimum Time. This week on the Blog Quick and To the Point: Texting and Instant Messaging Protocols in the Workplace Communication may be the most important factor in any partnership, and it’s certainly a glue that binds a team together. But it comes in many forms, especially in the workplace. Two of those are texting and Instant Messaging (IM), which are common means of modern business communication today. How do we make the best use of each in a teamwork environment? Read the full article. This week on LinkedIn: Pairing Up: The Advantages of a Team of Two at Work Though … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Personal Productivity · Tagged: , ,