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Creating an Environment of Accountability: As You Sow, So Shall You Reap

Posted on 10/21/2013 by ·
Creating an Environment of Accountability: As You Sow, So Shall You Reap buy Laura Stack #productivity

"A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody." -- Thomas Paine, American Founding Father. "Corporations are like protean bacteria; you hit them with accountability and they mutate and change their names." -- Doug Anderson, American writer. Have you ever asked your spouse or a friend the rhetorical question, "Whatever happened to accountability?" When both business and government seem determined to rescue the worst wrongdoers from the consequences of their actions at our expense, many of us are left asking this very question. Remember the AIG banking fiasco of 2008? Did the perpetrators suffer for their greed? AIG posted a fourth-quarter loss of $62 billion—the largest in history—and received a huge government bailout check as a prize. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: ,

Continued Progress Requires Constant Reevaluation

Posted on 10/18/2013 by ·
Continued Progress Requires Constant Reevaluation by Laura Stack #productivity

Like that children's song, some workplace tasks just never seem to end (“It’s a small world…”). They constantly cycle, and you can't shift your attention away for long, lest something slip out of whack (sorry for getting that song in your head). As exasperating as this may be, it's the reality. Consider, for example, the constant reevaluation of personal and team workflow. Few things are more necessary—or, in the end, more rewarding. The "good enough for government work" argument doesn't cut it in the white-collar world. So it makes sense to reexamine your tasks regularly, always looking for easier, faster ways to do them. Begin by reading widely in your field, so you know about new breakthroughs and theoretical approaches. Once you have a new workflow process up and running, keep a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Teaching the Mission: Helping Your Team Understand and Achieve Alignment

Posted on 10/16/2013 by ·
Teaching the Mission: Helping Your Team Understand and Achieve Alignment by Laura Stack #productivity

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance." — Brian Tracy, American motivational speaker and writer. In 2001, energy company Enron self-destructed in a scandal that still amazes those of us who witnessed it. Despite the core values literally carved into the façade of its Houston headquarters—Respect, Integrity, Communication and Excellence—top executives completely lost track of their company's official Mission and Vision. Instead, they focused on feathering their own nests and defrauding stakeholders to the tune of billions of dollars. As a leader, you can't allow anything like that to happen on your watch. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: , , , ,

Teamwork Accountability Tips

Posted on 10/14/2013 by ·
Teamwork Accountability Tips by Laura Stack #productivity

When you're part of a team, each member affects your productivity and schedule. When others fail to get answers to you, you may be late producing the final product. When you rely on coworkers to review a document before proceeding, a month can go by before you have everyone's input. As leader, it's in your best interest to prod your team to get things done more efficiently, so you can produce better results in less time with fewer frustrations. One way to increase everyone's response time is to arrange a meeting with your team at the beginning of each project, so you can plan it through to the end. Lay out milestones, discuss each member's responsibilities, and set firm deadlines. Outline what you need from each person and when, and have them do the same for you. Do your best to be … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: , ,

Constant Improvement Through Feedback Loops

Posted on 10/11/2013 by ·
Constant Improvement Through Feedback Loops by Laura Stack #productivity

When he was 10, my son Johnny took guitar lessons. One week he taught himself to play the song Sweet Home Alabama, practicing it for hours. When Johnny showed off his new song, his music teacher said, "That's great! Here's how you can play it even better," and showed him how to do a riff. To our surprise, Johnny was resistant to learning it. Later, when I pressed him about it, he said, "None of my friends play the guitar, so they won't know if I'm doing a bad job. They think it's cool no matter what I play, so I don't need to work so hard to change it." Naturally, I gave him the "mom talk" about how personal improvement is also done for the sake of it, not just for other people; that you take pride in knowing you did your best; that you should always strive to get better; and besides, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Performance · Tagged: ,

Getting Started: Translating Ideas Into Action

Posted on 10/09/2013 by ·
Getting Started: Translating Ideas Into Action by Laura Stack #productivity

"Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it." -- Albert Einstein, German/American physicist. "Ideas are a commodity. Execution of them is not." Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers. When it comes to productivity and success, execution trumps all. No matter how well you've designed your mission/vision statement or planned out your strategy, nothing happens if you don't get it done. Ultimately, I think mystery writer Agatha Christie said it best: "The secret of getting ahead is getting started." Christie took her own advice to heart, writing 72 books, 15 short story collections, and a long-running play, The Mousetrap. She's still the best-selling novelist of all time, four decades after her death. And she accomplished all this while indulging her … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: , ,

The Squeaky Wheel Makes Things Better

Posted on 10/07/2013 by ·
The Squeaky Wheel Makes Things Better by Laura Stack #productivity

Growing up, I had a friend who used to say, “If it was good enough for Grandpa, it's good enough for me.” To which I would retort with my Grandpa’s favorite expression, “Sometimes it’s better to get forgiveness than permission.” Which phrase resonates with you more? Too often in the business world, people just accept how they've been taught to do something, rather than considering whether it could be improved. Situations and technology change, and sometimes we fail to change with them. Truly accountable people strive to make things easier for everyone, including themselves. They take on change and try to make processes more efficient, even if they know it might rub some people the wrong way. They know the squeaky wheel gets in the grease—or in this case—makes things better. How can you … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management · Tagged: , ,

The Positive Negative: When “Don’t” is the Right Strategic Choice

Posted on 10/02/2013 by ·
The Positive Negative: When "Don't" is the Right Strategic Choice by Laura Stack #productivity

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." — Napoleon Bonaparte, legendary French general and emperor. "You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction." -- Alvin Toffler, American writer and futurist. The thesis of my upcoming book, Execution IS the Strategy (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, March 2014), is simple: business moves so fast today that you must empower front-line workers to take strategy into their own hands, moving ahead with what works and executing in the moment to maximize organizational success. We can no longer leave strategy to executive teams that plan 3-5 years ahead, because multiyear plans go stale before the toner dries on the printouts. Think about it: Do you remember what … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: ,

Reducing Inefficiencies and Breaking Bottlenecks

Posted on 09/27/2013 by ·

Productive people are on a quest for constant reevaluation and change, so you can reduce all inefficiencies inherent to your job. Never assume the way you do things is the best possible way to do them; in fact, it probably isn't. There's almost always a better way. So take the new information you've acquired, use it to create more efficient processes, and put those processes to work. Even as you implement the new processes, you'll find some are more effective than others. So actively evaluate what works and what doesn't, and weed out the poor producers. In many cases, a broken process isn't flawed. A few tweaks may transform it into something useful and productive. So when something fails you, start by asking questions to figure out why: What changes can you make to improve the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management · Tagged:

The Teamwork Triangle: Building a Reliable Workplace Team

Posted on 09/25/2013 by ·
The Teamwork Triangle: Building a Reliable Workplace Team by Laura Stack #productivity

"Teamwork is the quintessential contradiction of a society grounded in individual achievement." — Marvin Weisbord, American organizational development expert. "Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare." -- Patrick Lencioni, American author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Many productivity experts focus on individual productivity, even though few of us actually work completely alone. With rare exceptions, each of us fills a slot in a team focused on specific tasks and projects. Team productivity is as crucial as personal productivity, if not more so; but it can be difficult to maintain, since a workplace team can only be as strong as its weakest link. Accordingly, it's your … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: