"I don't check my e-mail, it checks me to see if I'm still there." -- Ian Pattison, poll respondent, Canada "I never switch it off, and I also have a self-imposed policy of responding immediately if I'm sitting at my desk, however busy I am. " -- Wayne Andrews, poll respondent, United Arab Emirates "I like getting email. It is a diversion from a tough job or from a boring task. Stopping every now and then to answer email is like taking a break. If one appears to be a time waster, it gets postponed for later. " -- Lester Stephenson, poll respondent, USA As a productivity consultant, one of my chief concerns is what most of us mistakenly call "time management." Obviously, time comes in preset amounts for everyone and we use it up whether we like it or not, so we can't truly manage or … [Read more...]
Time Management Skills: The Art of Self-Discipline
Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) talks about how self-discipline affects our productivity. (C) 2011 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]
Lessons in Retention for TM practitioners
Lessons in Retention for TM practitioners By Carlos Botero, VP of HR, DIRECTV From the September 8, 2011 meeting of the CO New Talent Management Network (www.contmn.com), at the DIRECTV facility at 161 Inverness Drive West in Englewood, as written by Laura Stack. Under the leadership of Carlos Botero, who took over as VP of HR in July 2008, DIRECTV is on track for a 24% employee churn in 2011, down from a high of 110% in 2008. How was this accomplished? Here are my key take-aways from his presentation on employee retention. 1. "Great talent follows great talent." Procedures can only take you to a certain percent of turnover, and then you rely on the hearts of your employees. If it’s a great place to work, their buddies ask them, "Hey, can you get me a job?" 2. "If you … [Read more...]
Email Productivity
I'm curious to know how often you check your email each day. Please vote in my poll: http://linkd.in/nTAJVK. Please comment; I'd love to hear your thoughts on the impact email has on your daily productivity. … [Read more...]
Time Management Skills: Taming the To-Do List
Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) gives tips on working with your to-do list. (C) 2011 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]
Managing Your Time: What Would You Do With An Extra Hour A Day?
"I'd try to keep a balance, as I try to do with my 24 hours now. So with one more hour, I'd work half an hour more, and spend the other 30 minutes working out, or reading, or having a drink with friends." -- Rosa Garriga Mora, poll respondent, Spain. "Work out, read some books, take some dancing classes with my daughter... rest sometimes...one hour more per day would positively impact my life!" -- Yurila Ramos, poll respondent, Venezuela "Going on experience, I would spend it trying to solve annoying software bugs that are only happening because the computers are all out to get me." -- Tarot Atkinson, poll respondent, U.K. What would you do with an extra hour a day? That's a question I posed in a LinkedIn poll this past July, and as with my earlier poll (in which I asked voters … [Read more...]
The Implications of Declining Productivity
"If demand remains weak, there’s a danger that businesses may try to boost productivity by cutting jobs." -- Paul Dales, American economist, regarding the recent 2011 Q2 productivity drop. "Nowadays, business is all about productivity—and our folks produce." -- Senator John Hoeven, former governor of North Dakota. "[If] you don't have a very motivated working class, it starts to affect the dynamics of the economy. If workers are disenchanted and disenfranchised, productivity losses will go along with that." -- James Sinegal, American businessman, founder and CEO of Costco. From a business perspective, productivity is defined as the rate at which goods or services are produced per unit of labor. It's an important measure of corporate success, and, on a wider scale, a primary metric of … [Read more...]
Laura Shares the Six Keys at GROW 2011
Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), shares the Six Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best at the GROW 2011 conference in Dayton, OH. … [Read more...]
Should You Try to Learn from Failure…Or Just Forget It?
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." -- Traditional saying. "The better a man is, the more mistakes he will make, for the more new things he will try. I would never promote to a top-level job a man who was not making mistakes... otherwise he is sure to be mediocre." -- Peter Drucker, Austrian management consultant and social ecologist. "Remember, you only have to succeed the last time." -- Brian Tracy, Canadian self-help guru. In the modern business world, failure is often made out to be something glorious, a virtue that almost inevitably leads to success in the long run. Oft-cited examples include Edison's 1,000+ unsuccessful attempts to invent the light bulb before hitting on the right solution, and Bill Gates' unsuccessful first computer business. We're told, again and … [Read more...]
Assertiveness and Direct Communication: Your Wording is a Critical Productivity Tool
One of the factors that sets human beings apart from the rest of Creation—that has, in fact, helped make us the dominant species on this planet—is our ability to communicate in great detail, with a minimum of confusion and unproductive "noise." That said, it's amazing how easy it is to fail to communicate properly. The annals of history are replete with episodes of poor communication (or a complete lack thereof) that led to widespread misery and pain. On a lesser scale, individuals and businesses have to deal with miscommunication issues every single day; and in the workplace, such issues can have a severe impact not just on individual productivity, but on the overall bottom line. Even when the lines of communication are wide open, you can fail to communicate if you use the wrong words … [Read more...]
