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How to Lead By Stepping Back: Five Steps to Delegation

Posted on 07/17/2014 by ·
How to Lead By Stepping Back: Five Steps to Delegation by Laura Stack #productivity #leadership

"The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it." –- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States. If you're a reader of my blogs, newsletters, and Tweets, you'll know I've returned repeatedly to the topic of delegation over the years—and for good reason. As a leader, there's no more effective and productive way to handle all your responsibilities. Leadership positions come weighted down with more than their fair share of tasks, because by definition a strategic initiative is more than one person can handle. Effective leaders must parcel out that work and a good deal of the associated authority, so they can continue to think strategically and get things … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork, Performance · Tagged: , ,

Sharing For Success: Smashing Data Silos and Breaking Up Fiefdoms

Posted on 07/15/2014 by ·
Sharing For Success: Smashing Data Silos and Breaking Up Fiefdoms by Laura Stack #productivity

"Data are becoming the new raw material of business." -- Craig Mundie, Head of Research and Strategy at Microsoft. Given the importance of information technology (IT) in the modern business environment, IT terms have inevitably leaked into the common parlance of today's office. For example, "data silos" occur when incompatible systems lack an interface through which they can share data. Databases become isolated from each other, and it becomes increasingly difficult to collect all the data needed to make effective decisions. Often this becomes institutionalized. Groups within the organization consider themselves isolated entities, with no need or desire to work together. Some even compete for limited resources. Ultimately, productivity stagnates due to lack of cooperation, … [Read more...]

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Lifting Your Spirits: Pumping Up Productivity with Pleasant Surroundings

Posted on 07/01/2014 by ·
Pumping Up #Productivity with Pleasant Surroundings y Laura Stack

"We are what we see. We are products of our surroundings." -- Amber Valleta, American actress. While there are jobs that take place in harsh environments, if you're reading this article, I doubt you do. However, perhaps it’s sterile, or uncomfortable, or hot. Poor working conditions can lead to decreased productivity and inferior performance. For example, we know that poor ergonomics cause repetitive motion injuries, so addressing these issues costs less in terms of insurance costs and lost productivity. Nowadays, desks tend to be at the right height, computer screens at the right distance to avoid eyestrain, and keyboards easier to use. What are some other ways you can make your office a better place to work? 1. Bring a little of the outdoor world inside. Did you know that in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: ,

Effective Persuasion: How to Sell an Idea at Work

Posted on 06/19/2014 by ·
Effective Persuasion: How to Sell an Idea at Work by Laura Stack #productivity

"Persuasion is often more effectual than force." –- Aesop, ancient Greek storyteller. Every innovation—from the fishhook to the miniskirt to the Space Shuttle—started with a simple, intangible idea. In business, new ideas help us improve everything from mechanical and work processes to our product lines. In a very real sense, businesses depend upon ideas to survive. This does not mean, however, that those who operate those businesses are invariably open to new ideas. They may prefer sticking with what they know, rather than taking a chance on something unproven. You can yank up your ideas like weeds before they have time to mature. This may be a good thing, but may also prove bad if you can't—or won't—distinguish between the true weeds and the flower seedlings. There may come a time … [Read more...]

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Looking for a productivity boost? Go back to school this fall!

Posted on 06/12/2014 by ·

NEW Complimentary eCourses from Laura Stack, delivered right to your inbox! In more than twenty years of helping leaders create high-performance cultures and accelerate growth, I've identified four key factors that must be in place for a leader to execute strategy efficiently. Without these elements, execution can fail—even when it's based on a mature strategy. The Four Keys to Effective Strategic Execution—Leverage, Environment, Alignment, and Drive—represent solutions to the 36 Execution Obstacles and form the L-E-A-D Formula™ outlined in www.ExecutionIsTheStrategy.com. The following four eCourses comprise the Four Keys to Efficient Strategic Execution (each one is a 13-week eCourse): Leverage Environment Alignment Drive Register for these additional complimentary eCourses … [Read more...]

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Bitter Reality: Making the Wrong Decisions vs. Making No Decisions At All

Posted on 06/10/2014 by ·

"It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions." –- Jim Rohn, American motivational speaker. By the time you reach management, you certainly know the consequences of paralysis analysis. This "vapor lock" of the brain can kill a project through indecision and perfectionism as surely as pulling its funding. In fact, pulling a project's funding represents a cleaner fate, because the project dies suddenly, rather than flopping around like a fish out of water, pretending to be viable for months or years, causing damage to the entire organization. One of my clients, a massive consumer products organization, has a highly “collaborative” culture, which is code for taking forever to guy buy … [Read more...]

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Sowing the Seeds of Hope: How to Boost Team Productivity Through Coaching

Posted on 06/03/2014 by ·
Sowing the Seeds of Hope: How to Boost Team Productivity Through Coaching by Laura Stack #productivity

"In both children and adults, there can be a hard-to-deny link between a robust sense of hope and either work productivity or academic achievement." -- Jeffrey Kluger, senior writer for TIME Magazine. Today's leaders communicate a vision for the team and blaze the trail for everyone to follow. They figuratively fire up a bulldozer, clear out the brush, and smooth the way from here to there. Leaders make it easy for people to get where they need to go—and give them hope that they can. Coaching has always been one of the primary ways to achieve this, by offering workers the opportunity to improve. To paraphrase an old Meineke Muffler commercial, coaching can “make them fit.” Coaching isn’t just for executives. A recent article in Forbes magazine pointed out that coaching most often … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Performance · Tagged: , ,

Challenging Your Best: Dealing Proactively with the Bright But Bored

Posted on 05/22/2014 by ·
Dealing Proactively with the Bright But Bored by Laura Stack #productivity

"We must accept life for what it actually is -- a challenge to our quality without which we should never know of what stuff we are made, or grow to our full stature." -- Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist. America has enshrined the concept that we're all created equal into the very foundations of our culture. As such, there’s also “the American Way,” which has unwritten ground rules around certain benchmarks of education, work ethic, intelligence, and drive. However, these expectations of equality doesn’t mean we're all the same, though many people misinterpret it that way. Certainly, some people are unequal, in the sense their average is a notch above the mean. You probably fall into this class yourself, since you’re reading this article. I didn’t say that as an attempt at … [Read more...]

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With a Nod to the Graduate: What They Don’t Teach You in Business School

Posted on 05/15/2014 by ·
With a Nod to the Graduate: What They Don't Teach You in Business School by Laura Stack #productivity

"The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective." -- Warren Buffett, American businessman and billionaire. I received my MBA in 1991 and can safely say I didn’t learn most of what I needed to know today. As valuable as a business degree is—and it had better be, at a cost of $100,000+ for a top-notch MBA—much of the business theory doesn’t apply to my world today. Business school is like classroom training: it provides you with the frameworks, ideas, research, awareness, and tools to ideally deal with the situations you encounter in the business arena. But it can't prepare you for “the real world” and the practical application of doing it behaviorally. In fact, you're meant to figure out quite a bit on your own. … [Read more...]

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Workplace Conflict: Some Surprising Benefits of Office Friction

Posted on 05/08/2014 by ·
Workplace Conflict: Some Surprising Benefits of Office Friction by Laura Stack

"Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means." -- Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States. Many workplace leaders consider conflict between employees a dangerous thing, and it’s no wonder. We've all seen the results of clashing personalities and company politics: distraction, discontent, resentment, gossip, lost jobs, resignations, and other productivity killers. As a result, some managers go to great lengths to avoid conflict. But overcompensation can prove equally dangerous when it devolves into complacency, or worse, groupthink—where everyone thinks alike and disagreement can't or won't be tolerated. "Yes men" have doomed more than one company, especially when the groupthink became tinged with arrogance (think Enron). For a … [Read more...]

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