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You Reap What You Sow: Creating an Environment of Accountability

Posted on 10/24/2012 by ·

"A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody." -- Thomas Paine, American Founding Father. "Corporations are like bacteria; you hit them with accountability and they mutate and change their names." -- Doug Anderson, American writer. Have you ever looked around and wondered, "Whatever happened to accountability?" Many of us have, especially when both business and government seem determined to rescue the worst troublemakers from the consequences of their actions at our expense. Remember the banking fiasco of 2008? Do you suppose any of the perpetrators suffered for their self-indulgence? Well, consider this: Immediately upon receiving a huge government bailout check, AIG—which posted a fourth-quarter loss of $62 billion, the largest in … [Read more...]

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Sharpening the Scalpel of Strategic Focus

Posted on 10/17/2012 by ·

"Strategy renders choices about what not to do as important as choices about what to do." -- Michael Porter, business author and professor at Harvard Business School. Business people have no time for the irrelevant. We certainly can't afford to chase poorly defined goals, so hardnosed practicality generally rules. The less important aspects of one's work must either take a backseat to the crucial or be removed altogether, leaving only the lean, profitable core. The best tool for achieving this result at a managerial level is strategic focus. Use these tips to sharpen that focus to laser keenness: 1. Define your marketplace position. Assess your current state, vis-à-vis items like fiscal health, market share, infrastructure, and labor costs. Can your resources keep up with current … [Read more...]

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Calling for Backup

Posted on 10/10/2012 by ·

"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy." -- Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian Field Marshal. Sustained workplace productivity rarely flows from seat-of-the-pants, instinctive navigation. Only the strategic application of well-honed time management skills and advance planning will consistently keep you on your organizational course. This holds true, regardless of it your ultimate goals are fantastic profits or a better future for everyone. A crisis can always force the occasional impromptu response, of course, but you can minimize the disruption by making sure you always have a Plan B warming up in the wings. So take the following steps to drastically lower your odds of falling prey to the unexpected: Back up your electronic data properly. This statement may seem so obvious … [Read more...]

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Back To The Phone Age

Posted on 10/04/2012 by ·

"Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense." -- Gertrude Stein, early 20th century American writer. "Men have become the tools of their tools." -- Henry David Thoreau, 19th century American poet and philosopher. No doubt about it: modern technology has made us ultra-productive—and many people invariably pack more work into whatever time they save. But all too often we soon hit a point of diminishing returns, where our techno-saviors end up driving us to distraction and stealing our personal time. Electronic tools worsen this tendency because they kindle an urge for instant gratification. Think about it your thought process when you receive an email. You want to look at it right away, because if you don’t, you’ll continually wonder who's emailing … [Read more...]

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No More Mr. Unreliable!

Posted on 10/03/2012 by ·

"Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible." -- Hannah Arendt, German-American political theorist. Some things we take for granted and never really notice them until they’re missing. Little things, mostly, like fried rice with our cashew chicken or those silly stickers on bananas. But we can take big things for granted too: good health, rain, and clean air. The sudden lack of any of these can prove devastating. In the workplace, reliability ranks high on the Taken for Granted list. Everyone taking part in your team's workflow process, from the boss on down, must be consistently reliable. Actually, your name should be synonymous with Mr. or Ms. Reliable, especially when other’s work depends on … [Read more...]

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Five Ways to Bounce Back When You Drop the Ball!

Posted on 09/26/2012 by ·

"No matter how far life pushes you down, no matter how much you hurt, you can always bounce back." -- Sheryl Swoopes, American professional basketball player. "Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom."-- George F. Patton, U.S. Army general during World Wars I and II. You've never made a single mistake in your entire career—right? As much as we hate to admit it, we're only human, and perfection lies only in the realm of the Divine. We are high-performing individuals, certainly, but still just flesh and bone, and occasionally we drop the ball. This shouldn't come as a huge surprise to anyone, since we often juggle five or ten of them at once. Fortunately, balls tend to bounce; so when you drop a ball and it bounces back at you, grab it up and rebound yourself. Use these … [Read more...]

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High Performer or Average Worker? How Can You Quickly Tell?

Posted on 09/24/2012 by ·

"The best in every business do what they have learned to do without questioning their abilities—they flat out trust their skills." -- John Eliot, American author of Overachievement: The New Model for Exceptional Performance.   Adding a new person to your workplace team is always a gamble. Usually you can't tell, just by looking, who will consistently deliver top-notch performance that makes the entire team shine...and who will just show up, do an average job, and fade into the woodwork. To clarify, "average" does not mean "bad." Average people define the norm and provide the benchmarks by which we recognize high performance. They do their jobs adequately when properly directed, and you can depend on them in most things. But you build your team around high performers—the "quantum … [Read more...]

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With Us or Against Us?

Posted on 09/19/2012 by ·

Do your coworkers consider you a productive team player—or an annoying bottleneck in the workflow process? You may find this a hard question to face, but unflinching self-honesty is essential to maximizing your personal success. So no matter how helpful you believe you are, take the time every once in a while to review your workplace productivity through the eyes of your teammates. Never forget: your work represents part of a group effort that requires everyone involved to pull in the same direction. You may very well pull harder than anyone else on the team...but if you pull the wrong way, you're hurting, not helping. Seven Questions If you can't determine your productivity status at a glance, then ask yourself these seven questions—and answer them truthfully. 1. How much do I really … [Read more...]

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Top Ten Things to Do Before Ten to Ensure a Productive Day

Posted on 09/17/2012 by ·

"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." -- Benjamin Franklin, U.S. publisher and Founding Father. "If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first." -- Mark Twain, American humorist.   Whether you achieve full alertness within minutes of waking up or require a caffeine infusion before you can think straight (like me), the early morning hours represent a crucial productivity period. What you accomplish in the first few hours after rising can set the tone for your entire day's productivity at work. New research into sleep habits emphasizes the value of early-morning productivity. According to a recent study in the journal Emotion, early risers … [Read more...]

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Stuck Waiting for Information

Posted on 09/13/2012 by ·

Laura Stack,The Productivity Pro(R) Gives advice on what to do when waiting on someone for information you need to finish a project. (C) 2012 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved. https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]

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