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Beyond the Grind: Helping Your People Love Their Jobs

Posted on 03/30/2015 by ·

We've all heard about the fun perks that progressive employers like Google and Yahoo! offered their employees until recently—great social activities, play areas, telecommuting options, free bikes to ride around campus, and the opportunity to spend a fair portion of their work time on projects of their own choosing. This has begun to change as more traditional-minded CEOs come on board, to the apparent chagrin of many. There are other ways to make people look forward to coming to work, without risking that complacency can take hold. Loving a job in a productive way has a lot to do with ownership. Engaged workers own their jobs. They're willing to give their discretionary time to their work. This can only happen when people are proud of where they work, whom they work for, and what they … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Performance · Tagged: ,

Embracing Cross-Functionality in the Organization

Posted on 02/13/2015 by ·

Enjoy this week's podcast---Embracing Cross-Functionality in the Organization … [Read more...]

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The Eternal Question: Is it Better to Beg Forgiveness, or Ask Permission?

Posted on 02/10/2015 by ·
The Eternal Question: Is it Better to Beg Forgiveness, or Ask Permission? by Laura Stack #productivity

You’ve probably heard Grace Hopper's famous axiom, "It's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission." As a child, my father used to tell me that all the time! As a pioneering computer scientist and one of the first female admirals in the U.S. Navy, "Amazing Grace" surely learned the value of begging forgiveness rather than asking permission during her long, storied career. Indeed, Hopper's Law seems to make a lot of sense in many real-world situations. But is it applicable to the workplace? The answer, as with so many other business questions, is, “It depends.” There are reasonable arguments for both sides of the equation, depending on the circumstances. For example, if you're an IT tech, you definitely want to ask permission before changing or upgrading the operating system of an … [Read more...]

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It’s All Urgent! Six Ways to Prioritize When Everything’s a Priority

Posted on 01/13/2015 by ·
It's All Urgent by Laura Stack #produtivity

"Action expresses priorities." -- Indian statesman Mahatma Gandhi. As Scottish poet Robert Burns pointed out in his poem "To a Mouse" in 1785, "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!" In other words, no matter how carefully you plan, things still go wrong. Among the most important schemes of the modern office worker, and therefore those most likely to "gang agley," are our priorities. Most of us compile exhaustive to-do lists and make serious efforts to triage our schedules, but sometimes priorities collide in ways we don't expect. A specific project may come due earlier or later than expected, conflicting with existing priorities; an emergency request may also raise its ugly head, or a superior might … [Read more...]

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The Link Between Persuasion and Productivity

Posted on 01/12/2015 by ·
WHAT MORE CAN I SAY? Why Communication Fails and What to Do About It! by Dianna Booher #communication #productivity

The ability to persuade is essential in virtually all fields. My mentor, Dianna Booher, has just published a new book called What MORE Can I Say? Why Communication Fails and What to Do About It, which presents nine principles of persuasive communication essential for anyone hoping to change someone’s mind or actions. I’m pleased to provide the following exclusive guest post on how you can make your communication more productive. The Link Between Persuasion and Productivity By Dianna Booher Change usually involves a period of chaos until people struggle through it to success. Solutions are seldom pain free. Even the world’s most powerful software requires a learning curve. Influencing people to take action—whether to buy your product, accept your recommendation, or change their … [Read more...]

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

Sidestepping Micromanagement: How to Follow Up Without Being a Pest

Posted on 12/23/2014 by ·
Sidestepping Micromanagement: How to Follow Up Without Being a Pest by Laura Stack #productivity

"Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing." --Tom Peters, American business writer. If you've attained a management position, then you've certainly learned that you must delegate some or most of your work, to avoid being overwhelmed by your responsibilities. No single manager can do everything he or she is ultimately responsible for. Having responsibility for something doesn’t mean it’s your job per se—you just need to make sure it’s done. Take Merck's Roger Perlmutter. He’s in charge of the R&D Division that manufactures new drugs. He doesn’t invent the drugs. But he makes sure they are invented by people who focus on nothing else. His job is to cut out the fat that slows their production. When he took his position in 2012, he … [Read more...]

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Six Quick Mediation Tips To Help Others Work Through a Conflict

Posted on 09/04/2014 by ·
Six Quick Mediation Tips To Help Others Work Through a Conflict by Laura Stack

"An ounce of mediation is worth a pound of arbitration and a ton of litigation." -- Joseph Grynbaum, American mediator. In any group greater than two people, you'll inevitably have conflict. (Even two people may prove one too many on some issues.) So it should come as no surprise that your team members will occasionally rub each other the wrong way, resulting in conflicts that come to you for resolution. In most cases, you can all sit down and reach a reasonable agreement after a little give-and-take discussion—assuming everyone wants to work it out. Or, if the disagreement seems petty, you can just make a quick decision and tell everyone to get back to work. But some conflicts are too deep-rooted or antagonistic to dismiss so easily. In those situations, you'll need a set of … [Read more...]

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Handle With Care: Avoiding the Dangers of Social Media

Posted on 08/26/2014 by ·
Handle With Care: Avoiding the Dangers of Social Media by Laura Stack

Every hiring manager has a story about someone who has botched a job interview or torpedoed a career due to thoughtless comments on social media sites. I know someone whose close friend, a technical writer, lost his job after making negative comments about his company's investment prospects on MySpace (remember them?). Few people think twice about posting embarrassing party pictures on their Facebook pages or casual trash-talk on Twitter. However, your prospective employer or current company also has an online presence, so you are the face of the company. Accordingly, they may keep an eye on you, which is not tough when you voluntarily post content for the world to see. As your mother always taught you: don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Moreover, if you can’t say something nice, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Tools & Systems · Tagged: ,

Rebooting Your Productivity: How to Recover from a Workflow Crash

Posted on 08/19/2014 by ·
Rebooting Your Productivity: How to Recover from a Workflow Crash by Laura Stack #productivity

Let's say your productivity takes a nosedive. Maybe you've gotten lazy with your planning processes and your to-do lists are out of control. Perhaps you went on vacation, and you just haven’t been able to get on top of your inbox. Maybe you have a looming project due date that you haven’t even been able to think about. Or maybe unexpected changes in your industry have presented new challenges and taken you off your original course. Now what? Every second you're out of the race, you and those depending on you fall farther behind. So leap into action, resolved to restore your productivity in record time. But how do you reboot your productivity? Do what you do when your computer crashes—a hard reboot. A hard reboot always seems to be the last resort. You throw your hands up in the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: ,

What’s Your Back-Up Plan? How to Prepare for Anything

Posted on 08/08/2014 by ·
What's Your Back-Up Plan? How to Prepare for Anything by Laura Stack #productivity

"It seems to me that everything that happens to us is a disconcerting mix of choice and contingency." -- Dame Penelope Lively, British author. On the morning of February 15, 2013, a fireball ripped through the sky above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, exploding 18 miles up after leaving a streak of fire tens of miles long. The minor asteroid, which was about the size of an apartment building, was actually the second to have visited the Siberian region in a little over a century: 1908's Tunguska meteor, which was about the same size, fortunately fell to Earth in an uninhabited wilderness, blowing down and charring 800 square miles of timber. The people of Chelyabinsk were lucky, because the meteor entered the atmosphere at a shallow angle. According to modeling done by Dr. Mark … [Read more...]

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