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Rising from the Ashes

Posted on 02/25/2013 by ·

In the modern business world, we sometimes tout failure as a virtue that almost inevitably leads to success. Popular examples include Thomas Edison's 1,000+ unsuccessful attempts to improve the light bulb before hitting on the right solution, and Bill Gates' unsuccessful first business. Experts tell us repeatedly to fail forward, to fail as fast as possible, to dare to fail—because it makes us smarter and better in the long run. So it was refreshing to encounter a Harvard Business School working paper called "Performance Persistence in Entrepreneurship" that takes the opposite perspective.[i] The authors discovered that brand-new entrepreneurs succeeded just about as often as those who had tried before and failed (18% vs. 20%). The most successful entrepreneurs were those who had already … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Nailing It: Helping Others Implement Your Strategy

Posted on 02/20/2013 by ·

"The best CEOs I know are teachers, and at the core of what they teach is strategy." -- Michael Porter Your value as a leader stems largely from your role as team visionary, the person who defines the priorities for your group. In the modern workplace, you do this best not by executing decisions, but by engaging your team members’ energies. Your ultimate goal should be to channel their efforts, abilities, and dedication in such a way that they align as closely as possible with the strategic priorities of your organization. So easy to say—but so hard to do. Once you've formulated your strategy, be prepared to focus like a laser and direct every bit of energy you can spare toward implementation. That doesn't mean you have to run yourself into the ground to accomplish this, but you do have … [Read more...]

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

Just Say No to Your Inner Control Freak

Posted on 02/13/2013 by ·

"Project management is God's gift to the control freak." -- Unknown. A forceful personality can provide certain advantages in a competitive workplace, helping you work your way up the ladder more quickly than you otherwise might. But fair warning: if your favorite management slogan is "my way or the highway," expect a few delays in your drive to the top. Granted, you can survive with this attitude, especially if you're a genius or use less-than-scrupulous tactics to advance. But nobody loves a control freak. Your subordinates will never you give you 100% if you disempower them, hover over their shoulders, or constantly disparage their abilities or judgment. They'll either resent you or will get so nervous they won't be able to do their jobs right. And if you're always in their business, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: , ,

How to Conduct Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly Reviews

Posted on 02/01/2013 by ·

Consistent self-reviews should be a part of any time management plan, since they're easy to perform and help you maintain course with minimal effort. Yet many leaders avoid them because (ironically) they "can't afford the time." On the contrary, you can't afford not to review your progress on a regular basis. If you don't look up and adjust your heading once in a while, you're going to end up way off course...if you ever do anything more than just spin your wheels. Some people avoid reviews, because they think it looks like they're goofing off. But let's get real here: just because you've settled down to review your progress doesn't mean you're doing nothing. If you want to be a strategic enabler of business, you have to find the time to be strategic! As the old story goes, a woodsman who … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Performance · Tagged: ,

Debunking Productivity Myths: An Answer to Lifehacker’s Alan Henry

Posted on 01/23/2013 by ·

"It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so." -- Will Rogers, American humorist. "We must not be hampered by yesterday's myths in concentrating on today's needs." -- Harold S. Geneen, American businessman and former president of ITT Corporation. If you haven’t already heard the expression, "lifehacking" refers to the practice of developing little ways of making your daily activities more efficient. The term derives from the practices of computer hackers, who crack open commercial code and rewrite it for their own purposes. Lifehacks focus mostly on improving personal life, so they don't always lend themselves to workplace application, but sometimes they hit the nail on the head. Such was the case with an article by Alan Henry posted on December 5, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Performance · Tagged: , ,

Do We Really Need 32 People at This Meeting?

Posted on 01/16/2013 by ·

"People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything." -- Thomas Sowell, American economist and social theorist. "Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings." ― George Will, American journalist. Meetings may just be the bane of our workplace existence. I don't mean events like professional conferences; those generally represent valuable educational experiences. No, I refer to those self-proliferating time-wasters that bring co-workers together to discuss ways to maximize team productivity, but instead accomplish the exact opposite. They seem to expand as time goes by; and when everyone has to have their say, they can drag on for hours, killing productive momentum. Yet meetings remain absolutely necessary if … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Closing Communication Loops

Posted on 01/14/2013 by ·

One of the traits that sets humans apart from the rest of Creation is our ability to communicate in great detail, with a minimum of confusion and unproductive "noise." Still, we fail to communicate unusually often. The annals of history contain endless episodes of poor communication (or a complete lack thereof), leading to widespread misery and pain. On a lesser scale, individuals and businesses deal with miscommunication issues every single day; in the workplace, these breakdowns can have an impact not just on individual productivity, but also on the bottom line.  Even minor miscommunications can prove costly. For example: I once worked with a corporate president who called an analyst in finance to get a figure to put into a speech he was planning. The president expected the finance guy … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: ,

What Comes Next? Criteria for Choosing Your Next Task

Posted on 01/07/2013 by ·

"The role of leadership is to transform the complex situation into small pieces and prioritize them." -- Carlos Ghosn, Brazilian businessman (Chairman and CEO of Renault, Nissan, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance). "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." -- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States Just about every productivity expert prescribes a to-do list as part of your time management process, and I'm certainly no exception. In fact, I advocate keeping at least two. First up: the daily High Impact Task or "HIT" list, a short list of everything you must do today. Second, use a Master Task List to track upcoming tasks and items you want to accomplish … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management · Tagged: ,

Good Enough Is Never Enough! Encouraging Improvement Through Change

Posted on 12/10/2012 by ·

"The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind." -- Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher. Just about everyone has experienced the "new broom sweeps clean" effect. We've watched, and often suffered, as a fresh leader came onto the scene and changed everything just because they could—regardless of how well the existing system functioned. Whenever this happens, chaos reigns and productivity plummets for a while. Sometimes it never recovers, whereupon another broom soon appears to start its own ambitious cleaning project. However, many changes are inevitable and desirable. Otherwise, old inefficiencies may pile up until workflow grinds to a halt...or worse, something explodes and flies apart in a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: ,

Weeding Out the Inefficiencies in Your Workplace Garden

Posted on 12/05/2012 by ·

"There can be economy only where there is efficiency." -- Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister. All leaders wear multiple hats, with their roles as Coach, Overseer, Mentor, and Good Example fairly obvious to anyone willing to look. But another function often goes unnoticed: that of Caretaker. Leaders don't just juggle projects and push people to work harder; they also protect their team from any factor that might jam the gears of productivity. While no analogy can survive over-analysis, you can consider any organizational unit (whether team, department, or division) a kind of garden, where a good leader works to weed out the inefficiencies in the system. This holds true whether those inefficiencies take the form of unproductive employees, bureaucratic red tape, or poorly … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management · Tagged: , ,