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Archive for Productivity

Is Analysis Paralysis Killing Your Productivity?

Friday, May 17th, 2013

The short 19th century poem The Centipede’s Dilemma, most commonly attributed to Katherine Craster (1841-74), illustrates a common occurrence that has likely affected everyone at one point or another.

A centipede was happy – quite!
Until a toad in fun
Said, “Pray, which leg moves after which?”
This raised her doubts to such a pitch,
She fell exhausted in the ditch
Not knowing how to run.

Do you suffer from analysis paralysis?
Analysis paralysis occurs when we over-analyze a situation to the point where a logical decision can’t be made, eventually causing everything to fall apart. And, it’s a phenomenon that is common in the workplace. Whether it’s a leader who can’t decide on a strategic direction for the company or a team of individuals who have reached an impasse on which direction to take an important project – analysis paralysis can have dire consequences on productivity and success. Read More→

4 Ways to Get Back to 40 Hours

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

Technology has changed how work gets accomplished. With tablets, smartphones, and unlimited software apps, it is easier than ever to get briefed on projects and organize deadlines. These productivity tools were designed to help us be the best we can be in our respective professions. But, it turns out that today’s workers are still feeling overworked and burnt out.

According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association (APA), one in three workers suffer from chronic stress, with high workloads being a major factor. The APA also found that 39% of people work more than 40 hours a week. With incoming emails and calls, employees end up working outside of the office, which can actually lower productivity and quality of work. As a business leader, you can’t afford to be less productive – and you definitely can’t afford to have a burnt-out workforce.

So how do we get back to normal work hours and take back precious revitalization time with friends and family? Here are four ways to get a good start. Read More→

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Delegation is an Important Part of Leadership

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

Do you have a difficult time delegating work to your employees? If so, you’re not alone. According to leadership expert Michael Hyatt, one of the most common justifications leaders give for their refusal to delegate is, “I don’t delegate because it takes longer to delegate the task than to just do it myself.”

Check out this article from Hyatt’s blog for a little insight into why he believes this justification is flawed:

Why Some Leaders Find Delegation Difficult (and What to Do About It)

Do you have a hard time delegating tasks to your employees? Tell us about it in the comments section below. Read More→

More Quick Teamwork Games to Build Engagement

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

After a great response to our post Six Quick Teamwork Games to Engage Employees at Work, we put together four more teamwork activities for you and your employees. Interacting with your team is crucial in creating a strong culture of communication and strengthening engagement and retention through employee development. Consider trying some of these games to help build unity, strengthen morale, and decrease stress in your office.

Office Celebrity

The game Celebrity is great for parties, but this play off of this classic is bound to break any barriers between coworkers and lead to knowing one another better. When workers know more about each other, they tend to work better together!

  1. Break your office into two teams.
  2. Write everyone’s name on separate pieces of paper and place them in a bowl.
  3. Round One: The first team has one member get up and pull a name from the bowl. He or she tries to get their team to guess which worker it is by giving characteristics of that person. After the team guesses it, another name is chosen and so on until a minute has passed. After one minute, the second team picks one member to try and get their team to guess as many names as possible during a minute. This goes on, switching teams and rotating players until all of the names have been guessed. Replace all names back into the bowl. Keep a tally of how many names each team correctly guessed.
  4. Round Two: Same as round one, but each moderator can only use ONE word to describe each name drawn.
  5. Round Three: Same as the previous rounds, but each moderator can’t use words to describe drawn names, but instead must act them out. The team with the most correct names tallied after three rounds wins! Read More→

Course Correction Can Be Counterintuitive

Monday, April 8th, 2013

According to author, speaker, and personal performance expert, Marlene Chism, “The ability to course-correct is about controlling impulses, reprogramming, and of course the willingness to admit when you are off course so you can make the needed change! This ability would become a competitive advantage because so few people are skilled at course-correction. The reason? This skill requires intense awareness, wisdom, and experience, because course-correction is often counter-intuitive.”

Check out Marlene’s recent blog article on course correction for some more insight:

Course Correction Can Be Counterintuitive

Do you find course correction to be difficult among your team? What are the biggest challenges? Let us know in the comments section below. Read More→

Core Values are the Building Blocks of Company Culture

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

Part One of a Three Part Series on Developing a Strong Company Culture

Why do companies like Southwest Airlines, Apple®, Zappos.com, Whole Foods Market, and Google always top the lists of the best places to work? Is it because of their competitive compensation packages? Or an emphasis on open communication and teamwork? Maybe it’s the way their leadership teams strive to ensure each employee knows they are indispensable to the company’s overall success?

The answer is that it’s all of that … and much more.

Culture Begins with Core Values
Ultimately, what defines a company culture is the collective behavior of the people in the organization. The driving force behind that behavior is the basic building block of a company’s culture – its core values. Core values are personal, ethical, and ideological guidelines that set the standard for every aspect of business operations, from hiring to decision making to strategic planning.

Let’s break it down even further: Read More→

Break Through Creative Blocks – Think Like Picasso

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

It’s time to brainstorm. You’ve assembled a top-notch team, everyone’s up to date with the background information and project briefs, your key objectives are clearly outlined, and you’re in a comfortable, idea-spawning environment, this should be a breeze. Three, two, one… BE CREATIVE!

If only it were that easy. Even the most renowned and educated thinkers aren’t immune to the occasional creative stalemate. From painters and writers to physicists and engineers, at some point we all hit our own mental roadblocks.

So, how do you break through? Heeding the words of Pablo Picasso, one of history’s most artistic and creative minds, is a great place to start.

“You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.”
Toss out all preconceived notions and focus on the core objectives. If you’re thinking in a presupposed state of mind, it will be harder to breakout into more abstract thought. Instead, you’ll likely spend more time trying to make your initial ideas fit into a mold that may constantly be changing. Read More→

Workplace Incentives that Keep Top Talent

Thursday, March 21st, 2013

In today’s economy, it’s more important than ever to retain your top talent. While there is no shortage of people looking for jobs, many companies are having a difficult time finding highly and specifically skilled workers with the right mix of experience and expertise they need to maintain productivity. Check out this infographic from Mindflash.com, an online training resource, for some insight into what some top employers are doing to ensure their best and brightest employees aren’t heading for the door. Read More→

Engaged Employees Know Their Hard Work Is Appreciated

Thursday, March 14th, 2013

We all want to feel appreciated. It’s an innate desire to know that what we do affects others in a positive way. As leaders, we have the ability to impart mood-altering, encouraging words to our own team members. Appreciation can be the difference in motivating a team to new heights and creating a revolving door of turnover at your organization.

Although most people understand its importance, appreciation through words or actions is often hard to come by in an office setting. According to a survey by the John Templeton Foundation of West Conshohocken, Pa., a nonprofit research organization, 10% of workers express gratitude to a colleague daily, while only 7% show appreciation to bosses. There is a disconnect between the amount of times appreciation is shown with the knowledge of its impact. According to Society for Human Resource Management, about half of human-resource managers say showing appreciation to employees helps reduce turnover and increase profit. Productivity and engagement is obviously directly connected to how employees understand their impact and influence in the overall company picture.

So to ensure high moral and better employee participation, consider these quick tips to show appreciation to your workforce! Read More→

Traditional rewards structures may not be as effective as we’ve thought in the past. In his 2009 TedTalk, career analyst Dan Pink breaks down some interesting information that sheds light on how rewards may actually affect employee motivation. The video is a little less than 20 minutes long, but well worth a view. Check it out when you have some time and be sure to leave your thoughts on the topic in the comments section below.

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below. Read More→