Leadership Flagship

Boost your productivity with a shorter to-do list

June 29, 2018

By Damon Brown | June 20, 2018

“Think big” may be the mantra of our time, but focusing small will get more stuff done. In fact, your best bet for a productive day is to cut your to-do list in half — and then cut it in half again.

First, the greater your needs for the day, the less likely you’ll get them done. Scientific studies show we tend to underestimate how long something will take, often by a magnitude of two. Your quick errand will likely take twice as long as you think, which can easily throw your entire day off.

Second, the more stuff on your list, the less motivated you feel at the inset and the outset. Plowing through the to-dos may initially feel gratifying, but once you hit a speed bump (see the “quick errand” example above), you’re more likely to be frustrated by the sheer number of tasks ahead of you.

Even if you’re able to jump from task to task, it’s more difficult to maintain that momentum through several items. You may end up losing steam. And if your most important tasks are later, you could paint yourself into a corner.

Lastly, accomplishing a little is more encouraging than going for a lot. Your mind becomes more efficient and strategic when an entire task is complete, which is why multitasking is one of the least efficient things you can do. Complete a few items well, however, and you are more likely to have the clarity to do the rest of your tasks even better.
7 tips for leaving work where it belongs — at work

June 29, 2018
By Melissa Gratias | June 10, 2016
It comes down to one word: accessibility.

In the 1970s, open-door policies were popular as a way to encourage communication between management and employees. Better relations with unions resulted from increased accessibility of managers. Thus, “my door is always open” became a popular catchphrase.

Then there was the explosion of email in the 1990s followed by the ubiquity of mobile devices in more recent years.

Once upon a time, accessibility was a simple matter of an open versus closed door. Today, workers can literally be available to their employers every hour of every day.

In an era of continual accessibility, can we ever leave work?

Here are 7 strategies to reduce the “Always On” work life:
1. Set goals. What does a successful work/life balance look like for you? Your definition of balance will be different from others, but you must have a concrete way to determine if you are there or not.
2. Make your calendar reflect your intentions. Choose your work hours, and be realistic. If you intend to process email in the evenings and on weekends, those appointments should be on your calendar. If you intend to spend every Saturday morning with your family, put it on your calendar. Your calendar is the shield with which you defend your balanced life.
3. Know how to change the settings in your mobile devices. Turn off notifications of incoming email. Temporarily deactivate your work email accounts while on vacation or on weekends. Be in control of your gadgets, not the other way around.
4. Question your assumptions. I once worked with a team of five executives who answered emails sent to them from the CEO late at night. It was driving them crazy, and one executive was on the verge of leaving the organization. I asked the CEO if he required late-night responses from his team, and his answer was a surprised, “No.” He was a night owl but didn’t expect anyone else to be. Ask, don’t assume.
5. Work smarter, not harder. You may be working after hours because you are not efficient during the day. Sure, you can get more done with more hours invested, but can you better manage your tasks and yourself during the regular work day?
6. Consider the (real) worst-case scenario. What is the worst thing that will happen if you unplug? How likely is this event? Be honest and real. Why are you always on?
7. Change your situation. If all of your balance-promoting strategies have failed, you may need to consider a different work environment. The grass may indeed be greener on the other side.
Changing your level of accessibility to your work requires discipline. You are your strongest soldier and your cleverest enemy in the war for work/life balance. Remember that balance is a battle that you fight every day but win over a lifetime.

You are worth the fight.
5 Tips to Boosting Your Afternoon Productivity

June 29, 2018
By Melissa Gratias | July 6, 2016 Print Article Print Email Article

Back in the day there were time clocks.

Workers took a time card, inserted it in the clock, heard a very satisfying CHING! sound, and replaced the card back on the wall. This ritual meant that work was o-v-e-r.

Done. Buh-bye.

I’m not suggesting that we all need to return to the good ole days, but there are elements to the time clock routine that were psychologically beneficial to the worker.

First, the ritual was predictable. Predictable can be comforting.

Second, the experience of ending the work day was visual, auditory, and tactile. It appealed to multiple ways of engaging with the world on a sensory level.

Lastly, it delineated a transition from one world to another, in this instance, work to home.

In prior articles, you learned how to effectively open your work day and how to leave work at work. The purpose of this post is to help you establish and follow a productive Closing Ritual that helps you be a more effective worker and happier human being.

Many of my clients say that their current workday Closing Ritual involves any or all of the following:
- Sending one last email
- Making one last phone call
- Having one last conversation
- Doing one last task
Except … all of these “one lasts” are rarely the last one. So, what can we learn from the time clock ritual and apply to the modern worker?

Here are some tips for an effective Closing Ritual to end the work day:
1. Stop before you stop. If your goal is to leave work at 5:30 every day, then you need to stop your task-based work about 15 – 20 minutes prior to your departure time. Create a calendar appointment with an auditory notification to signify that your Closing Ritual is about to begin.
2. Acknowledge what you got done. Review your to-do list and delete/check off what you completed. Yay! You actually did accomplish something today.
3. Note new tasks and next steps. Download your brain onto your to-do list. Don’t sleep on un-inventoried tasks. Update existing to-dos with their next steps. Your to-do list is never empty — find peace in progress.
4. Clear the decks … I mean desks. Avoid leaving loose files and paper on your desk surface if you can help it. There are often action items hiding in those stacks.
5. Minimize morning surprises. Review your calendar for the next day to note any changes that may have happened throughout the current day.
Although the ba-dong-ba-dong sound that Outlook makes when reminding you of your Closing Ritual is not as fun and exciting as a CHING! sound from a time clock, the benefits can be the same.

Give yourself permission to end the day

Find comfort in the predictability of the routine and get some daily closure. You may even feel more accomplished, less stressed, and motivated for tomorrow.
How to Resolve a Conflict with a Co-Worker

June 29, 2018

By Sharlyn Lauby | June 27, 2018

It’s inevitable: Conflict is going to happen in the workplace. We won’t get along with everyone.

However, we also can’t let tensions bottle up and create stress. According to The American Institute of Stress, “people issues” are the number two cause of workplace stress. Finding a way to effectively deal with workplace conflicts helps you both personally and professionally.

One caveat up front: If your conflict involves a violation of company policy, don’t go it alone. “If your conflict involves a highly sensitive subject such as harassment, discrimination or a hostile work environment, involve your manager or HR,” advises Joyce Lee, senior employee relations consultant for Unum. “Even if the involvement is to make your manager and/or HR aware of the issues and that you plan to try and address it yourself first, those issues require additional support.”

5 ways to manage workplace conflict

While none of us looks forward to dealing with conflict, it’s important to realize that being able to resolve disagreements is an in-demand skill. An increasing number of organizations want to know that employees care capable of handling and managing workplace conflicts without creating drama. Here are five considerations when it comes to resolving a conflict.

Know when to “pick battles.” Even when you know you’re right, not everything is worth a confrontation. And you’ll have to decide those moments. There’s a difference between issues that involve safety, security and ethics versus matters that don’t. Sometimes we need to just take a high road and let it go.

Remember the goal. If the matter needs to be addressed with another person, before having a conversation, think about what you’re trying to accomplish. Do you want the person to change his or her mind? Or just listen to what you have to say? Also, think about what you’re willing to do to help.

Choose the right moment. Even though it might make you feel better, don’t try to hurry up and rush this conversation. The goal isn’t to escalate the conflict. Give the person you have a conflict with the respect they deserve.

Be prepared to hear your faults. Whether it’s because the other person is defensive or because you’re a contributor to the conflict, get ready to accept your part. Figure out how you’re going to respond. It might make sense to acknowledge your role at the very start of the conversation.

End the conversation on a positive note. You might not resolve the conflict right away, but hopefully you’ve moved in a positive direction. Let the other person know having a good working relationship is important to you.

And if, for whatever reason, you’re apprehensive about confronting the issue or the conversation doesn’t go as planned, Lee reminds us to reach out to others for help.

“If you aren’t comfortable trying to resolve the conflict directly yourself, or if you’ve tried and there was resistance or lack of progress, you can always discuss it with your manager or HR.”

Employees don’t have to lunch together and be best friends to have valuable working relationships. They do need to respect each other – even each other’s differences – and be committed to working in the best interest of the organization.
The Journey of Setting your Goals

June 26, 2018

Posted by Nick Tubach, MBA, PCC on Monday, 06-18-2018 10:08 pm

What should happen BEFORE you identify the goal you want to pursue? It’s ok not to have the answers straight out of the gate. It’s a journey. Enjoy it!

I recently wrote an article that focuses on 3 keys that can help anyone break through their performance barriers; achieve that better tomorrow, whatever it is.

The first step was to have a vivid picture of what your ideal future state looks like. After all, you can’t aim for the bullseye if you don’t know where or what it is. But what if you just don’t know what you want to achieve, or you end up picking someone else’s goal for you, or the wrong goal, all together? I’ve posed this question to a few of my friends and colleagues, and lively discussions ensued.  I’d like to share what came from those conversations.

Find your own path, not somebody else’s. Especially as a first-generation immigrant, the most immediate thought that comes to mind is “parents”. They want what’s best for their children and often their “guidance” is driven by a desire for their kids to have a better (financial) life than they had, so they point their children in a direction they feel will help lead them on a path to prosperity.  Become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Many of my immigrant friends had a similar path to mine. They largely did what was expected of them.  All of them are “doing well”, so what’s the problem?

“Define well”, is what one friend asked. You see, our parents measured much of success and happiness as a function of money, because they didn’t have it. I told myself that becoming a corporate executive of a Global company was my goal. Unfortunately, when I got there at age 33, I realized I achieved a goal that did very little for the whole ME.  Had one person (perhaps a coach) asked me one simple question: “what makes being a Global 200 executive so important to you?”, I’m afraid I would have had a blank look on my face and possibly said it was because of money. I could write a book on that topic, but, in short, that’s not a very emotionally intelligent perspective and it certainly doesn’t lead to fulfillment.

Hint: When you believe you have a meaningful goal, ask what makes it so important to you. Really do some digging here, so you can be sure to identify a goal that speaks to all your senses.

It’s OK not to know…yet.Not knowing can invoke this uneasy feeling inside us. How can anyone not have a career goal, right? I often tell my clients, especially the early career clients, to enjoy the journey. It took Steve Jobs about 10 years to figure out he wanted to start Apple from the time he dropped out and took his first calligraphy class.

In his famous commencement address, Jobs said something profound I will remember for the rest of my life. He said, be able to connect the dots looking backwards, not forwards.

Mind blown! How could so many of us have missed this our entire lives? Conventional thinking seems to suggest if we cannot connect the dots looking forward, we have “a lack of direction”, but that’s not necessarily the case, unless you are just watching Oprah all day. So, how can you make sure those dots connect, as Steve Jobs suggests, looking backwards when what you do on the journey to figuring things out is driven out of (your) passion?

Hint: If you don’t know your goal yet and it’s causing you to feel like you aren’t measuring up, try changing your perspective of not knowing.

Look at it as a journey to passionately collect the information you need to know and to gain the experiences you want to experience, so that eventually a lightbulb turns on, leading you to say, “I got it!”

Most decisions are reversible. The stigma that sometimes comes with making the wrong decision can make anyone second-guess themselves. However, most mistakes are reversible, and few aren’t. So, if you go down the wrong path and make a mistake, so what? Is it really the end of the world, or just a lesson, giving you new insight on how to simply change direction, or do things differently? If you want to accelerate your professional or personal growth, don’t let the risk of making the wrong call keep you from making the call, in the first place.

Hint: When contemplating not taking a risk out of a fear of failure, ask yourself if you are really headed down a one-way street with no possible way to course-correct.

The path of growth is riddled with failures, but it’s your perspective of failure that will determine whether you eventually soar or take a nose dive. Sure, we said previously that most decision are reversible, but it’s our choice as to how we let failure affect us. Do we let it stop us, or do we look at it as one step closer to the promised land?

You’ve heard the expression risk-reward? So, remember the magic happens outside of your comfort zone. Why is it called a comfort zone? Because inside it, we are more certain of the likelihood of success BASED ON PAST SUCCESS. Comfort, because we won’t fail!

With the recognition that most decisions are reversible, we can change our perspective of “failure” and see it for what it really is… “learning and growth”. Embrace those failures that happen outside the zone and see it as a chance to take incremental steps to get you where you need to go.

Hint: Instead of reflecting in the negative, you can do something incredibly powerful… do it in the positive.

Instead of asking “why”, ask yourself, “knowing what I know now, what should/would I do differently this time around?”

In conclusion, let your passion drive your goals, enjoy the journey of “figuring it out”, take those calculated risks, and remember that failure is your friend.