Personal productivity stretched to the limit

I saw this article and for me, it sums it all up.

When I work with individuals in companies, the drain, strain, and anxiety on their face is telltale. 

I can continue to work with employees to help them improve their productivity…but the stress is enormous and it shows.

The inability to focus plays havoc with getting day-to- day things done, not to mention trying to work on priorities. What I see are employees  checking email more often, inviting more interruption and distraction into their lives,  and doing non-related work things or low priority tasks just to get some relief.  The offshoot is more depression, more anxiety, less confidence, less loyalty and of course there’s all the fear.

Employers beware.  Take heed. Trying to improve personal productivity by having one person do 3 people’s jobs is counter-productive.  Look at unexcused absences and increased visits to primary care physicians and see what it’s costing your company for ‘improved productivity’ to help the ‘bottom line’.

Move your mindset.

Communication and Conversation

You might not remember the movie, ‘Cool Hand Luke’ but there was a line in the movie that became very popular.  You’d have to see the movie to understand the context of the line but it was ‘What we have here is a  failure to communicate.’

True, authentic communication is hard to achieve. It takes work. But true communication is a big element in improving performance and productivity. True communication minimizes conflict and stress, contributes to the development of long-term professional and personal relationships and is the foundation of all business and social skills.

In this interview in Forbes online with a friend of mine, Shawn Kent Hayashi, she talks about the 12 types of conversations we experience and how these conversations and communication impact goals, roles and productivity.

Although Shawn is an expert in her field and goes into depth on her topic, there are certainly principles all of us can learn and understand in order to become better communicators.

1.  Be clear. To communicate authentically, your message needs to be clear and unambiguous–especially in your own mind.

2. Be prepared. Your message may be misinterpreted so be prepared to actively navigate a clear understanding.

3.  Learn to deliver ‘bad’ news. There comes a time in most of our lives when we need to do this. It’s better to learn how to do this than sidestep the issue.

4.  Trust is a major factor. As a leader, encourage a culture of openness and trust because this approach begins at the top. It is estimated that ‘time theft’ in the United States costs an estimated $177 billion a year.  And ‘time theft’ includes counterproductive workers.

Communication is a cooperative system. Move your mindset and begin improving your communication now.

For more information on becoming an effective communicator, visit Shawn’s website.

Self-Discipline

A study I read a few years ago used an assessment to survey several thousand people to learn what their most sabotaging thoughts were that prevented them from getting what they wanted.  The top one was… lack of discipline or some call it self-regulation.  Not a surprise for most of us.

So I ran across an article yesterday entitled The Secret to Self Discipline and of course I was intrigued. I liked what the author had to say…yes he was selling a book…but the content was good.

Of course, ‘simple’ does not = ‘easy’.  Otherwise there wouldn’t be assessments, articles and books on the subject.

But the one thing to remember is that all of what he says is completely do-able…as long as you emotionally connect to what it is you want to do. The thing you want that keeps alluding you because of your lack of discipline. If you aren’t absolutely in love with that thought, what you do won’t make too much difference.

Whether it’s losing weight, getting your financial house in order, getting organized or practicing effective time management habits, it always comes back to your ‘why’. The ‘what’ and ‘how’ will follow.

So take some time to figure that out for yourself and your discipline ‘issues’ will probably go away.