In a global competitive market we are constantly challenged to deliver measurable improvements, increase productivity and do it now! But just how do you go about it?
In the last decade the answer was to throw more technology at the problem - more laptops, hand-helds and a faster internet connection would do the job.
I worked to speed up the flow of information, indeed it resulted in a digital deluge, but it left in its wake 'skills amnesia'. Many have forgotten that essential management skills are still at the core of high performance and that the development of these skills is the fastest and best way to increase both personal and team productivity while keeping a healthy life/work balance.
We have become enamored with self-imposed deadlines and with the adrenalin rush they produce. Many believe that chasing the next deadline is what makes them important. The reality is that most of our frenetic 'busy-ness' is a way to avoid thinking and doing what is most important. There’s a difference between being busy and being productive.
It may come as a surprise, but it has been found that as few as 10% of people are truly productive, with the ability to move the organisation’s agenda forward.
The rest may look busy, but they could be just spinning their wheels - answering every email that hits their inbox, every voice mail they receive - their crowning glory is logging the most hours.
High-performance people embody several elements (essential skill sets) for driving both personal and team productivity. Here are three of the most important:
Focus
A critically important attribute is the motivation to zero in on purposeful goals, take accountability for them, see them through to completion, and to inspire others to share their objectives and concentrate on the key projects.
Motivation and goal-setting are inextricably intertwined. Motivation inspires goal-setting and goal-setting clarifies and connects us to our values.
Goal-setting enables you to cope with shifting priorities and crisis management which are the biggest personal productivity issues. Yet management guru, Peter Drucker, says that crisis management is the management style of choice for the majority of people. The outcome is that you risk becoming a constant firefighter.
Consider this: your management style might be contributing to or even starting some of the fires you are putting out! Indeed, you may well be the office arsonist responsible for many of the crisis. So what strategies can you use to get back in control?
The first is to get everything out of your head, off post-it notes, calendars, bits of paper and your inbox and write it in one place. This might be a priority manager paper system or electronic organizer like Outlook or Lotus Notes. What tool you choose is irrelevant - what really counts is that you can trust this place to contain all the things you have to do today and into the future. Just getting everything written down and in one place is an enormous stress reliever and gives you an immediate feeling of control.
The second vital step is to look at this list and set some priorities. Use a simple principle for designating them as ‘A’ or ‘B’ tasks. For example, I always make a promise to another person an ‘A’ and I always make my important project tasks ‘A’.
Things I can do another day are automatically ‘B’. It’s amazing to see a long list of to-do’s become a manageable short task list of important work. Work that speaks to who I am and what I want to achieve. I do not consider a day successful if all I did was start at the top of a random list and try and get everything done!
Third, set aside the first 90 minutes of the workday to tackle your ‘A’ list. Protect this time from intrusions such as email, the telephone or unimportant meetings. You will be surprised at how much important work can be achieved in this time slot.
Communication
Most of us spend a good deal of our day engaged in some form of communication. Indeed many people are communicating in one form or another for 80% of their time at work. While reading and writing remain the core essential communication tools, it is increasingly via the internet that most communication takes place. It is vital that individuals and their organisations develop workable protocols for internet communication and voice mail. An email charter is an essential tool in today’s workplace.
About 35 billion emails will be sent daily in 2005 - that is roughly six messages per day for each person on the planet!
Email has become the medium of choice for most professionals - it’s easy to compose, it’s fast, it’s cheap and each message you send can be copied with ease and forwarded. However, these features can also be misused.
Develop an email charter - one that is authored and agreed to by the team and published for all to see. Here are a few basic guidelines to get you started on your own charter and encourage the responsible use of email.
- The privacy of an email message cannot be guaranteed. An email message may be forwarded, printed, or permanently stored by any recipient. Email can be misdirected, even when you are careful. Do not put something in any email message that you would not want read by everybody. And if you receive a message intended for someone else, let the sender know.
- Email does not show the subtleties of voice or body language. Avoid attempts at irony or sarcasm. The most effective email is short, clear and relevant. If you receive a message that makes you upset, do not respond immediately, and in any case, avoid ‘flaming’, that is, sending an angry or rude message.
- Email is easily forwarded to someone else. Although this is convenient, it is not always appropriate. If you are unsure, ask the sender before you forward a message.
- Email replies may go to more people than you realize. When replying to a message, be sure to look at the list of recipients.
- Email can be junk or spam, so avoid unnecessary proliferation of messages. Email takes up computer space, so delete messages you no longer need. The integrity of an email message cannot be guaranteed. If a message seems out of character for the sender, double-check before taking it seriously.
- When required you should back up certain emails for official record purposes with a memo (e.g. personnel actions, organisation changes, contracts, and policy statements).
- Email is often not considered private. Confidential information should not be sent by email.
Voicemail
Are you fed up with people who leave long rambling messages on your voicemail and then rattle off their phone number at lightning speed in the last two seconds? It usually means listening two or three times before you can respond.
Here are some tips you might want to take to heart to avoid becoming a number-mumbler or speed talker yourself.
- Speak slowly and clearly and leave your phone number twice so the recipient doesn’t have to replay the message. Be concise but always give the reason for the call and spell your name if you know it’s not an easy one.
- Check your voicemail three to four times a day at set times, not every time the message light comes on. If you keep picking up voicemail you’ll never get to your own ‘A’ list.
- Empty your message box as soon as you listen to them. Make a note in Outlook or your Priority Manager e.g. new task to determine when you will take required action, and immediately delete the voicemail.
- Give as well as receive information. Pre-record message to say you’re out/on vacation and let the caller know there are options e.g. press ‘0’ to talk to reception; ‘Hi it’s Dan Smith here, I’m unable to take your call, but please let me know what it’s about and when it is a good time to give you a call back.’
- Make it quick. When you leave a message, take 60 seconds at most or you’ll lose your audience.
Energy
The vigour you need to thrive, not merely survive, in a competitive market will come from two sources. First, the intense personal commitment to achieve your goals and, secondly, by leading a balanced life. Your use of time affects your body, your health, your stress levels and general happiness. We may live in a 24 hour society with instant communications, but you do not have a 24 hour body. Whether or not we like it, our bodies follow the movement of the sun. And you must respect this changeless truth. Those people who can keep a healthy life/work balance are the least stressed and are the true successes in life.
Don’t sweat the small stuff
If you ask any senior citizen for their advice on an issue they will invariably tell you not to worry so much. Indeed, many will tell you that they wish they had taken more risks during their lifetime because most of what they feared never actually came to pass.
Whether it is an argument with your partner, child or work colleague, a mistake you have made, an opportunity missed or a bad cold, chances are, that six months from now you simply aren’t going to care.
It will have faded into distant memory - just one more irrelevant detail in your life. So here are five pieces of advice that you should take to heart in order to not let the little things take over your life.
- Take ownership
You and you alone are responsible for your feelings and emotions. However much you might think otherwise, no-one else is to blame for how you feel and no-one else but yourself can stop you from feeling stressed. So take ownership for your moods and stop the blame game today!
- Don’t escalate
External events, both trivial and traumatic cannot of themselves make you stressed - it is how you think and react to the event that causes you stress. Stop escalating every event that happens to a level it doesn’t warrant. Think of six months on and let it go.
- Alter your attitude
You really can, as William James discovered, ‘alter your life by altering your attitude’. You can choose how to feel just like you can choose how to behave. Start today to be more positive about the life you lead.
- Control your mind
Don’t be a "stinkin’ thinkin’" kind of person. Stinking thinkers cannot control their thoughts and exaggerate the seriousness of every situation. They think themselves into feelings that things are falling apart, are dreadful and terrible and then start to make foolish and unrealistic demands of themselves and the people around them.
- Be objective
You will be much less vulnerable to feeling stressed if you take on the ‘don’t sweat the small stuff - it’s all small stuff’ mantra. Remember that stress is always subjective, your emotional reaction to an outside event.
Start today to develop the thinking that will help you stay calm, happy and prolong your life! By developing essential management skills such as focus, personal organisation, communication and life/work balance, you will learn how to stay in control and increase personal performance.