Do you value best practices as a means of attracting and retaining customers while also improving the bottom line? If yes, you are not alone. Many companies devote tremendous time, effort, and money in search of the holy grail of best practices. However, most organizations have employees who are already producing great results. Whether selling, managing customers, or delivering the goods, you likely have pockets of excellence scattered throughout your organization. These employees have figured out how to: Excel in your environment, Deal with your products, Manage your customers, and Put up with your management short-comings
You call it your inbox. A more accurate name might be your “Indecision box.” How many times do you look at the same email message? Should I respond or not? How do I handle this? Should I sign up? If I ignore it, will it go away? Do I need to save this somewhere? You know the questions. If you return to the same message multiple times, pondering those same questions, you are wasting time and energy. There are only four efficient responses to any email: Act immediately (read or respond) Save it for later (flagged by date or filed with relevant project) Archive it (an overused option, but not ineffective) Delete it To increase your success rate in making these choices, don’t check email unless you have time to complete this process. If awaiting a particular message, check quickly and leave. Come back later when you have time to handle each appropriately in sequence. If your inbox isn’t emptied a couple of times each day, you definitely have an Indecision box instead! Worse than that, you have an E-mess! Do a spot check on employee inboxes and you’ll know immediately whether they need help too.
Welcome to the Clarity Quiz! Which of the following is most essential to an effective meeting? An agenda On time start and finish Assigned roles (e.g., time keeper) Ground rules (e.g., cell phones off) Assigned action items None of the above Make your selection and then click “more” for the answer.
Uncommon Meetings – 7 Quick Tips for Better Results in Half the Time by Ann Latham is now available in print and ebook editions on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and Uncommon Clarity Store. Uncommon Meetings is short and powerful, just as every meeting should be. People who follow these seven tips will definitely get better results in half the time.How many total hours are you and your employees spending in meetings each month? What would it be worth to you if you could cut that time in half, dramatically improve the results, and reduce the number of attendees? Start saving that time and money now! Read this book today! “‘Uncommon Meetings’ is a must read for everyone in any organization, not just top management.” Al Kasper, President & COO, Savage Sports Corporation “To achieve your desired outcomes in less time and with fewer people, read this book! It has great tips and memorable examples for improving meetings and is concise and clear as well. All and all, a huge value for anyone who spends a lot of time in meetings as I do.” Simon Lingard, Director of R&D, Aspen Technology, Inc.
If you burn 500 calories more than you consume each day, you will lose a pound a week. This fact surfaced while I was out running today. Curious, I visited a website upon return where I could plug in the time and distance to see how many calories I’d burned. The website essentially screamed back, “That’s Not Running!” I consoled myself with thoughts of the three giant uphills, oodles of orange spotted lizards flushed out by three inches of rain, and my habitual gander into the woods where moose have crossed my path in the past. Humiliation aside, the reality is, it’s NOT running! If I am “running” to take a break, get the blood flowing, get outside, or get 30 minutes of exercise, and I note my accomplishment accordingly, it doesn’t matter that I am not exactly “running.”
This is one tip in a series of techniques to help you take control of your time, feel great about each week, and watch those weeks add up to impressive results. The key to each successful week is two-fold: Identify what would constitute a successful week Make it happen This tip tackles the second and helps you maintain focus. Productivity Booster #6: Clear the Decks Focus and finish is one of the top secrets to peak productivity. Today’s tip addresses one of its enemies – the siren song of other projects. Are there stacks of papers on your floor, desk, or other surface? Books and magazines piled near by? Little lists of things requiring attention? If so, each one is singing its siren song while you are trying to focus. Out of the corner of your eye you see the stack of papers that must be submitted this afternoon. An important thought occurs to you so you stop to add a note to that stack.
Whether you are managing a corporate giant or a small business, you need to track progress. For some, that means tracking key results, for others, it means tracking endless detail. Here are 7 tips for maximizing results and minimizing effort. Don’t just track results, track assumptions. If your sales are increasing exactly as desired, but you are growing because existing customers are buying more and not because you are successfully penetrating a new market as planned, you have a problem. Your luck is masking failed insights, decisions, efforts, and investments. Be clear about underlying assumptions and ask, “Are our assumptions still valid?” Define milestones that reflect major decisions and vital learning, not just the completion of tasks, especially fairly predictable tasks. Keep asking, “What don’t we know? What obstacles must we overcome?” Don’t let a growing list of checked off milestones give you false confidence. It’s the ones that aren’t checked off that can sink your ship. Keep asking, “What could go wrong?”
If you saved an hour a day, that’s 365 hours per year. 365 hours /12 productive hours in a day = 30 days. If you save an hour a day, you gain 30 days each year. That’s an entire month. Imagine what you could do with another month in the year. Another month to play, spend with family, or complete significant projects. What are you waiting for? Where is that hour that you could dispense with each day?
If you aren’t careful, your inbox, and thus your To Do list, can grow out of control. However, if you pay attention, you will notice that many items landing in your inbox create work for you that need not be yours. Take a look at who is filling your inbox and why. For example, think about those times when a colleague sends you a proposal, report, or something else for you to review. Why you? What value can you add? Are they ducking responsibility or afraid to pull the trigger? Does the item really need to be better? Or perhaps you get emails addressed to 10 people. Why and why you? Do you need to mark your calendar, check something off your list, make note of a decision, or take a specific action? If not, you were likely copied for the wrong reasons. However, if you aren’t paying attention, you may find yourself sucked into or instigating several exchanges of little value to anyone. Watch what is landing in your inbox and take measures to deflect it before it lands.
If you work with or for someone who is indecisive, it can be frustrating. Even worse, it can be extremely wasteful if you routinely start down a path only to have a decision flipped and your progress erased. What can you do to clear the fog and keep things moving forward? Practice asking these six helpful questions and you will reduce the back-tracking while simultaneously improving the decisions and developing clear thinking skills for all involved: What specifically are we trying to accomplish? What criteria and priorities are most important in making this decision? Are there other alternatives that we should be considering? Why is this alternative the best given the criteria and priorities we discussed? What might go wrong if we choose this alternative? How serious and likely are these potential problems?