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Strategy: The Key To Office Productivity- Get Out Of The Office… I get More Work Done on a 2 Hour Flight than I Do All Day at the Office, Because I’m Not being Interrupted

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Productivity is a big topic these days. In an era of always-on technology and constant interruptions, getting more done in less time is the holy grail. Evidently, the answer is simple: Get out of the office.

Don't panic! There are ways to cut down on interruptions when you're on deadline. (Photo credit: star5112)

Don’t panic! There are ways to cut down on interruptions when you’re on deadline. (Photo credit: star5112)

Of employees who work remotely at least a few times per month, more than three-quarters of them report greater productivity while working off site, according to a recent survey from ConnectSolutions. Some 30% complete more work in less time, and 24% get more done in the same time, the survey found.

What makes the difference, you ask? No one is popping into your home office to ask if you watched the Oscars last night or if you can help them with that spreadsheet. “Clients have said to me that they get more work done on a two-hour flight than they do all day at the office, because they’re not being interrupted,” says Mitzi Weinman, founder of productivity company TimeFinder and author of It’s About Time.

That’s great for those workers whose employers let them telecommute for work, of course. But what if you’re chained to your desk? What if you can’t do your job from someplace else, or your boss simply isn’t inclined to let you? There are ways to mimic the experience of working remotely—you just have to cut down on the interruptions in the workplace.

Here are some pointers:

Look at the big picture. Spend a little time thinking about why you’re getting interrupted at work. If it’s because you sit by the printer and people are constantly strolling by your desk, that’s one thing. But if you’re a manager and you’re fielding questions from the same people all day long, you might be at fault. “Are you giving your team enough information to be able to do what they need to do and enough authority to be able to move forward without having to come back to you?” Weinman says. If not, now is the time to figure out what needs to change.

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Set no-interrupt times. If there’s a time of day when you really work efficiently and can get a lot accomplished, try to preserve it as your own. Post a sign on your cube or your door indicating that you’re working between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., and unless it’s an emergency, to please leave a note or come back later. If you’re consistent, your team will learn not to bug you during those hours.

Move. If you work in an open-space office or a cube farm, you might be better served by going elsewhere when you’re on a deadline—even if it’s just a quiet conference room or an unused office. “I had a client who used to hide under his desk and turn the lights out,” Weinman says.

Wear headphones or a headset. People are less likely to stop and chat if you look like you’re concentrating or that you’re already on the phone. You can also try setting up visual barriers, such as plants or a lamp, that make it harder for people to glance over and make eye contact.

Change your office culture. Suggest a no-meeting day once a week, or every other week. Or try this: “I was doing a workshop with a company and we put into place that once or twice a week, for the first two hours of the day, nobody could interrupt anybody in a particular department,” Weinman says. “Because they were yelling over cubes. That made them so much more productive for those two hours.”

Take advantage of quiet times. Think about the times that your office is deserted. Does everyone arrive at 9 a.m. and leave at 5 p.m.? Consider coming in at 8 a.m. a couple of times a week, or working until 6 p.m. now and then. You can get a lot done in an hour of focused time.

Silence all the beeps. Coworkers aren’t the only ones who interrupt. You’re probably also dealing with a steady stream of emails, texts and other notifications from your computer and smartphone. When you’re under the gun, close your email program and put your phone on silent to avoid getting thrown off track. “There’s a statistic that every time you’re interrupted, whether it’s something dinging or somebody standing in the door, that it takes 20 minutes to get back to where you were,” Weinman says. “It’s so frustrating.”

– Follow Kate Ashford on Twitter.

Forbes.com | February 24, 2015  |  Kate Ashford

Leadership: The 3 Most Powerful Ways To Change People Who Don’t Want To Change…Dieters in the US Spend 40 Billion Dollars a Year, but 19 out of 20 lose Nothing but their Money

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Have you noticed how incredibly hard it is to change a habitual behavior, even though you know full well that it’s in your best interest to do so? Have you worked so hard over six months to lose 20 pounds, only to see it creep back in a matter of days or weeks? Or have you tried everything in your power to help your child perform better in a particular class, only to have all your efforts – and hers– fail?

As a therapist and career success coach, I’ve learned a lot about motivation, and how to help people change. In my coaching work, it’s about uncovering the root causes of their behavioral roadblocks, and helping people see these challenges differently (and stimulating new actions that are different from how they habitually operate.)

I caught up with David Maxfield and asked him what I wanted to learn about how to help people change their behavior (or change our own), in ways that will bring lasting success. David Maxfield is Vice President of Research atVitalSmarts and coauthor of the three New York Times bestsellers — Crucial Accountability, Influencer and Change Anything. For 30 years, David has been a leading social scientist for organizational change and delivered engaging keynotes at prestigious venues around the world.

Kathy Caprino: David, why, exactly is personal change so hard for so many of us?

David Maxfield: Personal change is difficult and rare. For example: dieters in the US spend forty billion dollars a year, but 19 out of twenty lose nothing but their money; two years after coronary bypass surgery to save their lives, ninety percent of patients are back to their old behaviors; and a personal favorite—two out of three people can’t even get themselves to floss!

It’s no wonder that many of us admit defeat, give up, and stop trying. Then it falls on our family members and loved ones to convince us to try again. But their pleas often come across as lectures, sermons, or rants, which undermine the relationship instead of helping us change.

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Caprino: What specifically gets in the way of our changing others’ behaviors – what are the problems and pitfalls?

Maxfield: Here are the three most important pitfalls and success factors we’ve discovered. Our research shows that these three elements can make you and your loved ones ten times more likely to succeed.

Mistake #1: We attack people with information.

We assume that, if the person only knew what we knew, they’d change. The problem is, often they already know what we know, plus more. In addition to the facts we have, they have personal information about their own successes and failures. They have usually created a personal narrative—what we call a “clever story,” that explains why they’ve failed, and explains it in a way that lets them off the hook for trying again.

For example, suppose you want your spouse to improve his or her fitness. How is he or she likely to respond to a lecture? Doesn’t he or she already know why being fit is better than being unfit? In this situation, most spouses become defensive. If you present one side of the argument, they feel compelled to present the other side. The result is you pushing for change, and them pushing against. And, since they are the ones who have to do the changing, guess who wins?

But there is a way around this dilemma.

Solution: People need to examine their own narrative.

When you’re trying to influence people who need motivation, but not information, don’t offer more information.  Instead, work to create a safe environment where they can explore motivations they already have. People need to re-examine their narrative, especially any self-defeating or clever stories they are telling themselves to justify the status quo.

Motivational Interviewing is a tried-and-true method for getting people to re-examine their stories, and it works by asking questions that allow people to explore their own motivations without feeling pushed. Below are a few examples:

“What is it that makes you even consider changing?”

“If things worked out exactly the way you want, what would be different?

“What are the pluses and minuses of changing or not changing?”

“If this change were easy, would you want to make it? What makes it hard?”

The video above demonstrates the power these influential questions can have.

Mistake #2: We fail to see why we’re stuck.

Getting someone to make a commitment to change is not the same as getting them to actually change.  The problem is that people overestimate the power of their own willpower. They fail to see the risks in front of them. So, they put their heart and soul into an effort, but it’s not enough. They are tripped up by obstacles they never anticipated.

I’ve often say to clients that, “your world is perfectly organized to create the results you are currently experiencing.” The problem is that we’re like the fish that discover water last. We are swimming in a sea of influences, and we don’t even know it. A lot of these influences are designed by sales and marketing experts or food scientists who are more interested in our money than in our well-being.

Solution: We need to educate our eyes.

We need to recognize the hidden influences around us, the influences that are keeping us stuck.Once we see them, we can deal with them. We group influences into six sources: three that motivate and three that enable. Suppose your teenager says he wants to succeed in math, but isn’t doing his math homework. What are the influences that could be keeping him stuck?

1. Personal Motivation: While his motivation to master math is sincere, it’s too vague and distant to affect his behavior. His short-term motivation is directed by videogames, social media, his girlfriend, and other more immediate motivators.

2. Social Motivation: You and your spouse go to his basketball games and concerts, but you don’t show similar encouragement for his math.

3. Structural Motivation: There are serious carrots and sticks tied to every basketball game and music lesson, but not as much for math homework. So, math becomes a lower priority.

4. Personal Ability: Your son isn’t very good at estimating how long it will take him to get his math done. He schedules an hour, just before bed, and then runs out of time.

5. Social Ability: You and your spouse coach your son on sports and music, but leave him to his own devices when it comes to math.

6. Structural Ability: Your son has several convenient distractions in his bedroom, where he does his math homework. His phone, laptop, and TV all distract him from his math.

Most stubborn problems persist because of unseen or overlooked influences that are keeping us stuck. Once we see them, we can change them. However, if we don’t change them, we’ll remain stuck.

Mistake #3: We rely on quick fixes.

We often pick the most obvious obstacle to our success, and direct all of our efforts toward overcoming it. It feels intuitive, like a quick fix. We make some progress, at least at first, but this early promise fails as unseen and unaddressed obstacles take their toll.

Another mistake is to have favorite solutions, and to use them in isolation. For example, we assume carrots and sticks will solve every problem, or that training or technology will. As a result, we create one-sided solutions that address only a few of the obstacles that are keeping us stuck.

Solution: Overwhelm the problem with all six sources of influence.

It takes solutions in all six sources to change a status quo that is held in place by all six sources. We ask people to develop at least one robust influence strategy in each of the Six Sources of Influence. Here is an example, aimed at helping your son complete his math homework.

1. Personal Motivation: Get him some direct experience, such as an internship in an organization that uses math and science. He will see for himself why math is important.

2. Social Motivation: Show your own commitment to his math. Spend as much time with him on his math as you do on his sports and music.

3. Structural Motivation: Work with him to create small rewards, based on daily and weekly progress at math.

4. Personal Ability: Increase deliberate practice, just as you would with sports or music. Make “doing your homework” the start, then add beyond.

5. Social Ability: Become your son’s math tutor. If you aren’t good at math, become good at it. Your example will speak volumes to your son.

6. Structural Ability: Create a comfortable time and space for math. Make sure it’s at a time when your son is at his best. Remove distractions. Make the place bright and cheery.

 * * * * * *

David’s tips show us that while change isn’t easy, it’s doable, when you want it and are ready, and when you address the key influences that have been keeping the behavior locked in place.  I’ve seen even the most resistant people finally experience transformation because the pain and cost of how they were previously operating in the world had become too great, and because the motivational structures and personal accountability were finally in place to facilitate growth.

For more information, visit David Maxfield, VitalSmarts and Crucial Skills.

(To build a happier, more rewarding career, visit the Amazing Career Project, and take my 6-day Amazing Career Challenge.)

Leadership: Why You/Your Boss Lacks Emotional Intelligence…Whether You’re a Leader Now or May Become One, You Don’t Have to Succumb to This Trend

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Over the past century, the heartless, no-nonsense CEO has become something of an icon—and a cliché—in American society. Hollywood would have us believe that the Machiavellian chief exec is still alive and well. Whether it’s the Donald from The Apprentice or Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock, these eat-the-weak-for-breakfast-types seem to be as powerful as ever.

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Have you ever seen the movie Office Space? Don't be that guy.

Have you ever seen the movie Office Space? Don’t be that guy.

Whether you’re a leader now or may become one in the future, you don’t have to succumb to this trend

But that’s just TV, right? How about in the real world? Do businesses today still allow these inhumane relics to survive?

To find out, we analyzed the emotional intelligence profiles of the million-plus people in our database—workers from the frontlines to the C-suite. We discovered that the answer is yes, organizations today do promote the emotionally inept … except when they don’t. Allow me to explain

just the facts_6

We found that scores climb with titles from the bottom of the corporate ladder upward toward middle management. Middle managers stand out with the highest emotional intelligence (EQ) scores in the workplace because companies tend to promote people into supervisory positions who are level-headed and good with people. The assumption here is that a manager with a high EQ is someone for whom people will want to work.

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But things change drastically as you move beyond middle management. For the titles of director and above, scores descend faster than a snowboarder on a black diamond. CEOs, on average, have the lowest EQ scores in the workplace.

The trick is, for every title in the graph above, the top performers are those with the highest EQ scores. Even though CEOs have the lowest EQ scores in the workplace, the best-performing CEOs are those with the highest EQs.

The higher you go above middle management, the more companies focus on metrics to make hiring and promotion decisions. While these bottom-line indicators are important, it’s shortsighted to make someone a senior leader solely because of recent monetary achievements. Even worse than metrics, companies also promote leaders for their knowledge and tenure, rather than their skill in inspiring others to excel. Companies sell themselves short by selecting leaders who aren’t well-rounded enough to perform at the highest levels for the long term.

Once leaders get promoted they enter an environment that tends to erode their emotional intelligence. They spend less time in meaningful interactions with their staff and lose sight of how their emotional states impact those around them. It’s so easy to get out of touch that leaders’ EQ levels sink further. It truly is lonely at the top.

Whether you’re a leader now or may become one in the future, you don’t have to succumb to this trend. Your emotional intelligence is completely under your control. Work on your EQ and it will boost your performance now and ensure that you don’t experience declines as you climb the corporate ladder. Even if your employer promotes you for the wrong reasons, you’ll still outperform your contemporaries.

To help you get started, here are five of my favorite EQ-boosting strategies for leaders. They apply to anyone, so give them a try, even if you’re not a leader.

Acknowledge Other People’s Feelings

Assertive, action-oriented executives don’t exactly ignore other people’s feelings. What they tend to do instead is to marginalize them or “fix” them so that they don’t get in the way of action. While some have suggested that this is a predominantly male problem, it can more accurately be described as a “power problem.” People who fail to acknowledge other people’s feelings fail to realize that lingering emotions inhibit effective action. So the next time you notice someone on your team expressing a strong emotion, ask him or her about it. Then listen intently and play back what you have just heard in summary form. By validating their emotions, you’ll help them feel understood so that they can move forward without hindrance.

When You Care, Show It

This might be the easiest thing you can do—as long as you actually do it. Good leaders always notice when people on their teams are doing good work, but they don’t often show it. When you appreciate something that another person does, let him or her know about it. Even a quick email or pat on the back goes a long way in this regard. There are people who do great work around you every day. Don’t put off letting them know how you feel about it. Your praise will build fierce loyalty and inspire your people to work even harder.

Watch Your Emotions Like A Hawk

The techniques above are extremely effective, but both require an awareness of your own emotions in the moment. You may think you have a world-class poker face, but if you’re like the average executive, your weakest self-awareness skills are “understanding how your emotions impact others” and “recognizing the role you have played in creating difficult circumstances.” In other words, you would become a much more effective leader if you obtained a better understanding of what you feel, when you feel it. Practice this by taking notice of your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors just as a situation unfolds. The goal is to slow yourself down and take in all that is in front of you, so that you can understand how your emotions influence your behavior and alter your perception of reality.

Sleep

I’ve beaten this one to death over the years and can’t say enough about the importance of sleep to increasing your emotional intelligence and improving your relationships. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, shuffling through the day’s memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams), so that you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough—or the right kind—of sleep. Sleep deprivation also raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressor present. The pressure that leaders are under often makes them feel as if they don’t have time to sleep, but not taking the time to get a decent night’s sleep is often the one thing keeping you from getting things under control.

Quash Negative Self-Talk

A big step in developing emotional intelligence involves stopping negative self-talk in its tracks. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that—thoughts, not facts. When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, it’s time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what you’re doing and write down what you’re thinking. Once you’ve taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.

You can bet that your statements aren’t true any time you use words like “never,” “worst,” “ever,” etc. If your statements still look like facts once they’re on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you trust and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out. When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brain’s natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event. Identifying and labeling your thoughts as thoughts by separating them from the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive new outlook.

Travis co-wrote the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and co-founded TalentSmart, the world’s #1 provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving 75% of Fortune 500 Companies.

 

Forbes.com | January 6, 2015 |  Travis Bradberry

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Leadership: Business New Year’s Resolutions Every Manager/CEO Should Make…Most are Personal Resolutions as 2015 begins ,but What About our Professional Ones?

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The act of setting new goals and resolutions permeates everyday culture during the year-end holiday season. Television and radio commercials, not to mention social media posts, remind us to make our personal resolutions as 2015 begins – but what about our professional ones?

man-on-staircase

The New Year can offer Managers/CEOs a powerful catalyst for business growth. The only question is which goals to set. For Managers/ CEOs who are unsure, here are three New Year’s resolutions that I have selected for my company in previous years that can benefit any business regardless of age and industry:

1. Work with key company data throughout the year

It may be tempting to only review all of your startup’s key operating metrics a few times per year, but this can make it difficult to foresee what changes might be needed before it is too late. Try to implement systems that will help you detect issues as they arise so that you can take action before a small spark becomes a wildfire. Consider:

  • Investing in data analytics and IT. This way, you can view daily, weekly, and monthly reports on those metrics that affect your business most. Ask yourself, “Is there a way I can tell how my company is performing – at this very moment – with just the click of a button?” What programs and strategies come to mind? How can you begin using them?
  • Developing your analytical and quantitative skills. You may not comprehend every mathematical formula involved in the creation of your business projections – but you should. Aim to understand the projections themselves and what action items can be taken, as well as the mathematical formulas behind them that led you to those projections. For example, how could you increase your client conversion rate? What are typical conversion rates for companies in your industry? Challenge yourself with exercises such as taking your product/service and determining the total costs that go into producing that item. Then, look line item by line item and ask yourself if there are any inputs that you can acquire at a lower cost, thereby increasing your margins.
  • Identifying milestones for the year ahead. For example, if your goal in 2015 is to double your 2014 revenue, what milestones does your startup need to reach each month or each week? Once you have identified the milestones, put systems in place to help you track progress toward those goals. Breaking down a big lofty goal into smaller milestones will also help your team members achieve a sense of progress along the way as each milestone is reached. These are often called “departmental goals” and they allow each team member to take ownership of a particular area of the business. If you hit most of your departmental goals, the annual high-level company goals are almost always achieved.

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2. Get to better know your customers

Understanding your clients is one of the best ways to improve your product or service. Personal touches, like remembering subtle nuances of an individual’s preferences, can be an effective way to set yourself apart from others in your industry. But there are also more general client aspects to pinpoint, including:

  • Pain points. A customer’s pain point is the problem that he or she hopes to solve. Once you identify your client’s pain point, you can build a product or service that effectively addresses it. Think about additional pain points that your customers may be facing, beyond what your current services/products address. Consider, for example, the increase in usage of mobile check deposits. This feature lets you take a picture of a check using your smartphone and then directly deposit it into your bank account. For customers, this saves them the time and hassle of having to drive to a bank location – and for banks, this lets them have the deposit into their accounts much quicker. Features like these increase the “stickiness” of your product and make it less likely that a customer will leave you for a competitor.
  • Needs. What are your customer’s specific needs? For instance, does your client consider cost the most important pain point? Or is it speed? If it is speed, it may be advantageous for your company to offer on-demand services. In my business, for instance, we can deliver online tutoring faster than we can in-home tutoring, and so an online tutoring platform helps us meet better meet our clients’ urgent / last-minute needs. Every business likely has some consumers that will highly value the time to receiving service and make it a key aspect of their purchase decision (see Uber, TaskRabbit, Porch, etc. as examples of companies that have benefited from addressing this need for their clients). If you understand the extent to which your customers value different product attributes, you can enhance and change your product to better address their particular needs. Surveys and focus groups (even informal ones) can greatly enhance your understanding of your customers and what they want.
  • Objectives. You can think of your customer’s objectives as his or her goals. A client’s objectives may extend beyond solving a pain point – for example, a customer’s pain point might be that his or her car’s transmission is broken. The objective is therefore to have a reliable car for daily commuting and travel. Helping your customer achieve that objective can differentiate you from your competitors. For instance, you could help to identify a rental vehicle while the car is undergoing repairs, or you could decide that the car is not worth repairing and recommend that your customer purchase another vehicle as soon as possible and then assist in that transaction.

3. Focus on what truly matters to the growth and sustainability of your company

If you often find yourself mired in paperwork or other tasks that are not directly related to leading your company, consider delegating some of those tasks more frequently. As the CEO, how can you maximize the return on each hour you invest in your business? In other words, how can you best spend your limited time? You might periodically ask yourself, “Is my company ready for someone other than me to do X?”

With that question in mind, try to keep an eye out for those candidates who can assume the responsibility of key tasks, both externally and internally. One possible idea is to create an internal system that allows your team members to take on additional responsibilities as they develop. As your staff grows in experience and skill level, your business will grow as well. Engage your team members’ abilities and align their efforts, and they will likely help you achieve a level of success well beyond what you could have reached by yourself or without leveraging their full skill sets.

The New Year is the perfect opportunity to recommit to those factors that matter most to your business success. Whether you choose to emphasize data-driven analysis, knowledge of your customer, a focus on growth and sustainability, or all three, good luck with your 2015 resolutions!

Chuck Cohn is the CEO and founder of Varsity Tutors, a technology platform for private academic tutoring and test prep designed to help students at all levels of education achieve academic excellence

 

Forbes.com |  January 2, 2015  |  Chuck Cohn