It is a lot of work to prepare an annual Marketing Plan. After all, a company’s Marketing Plan should itemize — in great detail — all of the company’s goals, the objectives to reach those goals and the strategies to … Continue reading
It is a lot of work to prepare an annual Marketing Plan. After all, a company’s Marketing Plan should itemize — in great detail — all of the company’s goals, the objectives to reach those goals and the strategies to … Continue reading
Meetings cost organizations a lot of money. Consider the hourly rate (wages plus benefits) of each person at the meeting. Then add in the expense of bringing everyone together, if some of the participants are at different locations. It can add up. Yet, in all likelihood, most employees will attend dozens or hundreds of meetings throughout their careers. And most employees loathe attending meetings. That’s because meetings take up valuable time that a person could use to “get their work done.” To add insult to injury, not only do meetings eat away at productivity, they often feel like a waste of time. That’s because so many meetings veer off topic, devolve into entire conversations that have no place in the meeting, have numerous interruptions, and/or drag on way past their scheduled time, resulting in the need for another meeting.
Notwithstanding, meetings cannot be avoided and are surely not going to disappear from the business or professional world any time soon. There is no telling the boss “this is not the highest and best use of my time.” So how does an organization deal with the problems and pitfalls of meetings and ensure that meeting results warrant the cost? There are a number of steps that can ensure meetings are productive and focused … on point and on time! Here’s how. Continue reading
Michael drives to work. He passes hundreds of other drivers, obeys all the signs and heeds traffic lights, avoids pedestrians, merges lanes, adjusts the speed of his vehicle and ultimately parks. He does all this and later has practically no recollection of it at all. He got from point A to point B on “mental auto-pilot”, where his brain drew on habits to navigate, while his thinking mind was elsewhere. He might have been planning the day ahead. Or he might have agonizing about a cacophony of demands in his life. Or worrying about a problem. But for the 45 minutes it took him to drive to work, his mind was elsewhere. The real question is: how many tasks are performed in a day with little or no thought at all? Brushing teeth. Getting dressed for work. Drinking a cup of coffee. Eating lunch. Working out at the gym. Carpooling. Cooking dinner. Each day blends in with the next, and suddenly the year is half over.
While everyone does some tasks “mindlessly” at least once in a while, there are folks who are on “auto-pilot” a lot. Absent smiles. Perfunctory greetings. Blank stares. For them, life is zooming by while they are disengaged. The problem is that time – the scarcest commodity – is passing and it will never come again. Time spent on auto-pilot is basically time missed. After all, when Michael drove to work but can’t recall the drive, was he really present? Given how precious time is, can anyone afford to be “absentee” from even a single minute of life? How much more productive and happy would a person be if he were fully engaged and savoring every moment of every day? And, at the end of his life, how much might he give to be able to get back all those “auto-pilot” moments? Now there’s something to dwell on! So is there a way to stop zoning out and live more “in the moment”? Continue reading
According to a report investigating 41 countries published by the Bank of Korea in 2008, there were 5,586 companies in existence that were older than 200 years. Of those, 3,146 were located in Japan, 837 in Germany, 222 in the Netherlands and 196 in France. And in the U.S., there are currently only 72 companies operating for more than 200 years. That makes sense given that the U.S. is a much younger nation that those in Asia or Europe. Still, it is a tough pill to swallow that most businesses eventually perish. While no one wishes for their business to go belly-up any time soon, the facts are indisputable. The average life expectancy of a Fortune 500 company today is between 40 and 50 years. And the average life span of a family-owned business in the U.S. is only 24 years.
When people get around to thinking about their own mortality, they often create a “Bucket List” , which helps one pinpoint what matters most and focus on making those things happen. It is a useful, personal exercise. But what about a business? Should a company have a “Bucket List” of things to achieve? If so, what should that Bucket List include? Continue reading
Oprah Winfrey recently announced that she will be doing Spring Cleaning at her old Harpo Studios in Chicago. On March 1st, she will be selling over 200 clothing items and 20 pairs of shoes on eBay! This exercise is not designed to enrich Ms. Winfrey’s bank account as clearly she does not need the money and all proceeds will be donated to the school for girls she established in South Africa. She said her reason for the spring cleaning auction was “to create a space that gives me access to the stuff that helps me.” She wanted to de-clutter to make room for what matters and create space to be productive and creative.
While it’s hard to think about Spring Cleaning while Jack Frost is still nipping on most toes across the country, Spring is just a few weeks away. To some, Spring Cleaning is nothing more than tedious drudgery to be avoided or delegated to cleaning staff. However, a different way to look at Spring Cleaning is as a therapeutic, energizing exercise. Indeed, a thorough scrubbing, scouring, polishing and organizing of home or office can be more beneficial than just making a space fresh and germ-free. It also helps to make room for things that matter, serve as a catalyst for creativity, and stimulate the imagination. A meticulous cleansing and tidying can not only serve to organize the physical world but the mental one as well. Continue reading
Even though time gives the impression of being endless, it is actually the most finite of all resources. Unlike money, which can be saved or lost, time cannot be saved; only lost. It cannot be stretched, stopped, hidden or paused. There is no back-up for lost time. Wasted time is lost forever. Even though the clock’s hands start its daily trek around the dial anew each day, making it seem like we have unlimited time, in truth time that has passed will never return. This is news to no one, and certainly not to any business owner. Most companies are hyper vigilant of employee time to ensure it is not squandered. Rules for the proper use of time take the form of warnings against the various ways in which staff are tempted to waste time. Office socializing. Texting friends. Posting or surfing social media. Tardiness.
However, that’s not how time is lost or wasted the most in business. The biggest source of time waste at companies is when employees are assigned to do work that is not the “best use of their time.” The concept of “best use of your time” is hardly given any consideration by most companies. Employees are often hired and managed with only a murky outline of what they are to do. Certainly no job description can capture every single aspect of what an employee does or how every minute of his time will be spent. A job description only gives a cursory understanding of the major tasks that an employee will handle, not the minutiae, and typically does not determine what percentage of time (throughout a day, week or month) should be spent on each task. And the higher the position, the truer it is. Instead of ensuring staff time is spent on the most beneficial activities to the company, employees – from entry level to top management – dribble time away on tasks that are either best handled by someone else or should be eliminated altogether. That is the ultimate waste of time. So how does a company ensure that all employees are spending the majority of their time doing the things that are “the best use of their time”? Continue reading
Many people focus on make resolutions of things we want to do more, do less, do better or stop doing altogether. Obviously, the goal of resolutions is to use the commitment as an impetus to become a better person or live a better life. But, in truth, most people can just recycle resolutions year after year with little or no changes at all. Typically, those resolutions are broken or forgotten within the first hours, days or weeks of inception. Ideas for how to keep those resolutions fail. Perhaps what is actually needed are new ways to tackle old problems? What is really needed is creativity.
Creativity is the ability to make new things or think up new ideas. Creativity is the tool that is able to pierce the prickliest problems, tackle the most daunting challenges and dismantle the most difficult dilemmas. Armed with creativity, certainly every resolution can not only be kept but conquered. But how does one go about tacking old problems in creative ways if we have no new ideas? Is there really a way to boost creativity? Yes, there is. Continue reading
Most people would agree that pace of change is accelerating. Some would even say the pace of change has hastened to an alarming rate. News travels seemingly at the speed of light. Social media has accelerated the pace at which news hits and spreads virally across the globe. Software updates are being issued even before the kinks are worked out of the previous version. The next generation of smart phones is released scarcely before we’ve had a chance to even crack the glass on the previous device. Transportation is also getting faster with high-speed trains and supersonic jets revolutionized the time it takes to get from point A to point B. Medical advances are also being discovered more rapidly. Seemingly daily, innovations in medicines, devices and therapies are being introduced that combat the most devastating illnesses. And fashion no longer adjusts according to the seasons. New styles are popping up in magazines, programs and window displays every week. As soon as one trend gains traction, another look emerges pushing the previous one into design history.
Indeed, the lightning-fast speed of change is redefining concepts such as old, historical, dated and passé. There isn’t even time to get comfortable and used to something before it is outmoded and updated. In some ways, this is a good thing. After all, who can argue against advances in medicine? But, for businesses, it is difficult to keep up with such a relentless pace of change. As things change, people’s skills must be updated so that they stay current and fresh. Technology must be updated. Systems must be replaced. So how can businesses and employees keep up with the ruthless onslaught of change that seems to make something obsolete even before there is time to learn and adjust to it?
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Obsession is an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes in a person’s mind; a compulsive or even irrational fixation. Obsessive thinking often leads to habitual, uncontrollable behavior. Mildly obsessive behavior is seen as a personality quirk. In extreme cases, it is even characterized as a mental defect. In fact, there is even a recognized psychological condition called Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder. People who have Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder may engage in repeated illogical behaviors such as serial hand washing, compulsive checking (to see if a door is locked or an oven is off) or hoarding. Psychologists think that perhaps obsessive behavior originates from the brain’s warning system to ensure people worry about everyday things such as whether something is still good to eat, or to be aware if a noise is approaching from behind or to be alert to protect children from harm. Then it grows from there into thoughts and behaviors that are ‘out of control.’
Most people don’t want to be obsessive or be perceived by others as obsessed. In a world where one’s time and attention is pulled in many different directions, there is a general desire to achieve balance – balance between work and play; balance between taking care of oneself and doing for others; balance between action and rest. If balance is the ideal, then obsession is generally regarded as ‘the enemy.’ But some think that perhaps obsession has a bad rap. Is obsession always a bad thing? Can obsession be a good thing?
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Some say that it is better to work smarter, not harder. That makes it sound like old-fashioned hard work is just that… passe. That is, however, hardly the case. The most successful people are usually deemed the most “hard-working”. And by hard working, they mean people who work many long, arduous hours. In fact, they lead the pack of notorious workaholics. Consider this list published by BusinessInsider in 2012. Howard Schultz, Starbucks coffee mogul, works 13 hour days, 7 days a week. Mark Cuban, Mavericks owner and serial entrepreneur, worked seven years without a single vacation. Jeffrey Immelt, GE CEO, regularly puts in 100-hour work weeks. If that seems excessive, Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO, used to regularly put in 130-hour work weeks while at Google, in part by sleeping under her desk. Tim Cook, Apple CEO, works practically 365 days a year and commonly has staff meetings on Sundays. Indra Nooyi, Pepsi CEO, works 13-hour days while raising two daughters. Ryan Seacrest, radio and TV show host, carries what is considered a preposterous workload. Carlos Ghosn, Nissan and Renault CEO, spends 48 solid hours per month in the air and flies over 150,000 miles for work every year.
In a culture that prizes work ethic, overachievement, and financial success, people who are ‘addicted to work’ are seen by employers, colleagues, and customers alike as smart and ambitious go-getters. These chronic hard-workers have morphed into something else… workaholics. And this is often a label worn like a badge of honor. Employers see this ultra-focused work ethic as a positive, not negative. So is that what employers really want in their next hire? Should every employment ad say “Workaholic Wanted”?
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