Being overwhelmed by paper… Globe and Mail Article

Posted on by Myrna Pavlin

Clear Concept is excited to make our readers aware that our own Ann Gomez was called on to lend some expert advice for Leah Eichler’s Globe and Mail article – Grab a Lifeline When Paper Overwhelms Your Desk.  This article looks at organization as being a key productivity driver.   Let us know what you think!

I used to have a dining room table, at least I recall having one, but now it’s a mountain made up of hundreds of pieces of paper. This week I “lost” one of the three laptops that regularly occupy the table under the tsunami of items I must accomplish and then file away… [read more]

 

 

Managing Priorities – Paramount for Every CEO’s Success

Posted on by Michael Cloutier

Every great organization requires a strong strategic plan and the discipline to stay committed to the plan. Every successful CEO is the keeper of this plan and must ensure that their priorities are directly linked to that plan.

Leaders must set these priorities and ensure that the organization is mobilized to action them. This can be much easier said than done however. Market conditions can change rapidly, customers can quickly shift their desires and stakeholders are managing their own priorities. So how do we maintain focus and commitment? Hard work and connectivity!

Successful CEO’s stay closely connected to their employees and either through them or on occasion directly, stay connected to key customers and stakeholders. In doing so, CEO’s can judge the significance of changes that are occurring and determine if any shift in the priorities should occur. More often than not, maintaining the course and dedicating to the priorities created with the strategic plan is the best course of action.

It also ensures that employees and customers see a consistent implementation of the plan and are reassured that they can count on the CEO and Senior Leadership.

Maintaining a disciplined approach to delivering on the known and agreed to priorities will ensure the greatest likelihood of achieving results.

Finally, many successful CEO’s develop advisory councils to create a forum to evaluate changes in the marketplace and new ideas to address them. Listening intently and analyzing the advisory councils input remains the responsibility of the CEO, as does the final decision to make any change in priorities.

It’s a delicate balance and a critical one.

‘The times, they are a-changin’…again!

Posted on by Kareena Rego

The DOW Jones Industrial average closed at a record high this week since its previous record in October 2007.  This is great news, but not so long ago, (September 2008), we were lamenting the DOW slumping 778 points in the biggest single day point loss ever.  We dipped into recession status and all of us were affected in some way or the other.

Many leaders had to re-prioritize projects and initiatives that were already in play.  In today’s challenging economy, changing priority over competing initiatives can have a significant impact on your team if the change isn’t managed carefully.  We’ve all heard the horror stories from friends and colleagues of companies that did a poor job of shifting gears in turbulent times.  Try to incorporate some of these steps focused on maintaining your teams’ morale to reassess if changes are needed for your teams’ projects:

  1. Work with your team to review a complete list of all projects.  A large de-motivator is a leader who looks at initiatives in a piece-meal fashion, making decisions too late because they weren’t looking at everything.  Large projects should be broken down to see what areas can be eliminated or reworked.
  2. Keep aligned with the company’s direction during this change.  Stay ahead of the curve by keeping ready your list of what will be rationalized, eliminated or reprioritized should your boss come knocking.  It sounds basic but quantify these decisions against your yearly goals vs. this month or this quarter.

Managing changing priorities also means managing your team through the changes:

  • Be transparent – Make sure your entire team understands what priorities are changing and why.  You need their buy-in especially if shifting priorities means eliminating their project and/or resources
  • Leverage – your strong relationships with other departments’ key influencers to show evidence that change is occurring everywhere and everyone is on board
  •  Keep morale motivators top-of-mind – one of the first things your team will ask is ‘how will this affect my bonus?’  Make sure you’ve proactively reviewed this and have found creative ways to ensure their key motivators (besides you) are addressed.  For your team, their compensation is a priority and there is no denying the link to productivity

Major shifts in strategic direction will always have a significant impact on the priorities you’ve set with your team.  The key to being a successful leader during this time is to ensure that your plan of action to re-prioritize along with your related communication are 100% aligned and focused with your team first in mind.

Do You Prioritize Like Steve Jobs?

Posted on by Ann Gomez

At this time of year, a lot of people feel overworked. And this comes as no surprise. We have an epidemic of people trying to do WAY too many things at the same time. I should know – I tend to be included in this group.

The problem with having too many things on our plate is that few things (if any) get done well. This leads to frustration, resentment and in the worst cases: burn-out. We lose our enthusiasm and can even get immobilized by the overwhelming backlog.

We also end up working far too many hours to try and compensate. Ironically, more hours are not always equated with increased output. Compelling research shows that working more than 40 hours does not pay off.  Longer work hours also tend to nudge out important things like exercise and sleep which also decreases our productivity.

I believe that we can learn a lot about productivity from busy people – and it’s hard to find someone with more responsibilities than a CEO. Smart leaders know that their primary job is to focus their team’s efforts for maximum impact.

Steve Jobs embodied this concept while running Apple. He used to take his top 100 employees away from the office to brainstorm what the company would focus on during the next fiscal period. After a fair bit of debate, they hammered out a list of 10 projects. At this point, most people would be tempted to try to tackle all ten. But Jobs knew that this would merely dilute the company’s impact.

After the brainstorming, Jobs did something that many others would consider ruthless: he cut off the bottom seven things. He declared that no Apple resources – time or money – would be dedicated to the bottom seven. The ONLY things that Apple was going to focus on were its top three priorities.

Without a doubt, Apple is a very successful company. And when you think about it, they only have a handful of products: Macintosh computers, iPods, iPads, iPhones, iTunes and a few more. They concentrate their efforts. But what they do, they do very well.

It is practically impossible to do several things well all at the same time. When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.

I, for one, need to keep reminding myself that less is more. Despite the long list of tempting opportunities, I know that my best work arises when I focus on a select few (and turn down the rest).

How does your organization compare? Is your team trying to do too many things at once? What is the impact on speed and execution?

And what about you? Are you spread too thin? Or are you focusing your efforts on a few key areas? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

“Thank you” emails: love ‘em or hate ‘em?

Posted on by Ann Gomez

The humble little “thank you” email seems to have a bad rap these days. Recipients often dismiss it as a time wasters, and not for it really is: a sincere note of appreciation.

Many of us are overwhelmed with the number of emails that we get each day. And some people resent having to open / read / delete yet another email that merely says “thanks”.

The backlash against the noble “thank you” is causing me to question whether we are being too harsh. Granted, I love productivity as much as the next person, but when did our world become so results-driven that we can’t make time for social niceties? Are we getting so intense that there is no room in our day to indulge in appreciation and gratitude? Is it really costing us that much time to delete these?

The irony is that strong relationships and strong teams are often critical drivers of great results. We need to foster relationships in order to truly bring about the desired impact.

The problem with email (which dominates communication) is that it tends to strip all  social niceties out of the message.

It is a great way to transfer information – but not a great way to foster relationships (especially when compared to verbal forms of communication).

There are lots of ways to show one’s appreciation, and I recommend the liberal use of many tactics. But I will stand on record to say that I LIKE “thank you” emails. It reminds me that I’m connecting with another person – and not just a computer terminal.

I will say, however, that I prefer to see the “thank you” personalized and specific. It’s one thing to fire off a quick “thank you”. It’s another thing to take the time to spell out exactly what you appreciated and how it made an impact.

Ironically, I find that when I take the time to write a sincere and detailed “thank you”, I often get a similar reply. And it’s often a detailed, sincere note (as opposed to a “thanks for the thanks” email) that helps me to learn and charges me up. Talk about a productivity driver!

If we are truly looking for time wasters, I think that we should focus on the excessive use of cc’ing. If you can eliminate this big bunch from your inbox you likely won’t feel so edgy the next time you see a “thank you” email.

So where do you stand on this? Love ‘em or hate ‘em? I’d love to hear your comments below. I for one will not stop showing my appreciation. I think that we always need to make the time for this. Oh, and one more thing … thanks for reading this blog post.