March 20th, 2010
For business to be effective, regardless of their industry, i think may of the potions within the company need to be Results Only, as described in this article from TechRepublic. Too may employees have the eight-to-five mindset, and spent most of their eight hours at work fiddling around waiting for quitting time, and nothing really gets accomplished. You are probably already familar with Parkinson’s Law - which states that work will expand to fill the time allowed – and changing to an environment that focuses in getting things done instead of scheduling staff for hours on the clock will come out ahead.
Rule #1: Results, first and foremost
Do whatever it takes to get your employees and teams entirely focused on getting the job done. That may mean throwing out old pay grades, promotional schedules, hiring and training programs. Consider moving to a ROWE (results only work environment) model like Best Buy did nearly two years ago. They’re not concerned with how long, or when, someone’s at the office – as long as they do the task. And Best Buy is thriving.
Rule # 2: Competition will only increase
That may be either obvious or “indirect” competition. With less money, many organizations are being forced to choose between non-similar purchases, for example, “Will it be office supplies – or shipping costs?” or “Do we spend on executive bonuses – or furniture?” Keep in mind that no economists are sure this fragile economy is going to stick, let alone grow.
Rule #3: Keep an eye on Elance. And the rest
I am constantly surprised by how few leaders in most industries, are aware of the impact of sites like Guru.com, Elance, or EGuru. These networks match jobs, projects and tasks up with freelancers or people who are “daylighting” while still employed. The “employer” gets her or his work completed quickly and at very competitive prices. The established company is left wondering why revenues are still not picking up.
Rule #4: Those “sure things” may not be
Two years ago, who would have bet that Ford would sell the most cars in the US in February of 2009? Or that Toyota, top ranked for quality for years, would be under pressure because of product deficiencies it couldn’t identify, let alone fix? Make good plans, execute well, and always anticipate the downside.
Rule #5: Everyone is in the marketing game
For many executives, the whole concept of marketing is a bit distasteful. I’ve had clients tell me that marketing is simply “BS, smoke and mirrors, or boondoggles.” Whether or not you agree, recognize that this new environment calls for new thinking. Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon, believes only 13% of people who are trading down will go back to their old spending levels. This applies equally to business purchases too. Act accordingly.
via Five rules for the new business environment | IT Leadership | TechRepublic.com.
February 7th, 2010
This great post is up over at unclutterer.com: How is disorganization and clutter affecting your job performance?
I thought I’d share some of it with you, and put in my own 2 cents worth.
1. Do you spend less than 60 percent of your day focused on the most valuable work for your job?
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The first question: To ensure that you are spending 60 percent or more of your day on your most valuable work, you need to plan each day before you start work. You may not follow your plan exactly, but the act of creating your plan will help you to stay more focused on the important work.
I see this too often – a disorganized individual spends more of their day trying to figure out where they are and what they should be doing, and never get around to actually doing anything at all.
Learn to prioritize. There are some things that really can wait, and others you just need to do, and do right. Often, this person will get behind, and will do the bare minimum to call a task done, resulting in having to go back and do it again, or worse, someone else has to go back and do it again, whch leads to my next point…
Do it right the first time. Don’t tell yourself you will come back later and do a beter job on a certain task, becuase you will find yourself falling further and further behind, and odds are, you won’t ever get back to this task to do it right.
2. Do client/supervisor requests often linger unanswered for more than 24 hours?
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The second question: Even if you’re just sending an e-mail or making a quick phone call saying that it will take another day to get back to someone, contact within 24 hours is essential for good client/supervisor relations. Schedule 15 minutes after lunch and at the end of your work day to process these requests.
Keep your clients, supervisors, and coworkers informed on what you are doing. Never ever leave someone wondering what the status of their project is, and never leave a coworker in the position of having to do the legwork to resolve one of your projects.
3. Do you ever feel like you don’t know where to start working on a project?
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The third question: If you work in an office that has a preferred project management software, take a class or online seminar and learn how to effectively use this system. If your office doesn’t have such software already in place, research online project management tools and find the one that works best for you. Then, learn how to use it and take advantage of its features.
Honestly evaluate if you are in a position to meet the needs of the position for which you are in. You should be the first person to know if you are unqualified for the task. And the first to speak up. If someone has to come to you later and “let you go” because you can’t do the job, don’t be surprised. Step up and learn it, or step out, saving you and your supervisors a lot of stress.
4. Do you have action items on your to-do list that have been there for more than a week? a month?
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The fourth question: When planning your day, schedule 30 minutes to focus on these lingering tasks. Keep scheduling time for these activities until you are able to cross all of them off of your to-do list. Then, make a commitment to never let an action item linger on your to-do list for more than a week (or two, based on your type of work). These lingering items create a great deal of anxiety, and that anxiety can slow you down.
Just do it. Stop putting things off, if you don’t get to it now, odds are you never will. (I can’t say this enough!), and if you can’t do it, go back and re-read my comments on #3 above.
7. If something happened to you, and a qualified replacement would need to step in to work for you for awhile, would she be constantly frustrated or have to pick up the phone to have you help her find things she needed?
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The seventh question: If you’re out of the office for any reason (emergency, illness, vacation, sudden promotion), someone should be able to come in and take over your work without much difficulty. Unless you are self-employed (and even then, you may have legal responsibilities to your clients), you do not own your work or the materials used to complete that work. Keeping this simple fact in mind can often help to keep you more diligently organized.
Thanks to unclutterer.com for this great article, and I hope my comments have made you rethink about how you do your job, or maybe made you think about a coworker who needed some extra advice.
