by Wayne Turmel New leaders rely on the skills we had as teammates and the habits that made us successful. But what if there’s one thing you did that wasn’t as productive as you thought it was, and now is a great time to change? We’re talking about the over use and abuse of email. As team members, there’s a pretty good chance we were “that person.” You know, the one who … [Read more...]
Another Way to Think About Time Management
In our Bud to Boss workshops, I often get asked about time management from a leadership perspective. How to be better at it and how to stop wasting it. While I have read much about this topic and continually try to get better at it, I am increasingly clear that we are all starting from the wrong place. When I look at a clock it just keeps ticking. It doesn’t matter what I … [Read more...]
Ensuring a Well-Run Meeting Starts With One Critical Step
We’ve all walked out of a meeting and thought “Wow, that was a waste of time.” Perhaps the meeting had no clear purpose, the participants strayed off topic or the issues weren’t adequately resolved. Regardless, you left the meeting feeling frustrated. This time-wasting experience could have been avoided if the person preparing for the meeting knew how to write an agenda that … [Read more...]
Be Ultra-Productive This Week
Make this week your most productive week this year. Josh Davis, Ph.D., author of the international bestseller, Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done and Director Research at the Institute for Personal Leadership offers his advice for drastically improving your productivity. He advises "Adapt to the fact … [Read more...]
Are You Spending Too Much Time in the Conference Room?
Meetings can be a complete waste of time (and drain the life from your employees). But even when meetings are useful and necessary, spending hours in the same conference room week after week can make you and your staff a little stir-crazy. Consider these alternatives to shake things up: Chat with employees. You can discover a lot by simply talking with your team members in … [Read more...]
Protecting Your Time When You Are a Busy Manager
Being a manager is time consuming. If you accept that fact, you won’t resent the extra hours you spend at the office. Chances are you’ve found yourself stuck at work in the evening completing a project that you could have finished easily within normal work hours in the days before you became a boss. Even though you have more on your plate as a manager, you can slice some of … [Read more...]
10 Ways to Increase Your Productivity This Week
Build better time-management habits and you will be amazed by the way your productivity soars, as your stress level sinks. Add these practices to your workday: Save less. Be honest: How many files do you have that you never refer to? The surest way to avoid clutter is to never allow it to collect. Make your first instinct to delete an email or recycle a paper instead of … [Read more...]
Having Better Meetings
I'm often asked about how to have better meetings and more often than not, the other person wants me to boil the advice down to the #1 thing for improving their meetings. Now that's a tall order but I'm going to try to tackle this challenge today and give you my #1 best way to have better meetings. https://youtu.be/FhfcEWGbPlk?rel=0&showinfo=0 Tweet it out: To … [Read more...]
Take the Pain Out of Annual Evaluations
Most organizations still require managers to conduct annual evaluations. We recommend offering more frequent, timely feedback to improve and maintain performance. Still, if the annual review is one of your jobs requirements, you can't avoid it. As a new leader, it can be pretty overwhelming, especially if you have to conduct several reviews all at once. That's why we … [Read more...]
Stop Working Hard and Work Smart Instead
If extra-long workdays have been the norm since you became a boss, it’s time to find out why, before you burn out. Because at some point you won't have anything left to work harder. You'll have used up all your mental power, energy and enthusiasm. However, you can always work smarter. Follow these steps to do so. Take a close look at what you’re doing during those long … [Read more...]