“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
Posts Tagged ‘change’
You are what you perceive yourself to be.
Wednesday, September 24th, 2014Keep Employees Engaged by Building Social Capital
Wednesday, March 26th, 2014
My last post highlighted the research findings of Harvard School of Business Professor Sadun that affirmed success of what I call the “People first; Paper later.” philosophy of management. I have been coaching Executives about the importance of this concept for years and now it is official: Building social capital in your organization is Job #1 for increased financial success.
As a manager and leader you know that it is important to make deposits into each employee’s social capital bank account, but how do you do that? You feel swamped already with your own job responsibilities and aren’t looking for more things to add to your plate.
Try this simple “Building Social Capital” tip: When you arrive at the office tomorrow morning go to the desk of each person that you supervise one at a time, smile and say a big “Good Morning!” Don’t worry about interrupting their work. They will appreciate that you took the time to check in with them. If they happen to be on the phone, just smile, wave and go on to the next desk.
I call this practice “The Morning Rounds”. It is simple, easy, takes just a few minutes and makes huge deposits into the social capital bank account. Just as doctors check in with all of their patients in the hospital each morning to offer supportive compassion and comfort, a leader you can check in with their employees to help them feel like a valued member of the team.
So, go ahead and begin building social capital on your team tomorrow with a quick morning check in. And watch the success of your team grow with all of that social capital fertilizing it!
From Procrastination to Productivity
Wednesday, February 5th, 2014“Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday ” – Napoleon Hill, American Author
One bad habit prevents success more than all of the other harmful habits combined: Procrastination.
Procrastination is simply putting really important things off, telling yourself that you will do it later or tomorrow. But the problem is that often “tomorrow” never happens. Success comes from doing the really important things that are critical to obtaining results. We rarely procrastinate about the unimportant things!
We all suffer from procrastination at one time or another. We all get sucked into doing low priority tasks (like answering email or rearranging our desk) when we should be focusing our time on more important projects (like the budget forecast report for the
We engage in procrastination when: (1) things are difficult; (2) the task involves things that are unpleasant; or (3) the task can lead to making a tough decision.department that you manage).
Rather than stretch and grow, we hide our head in the sand and retreat to something easier, more fun, or mindless.
But, the original problem remains and NOW MAY BE BIGGER because we did not take care of it when we had the prime opportunity. Procrastination creates a vicious cycle of events and often leads to more procrastination.
What’s a good, well-intentioned executive to do?
Steps you can take to tame the procrastination monster:
• Admit when you are procrastinating.
• Determine why you are procrastinating (Does it involve an complex task? Does it feel overwhelming?)
• Do a “micro-action”- a baby step to get you moving in the direction of completing the task. Do you procrastinate about exercising? Put your exercise clothes next to your bed (fireman style) so you can get up and jump into them in the morning.
• Do a small portion of the task (a chunk) that will get you moving in the right direction.
• Once you get moving- keep moving!
• Reward yourself for a job well done. You deserve it!
Procrastination is really a bad habit that we want to change. Make a commitment to take action for 21 days, the length of time it takes to create your new habit- moving forward. Your stress levels will decrease. You will be focused and clear-thinking because you have minimized your distractions.
There now, aren’t you glad that you took that first step toward productivity?
