"Nothing traps you in the urgency of the moment like availability." -- Sam Raimer, Baptist pastor and blogger.
Open Door Or Closed? Balancing Approachability Against Authority |
Anyone in a leadership position, from an office manager to a church pastor, has to carefully balance authority with approachability. Which should take precedence, if either? At one time, the answer was simple: authority was always preferable. But the workplace has changed radically in the last half century, and management experts have been debating the concept of the "open door policy" for decades. Some advocate its adoption on a wide scale, while others insist it can utterly destroy a leader's productivity. Given the wide latitude here, where should you strike the balance? In general, here are some guidelines that work for me:
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1. Be friendly with your team members, but not friends.
The definition of "manager" has changed in recent years, driven by technology and cultural evolution. Nowadays, the most effective strategy is outline a general direction and hand execution over to your team members and let them get on with it. No longer do you dictate from on high, binding your team with tight restrictions and rules---that simply won't work anymore. You're better off working cooperatively with your team, providing a guiding vision while facilitating their success and cheering them on. Today, openness is necessary in order to maximize communication and productivity.
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The Productivity Workflow Formula Webinar Series |
Join us for this six-part weekly series starting Wednesday, May 29, 2013 Don't worry if you missed a week - we'll send you the recording! What do you do when there's too much to do? Learn Laura's Productivity Workflow Formula (PWF) from her most recent book, What to Do When There's Too Much to Do: Reduce Tasks, Increase Results, and Save 90 Minutes a Day (Berrett-Koehler 2012 Each week you'll spend an hour with Laura learning one of the six steps in the PWF.
You can't do everything, so you need to put your time and energy into what will yield the more important results. Laura Stack shows how to hone in on the high-value tasks, protect the time to do them, focus on their execution, and organize your life around the stuff that really matters. Her innovative, step-by-step Productivity Workflow Formula (PWF) allows you to spend less time and achieve greater results than you ever thought possible. We can no longer do more with less - we can't put in more hours or work harder than we are now - we have to work differently and do less to achieve more. Retail value $234. Yours today for just $99 LEARN MORE
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Thanks for reading! Make it a productive day.™ |
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All Articles (C) 2013 Laura Stack. All rights reserved. This information may not be distributed, sold, publicly presented, or used in any other manner, except as described below. Permission to reprint all or part of this article in your magazine, e-zine, website, blog, or organization newsletter is hereby GRANTED, provided: (1) The ENTIRE credit line below is present, (2) the website link to www.TheProductivityPro.com is clickable (LIVE), and (3) you send a copy, PDF, link, tearsheet, etc. of the work in which the article is used when published.
This credit line MUST be reprinted in its entirety to use any articles from Laura Stack: (C) 2013 Laura Stack. Laura Stack is America's premier expert in personal productivity. For over 20 years, her speeches and seminars have helped professionals, leaders, teams, and organizations improve output, execute efficiently, and save time at work. She's the author or coauthor of 10 books, most recently, What to Do When There's Too Much to Do. To invite Laura to speak at your next meet or register for her free monthly newsletter, visit www.TheProductivityPro.com. |
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