| In This Issue: |
| Message from Laura |
| Feature Article:
How to Empower Your Employees...and Yourself |
| Educational Resources |
| Time Tips and Traps |
| Ask the
Expert |
| Laura's Blog |
| Hot Links |
|
Piggyback Pricing |
| Words of Wisdom |
| Laura in the NEWS |
| Book Laura |
| Where in the World is Laura? |
| Subscription and Contact Information |
| Reprint Information |
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A holistic approach to increasing your get-up and go, from the productivity expert whose previous books showed people how to Find More Time and Leave the Office Earlier. If you want to be productive but are just too tired all the time, you need to read this book! Laura Stack combines invaluable insights and practical advice in this guide to becoming more energetic and more productive in every area of life. Stack describes the factors that contribute to low energy (the "energy bandits") and explains how to reduce their effects and build up or renew sources of positive force (with "energy boosters"). Available now from Amazon.com and at better bookstores everywhere. |
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 Find More Time. You can't add more hours to the day, but Laura will help you make the most of the time you have and get things done. Available now from Amazon.com.
Leave the Office Earlier,  Laura shows you how you CAN get more done than you ever thought possible and still get home to your real life sooner.Available now from Amazon.com.
More of The Productivity Pro's Resources |
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Featured Educational Resource from The Productivity Pro® |
| eCourses! 8, 10, and
21-day eCourses, delivered right to your inbox!Now only $7.99. |
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| Words of Wisdom |
| "We cannot work for others
without working for ourselves." --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
"Only by releasing the energy and fire of our
employees can we achieve the decisive, continuous productivity advantages that
will give us the freedom to compete and win in any business anywhere on the
globe." -- Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric
"There's a basic philosophy here that by
empowering workers you'll make their jobs far more interesting, and they'll be
able to work at a higher level than they would have without all that information
just a few clicks away."-- Bill Gates, on Microsoft's corporate culture.
"People will work hard when they are given the
freedom to do the job the way they think it should be done, when they [can]
treat customers the way they like to be treated. When you start taking away
their incentive and start giving them rules, boom, you've killed their
creativity."-- James F. Nordstrom (department store founder)
"Anyone restructuring a company that does not
take this new employee empowerment into account is not dealing with the future
but is merely streamlining the past." --William H. Davidow and Michael S.
Malone, The Virtual Corporation
" If people have total control over their
business, they will have the best possible emotional involvement." --Pat
McGovern, CEO of IDG |
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| Laura's Blog |
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Subscribe to feed:http://blog.theproductivitypro.com
Recent posts:
Time Management: How to Say No Without Saying NO
Workplace Productivity: Protecting Yourself From Drop-In Interruptions
Increasing Productivity: Reducing Your Reading Pile: Productivity Minute Video
Performance Improvement: Daily Routines and Morning Rituals
Time Management: Social Media Un-Productivity: How to Avoid Addiction
Work Life Balance: Beating the After-Work-Low-Energy-Blues
Video: What You Should Do First Thing in the Morning
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 View Laura's Demonstration Video
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| Hot Links |
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Jobs that Allow Work-Life Balance
Five Ways to Bug Your Boss - and How to Stop
Microsoft Delivers the Future of Productivity With Office 2010 and SharePoint
2010
Work Smarter, Not Harder: 5 Office Efficiency Tips
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Where in the World
is Laura? |
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These
are all private client engagements with Laura Stack. At this time, Laura does
not offer open enrollment seminars to the general public. If you're interested
in bringing Laura to your organization to present a training seminar for your
employees on the day prior or the day after one of these engagements below,
please contact John Stack for
special "piggyback" pricing.
August 2010
3-5::Indianapolis, IN
9::Denver, CO
10::Philadelphia, PA
11-12::Kansas City, Missouri
20::Luke AFB, Phoenix, AZ
23::Denver, CO
24::Sterling, CO
25::Denver, CO
28::Albuquerque, NM
30::Sioux Falls, SD
September 2010
11::Cologne Germany
16::Atlanta, George
18::Birmingham, AL
24::Flint, Michigan
27::Denver, CO
October 2010
4-6::Hot Springs, Virginia
7::Englewood, CO
9::Nashville, Tennessee
19::Palm Desert, CA
23::Adelphia, ML
25::Denver, CO
29::Philadelphia, PA
November 2010
4::Colorado
11::Colorado
12::Virginia Beach, Virginia
15::Denver, Colorado
16::Detroit, Michigan
18-21::Scottsdale, Arizona
December 2010
13::Denver, Colorado
Visit Laura's Calendar On-line for her complete availability.
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| Laura in the News! |
International experts - people to listen to - Ecademy
10) Laura Stack (USA) The "productivity pro". Shows companies how to be much,
much more productive. I hope you get the chance to see some or all of them
"live." Alan Stevens, President-Elect, Global Speakers Federation.
YouTube - SHRM10 Interview Series: Laura Stack
Laura Stack, Founder of The Productivity Pro, Inc., discusses the red flags of
overdoing it on social media.
The Top 50
Productivity Blogs To Watch in 2010
The Productivity Pro Laura Stack blogs about Time Management, Getting Things
Done, and How to Be More Productive. ...
Employees Create the Space for Productivity by Reducing Timewasters
By admin
In her book, Leave the Office Earlier, the Productivity PRO® Laura Stack,
provides these tips that improve performance results of each and every employee
in the organization: 1. Eliminate the cause of most problems and avoid crises.
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Phone: 303-471-7401
Email: Laura@TheProductivityPro.com
Web site: www.TheProductivityPro.com
Address: 9948 S. Cottoncreek Drive Highlands Ranch, Colorado80130
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| Feature Article: |
|
How to Empower Your Employees...and Yourself
TIn the high-octane world of modern business, you hear a lot of theories about
what it takes to increase employee productivity. Empowerment is one of
the philosophies discussed most often, especially as it relates to the corporate
team environment. The idea is simple enough: by implementing practices that help
employees feel confident, capable, and in control of the outcome of their work,
they feel empowered to do that work effectively and without excessive oversight
or micromanagement. Ideally, this ensures commitment to the company's core
mission and vision, which results in greater productivity over the long term.
That's the theory, anyway. But as any scientist will tell you, all that really
matters is how well a theory stands up to testing. If it's a dud, a few
experimental runs out in the real world should soon put it to rest.
So: how does the employee empowerment schema fare? As it turns out, empowerment
really does work--like gangbusters. Real-world experimentation has
repeatedly proven that the best employees are those who "own" their work; that
is, those who feel they have a say in how they do their work and are fully
engaged in the outcome. Empowered employees aren't just proud of their work,
they're more productive than their disempowered colleagues. In general, they're
also more satisfied, so they bring in more business by making customers happier,
which translates into greater profits. This holds true in both the individual
and collective senses. From a hardnosed financial perspective, then, employee
empowerment is a good business.
Now: before I talk about what you can do to implement employee empowerment in
your company, let's look at what empowerment isn't. Even when they're
willing to consider the strategy, managers often develop a false idea of what
empowerment actually is, and end up shooting themselves in the metaphorical foot
when they try to implement. For starters:
Empowerment isn't a right, it's a privilege. Individuals should be fully
empowered by management only when they prove that they can do the job and
display the proper initiative. On the other hand, the opportunity to become
empowered should always be a right.
Empowerment isn't always assumed by the employees, no matter what management
may think. If your employees aren't taking the initiative to own their jobs,
then they don't feel empowered to do so. Why? Probably because you haven't made
it clear that they are.
Empowerment isn't a bunch of motivational posters or empty slogans that
management pays lip service to but doesn't really follow.
Empowerment isn't a blank check to do anything the employee wants. Management
must set explicit boundaries within a strategic framework, so that employees
know and understand which decisions they can make without management approval.
Nor is empowerment management by consensus. A business isn't a democracy. When
properly implemented, empowerment gives workers the authority to do their
jobs--not the management's.
What "employee empowerment" boils down to is a philosophy that allows people to
make decisions about their work, within certain broad guidelines. Simply put, it
lets employees think for themselves. Now, some observers claim that empowerment
comes from the employee, and to a certain extent that's true. However, I believe
that true workplace empowerment comes from the employees and management
working in tandem. The employee has to be willing to show initiative and take
control of their work, yes; but the management team has to be in a position to
encourage and allow employee empowerment, or it will never occur.
Which brings me to a critical point: management can have a regrettable tendency
to express a commitment to the concept of empowerment, without actually making
it an effective part of corporate culture. Many of us have seen productivity
initiatives fizzle, because management is somehow under the impression that a
few catchy slogans and a coffee mug (or worse, some atrocity like an
"empowerment rock") is enough to actually empower employees to buy into the
company's mission and vision and take ownership of their work. Worse, some
companies send their employees to productivity training as a matter of
course--and then just as routinely ignore the employee attempts at
self-empowerment that productivity teaches. That's like pouring money down the
drain. It's hard to say why companies would waste resources this way, though it
may stem from an unwillingness to give up control to the employees, or from a
fear of losing certain privileges. More likely, it's due to a deep-seated belief
that the employees can't actually do their work properly without constant
oversight.
Whatever the case, if you're washy-washy about empowerment, you're unlikely to
see a significant productivity increase when you try to implement it. Even in
these uncertain times, the most you'll see is employees who do only what they
have to in order to get by. Don't underestimate your employees: they're keenly
aware of what you think of them at all times, and a halfhearted empowerment
effort will go over like a lead balloon. The ironic thing here is that employee
empowerment isn't all that difficult or expensive to implement. Delegation of
tasks to particular individuals, encouraging employees to focus on specific,
reachable (if occasionally difficult) goals, consistent training, and employee
coaching are all ways that a manager can effectively empower his or her
employees.
All this does take some work on the part of management, of course--and it's here,
unfortunately, that the process breaks down. Too often, managers are unwilling
to put in the effort necessary to achieve the level of empowerment that can make
productivity take off like a rocket. That's too bad, because direct involvement
and supportive communication on the part of management are two of the
foundations of employee empowerment.
First of all, you have to make your employees understand what you're trying to
achieve. You can't do that by just ordering them to do this or that, without
providing an explanation...well, you can, but that's the military way (as my
father the Colonel would say)...and employees aren't soldiers. They haven't been
through the intensive training that the military uses to break down the
individual and rebuild him into the type of soldier they need. ...
Click here to continue reading the article. |
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| Time Tips and Tricks |
To be featured in this section of our newsletter and
get a free eBook with our thanks, send your productivity tip or trick toBecca@TheProductivityPro.com
with "Tips and Tricks contribution" in the subject line.
Most discussions of employee empowerment focus on achieving buy-in, making the
workplace more enjoyable, or giving people ownership of their work. All those
points are critical, but here's one that tends to be overlooked: do your
employees feel empowered to take enough time off?
Here's what I mean. In the overstressed, go-go-go world of modern business,
workers often ignore the one productivity tool they rely on the most:
themselves. When you overwork a tool, what happens? It breaks--or at least
becomes less productively useful. The same is true of people.
If you want your employees to be truly productive, make sure they know that
they're free to take the minimum time they need to relax. Most business pros
think they have to work 14 hours a day, multitask constantly, and ignore their
families to get ahead--because that's what mainstream corporate America has
taught them. And if you don't tell them otherwise, they'll keep doing it.
There are times when it'll be necessary to work long hours, but that should be
an exception, not the rule. Make sure your people know they can regularly take
holidays and weekends off, and that a vacation is required every year. You'll
end up with more productive workers if they're not worn to a frazzle.
Once you've made your employees aware of all this, start practicing what you
preach. Take the time you need to rest and recharge your batteries, and make a
habit of it. To quote Tony Robbins, "Those who don't have time for healthy
habits now will make time for sickness later."
MAXIMIZING YOUR PRODUCTIVITY BY HONORING YOUR VALUES
By Dr. Joe Rubino
Being productive is a natural state that comes from people doing what they enjoy
and honoring their most important values. Productivity and having fun are
closely related. When we honor our values, life works.
The corollary is most often true as well. When people are not having fun, they
are not honoring their values and their productivity decreases. By following
your passions, you maximize your most productive state of mind. Doing what you
love is the best way to live your core values. Developing clarity on exactly
which values must be honored for your life to work optimally will result in
maximizing your personal power.
Your values will continually evolve as you do. When you focus on living from
your values, they become honored and satisfied. This allows you to then shift
your focus to other evolving values. The key to a life that is satisfying and
productive is to identify your key values and make sure they are being honored.
Until your life and values are in alignment, life will look like an uphill
struggle.
When your core values are honored you step into your power to function at your
highest level. The better you understand what values are most important to
others, the better you will be able to work powerfully with them.
Dr. Joe Rubino is an internationally acclaimed personal development trainer,
life-changing success coach and best-selling author of 11 books available in 23
languages and 53 countries. He is the CEO of
www.CenterForPersonalReinvention.com, and has impacted the lives of more
than 2 million people providing tools to maximize their happiness, self-esteem,
productivity and personal effectiveness. Learn more about Dr. Joe's life
changing self-esteem work at
www.theselfesteembook.com and contact him atJoe@TheSelfEsteemBook.com.
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NEW!
Piggyback Requests
We
have clients in several cities who would like to split a day of Laura's training
fees and travel expenses (if outside Colorado) with another company or
organization in the local area. If you live within one hour of these locations
and are interested this shared model, please emailBecca@TheProductivityPro.com.
Buffalo, NY
Chicago, IL
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Houston, TX
Indianapolis, IN
Miami, FL
Milwaukee, WI
Minneapolis, MN
Richmond, VA
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Tampa, FL
Winston-Salem, NC |
Monthly Productivity Webinar:
AUGUST
23: Thirty Best Practices for Scheduling Your Day in Outlook: Maintaining Your
Calendar Digitally.
Using software to maintain your schedule can be extremely effective, but if
you're not careful, it can turn into a real waste of time for both you and
everyone else involved. Try to keep the following factors in mind when
scheduling your day in Outlook, Lotus Notes, or GroupWise (demonstrated in
Outlook).
-Using third-party software to find convenient
day/time of meeting for people not at your company.
-Converting emails automatically into appointments (no copy/paste).
-Automatically find open meeting times without comparing calendars.
-Track
meetings by projects, team, or committee.
Cost is $29.
For more information and to register click here. | |
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Laura Stack, MBA, CSP
Publisher |
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Messages from Laura |
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August 9: Bonus day for purchases of SUPERCOMPETENT®
Please DON'T buy my new book, SuperCompetent: The Six Keys to Perform at Your
Productive Best (Wiley). Yes, that's correct--don't buy it--until August 9. If
you purchase the book on that day from any online or retail bookstore and
forward your receipt to
Book@TheProductivityPro.com, you'll receive free bonus gifts from me and SIX
SUPERCOMPETENT SPEAKERS, such as:
Dianna Booher is providing a free eBook Write to the Point.
Joe Calloway is providing the eBook Becoming a Category of One.
Eric Chester is providing the eBook Employing Generation Why.
Terri Sjodin is providing a free subscription to the Presenters post quarterly
e-newsletter.
Chris Widener is providing his "Totally Motivated" eBook.
Mark Sanborn is providing you with access to his in-depth Encore Assessment, a
regular $25.95 value.
Check out SuperCompetentBook.com
and then click on the BONUS icon for offers and instructions on how to claim
your bonuses. Buy your copy in any online store and forward your receipt to Book@TheProductivityPro.com
1.
Amazon
2.
Borders
3.
Barnes & Noble
4.
Booksamillion
5.
CEORead
ANNOUNCING my new online productivity training LMS portal,theproductivityuniversity.com!
Call me at 303-471-7401 or email
Laura@TheProductivityPro.com to set up a user ID and password for a free
preview for your employees.
Now your entire team can experience Laura Stack's training in the privacy of
individual offices! Gain access to 30+ hours of productivity training online for
a very low cost per employee. The Productivity University LMS includes these
programs:
20 hours of Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007 videos
10 hours of videos in Laura's "Leave the Office Earlier" series:
- Preparation: laying the foundation for success in work and life
- Reduction: eliminating personal, departmental, and organizational timewasters
- Order: organize your office and your life
- Discipline: putting your nose to the grindstone
- Unease: getting rid of stress and burnout
- Concentration: maintaining your focus among distractions
- Time mastery: controlling your day in an uncontrollable world
- Information management: preventing digital overload
- Vitality: ensuring productivity with proper self-care
- Equilibrium: balancing your career and life
Benefits of online training:
Save Training Expense. Training online can save hundreds if not
thousands of dollars associated with assembling a live class. No more flights,
hotel rooms and expensive dinners.
Flexibility. No more scheduled training sessions to work around.
Courses can be accessed 24/7 from any internet connection. So even those with
tight schedules no longer have to sacrifice learning. In addition, students can
be signed up by their company or purchase their own courses in the course
catalog.
Expand Reach. Being able to offer courses on demand allows you to train
those people who otherwise would have been difficult to get to. In short, online
training allows you to train more people.
Retention of Knowledge. Different students learn at different paces. Our
intuitive learning platform allows users to pause and review any section at
anytime. This creates a less stressful learning environment. Remove stress and
you remove a major barrier in learning.
Accountability. How do you know if your students are retaining the
knowledge presented? The Productivity University's learning games and Quizzes
will help you assess the knowledge retention of your students...and hold them
accountable for learning.
Reporting. Each manager/leader is given access to a tracking feature
that will allow you to see who on your team is participating in courses and
when.
Certification. Need to prove your people are skilled? The Productivity
University creates custom certificates after completion of courses
Survey. The Productivity University's survey tool allows you to get
instant and comprehensive feedback on all courses.
Email Laura@TheProductivityPro.com
or call 303-471-7401 for pricing.
Monthly Microsoft Outlook webinar: July 28, 2010: TIME SAVERS
Topics: Automatic Email Notification, Creating Rules, Rules Wizard, New Item
Shortcut, Send/Receive Times, Create Templates for Common Responses, Outlook
Template for Letters, AutoSearches, Quickly Jump Around within Outlook, Keyboard
Shortcuts, Take a Poll and Tally Results, Specify Which Address Book Opens
First, Find Messages with Lightning Speed, Add Groups and Shortcuts in the
Folder List, Create a New Toolbar with Favorite Buttons, Add Your Own Menu with
Your Favorite Commands.
Outlook version 2003: 9:00 pacific/12:00 eastern
Outlook version 2007: 11:00 pacific/2:00 eastern
Cost is $39 with workbook and recording.For more
information and to register click here.
Monthly Productivity Webinar: FREE!!!
AUGUST 9, 9:00 AM Pacific/10:00 AM Mountain/11:00 AM Central/12:00 PM Eastern:SuperCompetent: The Six Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best. Based on
Laura's fourth, upcoming business book of the same title (Wiley, August 9,
2010), you'll learn how to achieve peak performance in the workplace. The new
mantra is "buckle down!" These times are about a return to quality rather than
quantity--all of us must learn to be competent--and not just plain, old-fashioned
competent, but SuperCompetent®. In this competitive economy, just being
able to do your job is no longer enough. Competence is expected; you've got to
be SuperCompetent to get an edge. Whether you're an employee, an
entrepreneur, a team leader, or all of the above, SuperCompetent will give you
proven methods to reach your and your team's maximum potential and achieve
breakthrough results.
You'll get to your productive best by mastering six keys to peak performance:
1. Activity: the value and importance you place on your work
2. Availability: your ability to master your schedule
3. Attention: the capacity to focus intently and concentrate on tasks
4. Accessibility: the ability to organize the inputs and outputs in your life
5. Accountability: the extent to which you take personal responsibility for your
actions and outcomes
6. Attitude: your motivation, drive, and proactiveness
This webinar is COMPLIMENTARY, thanks to our sponsor, Day-Timer.Click here for more
information and to register. |
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Reprint Information |
All Articles (C) 1999-2010
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:
© 2010 Laura Stack. Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and
professional speaker who is dedicated to building high-performance
SuperCompetent cultures by creating Maximum Results in Minimum Time® through
increased productivity. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a
time management training firm specializing in productivity improvement in
high-stress organizations. Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars
on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today's workplaces. Her
books include SuperCompetent (Wiley, 2010); The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books,
2008); Find More Time (2006); and Leave the Office Earlier (2004). To have Laura
speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401. Visit www.TheProductivityPro.com to
sign up for her free monthly productivity newsletter. | |
