| In This Issue: |
| Message from Laura |
| Feature Article: Implementing Employee Engagement in Your Organization |
| Educational Resources |
| Time Tips and Traps |
| Ask the Expert |
| Laura's Blog |
| Hot Links |
| 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® |
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The Productivity Pro® planner by Day-Timer
2011 refills now available! |
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| Words of Wisdom |
"Engagement has to be a leadership-driven initiative, from the most senior level all the way to the front line. No one affects an employee's engagement as much as his or her immediate leader." -- Richard S. Wellins, Paul Bernthal, and Mark Phelps, Development Dimensions International
"When people care about what they do, they become unbeatable." -- Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"Devising and maintaining an atmosphere in which others can put a dent in the universe is the leader's creative act." --Warren Bennis, author and organizational consultant
"The most important priority for leaders is to cultivate, appreciate, and leverage the vast untapped potential of every employee in their organizations." -- Michelle M. Smith, engagement expert |
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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.
October 2010
19::Palm Desert, CA
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November 2010
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9::Orlando, FL
11::Denver, CO
12::Denver, CO
13::Denver, CO
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18-21::Scottsdale, AZ
23::Denver, CO
December 2010
2-4::Vail, CO
8::Denver, CO
12-13::Denver, CO
20::Denver, CO
January 2011
8::Kansas City, MO
12-13::Las Vegas, NV
15::Los Angeles, CA
19::Novi, MI
21::Virginia Beach, VA
February 2011
11::St. Louis, MO
16-20::Atlanta, GA
March 2011
8-10::Palm Beach, FL
11::Las Vegas, NV
12::New Orleans, LA
16::Denver, CO
19::Tampa, FL
22-24::New York, NY
31::Chicago, IL
April 2011
1-3::Dallas, TX
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6-9::San Diego, CA
12::San Diego, CA
13::Cedar Rapids, IA
16::Seattle, WA
18::Portland, OR
19::Overland Park, KS
20::Denver, CO
26::Portland, OR
27::Salem, OR
28::San Diego, CA
May 2011
5-6::San Diego CA
19-20::Orlando, FL
June 2011
5-9::Atlanta, GA
23::Denver, CO
July 2011
27-29::Anaheim, CA
August 2011
13::Washington, DC
20::Smyrna, GA
Visit Laura's Calendar On-line for her complete availability.
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| Feature Article: |
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Implementing Employee Engagement in Your Organization
Several months ago, I published an article on the importance of employee engagement to any organization's effectiveness and bottom line. The topic has proven to be a fruitful one, and I've gotten some excellent responses from my readers.
The original article soon led to an application of the concept to the ideas I outlined in my recent book SuperCompetent, which directly resulted in last month's topic: the Productivity Management Employee Engagement/Performance Matrix. The Matrix classifies employees based on the factors of engagement and performance, which, as I've indicated, aren't necessarily congruous. In fact, it's possible to be highly engaged, but an absolute zero when it comes to productivity, and vice versa. However, if you can bring together maximum engagement and high performance in one individual, you've got a firecracker on your hands--a true SuperCompetent in every sense of the word.
While engagement doesn't automatically lead to greater productivity, it's certainly one of the most important factors in organizational success. Highly engaged employees are enthusiastic and excited about the company and its goals, and are fully willing to contribute to their team's success. Which begs a question: how do you encourage engagement in the first place?
As I pointed out in my original article, engagement is driven by a number of interrelated factors. Initially I included eleven items on my list, but I feel that they can be boiled down to six factors that are most critical to maximizing employee engagement:
1. Employee confidence that they can do their job properly and will be allowed to do so with minimal oversight.
2. The nature and quality of the job itself.
3. Career development and opportunities for growth.
4. Ongoing communication and feedback from management.
5. A clear understanding of the company's goals, and why employee contributions matter.
6. Trust in the company's integrity, and pride in their place in it.
In other words, you have to do all you can to make an employee's job more than just a job: you want it to be something that they're proud of and enthusiastic about doing--ideally, something they actually look forward to. So in this article, let's take a closer look at how to accomplish each of the above items.
Employee confidence comes in two flavors, and both need to be present to maximize an employee's engagement level:
a. Confidence that they can do their job properly, and
b. Confidence that they'll be allowed to do so with minimal oversight.
This is a big one. How can an employee become engaged in their work if they're constantly stumbling over their lack of experience or training? And how well can they function if they're being micromanaged to death? Not very well, I'll wager.
The most engaged employees come to work and jump right in, because they know exactly what they're doing, and they know they're trusted to do the job. Will they make mistakes? Sometimes, but that's just another way to learn. Breathing down their necks isn't going to help them learn faster.
As big a deal as this is, it's also extremely simple to fix--in fact, you should consider doing so one of your primary jobs as a manager. First of all, if an employee is feeling uncertain about their ability to do their job, then it's your responsibility to do two things: provide them with the training they need (within the limits of your budget, naturally), and coach them toward greater confidence.
Second, take a look at your management style. If you're always looking over people's shoulders, stop it! Make it a basic assumption that your employees can do their jobs, not that they can't. You do have to check on them occasionally, but you can't do everything yourself, and you can't ride them constantly. That's what delegation is all about.
The nature and quality of the job itself. Let's face it: some jobs are less glamorous than others. There's no shame in hard, even dirty work, but I'm guessing most of us would rather be office workers than garbage collectors. Similarly, some jobs generate enormous amounts of stress: think about what firefighters and inner-city school teachers have to go through.
If you expect employees in such jobs to maintain any level of engagement, you've got to do things to offset the negative qualities of those jobs. Excellent benefits and liberal time-off policies can work miracles, and so can honest efforts to connect with these employees. Let them know that you appreciate their efforts, and give them an "Atta boy!" when the job is well done. In addition, you should always be there to offer coaching and counseling whenever it's necessary.
Career development and opportunities for growth. With a few notable exceptions, most employees want a chance to get ahead. Give them that chance, because the only other option is for them to stagnate in place--or seek a more amenable employer. No matter how much you like having a specific individual in a specific position, no matter how annoying it would be to have to replace them and train up someone new, give them an opportunity to grow into something beyond what they are today.
There are many ways that you can accomplish this, starting with a willingness to provide any training necessary to help your employee to better fit their existing role, above and beyond what they need just to be satisfied with their competence (see above). Sit down with them, and ask them what they think they need and where they want to go. One way to keep them interested is to allow them to shadow a competent employee in the type of job they'd like to work their way up to. That is, let them follow that person through their day, watching how they handle their tasks, without actually doing the work itself.
Ongoing communication and feedback from management. Question: if you never heard a peep from your supervisor, how would you know whether you were doing your job right? This is the quandary that many people find themselves in. Basically, the boss just winds them up and lets them go, and there's heck to pay if they mess things up, despite any lack of communication from above.
That's a great way to destroy any employee's sense of engagement, and you'd have to be pretty short-sighted to run your team that way. Once again, the fix is simple: all you have to do is keep communicating with your employees. Let them see you care. Some managers practice what's called MBWA: Management By Walking Around. This can be useless or counterproductive if you're wandering aimlessly or hanging around looking over people's shoulders; however, practiced optimally, it can be amazingly effective.
Click here to finish reading Implementing Employee Engagement in Your Organization
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| Time Tips and Traps |
To be featured in this section of our newsletter and get a free eBook with our thanks, send your productivity tip or trick to Becca@TheProductivityPro.com with "Tips and Tricks contribution" in the subject line.
Know what'll kill employee engagement deader than a doorknob? Micromanaging.
Even if you start out with an office full of bright, innovative people, looking over their shoulders and correcting them every step of the way will eventually grind them down. Before long, you'll have a collection of disengaged grumblers who either can't wait to get out from under your thumb, or who just hunker down and don't do anything, in hopes that it'll soon be over.
That's because when you micromanage someone, you're practically shouting in their ear: "You're incompetent! I can't trust you to do the tiniest thing right!" Now, how would that make you feel?
If you're a micromanager, you may not realize it; you may just think you're detail-oriented and want to be sure that your employee does everything exactly right...so you tell them what that is, down to the finest point. That is a mistake. Not only is it detrimental to employee morale, you don't have time for it. Delegating tasks to other people is the manager's defining trait. Even if you can wear all the hats in your organization, you shouldn't. You have to focus on what you're best at, and hand off everything else to other people and trust them to do it.
Trust is the key word here. You have to assume the employee knows their job, and you can't watch every little step as they perform it. You're like the lieutenant who's told by a colonel to put up a flagpole: you don't do it yourself, even if you can, and you certainly don't stand there and direct someone else while they do it. You go to the senior NCO and say, "Sergeant, put up that flagpole!" and the Sergeant gets it done.
That's what you're expected to do. That's what your boss up the line expects, and that's what the Sergeant expects. Assign someone a task, give them what they need to do it, and then get back to your own work. Touch bases occasionally to see that it's done, and don't stand over someone and nitpick while they do it.
It's up to you, as the manager, to take care of all the big-picture stuff. You can't do that if you're focused on one little pixel.
Conquering procrastination from Stever Robbins new book, Get-It Done Guy's 9 Steps to Work Less Do More. To learn more, please visit http://getitdoneguynews.com/.
What are some simple tips for beating procrastination? Thinking causes procrastination. No, really. We build up tasks in our mind, thinking they'll be huge, unachievable, or unpleasant. The remedy is to stop thinking and just start acting. Your brain will still get in your way, however. While you're filling out your procrastinated expense reports, your brain will distract you with worries that you're making no progress on the novel you've been procrastinating.
As I mention in my book, you can make your brain happy by speed-dating your tasks. List what you're procrastinating. Start at the top and work on each task for exactly five minutes, then move to the next task. Use a timer to be precise. When you're done, take a 5-10 minute break and do it again. Five minutes is short; your brain will let you do it. Since you're hitting several of your procrastinated tasks, your brain knows you'll get to your other tasks just five minutes from now. It frees you to focus completely on the task in front of you, yet guarantees you'll go on to make progress on everything that's important. | |
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Laura Stack, MBA, CSP
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Monthly Microsoft Outlook webinar: October 25, 2010: Workflow
Workflow: Pull it All Together, the 6-D Information Management System(TM), Determine Your Preferred Organizing Method, Test For Environmental, Personality, Style, Culture, and Work Location Factors, Construct a Suspense File, Learn the Six Principles of Organization Necessary to Maintain an Empty Inbox, the Email Decision-Making Tree, Auto-Delete, Efficient Decision Making, Turn Emails Into Other Items, Activate Email for Future Response, Follow Up on Pending Items, Remove Attachments, Use Rules for Speed and Sound, Understand the Six Mindsets Needed for Effective Email Handling.
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: October 25, 2010
Planning and Executing Long-Term Projects: Project Management for Non-Project Managers. Whether you are remodeling your basement, coordinating a social event, or managing a new software release, the competencies and skills of project management are the same. Everyone manages projects at least part-time. In fact, many people in an organization simply pursue a number of projects as their job. This course will help you carry out your projects productively with proper planning, scheduling, and monitoring. The complex tools you've heard about in project management are refreshingly absent.
Discover a practical and highly effective four-step project management approach.
Distinguish between responsibilities, objectives, projects, tasks, subtasks, and action items.
Quickly and easily outline all the key steps of your project and create an outline.
Load your project into Microsoft Outlook to ensure you're working on the right tasks each day.
Track delegated items and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
1:00 pacific/4:00 eastern
Cost is $29 with workbook and recording.
Click here for more information and to register. |
| Laura in the News! |
Competent just doesn't cut it any more
Virtual Meetings: Develop Effective Teleconferencing Guidelines
Staying Professional in Virtual Meetings |
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Recent posts:
Business Productivity: The Myth of Getting It All Done
Productivity Management from a SuperCompetent Perspective
Productivity Management: Dealing with the Camper
Productivity Management: The Chirpy Cheerleader
Staying Productive While You are Out of Work
Productivity Management: The Dour Defector |
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| Letters to the Editor |
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Hi Laura,
I have to share! We have been having Productivity Pro study halls last week and this week. We have admin support, HR and IT available to help coach employees. Take a look at the attached pictures.
Thanks!
Theresa
Theresa Nordstrom, SPHR
Human Resource Director
Harbor Group
1520 North Main Ave
Sioux Center, IA 51250
Phone: 712.722.1662 x106
Fax: 712.722.8975
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