Productivity Planner

Have you ever attended an American football game? The excitement of the cheering crowd, the fast action on the field, the coaches and team members showing support from the sidelines, and the cheerleaders keeping the fans engaged are the components that make this event fun. If you take this same scenario and apply it to the workplace, you will find a great deal of similarities. Besides, how pleasurable would your work be if you could imagine yourself going to a football game everyday instead of an ordinary office? Making your experience at work enjoyable is essential for increased productivity.

Like each member of a football team, each coworker has a role to play in order to score points - to complete a project, meet a deadline, or launch a new product or service. The manager, or coach, lays out the game plan and strategies, and each team member carries out the required movement, or play, in order to successfully move the football towards the goal line. While all of this action takes place, the support staff, or the cheerleaders, handles the administrative tasks, which helps to provide efficiency and keeps the exhilaration flowing. Each member of this team and every second of the game are valuable. Having that team mentality is also an effective way of increasing morale, motivating colleagues, and setting the course for the business.

To help build and continue that team camaraderie, words of support, chants and cheers, and “can do” attitudes need to be put into play through the use of motivational tools, for example, free inspirational wallpapers. With the majority of time and effort being spent on moving towards the goal line, having sharp images and heartening words to cheer us on is an extraordinary form of stimulation and encouragement. The “playbook” - or computer desktop - should be chock full of free inspirational wallpape [Read more →]

Tags: , , Leadership, Inspiration, Management, Organizational Culture by Chris Russell
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Fun (like the sun) is a natural, abundant, renewable and readily accessible source of energy. But centuries ago, the work ethic relegated fun to the status of meaningless, idle frivolity. Fun then got into bad company and was seen hanging around with undesirable slackers, time-wasters and malingerers. Managers felt fun wasn’t just unemployable, it had become a competitor to work. It got to a stage where bosses thought fun wasn’t even funny! Remember the plight of “Patch Adams”? There are still workplaces today where fun is consciously banned.

How could fun get such a bad name?

Like all good things, fun couldn’t be gagged (pardon the pun). It always maintained its value providing a break from stress - away from work. Today, as managers search for that elusive competitive edge, the potential of fun in the workplace has begun to get noticed. Far from the old philosophy of “the floggings will continue until morale improves”, bosses are beginning to realize that happy people actually work better.

Fun is therefore fast becoming not only acceptable in the workplace but actively encouraged (well, at least during lunch breaks - if we hear loud laughter in the office, we still tend to take a wary peek to see if the boss is around. But we’re getting there). Mobile massages and tai chi classes - even laughter sessions - have become de regeur.

But we are still only part of the way towards business recognizing the full power of fun.

Fun is a life-expanding experience to be enjoyed anywhere, at any time. While you are having fun you are relaxing and allowing the real self to shine through. It’s the time when you feel good about yourself, when you are likely to be at your creative, innovative, positive, enthusiastic, lateral-thinking best! Fun triggers a ripple effect, flowing into every aspect of your life, lifting your self esteem, se [Read more →]

Tags: , , Leadership, Inspiration, Management, Organizational Culture by Chris Russell
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How often do you let your time get chewed up by others? Now you don’t consciously set out to let people waste your time, however without realising it you are probably allowing it to happen.

One of my clients, John, recently hired a new team member. At his previous workplace, Barry had a boss who always had his door open and let the staff wander in. Barry’s boss liked to have an ‘open door’ to show that he was accessible to his team. That sounds very noble but the reality is, that Barry’s ex boss would get very little done for himself as he was constantly letting others interrupt him.

Now that Barry has changed jobs, he has automatically been doing exactly the same thing to John, constantly knocking on his door to get his questions answered. Understandably Barry was a new employee and therefore would have lots of questions, however John complained to me that Barry thought he could interrupt at any time, as that’s what he had done in his previous position.

At one point John had noted that Barry had knocked on his door 6 times in one hour. That meant John lost his focus and it took him 3 times longer to complete his work. In real terms he realised he was losing 2 hours a day with his time being worth $250 an hour that was $500. Multiply that for 1 week and that’s 10 hours a week and $2500 of lost time.

On the other side of the story, the following could have happened…

1. Barry may not have had sufficient training in his new role
2. John had made a mistake in the hiring process.
3. John expectations were unrealistic…
4. John hadn’t communicated effectively on how he would handle staff queries or who in the organisation to speak with if he is unavailable.

As I said to John, it was up to him to train his new employee on how things are done in his business. As the leader he needed to set the rules and [Read more →]

Tags: , , Leadership, Inspiration, Management, Organizational Culture by Chris Russell
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