Category Archives: Productivity

Old Technology Displaces New Technology

In a recent coaching session, a long-time client expressed frustrations at keeping track of all of his day-to-day tasks, especially the little items of following through with people he had met. He felt that lots of useful new and old … Continue reading

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Proven Checklist for Business Success – How Do You Put Them Into Action?

I receive a regular email titled, “Management Intelligence…… from Edward de Bono and Robert Heller”[[1]] . Their most recent email was “Management Intelligence: A proven checklist for business success”. Here is the checklist they provided: “DO YOU… IMPROVE basic, measured … Continue reading

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Podcast – Delegation (Outsourcing) and Keeping a Focus on Strategy and Results

Delegation and Outsourcing Share a Common Management Focus on What Needs To be Done, What Are the Results Required, and When?

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Delegation (Outsourcing) and Keeping a Focus on Strategy and Results

Delegation and outsourcing share many management requirements. And they illustrate the overlap between the personal and organization spheres. Both benefit from a more nuanced use of the general management maxim, “Build on Your Strengths”. Both require a substantial understanding of what needs to be done, how it should be done, the results required, and the needed timelines. And, finally, both require ongoing management involvement to assure that those responsible for the tasks or functions, whether individuals or vendors, succeed. Continue reading

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Podcast – Three Counter-Intuitive Steps to Becoming a More Effective Manager

Be a More Effective Manager – stop answering those questions, seize your time, and it’s your fault

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Three Counter-Intuitive Steps to Becoming a More Effective Manager

Become a More Effective Manager – Three Counter-Intuitive Steps In the world of planning and strategy, there is a truism that too much planning, too much detail, too much analysis, leads to inaction, to a loss of opportunity. Along the … Continue reading

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Learning To Be Effective – comments on Kelley’s How To Be a Star At Work

Learning to be an effective manager is almost entirely a self-guided learning enterprise. Almost no business schools even approach the topic despite the hundreds of courses they offer on almost every functional aspect of management[[1]] No Significant Differences between Stars … Continue reading

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Getting Things Done by David Allen – a revisit

I have used David Allen’s  book, Getting Things Done: the art of stress-free productivity (Penguin: NY 2001)  both personally and with clients for a number of years. Recently I volunteered to lead a discussion of the book’s approach to personal … Continue reading

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Time Management – is now the time to get beyond this distracting oxymoron?

Time management is an extremely popular topic. Is this productive? A Google search for the phrase “time management” returns the droll news that there are more than 14,900,000 responses. Amazon lists 448 books with ‘time management” in the title or … Continue reading

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Too Much Information – learn to control those interruptors

A continuing hot topic here is the surge of interruptions that consume our work day (and evenings, too). I have talked about this earlier in these postings, Seize Your Time – gaining control over Too Much Information and Multitasking, Too … Continue reading

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