Loc’s Blog

Steve Jobs, the entrepreneurial genius who co-founded the Apple Corp., is a very charismatic leader of technical people. When his group was designing Apple’s new Macintosh computer, Jobs flew a pirate flag over his building. Its purpose was to signify his team’s determination to blow the competition out of the water. Rather creative motivation.

Good leaders and managers have creative ways to motivate their employees.

Robert Waterman Jr. wrote about Chiyoshi Misawa, founder and president of Misawa Homes — the largest homebuilder in Japan. At least once every decade he “dies” to arrest the momentum of out-of-date assumptions and policies. He sends a memo to his company that formally announces “the death of your president.”

This is his way of forcing the whole company to rethink everything. When employees resist change because they are used to the old way of doing things, Misawa declares: “That was the way things were done under Mr. Misawa. He is now dead. Now, how shall we proceed?” Read the rest of this entry »

What is productive laziness

‘Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.’ Robert Heinlein (1907 – 1988)

By advocating being a ‘lazy’ project manager I do not intend that we should all do absolutely nothing. I am not saying we should all sit around drinking coffee, reading a good book and engaging in idle gossip whilst watching the project hours go by and the non-delivered project milestones disappear over the horizon. That would obviously be plain stupid and would result in an extremely short career in project management, in fact probably a very short career full stop!

Lazy does not mean Stupid. No I really mean that we should all adopt a more focused approach to project management and to exercise our efforts where it really matters, rather than rushing around like busy, busy bees involving ourselves in unimportant, non-critical activities that others can better address, or indeed that do not need addressing at all in some cases.

Science behind the laziness – being focused Read the rest of this entry »

I had a Eureka moment the other day during a training session. Now the point of attending workshops and taking courses is to learn new skills be exposed to new ideas. In this case, however, one of my fundamental thoughts about being a supervisor was challenged.

It had always been my thinking that I can and have motivated people.

It turns out, I have only paved the way.

Kris Robins, one of the facilitators of the Essential Skills for Supervisors Program through Northern Lakes College, told our Staying Positive – Rewarding and Energizing Employees class last Thursday that, as supervisors, we can only create the environment where people will be motivated, we don’t motivate people ourselves.

I have to agree when it is put that way. You can’t wave your magic wand and, presto, your employees will be motivated.

I suppose that is much like the old adage that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.

On the other hand, Kris noted, we can de-motivate people with a single action or word.

The class was asked to cite examples of what motivates and de-motivates us.

Motivating situations include the opportunity to make a difference, having varied and challenging assignments, a sense of pride in the organization, decisive leadership, the opportunity to learn, and the ability to reach new levels of achievement.

De-motivators cited include negativity, no flexibility, minimal or no communication, lack of variety, poor direction, bureaucracy, and employees thinking in terms of their own department and not the good over the overall organization.

I believe the best employees are self-motivated and our job as managers and leaders is to fuel their fire, to nurture their growth and to give them opportunities to succeed to even greater heights than they can on their own. Essentially, we need to take steps to eliminate items on the second list from our workplaces. Read the rest of this entry »

I realize that when you first started your business you may not have thought about EVERYTHING that would be involved with running a successful business, right?

You had a passion and interest in a particular product or service that you could offer and that you believed others would want. But there’s a LOT more to running a successful business than what meets the eye.
 
Here are some very common mistakes I see my clients and others I meet making every month in their businesses. The ones who end up being successful are the ones who REALIZE this and take steps to FIX their issues.
 
What mistakes are YOU making? Read the rest of this entry »

Remember the days when we were all sent to time management courses? We were under the impression that all we had to do to be effective was better manage our time. Today, the message is managing your energy, not time is key to high performance and renewal.

The impact of the recession has resulted in most organizations expecting higher performance, but with fewer employees. The usual method – working harder and putting in more time – is no longer working. Many of us are exhausted, disenchanted and disengaged. And we are getting sick.

It is time to rethink work and how we do it.

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz wrote an excellent book: The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. Although it was written in 2003, the concepts are still valid today – maybe even more so.

The central thesis is that performance, health and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy. The authors remind us that managing time efficiently is no guarantee that we will bring sufficient energy to whatever it is we are doing.

To be fully engaged – and I would say to have spirit at work – we must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest.

We know that energy diminishes with overuse. Too much energy expenditure and insufficient recovery leads to burnout and breakdown. The authors remind us that, “It is not the intensity of energy expenditure that produces burnout, impaired performance and physical breakdown, but rather the duration of expenditure without recovery.” We need to balance our energy expenditure with recovery time.

Here are a dozen tips to help you manage your energy: Read the rest of this entry »