Leadership

Strategies for Being Highly Productive

An effective executive needs to be highly productive. Being highly productive not only allows us to accomplish more, but it also lowers feelings of stress and anxiety.

Many executives attempt greater productivity through prioritized lists and calendar management, but I don’t know anyone who’s actually been able to achieve high productivity on a consistent basis using these strategies. It’s not that the strategies don’t work. They do. But without another critical component in place, they’re only of limited usefulness.

Don’t you find it interesting how much more productive we are in the days leading up to a vacation? We plow through the important phone calls that have to be made, respond to all the important emails, and clear our desk of all the paperwork that needs attention. By the time we leave on vacation, everything important has been attended to. Why is that?

The reason we’re able to achieve so much relates to energy management.

The energy I’m referring to has four components to it, and the management of those energy reserves is essential for being highly productive. Our energy reserves are like a four-legged stool. We’re all familiar with the analogy of a three-legged stool. Without all three legs being of equal length, the stool is useless. But with a four-legged stool, even if one of the legs is shorter, it can still be used by exerting a bit of effort and balance. It’s not especially comfortable and requires ongoing expenditure of energy to maintain, but it is functional. The same goes for our four energy reserves. We can function even if one or more of our reserves is depleted, but it’s inefficient, draining, and it negatively impacts our productivity.

These four energy reserves are Physical Energy, Mental Energy, Emotional Energy, and Inspirational Energy. Let me briefly discuss each energy reserve and then offer some strategies to help keep them full.

Physical energy affects our ability to push forward. It helps our drive and our self-discipline. If you’ve ever had a “mid-afternoon crash”, then you’ve experienced the impact a low physical energy can have on productivity.

Mental energy affects our ability to think clearly, to concentrate and focus, to solve problems, and to be creative. Clearly, low mental energy hampers productivity.

Emotional energy impacts our ability to deal with stress, to communicate well, to think clearly, and to interact with others effectively. For example, it’s not uncommon to become short with people when we’re feeling stressed or tense, both of which are caused by low emotional energy.

Inspirational energy is the fuel that moves us to action. It is our passion, purpose, and inspiration that spark self-discipline, extra effort, and new direction. In the absence of inspiration, we end up just going through the motions. Low inspirational energy saps the productive juices out of us.

In order to stay highly productive, it’s essential to develop habits that replenish our energy reserves. There are five strategies that help accomplish this. Some are counter-intuitive and often overlooked, but don’t be fooled by their simplicity. For years they’ve allowed me to accomplish about 50% more than most people do.

High Productivity Strategy #1: Take Breaks
This is the most counter-intuitive of the strategies. After all, how can you become more productive by not working? Here’s why it works…

Most of us have the capacity to stay focused, concentrate well and work hard for about 1.5-2 hours at a time. After that, our focus, accuracy and creativity tend to drop. Ever notice that first thing in the morning you’re able to work quickly, efficiently, and accurately, but as the day wears on, your pace and enthusiasm wane? By taking a 20-30 minute break every 1.5-2 hours or so, you recharge yourself and return to work with the same enthusiasm you had at the beginning of the day.

Take a 20-30 minute break every 1.5-2 hrs.
(The secret to maximizing the impact of those breaks is what you do during them. This is where the second and third strategies for high productivity come into play.)

High Productivity Strategy #2: Eat Strategically
Most people think about what to eat in terms of weight or general health, but nutrition also serves another important purpose.

What and when we eat controls our blood sugar levels. When our blood sugar drops too low, our productivity, focus, and creativity suffer. Remember that mid-afternoon “crash”? It’s due to a drop in blood sugar (often as a consequence of a carb-laden lunch). Eating strategically means eating protein, fat, and some carbohydrate during your breaks. This mix controls the pace at which nutrition is absorbed, which stabilizes your blood sugar level and provides essential nutrients to your brain and your muscles.

Eat strategically throughout the day.

High Productivity Strategy #3: Get Up and Move
During those breaks discussed in Strategy #1, it’s important to get up from your desk and move. Walk around the office, go outside and get some fresh air, run errands, or do chores. Movement helps oxygenate your muscles, your organs, and your brain. It can also help reduce tension and stress, and helps you get refocused.

Do whatever you want during your breaks, but do something.

High Productivity Strategy #4: Release Stress
Being under constant, prolonged and/or high stress undermines our ability to think clearly. We’ve all seen what happens to someone who’s suddenly put under stress. They have a hard time formulating a thought or even completing a sentence.

Therefore, to be highly productive, it is essential to relieve feelings of stress and anxiety. Some people release stress by listening to music. Some enjoy meditating. Others release stress by going to the gym. And still others find that being out in nature helps them decompress.

No matter what you do to relieve stress, it’s just important that you do it.

High Productivity Strategy #5: Get Restful Sleep
Getting a sufficient number of hours of restful sleep allows your body to repair itself and your mind to process ideas and problems. Insufficient or restless sleep will cause a lack of mental sharpness, anxiety, and poor emotional control.

In order to get a restful night’s sleep, avoid caffeine late in the day and avoid eating a heavy, fat-laden, carbohydrate-laden meal late in the evening. Caffeine will keep you from falling asleep quickly and eating a late, heavy meal will cause your body to work hard digesting while you sleep instead of attending to the other tasks necessary for recharging and revitalization.

Eat strategically to ensure a restful night’s sleep.

In summary, managing your energy reserves combined with prioritization of tasks will make you a productivity superstar. Get in the habit of taking breaks every couple of hours, eating strategically throughout the day, getting up and moving, releasing stress, and adopting a lifestyle that allows you to get restful sleep.

Moving From Compliant to Committed

As you well know, a team or an organization that is simply compliant produces mediocre results. On the other hand, if people are engaged and committed, the results are very different.

When someone is compliant, they simply obey – doing what’s asked of them but no more. Typically they’re doing just enough to keep their job. In contrast, someone who’s committed will spend time and effort outside of normal business hours thinking about work, solving problems, finding better ways to get the job done, seeking out new insights, and taking action.

What causes someone to be committed? There are a number of drivers of commitment. The first is that they need to have some degree of self-motivation. If a person isn’t self-motivated about the work they’re doing, they should find a job that has the kind of work they can be enthused about.

The second driver of commitment involves the person they report to – their leader/boss. A motivated, committed person will soon become unhappy if their boss is someone they don’t trust and respect.
Trust and respect must be earned over time. Trust is earned by acting with integrity and by acting in integrity. Acting with integrity means doing what you say you will do and acting in integrity means being the kind of person you claim to be.

Trust grows when a leader follows through on their commitments, and mistrust grows when they don’t follow through. Trust grows as a leader consistently acts in alignment with the values they say matter to them, and mistrust grows when someone claims to embrace certain values but acts in a manner at odds with them.

When it comes to respect, a leader demonstrates they respect someone when they listen to their ideas and interact with them in a respectful manner. When a leader doesn’t value people and doesn’t treat them with respect, their team loses respect for them.

The third driver of commitment involves the culture of the organization. A company that lives by the core values that matter to it drives engagement and commitment. On the other hand, an organization that claims certain core values but acts in ways which clearly demonstrate that those values don’t matter, soon causes widespread disillusionment and disengagement. It’s just like a leader professing the importance of certain values but acting in a manner at odds with those values. When a company tolerates bad behavior, it demonstrates a lack of integrity, which leads to a loss of trust and respect within the organization.

The fourth and final driver of commitment involves the nature of initiatives undertaken by the company, the department, or the team. An initiative without a reason, lacking any purpose other than to make the person who set the goal look good, leaves people flat. If an initiative is to drive commitment, there needs to be a “why”. People become engaged and committed when they believe in what they’re doing and feel they are making a difference.

If you want a committed workforce, start by ensuring that skilled people are being hired who are self-motivated and aligned with the organization’s culture. Ensure that leaders at all levels improve their interpersonal skills. Take a good hard look at whether the organization is living up to the core values it claims to embrace. And be clear about why initiatives are being undertaken.

If you’d like help driving engagement and commitment, let’s find a time to talk.
Helping leaders drive stronger results is my passion.

Company Culture: By Design or Default?

A company’s culture has a significant impact on attracting and retaining good employees, boosting engagement, and achieving a strong bottom line.

Over the years, I’ve had some interesting conversations with clients regarding their company’s culture. I remember one client (someone I was helping to groom as the owner’s successor). He told me how much they value their culture. Not only that, but they felt very strongly about “hiring to their culture”. In other words, they made certain that every new hire understood how important the company’s culture was.

As an executive coach focused on effective leadership, these statements were music to my ears! I naturally asked him, “So, what IS your company’s culture?” AND HE HAD NO ANSWER! It turns out, when they speak to new hires about culture, they simply tell them that their culture was important but offered no guidance as to what that was or what it meant. So, I gave him an assignment to better define their culture and reduce it to a handful of statements.

In our next coaching session, we discussed the list of values and behaviors the company strove to live by. We spent that session refining and clarifying the list so he could better express what mattered to the company to new hires and so he could better hold employees accountable to those values and behaviors.

I had a very different conversation with another client (the president of a company). This client had very clearly defined their culture and made sure that new hires were aware of it. But there was a problem. In fact, it was a major problem.

You see, most people think that a company’s culture is defined by the values and behaviors a company aspires to. That sounds great and makes sense. Except it’s not true…

A company’s culture is defined by the values and behaviors the company tolerates.

And who does that tolerating? The leaders do. The values and behaviors that the leaders tolerate become the company’s culture. But it doesn’t end there. It gets worse. When a leader professes to value a behavior but acts in a manner at odds with it, it demonstrates a lack of integrity. And when a leader is seen to lack integrity, people stop trusting and lose respect for that leader. And when people lose trust and respect for a leader, engagement drops and productivity suffers.

And that’s exactly what was happening at his company. Even worse, my client was as guilty as anyone in the company, acting at odds with the stated culture. Nevertheless, he couldn’t understand why they had so much trouble making progress and holding people accountable. Consequently, we began strategizing about how to change his behavior and the behavior of other leaders within the company.

So, here’s the bottom line…. A company’s culture needs to be defined. A culture that exists by default is always inferior and leads to lower engagement. And although a defined culture is superior to a culture by default, it only works when the leaders live by those values and behaviors. Plus, those leaders must not tolerate non-aligned behavior by others.
A positive, well-defined culture that people live by will attract better employees, and will result in stronger engagement and improved profitability.

How to Make Smarter Decisions

As a leader, you’re regularly making decisions that affect your organization. Good decisions drive profits and engagement. Poor decisions, on the other hand, cause disengagement and erode profits. Granted, we all make mistakes. But our goal is to minimize missteps and make the best decisions possible.

And while intelligence, education, and experience are important factors in making smart decisions, there is another factor that plays a significant role in the quality of those decisions.

That factor relates to stress.

First, let me explain why and how stress affects our decision-making, and then explore what to do about it.

The brain is made up of three parts – the reptilian brain, the amygdala, and the neocortex. (Yes…. I know I’m oversimplifying things.) The reptilian brain controls our autonomic functions – things like breathing, heartbeat, and digestion. The amygdala is the emotional center of the brain. It’s where emotions are processed and where the “fight-or-flight” response resides. And the neocortex is where logical thinking and creativity take place.

When we’re under stress, the amygdala starts to take over. And if the stress increases, our fight-or-flight response kicks in. This hard-wired response developed when we lived in an age when we were often faced with real life-or-death situations. It was important to make an instant decision. Fight to save yourself or flee to save yourself. We didn’t have the luxury of thinking things through. Hesitation could prove fatal.

Therefore, to cause us to make an instant decision during high stress, the body cuts out the neocortex. It essentially keeps us from thinking.

We’ve all seen examples of this dynamic in action. We’ve seen someone who – under pressure or stress – can barely form a sentence, let alone make a smart decision.

That’s why being under stress hampers our decision-making abilities.

As for what to do about this, the obvious answer is clear. Avoid or reduce stress. But as you know, that’s often easier said than done. Things like eating better, getting restful sleep and exercising will all help alleviate stress. But we’re still going to experience stress. There always seem to be stress-causing issues in our life.

There is, however, an interesting strategy for minimizing the number of stressful situations you need to deal with as a leader.

Over my years as an executive coach, as I’ve helped my clients become more effective leaders, I’ve asked them to draw out the following diagram:

After they’ve created this matrix, I’ll ask, “Ideally, in which quadrant do you want to spend most of your time?”

The majority of my clients tell me that ideally, they should be spending their day on important and urgent matters.

And then I’ll ask them, “What do you call matters that are important and urgent?”

The answer, of course, is that we call urgent, important matters “fires”. I’ll point out to my clients that they just said that in their ideal world, they’d like to spend the majority of their time putting out fires! (Which of course, produces lots of stress.)

If you’re spending your days putting out fires and you’re under constant stress, you can’t think clearly and you’re unable to make the best decisions you’re capable of making.

How do you get off this “hamster wheel” of putting out fires?

Obviously, you need to first put out the fires. After all, they’re important and urgent. The key is what happens next. Once an urgent matter is addressed, it is essential to carve out some time to step back and reflect on the answer to the question, “How can I prevent this from happening again?”

In other words, the key to clear thinking and smart decision-making is to address the important before it becomes urgent. Only by giving thought to this can you – as a leader – get off the hamster wheel of putting out fires.

In order to facilitate clarity of thought, I recommend getting out of your work environment. Get away from the computer and get away from the office. Take a pad of paper and go somewhere. For example, go to a coffee shop or a park or even your backyard. You’ll be surprised at the clarity of thought you’ll get. (It’s something I do every day.)

And as you begin to address important matters before they become urgent, your days will begin to quiet down. And as your days begin to quiet down, your discretionary time increases.

And as your discretionary time increases, you’ll have more time to think about other important decisions, develop better strategies, and clarify your vision for your team and your organization.

Strategies to Lead Effectively in a Hybrid Work Environment

According to the Gallup Organization, the future of the office has arrived … and it is hybrid. In 2019, 60% of remote-capable employees spent their week working fully on-site, but that figure fell to just 20% in 2023. Hybrid work has increased significantly, becoming the most prevalent work arrangement in most offices. Approximately 40% of remote-capable employees have shifted from working entirely on-site to either a hybrid or exclusively remote work arrangement.

Let’s face it… the Hybrid Workplace is here to stay. And if handled effectively, it can be an excellent business model. Besides the obvious advantage of requiring less office space, it can also have several other significant benefits.

If leaders properly modify how they lead, it will increase productivity (sometimes significantly) and it will increase employee engagement. And an engaged workforce results in lower turnover and greater loyalty.

The question then, is what do leaders need to do in order to achieve these desirable outcomes?

Leaders need to address and modify how they interact with their direct reports.
And they need to implement initiatives to enhance team cohesiveness and collaboration.

One-on-One Initiatives
The interesting thing about the one-on-one initiatives related to a hybrid work environment, is that they’re the same initiatives a leader should be taking with his or her direct reports regardless of whether the work environment is hybrid or not.

Individual productivity and engagement rise when professionals are treated like professionals.

Treating professionals like professionals reflects the fact that someone who is a professional wants to do a good job in a timely fashion. They don’t need to be micromanaged or watched over. They don’t do their work because the boss is watching. They do their work because the want to do their work. And they want to do it well. It’s one of the reasons working remotely can be a positive force for increasing productivity.

But there’s an art to granting autonomy.

The first step is that it’s imperative that people are clear about what is expected of them. I’m not just talking about delegating a task to someone. (Although these insights apply to that as well.) I’m talking about the bigger picture. It’s critical to clarify the deliverables and responsibilities of each person’s role. Defining deliverables and responsibilities can be more difficult than it sounds, but it is critical for driving productivity and engagement.

Once the deliverables and responsibilities are defined, it is essential to hold people accountable. Not only does accountability ensure the work gets done but demonstrates that their work is important.

The final piece to this initiative is that there must be a consequence for not performing. If a leader states that certain deliverables and responsibilities are important, but then accepts non-performance without any consequence, it demonstrates a lack of integrity on the part of the leader. Plus, of course, the work doesn’t get done.

Why In-Person Matters
Although working remotely can have a strong positive impact on personal productivity, remote work can have a strong negative impact on a team’s productivity. Certain dynamics can only take place face-to-face. And that’s where video interactions fall short. For team members to work well together they must know, like, trust, and respect one another. Building trust and respect, along with having team members know and like one another, plays an important role in the success of a Hybrid Work Environment.

Trust, respect and connection foster team cohesiveness and collaboration.

And although some degree of trust and respect can be earned through knowledge and performance, most people form opinions about others based on what I call, “Moments of Apparent Insignificance”.

“Moments of Apparent Insignificance” are the little things we do or say without giving them much thought. These actions – to us – are relatively insignificant. We simply do those things or say those things in passing. But people form opinions about us based on those insignificant moments. They make note of the little things we do and say, along with how we do and say those things.

As people get to know one another, they learn about their lives, their personality, their dreams, their goals, and their fears. They get to know and (hopefully) like one another. And through these interactions – both professional and casual – they come to trust and respect one another.

Trust, respect and connection foster team cohesiveness and collaboration.

But in order for these Moments of Apparent Insignificance to occur, team members need to spend time around one another. Not structured time, but time when they can just be themselves.

And that’s where the team initiatives come into play.

Team Initiatives
Simply having people come into the office 1 or 2 or 3 days a week generally won’t achieve team cohesiveness. Because people are used to working independently, you need to have one or more techniques for maximizing interaction – both professional and casual – among the team members.

Here are three ideas for encouraging interaction on the days when each team is on-site:

1. Conduct Strategy Sessions with Whole Team
Conduct a strategy session with the whole team. It allows people to display their creativity, and everyone can see how various people interact. Not only that, but you may even uncover some interesting solutions to problems!

2. Encourage Project Brainstorming
Form teams of 3-5 people to brainstorm the design and execution of a project. (Vary the team members with each project.) This creates an opportunity for several people to get to know one another more deeply, eliminates posturing in front of the entire team, and allows team members to be more open and relaxed.

3. Hold Team Lunches
Plan a lunch for your entire team every 1-3 months. Organize it so that everyone can be in the same room. Ideally, you’ll want to hold it on-site rather than at a restaurant. People will feel more comfortable, and the casual setting will encourage people to mill around. It’s a great way for team members to get to know one another more casually and observe those Moments of Apparent Insignificance.

Conclusion
In conclusion, a Hybrid Work Environment can be an excellent model for increasing productivity, boosting engagement, and lowering turnover if handled correctly by the leaders. The results rely on leaders granting autonomy in an effective manner and implementing initiatives to ensure face-to-face interaction.