Are you currently reading my blog, while being at work? Chances are that 1 out of 4 other employees are goofing off as well right now. 25 % of office time is wasted doing personal stuff like checking personal e-mail, chatting, using Facebook or reading news, according to several questionnaires. Since you are reading my blog, you are not wasting office hours; you are currently investing in future employee productivity enhancements, time well spent.
My conclusion is simple; you will with this knowledge get an easy head start of winning at the office, and creates a momentum that will get your results to the top in no time. Read more… »
I have been reading again, this time about sports psychology. And I have been watching the TV-show “Air Crash Investigations”. So I have been thinking lately about what I am getting out of this. My mind is continuously returning to two things that keep grabbing the attention of my cortex, visualization and checklists. How can I use this in my job? And can you benefit from this in your job? Read more… »
The right focus is very important both for a coach and for an employee. Today I want to share a tip that I got from Henrik at my department. When you try to improve one’s performance, there is no need to spend time on the very best of them, as the reward would be too marginal. There is a saying that focusing on the 60 % in the middle will be the most efficient, as they can improve greatly and have the ability to do so, the bottom 20 % also require a lot of management and coaching to maybe have just marginal improvement. I do not agree on the latter, and have experienced firsthand that people have exploded out of the bottom 20 % to the top 10 %, but I agree that it might be coincidental, still do not live black and white on this rule. When you need to coach someone, you’ll also need to know what to focus on. That is why we drew this chart at the white board today. The horizontal axis shows the person’s ability, the further to the right the more abilities. The vertical axis is determination, the will to succeed, further to the top, the stronger determination.
We placed all employees around the chart. And it will help us figure out who needs what kind of attention.
(a,b,c) is the group that just need a smile and recognition. Tell them that they do a great job, and leave them alone for now.
(d,e) is the ones that really want to succeed but they do not quite get it all. These people need more training to improve ability.
(f,g) are the ones that have the ability but lacks motivation. These people need to be motivated.
(h) is in this case in need of both motivation and training, demanding a lot of work from you. You might consider replacing people that falls into this group.
The danger of no attention. (f,g) be aware if the ones with abilities lack motivation. If you lack motivation and determination you’ll end up falling behind on new information, and slowly glide to the left, ending up with too little abilities.
(a,b,c) will without recognition and a smile end up falling downwards to end up with no motivation, having the abilities.
(d,e) depend on getting more training and making progress, without it they will also be falling downwards ending up with no motivation and lack the abilities. That is why you should first focus on this group of people, as they might end up in a place no one would like to be in.
(h) if you have people in this category that lack both abilities and motivation they will most likely just be noise in the work environment, frustrating all the others. If you cannot move people out of this category fast and easy, move them out of the office.
Coaching, motivating and teaching. So with this tool you will be able to identify who needs more training, focus on them first. The next thing you as a coach should do is to put your motivational skills to the test and motivate f and g. In the meantime do not forget about a,b and c, it takes no effort to praise them. If you have a lot of people in the lower left you might be in trouble. Good luck, hope this helps you to prioritize. Where would you place yourself?
Do you need inspiration, some time off work, and a social inspiring night out? Bring some co-workers or friends to a Pecha Kucha event. Pecha Kucha is Japanese for small talk. The concept is easy and fun. You got 20 power point slides at your disposal, each slide for 20 seconds, a total presentation in six minutes and forty seconds. The rest is up to you.
Inspiration in minutes. I and a co-worker went to a local Pecha Kucha night a week ago. This was my first time to such an event. To be honest some of the presentations gave me nothing. But the whole event and concept was very inspiring and creative. I got a few ideas to bring back to the office. That’s why you should go to the nearest Pecha Kucha Night as soon as you can.
A normal status meeting in 6:40? When I have meetings with those higher on the ladder, a presentation may take 30 minutes. We had a presentation for all employees about a major change taking 5 times 1 hour 20 minutes. If we managed to pack the message in a 6 minutes 40 second presentations, the effect would be timesaving and it would punch the point in without being boring.
I have been working as a professional web developer for quite a few years, and know what is possible and what is impossible. When I worked as a super geek attending meetings with other business leaders I always wondered what they were thinking. I often heard that “I want a solution that…”, “I feel we need…”, “I would like…” and “I have these needs…” So what do your employees need? Have you asked what can make their day more efficient?
I do think that a lot of intranets are hated by employees, they are slow, advanced, not interesting or a waste of time. You must talk to your employees and ask them what they do? If a web developer gets to ask these questions and learn how your employees work, they might see solutions that can make the intranet a tool that create a value. I am certain that a lot of routine work can be done in an easier way.
What about information?
A lot of business leaders are very concerned about flow of information. The intranet must be an information channel. Wrong! The focus should be “Tool”, “Tool”, and “Tool”. Then some information, when the tools are set. A small column is enough space for information, and it will be read, since it is being used daily.
Community, meet my digital neighbors!
Community sites like facebook are extremely popular. Everybody born after 1978 is familiar with these kinds of internet communities. Why not implement it at work? It would create an easy and familiar way to communicate. What if this is the base, and applications could be added as you need different tools?
If you as a leader decide to create an intranet…
Please do not make the decisions yourself. You can tell what you need, and the employees should say what they need. I would like some easy way to enter my daily results in a form, and automatically create graphs for last week, last month and for the last year. My manager could just enter my profile and see how I was doing. In this way I would save time making these graphs every Monday, creating a power point presentation and spending time in a meeting to give status. They could check my profile as often as they wished to see my progress. And then we could just chat for a few minutes about challenges and be constructive. It would be a timesaver.
My employees might rather want easier ways to log cases, or easier way to handle leads to the sales department. Hey, but I might be wrong, only the employees can answer this. And then we could create an application suited for their needs only. Different people have different needs.
Are you currently reading my blog, while being at work? Chances are that 1 out of 4 other employees are goofing off as well right now. 25 % of office time is wasted doing personal stuff like checking personal e-mail, chatting, using Facebook or reading news, according to several questionnaires. Since you are reading my blog, you are not wasting office hours; you are currently investing in future employee productivity enhancements, time well spent.
I have been reading again, this time about sports psychology. And I have been watching the TV-show “Air Crash Investigations”. So I have been thinking lately about what I am getting out of this. My mind is continuously returning to two things that keep grabbing the attention of my cortex, visualization and checklists. How can I use this in my job? And can you benefit from this in your job?
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