07/28/2010

Key to good campaign begins with a remarkable product
It seems that most people turn to marketing and advertising as the magic bullets that will solve a laundry list of company problems , especially problems related to revenue and growth of their customer base. When a product is not selling as a company thinks it should or traffic at a new restaurant has slowed to a trickle, it seems like the answer is to do more marketing and advertising: buy bigger ads; tell a better story; make the ads more controversial; or hire people to twirl signs to direct customers to you.

07/22/2010

How much of your self do you have to turn off when at work
In office buildings around the country, the threshold between the street and the office lobby has become a portal between two worlds. Each morning, as people pass over that threshold into the office, they put on an invisible coat of armor. This armor keeps their true selves contained while allowing the inside world of the office to only see the appropriate, always politically correct, polished office-self that they have developed. Welcome to the land of the lost. Where employees day in and day out lose their true selves in order to fit in to some corporate work standard that was set up when being a cog-in-the-wheel lemming meant much more than bringing something authentic and meaningful to the conference table.

07/14/2010

Lack of discipline can be a quick path to losing customers
A few years ago, I went to a new dentist. I never thought a dentist could knock my socks off, but she did. Her practice seemed cleaner, more organized and more professional then any dental practice I had ever been to.

07/07/2010

Start with small, simple steps in approach to self discipline
There are a lot of books that claim to teach us how to succeed at the art of execution - the art of getting things done. While I appreciate books such as "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" by David Allen or "Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done" by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, it is possible to read those books and fully understand the concepts and yet still not be very productive. Although the tactics in the books are incredibly helpful, if you don't have any self-discipline to execute the tactics, they might as well not exist at all.

06/30/2010

Concern about wardrobe choices is more than a show of fear
Fair warning notice: on the surface, this column is about women and clothes. On a deeper level though, it is about societal expectations and fear.

06/23/2010

What's ROI on fun? Nothing like bonding over spreadsheets
Apparently, having fun is a controversial subject. Or at least it is when it comes to combining fun and work.

06/16/2010

Multitasking's downside is 'continuous partial attention'
The ability to multitask has always seemed like something to be proud of. Maybe it is part of our society's tendency to equate more with better, but being able to talk on the phone while checking e-mail, filing papers, painting your toenails and doing yoga makes people out to be superheroes.

06/10/2010

Is there an app out there for combating technology envy?
Whether it is building an app or investing in a fleet of iPads, how do you decide when your business needs to get on board and follow the trend, and when it is doing fine just the way it is?

06/03/2010

What uniqueness gives your company its value?
A nail salon that also sells bait and tackle. An attorney's office that doubles as a beauty parlor. Delta Dental used humorous business combinations like these to make a strong point in their television commercials: When you focus on doing too many things, you most likely end up not doing any of them very well.

05/26/2010

Let's have conversation about getting past greatest fear
It is often reported that our No. 1 fear is not death but public speaking. I still remember in sixth grade having to stand up in front of my class and give a presentation about Eskimos. I knew my information: I had done research, wrote a report, and had my notes right in front of me. But as I stood in front of the class, I was overwhelmed by fear.

05/20/2010

Factoring costs, accountability prevents death by meetings
Meeting. The mere mention of the word can illicit a sense of loathing in anyone who has ever worked in an office.

05/12/2010

Tipping scales in everyone's favor is good for bottom line
Most people intuitively understand the connection between their health and how productive they are at work. When you are sick, sometimes you can barely manage to get out of bed, never mind answering emails and phone calls. While that type of illness has an obvious negative impact on an employee's ability to get work done, what about less acute health problems?

05/06/2010

Operating in your sweet spot gives your best to your work
What did you most love doing when you were a kid? Until a few days ago, I had only thought about the answer to that question in bits and pieces. I also had never realized the importance of answering that question in the framework of the rest of my life and work.

04/28/2010

How much time do you waste each day stomping roaches?
A couple of weeks ago, after a few days of feeling like I was running a marathon and yet not moving an inch, I decided to do an experiment. I made a chart, and at the top of the chart I listed my three biggest goals for the week - not tasks I had to get done, but three big things I wanted to accomplish.

04/22/2010

'Thrash' early to get project-stopping issues on table
Imagine yourself in charge of a project. You have been given instructions and parameters by the boss, and you and your team get working. You work for a few months and make great progress, bringing the project to the point where it is almost 80 percent done.

04/14/2010

ROWE, workplace flexibility get boost from Obama
March 31, 2010, was a historical day for hardworking Americans across the country. It was not an unexpected day off or a day that brought a pay raise. It was something more fundamentally monumental. It was a day when the small group of passionate voices who have been speaking about the benefits of workplace flexibility for years were finally heard. They had their long-time battle cries for changing the way we work backed up by a person whose voice, although not always agreed with, has the power and the weight of a country behind it.

04/08/2010

Time to redefine leadership
Our society has been collectively lamenting the deficit of leadership in this country for at least a decade. Incidents like Enron and a long list of political scandals make us question whether many people in leadership roles should really have the distinction of being referred to as a leader at all. The headline-grabbing stories of leaders using their power to hurt others - whether they are cheating stockholders or cheating on their wives - stick with us.

04/02/2010

Time for a new type of leader who will embrace results
For years, all of our systems - from public schools to factories - have been built around teaching people to follow the rules and listen to the boss. Companies have built policy manuals as thick as phone books and often punish employees for things that have less to do with their actual performance and more to do with antiquated rules. When our economy was largely about creating an efficient industrial complex, expecting everyone to follow the rules made sense.

03/24/2010

Google's false front makes it harder to get the right work/life mix
An outdoor volleyball court, air hockey tables, free food, on-site massages and dry cleaning are all perks available to Google's employees. These perks, however, are a false front.

03/17/2010

Working your way to poor performance
I have talked before about the effect that switching to a results-only work environment (ROWE) has on slackers - slackers tend to keep slacking. What, then, happens to the workaholics?

03/11/2010

Non-retirement plan: Be happy now
In the year and a half since my organization migrated to a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE), I have talked about our experience extensively. My enthusiastic descriptions of ROWE excite most people, and although I believe that it is an inherently exciting concept, there are people who respond to it with a strong sense of indifference.

03/04/2010

Results equals no country for slackers
Many employers are under the impression that if you give an employee complete control of their time, what they will choose to do with it is, in fact, nothing. Even if they were not slackers before, they will become slackers. The teacher has left the classroom and the students are free to stop doing work and start throwing spitballs instead.

02/24/2010

Don't be afraid to fire a customer
Businesses often feel desperate to hold on to their customers. In our country's current economic state, that feeling is even more pronounced. Losing customers feels like you are starting to slide down a very slippery slope that leads right to being out of business.

02/18/2010

Tip from Google: cultivating ideas
It is Tuesday afternoon, and you are in your office, door closed, sitting in a lounge chair you recently added to your office decor, with your feet propped up on an ottoman. You are reading a book. Not a book about TPS reports or supply chain management, but the newest book to top the New York Times bestseller list. You hear a light knock on your door, and before you can respond, the door swings open to reveal three of your managers staring at you, looking slightly perplexed. In response you:

02/11/2010

Don't let them see you cry? Never say never
I had told myself I was going to hold it in. Thirty minutes earlier, as I put the finishing touches on what I was going to say, I felt sad, but not quite on the verge of tears. Then, as I stood in front of our organization's 60 staffers, box of tissues close at hand, I opened my mouth to speak. Only a couple of words made it out before I became barely audible through my tears. I looked around the room, and my teary eyes were met with 60 other pairs of wet eyes staring back at me. I had just announced an almost 20 percent reduction in force, and there was no way any of us were going to get through something that difficult without crying.

02/03/2010

Managing without a clock takes work
When my organization first become a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE), the employees caught on quickly to how ROWE worked - they got to work and manage their personal lives on a schedule that worked for them, as long as they were able to achieve the results that were expected of them. Some of our managers, on the other hand, had a more difficult time making the transition. There was one major thing was missing from their management tool kit: a clock.

01/27/2010

Advice for the interview challenged
The door to our conference room opens slowly. The group of job candidates dutifully marches in. I stand and smile and hold out my hand, ready to welcome them to their interview. Something catches my eye. An exposed stomach, moving up and down with each step.

01/20/2010

A priest walks into a bar...
Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day. The cynic might argue that it is clear why a 6-year-old laughs more: they do not have a mortgage to pay or a job to get laid off from or a boss who is yelling at them for filing a report late. With all that pressure and stress, adults need to be laughing more.

01/13/2010

Why your customers break up with you
Why do customers leave? Studies show that 68 percent of customers leave due to the indifferent attitude of a company employee.

01/07/2010

Expect more than just showing up
Looking back over the columns I have written in the past few months, a reader could get the impression that I put the majority of responsibility on management's shoulders for productivity, profits and to create the right type of work environment for employees: allowing them to have flexible schedules, not forcing them to come up with excuses for being late, adding levity to the workplace and having policies that aren't overly strict. This impression is, in fact, largely accurate. But I am also very much pro-employee.

In tough times, success comes from lightening up
When the economy falters, it is time for companies to get serious. Employees need to focus - to not waste time on any fun, non-work related activities. Every minute of the day is important to the company's bottom line. If the company is going to survive the downturn in the economy, everyone's behavior needs to reflect the gravity of the situation.

There's no excuse for such focus on work time
Every weekday morning, hundreds of thousands of people around the country are doing the same thing. As they sit in their cars, running 30 minutes late for work because their 5-year-old threw up on their shoes five minutes before they left, they start thinking. Not thinking about what they have to do that day or what they hope to accomplish over the next few months at work, but about what excuse they are going to give their boss for being 30 minutes late for work.

The challenge of execution starts with strategy
The world is full of thoughtful strategy. Companies spend hundreds of hours every year and significant financial resources on ensuring that they have crafted a strategy that will lead them to success. When so much of a company's intellectual capital is dedicated to building its strategic foundation, why does the execution of a strategy so often fall short?