The CELEBRATION news"E"letter

Number 14, July 2000

by Laura M. Stack, MBA

Published by Celebration Presentations

…your Personal and Professional Development Resource

The CELEBRATION news"E"letter is a monthly electronic newsletter distributed to our clients, human resource personnel, and colleagues. Celebration Presentations works with organizations that want more productive people and individuals who want to lead more fulfilling lives. Our programs provide the personal productivity, communication, and professional development skills needed to improve performance on the job and create organizational growth.

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NEWS: Laura attends the National Speakers Association (NSA) Annual Conference from August 4-9 in Washington DC, where she will receive the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, the youngest businesswoman in the world to earn this certification.

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IN THIS ISSUE:

* Article: "Looking at Time Through the Lens of Leadership, Part II"

* Time Tips and Traps

* Words of Wisdom

* Featured Program: "The New TeleWork: Working Effectively From Home"

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ARTICLE: "Looking at Time Through the Lens of Leadership, Part II"

(Excerpted from a chapter I’m contributing to a new anthology written by 14 professional speakers entitled, "Motivational Leadership.")

Model the things you expect from your people, so that you are a source of inspiration rather than a cause of resentment. How can you create a culture that respects work and family balance, for example, if you don’t demonstrate it yourself by your actions? How motivating can it be to have an employee request a piece of information, to have you take 30 minutes finding the paper in the piles all over your desk? How can you say professional growth is important, if you don’t spend any time talking with your employees to help them determine how to be successful?

Employees frequently complain that the boss doesn’t plan well and has them running in a million different directions—chasing the latest crisis that the boss actually created. "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part," read the sign on an employee’s wall in my client’s office. As the leader, it’s tempting to put things off until the last minute because your staff can drop everything and bail you out. When you refer to yourself as being "under the gun," are the problems of your own making? Did the gun appear after your failure to attend to business in good time? Instead of being proactive early, you procrastinated until the due date became a crisis deadline. Then your folks paid the price.

Also model appropriate balance in your work and family lives—don’t try to be Super Person. There will always be more things to do than there is time to do it. Focus on your highest priorities and figure out how to eliminate, delegate, or simplify the less important. What ideas, projects, programs—that if implemented now or in the near future—would significantly impact the profitability or productivity of your staff or your organization?

Action Items:

• To reduce time spent by your staff on crisis management, spend time doing long-term, proactive, important activities, rather than always responding to the urgent. Don’t facilitate crisis at work by procrastinating on tasks until they become urgent. Leadership in time management requires you to: (1) figure out what matters most, (2) empower yourself and others to develop the abilities needed to accomplish those important objectives, (3) remove obstacles to their accomplishment, and (4) eliminate procrastination.

• Invest the time and energy in setting up an organized system to sort, filter, process, and organize incoming information from multiple inputs. Hire someone if you need coaching on organizing your workspace, email, conversations, and paperwork. Why? First, perception—studies show that people often equate sloppy work areas with incompetence, indecisiveness, and sloppy work. Second, opportunity cost—it’s been estimated that the average professional spends 36 minutes a day looking for things. That’s time much better spent on important tasks or getting out of the office earlier.

• Model a healthy balance to employees. If you’re holding a meeting or conference out of town, invite the spouses as well. If your son is having a little league game or your daughter is testing in karate, take comp time, and openly leave the office at 4:00 p.m. to show your commitment to your family. Once in a while, leave your office at lunchtime if you have an important personal issue to handle. Or hit the company gym a few days a week. Read a book, think quietly for a time, or talk with a friend about an idea not related to business at hand. Get a life! Let your employees see that you are a real person, just like they are.

• Take care of yourself—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If you don’t, your ability to take care of others will decrease as well. Figure out where you are out of alignment with your values. Does your time reflect the things in life that are truly important to you? Keep asking yourself questions: "What’s bothering me?" "What’s happening to me that I don’t like?" "What am I tolerating?" Figure out what you don’t need to do in your life and quit doing it (watching television, PTA, hire out the housework, etc).

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TIME TIPS AND TRAPS

• My daughter, Meagan, loves for me to "time" her when getting ready for bed. We make a race and a game out of brushing teeth and hair, putting on PJs, getting room cleaned up, etc.

• Pretend that you have a bus to catch at a specific time each night. Make up an arbitrary time, such as 6:04 p.m. (depending upon when you want to depart the office). You will use time in the late afternoon more efficiently, knowing you have to "get out the door" to make it on time.

• Forget perfectionism; it’s a form of procrastination. Don’t put it off until you have time to "make it better." For most things, it’s good enough. Go with what you’ve got. If a deadline is looming, deliver. You can always improve the memo or presentation later.

• Take five minutes and create a "master" to-do list. Grab something you can write fast with, and just dump everything that pops into your mind that you have any attention on right now. Don’t analyze or organize. You can use it later to analyze, plan, schedule. Whenever you think of something you want/need to do that doesn’t have to be done on a certain day, add it to your master to-do list. Review your list monthly and select some things you feel you can accomplish that month.

WORDS OF WISDOM

• "I have often reflected that the causes of the successes or failures of men depend upon their manner of suiting their conduct to the times." ---Niccoli Machiavelli

• "Get a purge for your brain. It will do better than for your stomach." ---Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." ---Albert Einstein

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FEATURED PROGRAM: "The New TeleWork: Working Effectively from Home."

Course description: How many hours of your day are spent commuting? Do you ever wish you could go to work without having to go through the aggravation of actually getting there? Would you like to devote more time to your family? If so, telecommuting could be for you. Get out of bed, walk down the hall, and switch on the computer. Your commute to work is now over!

One of the major trends in corporate America today is telecommuting, which is an off-site work arrangement that permits employees to work in their homes for all or part of the workweek. The main focus of this program is the employee--who is best suited for telecommuting, benefits to the employee, likely psychological and work-management problems and solutions, and organizational and interpersonal challenges.

Course Objectives:

• Understand the Benefits of Telecommuting
• Determine if Your Job and Personality Are Suited for Working at Home
• Negotiate an Arrangement with Your Employer
• Design Your Office for Optimal Productivity
• Set Up Effective Organizational Systems
• Avoid Distractions and Procrastination
• Establish Personal Rules for Telecommuting
• Overcome Isolation and Challenges of Working Alone
• Set Boundaries with Family and Friends
• Avoid Burnout and the "Do-It-All" Syndrome
• Preserve Your Professional Image and Maintain Visibility

"For more information about "The New TeleWork: Working Effectively from Home," please call 303-471-7401. Mention this newsletter and receive a 20% discount on this program when brought on-site to your organization.

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CONTACT US

Visit Celebration Presentations on-line!

http://www.LauraStack.com

On-line information includes: Program Descriptions, Articles, Laura's Schedule, Live Video Demonstration, Client Testimonials, and Pricing

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Contact info:

Mailing address: 9948 S. Cottoncreek Drive, Highlands Ranch, CO 80130

Phone: 303-471-7401

Fax: 303-471-7402

Website: www.LauraStack.com