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Wednesday, March 24, 2010Active Leisure Can Make You More Productive at Work
People in general love what I have to say about how good sleep, food,
mood and exercise not only make us feel better, but also help us do better at
work.
But one of the objections I hear most often from prospective clients is that
wellness at work is costly, and we aren't too sure if it adds value to the
bottom line.
In response to this objection, I'd like to point out a new finding, issued from
research headed by Nico Pronk,
The cost of productivity loss (including absenteeism and presenteeism)
for employees who have poor food habits, are physically inactive, smoke and
overuse alcohol is about 5 times higher than that of employees who adopt the
reverse, healthier habits.
-AND-
Turning 1 of these 4 behaviors from unhealthy to healthy decreases the associated costs by an average of $790!
This is very concrete evidence that lifestyle hygiene impacts your
productivity. Employers, wouldn't these cost savings give you plenty of
budget for a few healthy and uplifting wellness initiatives?
And it doesn't have to be formal exercise! Go for a walk, play outside with the kids, de-clutter a corner, manually wash the car or work on your front lawn. This new habit will simultaneously improve your mood, body and productivity. Enough of the excuses - they are unsexy and unproductive. Time to get moving! Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar @ 10:03:14 AM
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Show All » NEWSLETTER ISSUES » Business & Leadership
Wednesday, November 25, 2009How Thanksgiving Can Boost Organizational Performance
I recently heard fantastic news while on a conference call hosted by the International Positive Psychology Association. The guest speaker was Dr. Kim Cameron, and he started his call with a very interesting question.
Seeing that the stock price of about 80% of corporations who downsize in a bad economy dropped, he wondered what the 20% of organizations whose stock price did not drop was doing differently.
His research showed that an organization's virtuousness makes the difference. By virtuousness, Cameron means the extent to which the organization is benevolent, highly ethical and strives for excellence, as well as the extent to which its employees flourish, experience flow and vitality.
Dr. Cameron then studied whether implementing new virtuous practices could improve performance, and found statistically significant relationships between 
virtuous interventions and:
- productivity
- quality
- innovation
- customer loyalty
- employee retention
- profitability.
If you thought fulfillment and ethics were touchy-feely concepts unrelated to the bottom-line, think again. Turns out all those values Mom taught you make a lot of business sense in the end.
Employers, why not give heartfelt thanks to your employees for all their support and hard work this Thanksgiving? After all, what would you do without them? Employees, I'm sure your boss isn't perfect, but I'm also persuaded he or she does a few things you appreciate, and making that known will help you get more of it. As Dr. Cameron's research shows, getting the good vibes flowing abundantly can only benefit the organization overall.
Want to implement a few virtuous practices in your organization? Email me: info@SmartsAndStamina.com. In the meantime, I'd like to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy Thanksgiving. And sincere thanks for being here and reading me!
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Wednesday, September 09, 2009Email Strategy To Increase Productivity
In today's fast-paced business
world, it's easy to be very busy all day, yet not get anything of value
accomplished. If that's your case, I bet your days feel long, but your
satisfaction is low. Your number one enemy could very well be email.
But don't delete this newsletter just yet: the 60 seconds required to finish
reading will be a wise time investment!
Here are my 2 strategies to increase your productivity:
1. Deal
with email only once. When Outlook beeps to indicate that
you received new mail, it can be tempting to immediately go see what it's
about. Often, we'll interrupt our work, go read the email, decide we'll
deal with it later and go back to what we were previously doing. Since our
brain (and laptop!) takes a second or two to adjust from one task to another,
the back and forth generates no-value activity. Moreover, putting the
email aside also means you'll need to read it again before you can respond,
another big waste of valuable time. A better strategy is to read email
when you know you can deal with it - and deal with it at once!
2. Schedule email outside of your prime mental time. I used to try
to get all the quick and easy things - including email - out of my way in the
morning so I could focus on more substantial pieces afterward. Problem
is, once I was through with it all, my energy level had dropped. After
paying attention to how my personal rhythm of alertness works, I realized that
I usually feel most awake and focused between 10 and 12 in the morning. I
now reserve that time for my top priority for the day, which usually demands
the most concentration. I then read and respond to email
later, after I feel I've gotten something of value accomplished.
I've personally tried both strategies over the past several weeks. The
result? My productivity has increased - and so did my work
satisfaction. Try it out and see for yourself!
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009Get Rid of Never Ending To-Do Lists Once and for All
We all have limited time and
energy, as well as seemingly unlimited demands to fulfill. What's more,
many organizations have to manage the same workload with fewer players in
today's market. For those who are still on board, "To Do" lists
grow faster than most can handle. Sooner or later, life balance becomes a
concept a bit more removed from reality each day.
As balance goes down, so does efficiency. Our brains weren't wired for
non-stop work, making slowing down inevitable. At a time where your
impact at work is needed and scrutinized more intensely than ever, being
efficient may be the difference between keeping and losing your job. So
what can you do to get it all done?
To make the best possible use of your resources, you need to be disciplined in
deciding where to invest them. One way to do this is to examine what you
can elect not to do so there is more room for what you truly must
do.
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, has studied the factors that
differentiate companies that surpassed their competitors for sustained periods
of time. He explains that "Stop Doing" lists are even more
important than "To Do" lists because they keep your efforts focused.
At the
macro level, this may mean not taking on this new business venture that's not
fully related to your core competency. At the micro level, it may mean
that you'll send your next presentation to your colleagues by email as opposed
to photocopying and assembling it for every participant.
Maybe you participate in more meetings than you need to. Maybe you
dissect reports longer than necessary. Maybe you spend too much time
editing internal documents. Take a few minutes to examine your habits and
see where you have room to improve your efficiency.
Whatever
habits are inefficient, useless, or even counter-productive have to go.
Start your spring cleaning at the office this year!
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Tuesday, March 10, 200915 Minutes a Day To Keep the Back Doctor Away
Those of us who have ever put their backs out know: lower back pain is unforgiving and unforgettable. At the most unexpected moment, it sends razor-sharp impulses up your spine to signal your brain that whatever motion you just engaged in is to be abolished - at least temporarily.
Yes, lower back pain impedes a lot of activities - one of which being work. It is the second most frequent reason for doctor visits in America, making it a strong contributor to work absenteeism. The suffering it generates also diminishes one's ability to engage in work activities, thus also contributing to presenteeism.
65 million Americans suffer from lower back pain and its costs in terms of lost enjoyment and lost work productivity are shameful. Yes, you read right, I said shameful - because 95% of it is preventable.
The solution is easy. You can engage in abdomial and lombar reinforcement exercises, start a regular walking program, or both. Esay enough, right? No equipment required, no costly treatments, just the self-regulation to plug in 15 minutes per day, no excuses.
If you suffer from lower back pain, you won't admit that your life is so out of control that you can't even find 15 minutes per day to take yourself out of your misery, right? Anyway, my prediction is that 3 weeks into your new exercise regimen, you will more than make up for the time invested through improved productivity. So go ahead, get moving!
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009Your Heart At Work
"When people go to work, they don't leave their heart at home" - Lee J. Colan.
I've always been puzzled by how hard business organizations strive to strip the soft, emotional, or personal side of things out of their practices. Granted, objectivity is important for many reasons, but so is the human factor.
For people to fully commit and devote themselves for the company they work for, they have to love it. For them to love it, it needs to have a heart.
Here's an objective study supporting this seemingly touchy-feely claim: Gallup has interviewed over 10 million employees and found that when workers agree with the statement "My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person", the following happens:
- the employee is more productive;
- the employee produces more profitability for the organization;
- the employee is significantly more likely to stay with the organization long-term;
- the employee fosters customer engagement.
And it gets better: people who have a best friend at work are 7 times as likely to be engaged on the job than those who don't.
So the question is not whether organizations should be concerned with the human factor; the question is how to do it effectively.
I would have 101 suggestions to make, but let's start with one. Try implementing a "Caring For the Little Things" sticky note practice before you leave work most days of the week. Careful, though! This practice starts with actually caring!
For example, when someone puts in long hours to meet a 
deadline, write them a "Thank you for your perseverance" sticky note. If you hear at lunch someone's child will perform in the 6th grade concert, plan for a "How did Jake do?" sticky. A team member came in on her day off to replace a sick employee? Have an appreciative post-it on her computer screen when she comes in the next day - and another one with "Hope you feel better" for the returning employee.
These are little things that make a big difference. They can't be measured in widgets produced per hour, but their benefits are just as tangible. So much so in fact that you may well find that your new caring stickies are your best spent 60-seconds each day.
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Thursday, February 05, 2009Your Best Source of Competitive Advantage
What's your approach to improvement? Are you building your strengths, managing your shortcomings or just happy go lucky?
Here's an interesting string of research findings for your consideration:
- While people build on their strengths, they are also developing their self-confidence. Higher self-confidence is associated with higher incomes and fewer health problems (Judge & Hurst, 2008).
- Employees who play to their strengths are 6 times more likely to be engaged at work and 3 times more likely to report having and excellent quality of life (Rath, 2007).
- Organizations who utilize the strengths of their employees are 50% more likely to have lower turnover and 44% more likely to have higher customer satisfaction scores (Buckingham, 2007).
The results are clear: building on your strengths can benefit you at the personal, professional and organizational levels.
The late leadership researcher Donald O. Clifton from Gallup interviewed over 20,000 leaders over 40 years. His conclusion? "What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths - and can call on the right strength at the right time. This explains why there is no definitive list of characteristics that describes all leaders."
On the contrary, leaders who focus on people's weaknesses make them lose energy and confidence. Those who try to be good at everything may be successful at avoiding failure, but they are great at nothing. Hence, they have no competitive advantage.
Effective leaders must own their strengths and work to sharpen them. If you don't know what your strengths are, you owe it to yourself to find out. Click here to take an entirely free and confidential assessment. Plan about 30-40 minutes to take the test.
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