Jeffrey G Causey

Finally back with a new entry and I am continuing my book reviews from the 2017 reading list I put together. This post is all about Juggling Elephants: An Easier Way to Get Your Most Important Things Done--Now!   by Jones Loflin and Todd Musig, which is on the topic of helping you get the important things done now. I actually finished it a while back and am well into the next title on the list, although some personal issues kind of slowed down everything going on in my life. Juggling Elephants is a "fable" type improvement book. Actually, it is almost a fable within a fable. At the top level and used only superficially at the beginning and the end it tells the story of a father relaying advice to his grown daughter who shows up to meet him for lunch one day. The advice he gives is then the fable he tells her about how he learned to get so much done and to always be on top of the important things in life.

Late December and early January have turned out to be very busy, so my plans to put together a post outlining my 2017 reading list has been languishing on my to-do list. No longer though as I have finally found a few minutes to stop and put together the list. Why did I bother to put together a list for the upcoming year especially when I almost always have a book "in progress" at any given time? It was mainly driven by the suggestions on goal-setting that I recently wrote about. One of those tips was putting your goals in writing, so I did that with regard to what I hoped to read in 2017.

The concept of caring being something positive should be fairly obvious, but the title of this piece is not meant to be redundant. Instead, I hope it emphasizes the importance of a positive attitude and how it can impact those around you, notably your co-workers that you likely spend a lot of time with in your life. Besides helping to relieve stress, which can in turn enhance productivity, efficiency and effectiveness, positive attitudes can help people perform better when dealing with customers. Hopefully you realize that helping improve the customer experience ultimately has a positive impact on the bottom line for a business or organization.

The other day via one of my newsletter subscriptions, I came across this article ( Carol Dweck on Creating a Growth Mindset in the Workplace ) that surveys a book from 2007 - Mindest: The New Psychology of Success . I thought it had some really interesting points - to the point that I decided to jump in and order Mindset from Amazon (should be here in a few more days). The idea behind Mindset is that different mindsets impact not only how we do our jobs, but the mindsets of our employees can impact the ultimate success of an organization.

Today I came across an article ( 6 Phrases Secretly Sabotaging Your Team's Productivity ) with a bit of an odd mix of information, but all of it was really good. Opening things,  Karla Cook covers some stats regarding productivity killers for workers. This is based on a study conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and their American Time Use Survey completed for 2015 . One of the things that I liked about the information from this study is that it quantifies some truths that we all know.

Last week I shared an article about some potential problems that can crop up if collaboration efforts are not managed effectively. One of the issues that may surface is the stress and burnout for top performers when they are continually sought out by others in the organization. Likewise, as managers we likely have certain employees who are considered stars and it can be tempting to turn to them on a frequent basis to get the work done in an organization. However, it is important that we proactively manage the work that is being delegated so as to avoid overloading some employees and at the same time taking steps to help raise up lower performing employees. Although management may be as much art as it is science, we can still bring some structure to this delegation process as discussed in the article Make Sure Your Team's Workload Is Divided Fairly . The article brings up several steps and actions that managers can take when delegating assignments and projects. The main th...

I was recently reading an article on collaboration ( Collaborative Overload ) and some of the problems that it can create for an organization. Wait, what? Collaboration is a problem? That may seem like an odd claim in this day and age when we seek ever increasing levels of collaboration and teamwork in our workforces. As the article points out though, there are potential problems out there if the effects of collaboration are not managed effectively. The basic problem with collaboration that is identified by the authors is that demands for collaborative activities - like attending meetings - pulls people away from being able to work on the actual tasks that they have been hired to work on. This creates a cycle requiring them to do things like take work home, which in turn increases stress, which then leads to burnout and turnover.

Came across this list of items to make meetings more productive. I think I've tried just about all of these at one point or another. The only one I really dislike is the standing recommendation - it just comes across as gimmicky to me. I once had a boss who consistently called people to meetings without telling them what the subject of the meeting was going to be or why he was summoning them to a meeting - that really irked me, so I especially try to avoid doing that to others. Do you have any other tips for productive meetings? 10 Productivity Hacks to Transform Every Business Meeting [Infographic] According to Salary.com's 'Wasting Time at Work' survey, 47% of people say meetings are the biggest time-waster in their day. With that outlook, it's not surprising prospects are often hesitant to commit to sales calls and meetings. Reps should pleasantly surprise their buyers by running short, efficient, and productive meetings.

I'm not a big fan of Evernote (moved on to OneNote a couple years ago), but if you do use Evernote or would just like to see a model for a workflow using a cloud-based system, this article might be worth a read. Probably only applicable for smaller groups that don't have enterprise solutions deployed. Board Collaboration with Evernote I serve on a board that was recently faced with the challenge of finding a new executive director. This is a volunteer not-for-profit board so the board members are busy with jobs, families and other projects. The time we devote to this board needs to be efficient.

Recently I came across an article from Wrike that tried to list 6 ways introverts make great leaders. Unfortunately, after reading through the article I concluded that they had only listed 2 ways introverts could be effective leaders and 4 ways introverts deal with the ways of the business world. I did some additional brief research and managed to cobble together a list of 8 qualities of introverts that make them excellent choices for leadership positions. Here is the list I put together:

I ran across this article a few days ago about a new acronym - VUCA. This stands for: V - volatility U - uncertainty C - complexity A - ambiguity According to the article, we should expect to see more focus on VUCA as a set of considerations when dealing with business challenges or setting strategic goals. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the term - SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) - a tool used to assess where an organization is in relation to the environment (however that may be defined). The VUCA framework reminds me of SWOT, but at a slightly lower level when we are considering specific goals or strategies. One of the things I like that came from the article is the set of tools we can start to deploy or use once we identify where an issue may fall in the VUCA framework.These include things like communication plans or listening skills or collaboration to review possible responses. Using VUCA to Process Organizational Change - hr ...

This is a good list of some goal setting strategies. I think these could be used at both the personal goal-setting level as well as when we are working with organizations on setting goals. I particularly liked the suggestion about writing goals down as well as recognizing if you need to modify (or even abandon) goals. 10 Great Tips for Effective Goal Setting - #HR Bartender (Editor's Note: Today's post is brought to you by our friends at SilkRoad, a global leader in cloud-based talent management solutions. They have introduced the "SilkRoad Talent Talk Podcast," which identifies and discusses current trends in HR technology and the most pressing issues facing organizations.

Some nice tips on delegation and how it fits in with managing the performance of employees. Performance management can strengthen and grow delegation skills by Sharlyn Lauby | Posted October 3 rd, 2016 | Performance Management One of the skills that every manager must master is delegation. It's the art of assigning and entrusting another person with a task or responsibility. The reason I call it an art is because it's not as simple as saying "Do this."

Not often that I come across an article on motivation (both our own as well as those we work with) that sounds like a very brief political treatise on differing governing systems. I did note that a key to avoiding this chessboard way of thinking is making sure we drop our assumptions and really listen to people to learn what their motivations and interests are. The Chessboard Fallacy "In the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own."

Lot's of fun sounding ideas in this article. I haven't followed all the links to see how well the ideas are supported as actually having an impact. I think the bigger message though is that we need to be willing to experiment and be creative to keep the workforce engaged and productive. 5 experimental ways you can boost employee productivity The old-school, non-experimental attitude in some companies is why the younger generation of digital marketers is disenchanted with work. The resistant attitude of companies to burgeoning ideas leads to a low morale which affects employee productivity. The only way to turn this around is to try out new things.

A nice commentary about the long-term orientation that government leaders often need to take, even when trying to address a current problem. I can certainly relate to this as I see the fruits of my efforts in previous positions coming to fruition in only the last couple years. The Fantasy of the Quick Fix Americans are impatient. When we see a problem, we want it fixed yesterday. That helps explain why public leaders are reluctant to tackle the gnarly problems our society faces: It is difficult to show results in time for the next election.

This is a kind of long read, but I thought it was well worth it. I've seen a lot of the issues raised by the authors and how they can impact the success of change efforts in an organization - or even doom initiatives to failure. One of the key takeaways for me though was how important it is for leaders to be part of (and participate in) the processes and training concepts. Whatever leadership training is provided, it cannot be something for everyone else.  Why Leadership Training Fails-and What to Do About It Idea in Brief The Problem Companies are dumping billions of dollars into training and development programs-but their investments aren't paying off. The Reason Six common managerial and organizational barriers prevent people from applying what they've learned, no matter how smart and motivated they are.

You probably know that micro-managing employees is bad for your business and employees. What is the opposite of that though? Check out this article on autonomy. Autonomy could be the key to workplace happiness Research suggests that automony can have a positive impact in the workplace.

One of the characteristics lurking in my personality according to my Myers-Briggs type is a streak of creativity. I would say that is accurate and probably explains why I enjoy learning new things and activities like writing blog posts. In this article I came across, they suggest that "creativity can actively drive productivity at work". As I also hold a keen interest in productivity topics and concepts, I was intrigued. Laura Cole proposes three ways this is true and why businesses should encourage creativity and innovation, not only for productivity reasons but for long-term business success. How Creativity Can Drive Productivity in Your Small Business As a general rule, true creativity is lauded across the globe. From the iconic Burning Man Festival, which is held annually in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, to ever-diversifying International Women's Day, there are recurring events that celebrate the innate abilities and the creative potential that exists within ...

I recently ran across an article on how Disney/Pixar is bringing concepts used to power some of their most successful movies to the world of video gaming. As I was reading over the article, Four lessons in emotional storytelling and plot structure from Pixar , I started wondering how these concepts might apply in the business world. One of my challenges in my positions has been presenting financial information to boards and management staff in a way that moves them to action. Unfortunately, financial information can be very dry and something many people struggle to understand, so the only movement might be to close their eyelids as their eyes glaze over. Even employing a variety of techniques to help make the information more understandable for non-financial professionals, I still find it difficult to make that connection. Perhaps Pixar’s concepts can help with this.