There are four productivity roles for a leader to manage his or her daily agenda. Some require more energy; some other is merely to get started. You are all familiar with these four, but you would probably imagine a different distribution of these. Yet, this first role is the one that needs most attention.

Sales may not be the first productivity role but is certainly the one that is most frequent used. A leader needs to be in constant contact with clients and new prospects. Existing clients that will buy the new direction to follow and prospects that will be gained along the line. Sales is also about selling that idea. And to convince that this idea is the best one to choose. Most of the energy a leader uses should be focused on this productivity role. Some leaders will have this natural charisma, that does most of the sales job for them, but not all leaders are equally endowed with the same natural talent.

Negotiating is the next role. The leader is the intermediary between one group of people, perhaps a team and some first movers that are walking already just behind the first man (m / f). The difference between this role and the sales role is the fact that the negotiator should align the various coalitions. Where some will just buy an idea, others need something in return. So you should negotiate.

The third role is the producer. Leaders need to be creative up to a certain extent. This is a less prominent requirement, because too much creativity will be followed by a loss of supporters. The leader shouldn’t do everything by him or herself but rather ignite the fire for others to start. It is even possible that the idea is already there and that the leader will make it commercial (again the sales role).

The last role is the supporter, the coach that supports other on their way. The man (m/f) behind of the troops, taking care that nobody gets lost. You should be able to count on that.

© 2006 Hans Bool

About the Author: Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White, a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days.You can apply for a free demo account.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed and stressed by all your responsibilities and obligations? You work full time, have a long commute to the office, have children and a partner, parents who are beginning to have health problems and volunteer commitments. Feeling stretched to the breaking point, your mood and health might be negatively impacted. Although there are many conveniences which are supposed to make life easier, if you don’t use them, don’t know how to use them or overuse them, it adds to the chaos you may already be experiencing.

These days many companies expect you to do more with less. You may be worried about how you will manage to do everything you’re required to, particularly with the time lines you have been given. Your own beliefs about a situation can also create stress. Are you a person who likes to have things done a particular way? Do you sometimes think it is just easier to do it yourself, rather than show others how to do it? How do you react if they do it differently and it is just as effective, if not better? Do you become self critical, expecting perfection?

What about connecting with family and friends? When people are devoting an inordinate amount of time to work, other areas of their life are ignored. This leads to living a life which is out of balance which in turn creates stress. When you experience stress, eating habits generally worsen, exercise doesn’t occur and fun and relaxation isn’t on the agenda.

Doing everything yourself is not humanly possible, besides some of the tasks probably bore you. So what is the answer? A 3 step process consisting of elimination, automation and delegation.

Elimination involves de-cluttering both your working space and your life. Have you ever walked into someone’s office and it looks like a disaster area? Papers are every where and trying to find things can take forever. Creating a filing system which works for you and getting rid of clutter is very freeing. A supportive environment helps to reduce stress and improves productivity.

The ability to refuse requests is another form of elimination. Learning to pay attention to what you can and cannot do is very important. When you are operating from a place of overload, being able to say “no” is a critical skill. Make space in your life for you, not just what others want from you.

Automation is the second step. There are many devices, appliances and technology which are designed to make life easier. You need to take advantage of these things. At the office turn your phone off for an hour and let your calls go to voice mail. At the same time do not look at your emails. Tell your staff not to disturb you during this time, unless it is a “life or death issue.” Spend the time working on tasks which you never seem to finish and notice if you are able to accomplish more.

Maybe it is your turn to make dinner for the family but you aren’t able to leave work until 6 p.m. Preset your oven to turn on or use a slow cooker. Set your watch or cell phone to remind you of particular tasks or events. Experiment with how you might automate more effectively. If you don’t know how to use a particular piece of equipment, ask for help.

Last but not least is delegation. How can others help you save time and ultimately money? What are the things you are doing that you could refer to someone else, freeing you up to do more of what you love. Consider off loading more tasks to an administrative assistant, secretary or team member. If you are a small business owner perhaps it would mean hiring a book-keeper or virtual assistant to do some of the time consuming tasks while you concentrate on building your business.

Timothy Ferriss in his book The 4 Hour Workweek is a big advocate of out sourcing. He feels that it prepares you to manage your life in a whole different way with the end result, having more time to do the things you enjoy. If you have someone managing the daily activities of your business, then you can take off while knowing that you do not have to always be on call.

To live a happier life, you need to incorporate elimination, automation and delegation into your daily routines.

Copyright 2008, Gail Solish. All rights reserved.

About the Author: Gail Solish provides Executive/Personal coaching to managers, directors and executives focused on workplace development and relationship management. Claim your FREE e-course, “Unleash Your Potential and Increase Productivity and Fulfillment”.

The way you set your goals influences your productivity, or your productivity choices influence the way you set your goals. Some goals are related to quantities, others have a quality dimension and often you are dealing with either of them.

Quantity related or oriented goals are those where there is some counting or accounting involved. The number of cars to produce, the number of questions to asked (for a reporter), the number of articles to write, the amount of money to earn, the number of members to add to your network, etc, etc.
Other goals caress such a counting element. What is the quality of the car to produce, what is a good question to ask, how would you define the quality of an article, what is the quality of your job (why do you earn so much money?), what is the quality of your network…?

Both elements are needed to define a goal, but experiences learn that the first types of goals are the easiest ones. You just set a number and… go for it. In business this is often the case in the core business; it’s all about numbers because that is the productivity element that is straight forward to manage – just set the right targets and increase them continuously.

But it is also possible to make the other goals (more) measurable. To do this you need to translate the abstract quality level to simple numbers. For example, to increase the minimum word count of an article. Another measure – the car-producing-example – is to increase the number of checks at production. Or in the area of the journalist to increase the number of questions to ask and the delete an amount of questions by choice. When checking the quality of your network you could (like checking web-links) evaluate the accuracy of your network by regularly “checking” the people in your network with the lowest contact frequency.

In all those cases, the quality type of goals are slowing down your main productivity objectives; increasing the quality slows down the production because you will have to build in extra checks and balances. And to organize this in most cases (to control the quality) you need feedback.

Quantity type of goals have an individualistic characteristic; you can just split the tasks to different people. To manage quality you are dependent on the input and feedback of others. And that is much more difficult to manage.

© 2006 Hans Bool

About the Author: Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White, a traditional management consulting company that offers online management tools. Have a look at some of their free management tools here.

More and more employers are using business book summaries to motivate their employees. This may in a large part be due to the results of a recent study conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres. The study clearly indicated that 85% of employees they interviewed who had access to business book summaries reported an increase in personal efficiency. In the same study and focus group, 60% of employees claimed that business book summaries helped them improve work performance and retention.

What made this study more convincing is the complementary study conducted by Bersin and Associates. According to the study, business executives who read seven books annually earn approximately thrice as much as those who only read one business book a year. As business books foster productivity and increase employee motivation, business book summaries should be able to do the same.

Employers are also turning to business book summaries for the time element. In a study by Bersin and Associates, 37% of executives admit to spending four hours per week merely seeking information. This translates to over $1,000 weekly loss in income. Since business book summaries are automatically delivered and are concise, employees and executives are spend less time digging up information and are able to spend more time doing their jobs.

Companies who are riding on this latest trend can be found all over the world. These organizations include U.K.’s largest retail chain operator, one of the largest public school systems in the United States and a major credit card company. Even small businesses are turning to this cost-efficient tool to train and increase employee motivation.

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