Posts for tag: productivity

4 ways to instantly improve your communication

Poor communication can lead to misunderstandings on priorities, work deadlines, and a whole host of other problems.

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2 Steps to Overcoming the Time Poor Trap

More than ever it seems that increasing numbers of us are overwhelmed by an ever-growing and never-ending to-do list.

Just as we seem to get some time to catch up, urgent requests pings into our inbox and yet another well-intentioned day is high-jacked. For many of us, this has become our normal state, thereby creating more urgent requests as critical tasks slip through, only to pop up again a few days later as urgent priorities.

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Stop Working, Start Storytelling

Movies, plays, novels, even jokes are forms of storytelling and EVERYONE loves them. There were two brothers, one adored opera, his brother loved pantomime. Different genres, both with stories at their core, there’s not a person alive who doesn’t enjoy a good story, though we may differ in our preferred style of storytelling.

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Dare to be Fair – The Secret to Awesome Leadership?

Whilst at the helm of GE, Jack Welch would famously slice the bottom 10% of managers each year. Apple openly charge consumers high prices, generating enormous margins. In most organisations men are paid more than women for equivalent work. Surely the key to success in business is profit, but it seems that profit comes from treating some people unfairly?

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5 Steps to Better Meetings

Do you find that some meetings sap your energy, achieve little and leave you feeling frustrated? It shouldn’t be this way. Why is it we can sit still for two hours watching a play or movie and be fully engaged yet find a 1 hour meeting tedious? Try these steps for better meetings.
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5 Unusual Employee Perks

It’s increasingly important to give staff more than just a pay cheque, not every business can afford health cover so here are some unique employee perks that needn’t break the bank.

1. Stand up desks
The revolution to get employees off their backsides and upright is well underway and those who have made a stand say there is no going back.
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5 Ways to Get More Done Without Working Harder

It can feel sickening to reach 6pm and see a largely incomplete task list. What happened to those good intentions that we had first thing in the morning?

Here are just 5 of many techniques used by the most productive people we’ve worked with:
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8 Daily Habits of Successful Leaders

If your inbox and meeting schedule is dominating your working life here are some habits adopted by successful leaders that enable them to retain a fresh perspective and intellectual edge.

1. Get out in the field – Management by walking about tends to illicit far more accurate information than reports and spreadsheets. At Pret a Manger each member of head office staff has a buddy store where they regularly spend a day making sandwiches and listening to staff on the front line. …

4 Reasons Most Meetings Fail

Ever been to a meeting and not really known what it has achieved – or have you ever been to a meeting to talk about going to another meeting? These incidents are common and so what is it that makes a meeting a ‘fail’?

Grumbling about meetings for the sake of meetings is something of an art-form in business. Meetings are necessary though. As any manager will know – without a meeting all hell can break loose with miscommunications, undefined goals and missed deadlines. So why is it that so many meetings are seen as a complete waste of time by those who begrudgingly attend them?

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Leadership Lessons from LEGO Building success

Over 70% of homes have at least one stray brick buried deep in a sofa or hiding in the dusty corner of a cupboard.  With 33% operating profit on sales of £2710 million LEGO is a serious business.

Alongside bacon and beer, LEGO is one of Denmark’s greatest exports, some might even say ‘Probably the best toy in the world!’  The LEGO phenomena began in 1932 when Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, who believed in the value of play, decided that the best kind of toys are those that can be built, and then rebuilt. Stimulating creativity and imagination, whilst developing character.

There’s much we can learn from LEGO as adults.  The four letter name LEGO is derived from leg godt, meaning ‘play well’ in Danish, and ‘I study’ or ‘I construct’ in Latin.  Underpinning the name is the company slogan ‘Only the best is good enough’ An admiral intention but one that nearly led to the iconic toy’s collapse 10 years ago.

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