Help wanted!
I heard a tip from someone the other day. Hire slow and fire fast! My experience has been that many managers hire fast and are pretty slow to fire.
When you’re short staffed there’s a lot of pressure to get another body in to help. What can happen, you hire someone who is not a fit, either they don’t have the skills or experience to do the job, or they don’t work well with other staff members. Either way, that new hire ends up costing you time, money and patience!
Here’s some tips about hiring the right person.… Continue reading
“I can do this better myself!”
I know you can, so can I.
“It’s faster if I just take care of it!”
Yes it is, in the short term.
With each new job or assignment I tend to keep some of those duties that I’m really good at, that I can do better and faster than others. What I notice is I have more and more to do and less time to do it – old tasks and new tasks.
Hanging on to familiar tasks is natural, it’s about staying in the comfort zone. It also reinforces that I’m good at something – I seem to… Continue reading
Interruptions
Do you ever get interrupted when you’re trying to get something done? Have you ever not been interrupted when you’ve tried to get something done?
I read a scary statistic the other day. An office worker is productive, working on a task, activity or project, on average 1 ½ hours per 8 hour workday. The rest of the time is spent on email, phone calls, meetings, chatting, looking for files, surfing the net, staring into space, going to the restroom, you name it.
Increasing your productivity is not that hard. The last post had tips to help you with… Continue reading
Time Robbers
Email and Phone Calls
Email – this is a hard one for so many. Are you addicted?
Tip 1: Stop checking your e-mail every second. It takes up enormous chunks of time. This is a huge drain on energy and productivity. Schedule when you’ll look at your email. Perhaps it’s three times a day. Turn off the “ding.”
Tip 2: Here’s a tip that you may want to check with your boss first. Use this tip if you are addicted to checking email and you are not required by your job to check as it comes in. You… Continue reading
If only my employees would…. (part 2)
Have you ever said that? All you can affect is the environment that your employees work in. That environment can encourage good work habits or allow bad work habits. You get to decide.
Warning: For any of these to work, you’ve got to apply them to everyone – consistently.
Here are some more tips you can use if your employees are:
Moody! People who are highly emotional are tough to work with. It’s a roller coaster ride for everyone around. Allowing the drama only encourages more drama. Not dealing with the drama sends a signal to all your staff… Continue reading
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