You don’t have to make sweeping changes to the way you work to be more productive. COVID-19 has already brought sweeping changes to the way you work. Whether you are back in the office or still remote, little tweaks to your processes can have big results by the end of the week.
Concentrate
Multitasking is a myth. Even if you only spend five minutes concentrating on one task, you’ll get it done faster. You can’t prevent interruptions, but you can minimize distractions like silencing your phone and putting it out of reach so you can’t hear the social media notifications going off. Be proactive and don’t instantly react. Let the phone call go to voicemail. Let the email that just arrived sit in the inbox. Refuse the ad hoc meeting. Turn off instant message. Mute the computer. Are you a procrastinator? If your manager does not do regular accountability meetings, assign yourself project deadlines and write up your own weekly status reports. Take the last half hour of the day to determine what can be put off until tomorrow. The list should be both specific and realistic. For example: achieving inbox zero is not an acceptable task. Return Boss’s email regarding corporate holiday gifts, is. Calendar tasks that are important, but not urgent for times in your day you can count on having a quiet space in which to work.
Control
Most of us are really bad at estimating the passage of time. Keep track of how much you actually spend on tasks, including checking social media. An app may help. If the task is something you can do in less than five minutes, do it. Is there a task you’ve been dreading? Do it first and get it over with. When you receive a meeting request, ask yourself if your presence is necessary. Can you request an email summary or delegate someone else to attend? Speaking of email, most of it is someone adding a task to our list. Check your inbox at regular intervals. (Because you’ve muted the notification, right?) As soon as you log on, reply to every message that takes no more than two minutes to answer. If the message takes longer, write a rough draft, but don’t send it. A couple of hours later, refine it, and send it if you’re satisfied, then, repeat the process with the emails that arrived during that time. Schedule tasks according to when you feel most alert. Do deep work when you have the most brain power and routine tasks when you have the least.Take a break. Get up and stretch, walk around the block, or check social media. Change your scenery. Going outside or even just to a different room can boost your productivity.
You will get distracted and you will get mad at yourself for it. Forgive yourself and move on. Don’t overthink. Complete is greater than perfect. Do it. Leave it. Return to it. When all you’re changing are nitpicky details, submit it.
What are your productivity tips? Please share them in the comments section.
Awkward: The word that best describes the time period between a coworker’s dismissal and his departure. Even if it’s someone you don’t like, you wouldn’t wish job loss on anyone. Restructuring happens. Downsizing happens. Finding out someone’s role is eliminated makes you realize it can happen to you. It’s scary. It makes it hard to concentrate and do your job well. Not doing your job well puts you in danger of losing it, creating a vicious circle. You can’t control the corporate machine, but here are some things you can control:
The Obvious – Google what current resumes look like. If you haven’t had to search for a job for a few years, you may be in for a rude awakening. Employers want the story of your career in numbers, so you need to quantify yourself: How much revenue do you generate for your company? How much time have you saved your company through process improvement? Quantifying your job performance in percentages can be tricky if you are in an administrative role. You may have to get a bit creative. Can you quantify how much time you saved your supervisor? Can you quantify how much money you saved the company through frugal purchasing? You no longer have to put every job you ever held on your resume. Hiring managers only want to see your experience relevant to the job they need to fill. So, first create a master resume with every job you’ve ever had including dates, supervisors’ names and titles, the previously mentioned quantified percentages, referrals and contact information. Then, revisit it every six months to update any outdated information. If it becomes necessary for you to apply for a job, you can easily cherry pick the relevant experience from this document and create a fresh resume tailored specifically to the job for which you are applying. Don’t forget the cover letter. Plenty of job coaches are on the fence about whether or not the cover letter is dead, but most agree it doesn’t hurt your chances if you send one. Polish yours, then save it as a template. Make it a marketing piece that tempts a hiring manager to read your resume. Hopefully, you won’t need it for a while, so leave notes for yourself in it. For example: include several ways to contact you; at least your email address and phone number in the signature block. Leave a note to yourself in the greeting to go to LinkedIn and find out the hiring manager’s name. In the body, leave a note to yourself to choose three key phrases from the job description then give examples of how your experience fills those needs using the quantifying percentages from your master resume. If you unexpectedly lose your job, just having a foundation to build on can calm your panic.
The Not so Obvious – Get on a job posting website and check out positions that interest you and companies at which you’d like to work. Check out the job descriptions. Do you have the skills to do the jobs that interest you ? If you don’t, go get them. With Massive Online Open Courses (MOOL), there’s no excuse not to have up to date skills. And yes, I’m putting my money where my mouth is (or where my fingers are, in this case). I took an online Introduction to Financial Accounting class from The Wharton School of Business through a MOOL. It’s not only on my resume, but also on my performance review. Join LinkedIn. Do more than fill out your profile and upload a picture. If you need advice on how to use LinkedIn, search your public library’s database for a how-to book and check it out. While you wait for the book, read this article: https://www.themuse.com/advice/9-surefire-ways-to-boost-your-linkedin-profile-when-you-only-have-10-minutes Network. This can solidify your current position as well as help you make connections in case you need to quickly find out who is hiring. Does your employer participate in networking groups? Wrangle an invitation or offer to manage your company’s table at the next event. You can pass out business cards and collect them for your own future use while simultaneously promoting your company. And don’t forget to follow up with new contacts on LinkedIn. Do you know someone who has suffered job loss and bounced back into a new position? Buy her a cup of coffee and ask how she did it. Most people like telling their stories and smart people listen. Ask if in hindsight she knew the elimination was coming, what would she have done to prepare? When she gives you suggestions, do them.
Get a Side Gig – Take on an additional (part time) job, or a find a side hustle. At the very least, you’ll feel like you have some control over your destiny, and you’ll have a bit of income to fall back on if the worst happens. If the worst doesn’t happen, you’ll have a little extra cash; which leads me to my next point…
Save Your Money – This is not the time to purchase luxuries. Take this opportunity to pay down debt. Every month make an extra payment on your: car, credit card, student loan, mortgage (Get the idea?). Being debt free gives you so many options and peace of mind. No debt? Congratulations! Put the earnings from your side gig in your IRA. You DO have an Individual Retirement Account, right?
Keep Calm and… During uncertain times, you need to keep your wits about you. You can’t do that in panic mode. Need help getting down off the ledge? Grab your notebook (paper or computer) and start writing. Here are some prompts: What exactly are you afraid of? What is the worst that could happen? Seeing the words in front of you not only gives the feelings less power, it helps you form a plan. Then go for a walk, run, swim, yoga class, spin class or whatever. Do something to get your body and endorphins moving. Wear your body out to lower your stress so you can think more clearly.
Do Your Best Work – The company is going to do what the company needs to do. You cannot control that. The only insurance you can give yourself is to be the best at your job. Don’t give up. You’ll either keep your job or you won’t. And if you don’t, you’ll want to use your manager and coworkers as references. Let them be able to honestly tell your next hiring manager that you have enough emotional intelligence to show grace under pressure.
Please share your stories of living with job insecurity here:
One afternoon last week at work, my manager was distressed as she hung up the phone. She’d received a call from a customer with whom she’d been playing phone tag. He’d contacted our call center the week prior and the CSR (Customer Service Representative) could not help him so she notified several Program Managers (PM) detailing this customer’s issue. After several days with no resolution, my manager contacted the customer to determine whom was the correct person to help him. She did this knowing full well she was not that person. She was distressed because now the customer was needlessly frustrated. My manager determined which PM could help the customer and got the ball rolling in the right direction for him. My manager is a PM, but she demonstrated for everyone in our office how important customer service is. If customer service is not officially in your job description, here is why you should learn to do it anyway:
It May Not Be Your Job, But It IS Your Business – Even if you do not deal directly with customers you have a supervisor (even C-Suite employees have a board to whom they are accountable). This supervisor is actually your customer because your job is “At-Will” (Google “At-Will employment). Start thinking of your supervisor as a customer. I’ve worked at a television station, retail stores, schools, churches, and corporate offices. In all these jobs, I had managers. When I started treating them like they were a customer paying me for the skills I brought to my position, it changed the game. My attitude changed which made them react differently to me. You can use customer service skills in just about every job you’ll ever have. It adds value to whatever position you hold in a company.
What? Like It’s Hard? – Whether you sell a product or a service, people are what keep you in a job. It’s in your best interest to help them. With companies using fewer people to do more work, it behooves you to learn how to be nice. Most people think of complainers when they think of customer service and you definitely get those. First just stay quiet and let him talk. Soon, like a crying baby, he will wear himself out and you can get a word in. At that point, offer sympathy and tell him what action you intend to take on his behalf even if it’s just, “Let me talk to my manager and see what I can find out for you.”. A gentle answer turns away wrath most of the time. People usually just want to be heard. Then, they want to know someone is doing something about their problem. I was in a situation where I needed a prescription filled and had no clue there were restrictions on it. Luckily, the Pharmacy tech was fabulous at customer service. She told me if I could wait a day and come back, she would contact both my insurance company and my doctor’s office and figure out how to work within the restrictions. She even called me less than 24 hours after my first visit to update me on her progress. That made my second trip to the pharmacy in as many days much more pleasant. (Thank you, Michelle!)
Life Is All About Relationships – Customer service is simply getting along. The same skills you learned to get along with your college roommate, or church baseball teammates, or the people you volunteer with at your local Metropark, are the same skills you use in customer service. Let the customer know you are on his side. Your attitude should be: We are in this situation together. How can we get a win for everyone involved? It’s also about communication. Even if nothing can be done to fully satisfy the customer, an explanation and an empathetic apology is an acceptable answer.
It Benefits You – Customer service is a valuable transferable “soft” skill. When you help people, you gain a reputation as a problem solver. And problem solvers are indispensable in any organization. If someone you’ve helped is really grateful and says something like, “It’s been great working with you” or “You’ve been so helpful” and you feel it’s appropriate, let him know that a couple of sentences sent to your supervisor (and copied to you) in an email would be greatly appreciated. That way both you and your supervisor know how much you bring to the table. Put these emails in a folder and bring them out at performance review time. Remember: The more people you help, the larger your network gets. You never know what connections you can make or from where your next job will come. You may help the husband of a manager of the company for whom you want to work, and when she’s looking for someone special and talking to him about it on a dinner date, he might remember you and jump start your next opportunity.
How does customer service come into play in your job? Share your story here:
While driving to my Grandmother’s house, a “gentleman” abruptly pulled out in front of our car. My husband debated whether or not to express his displeasure. I said, “How rude!” (I know, I know, I need to cut back on the Full House reruns.) This started a conversation about how people seem to be much more discourteous now than we used to be. I felt very old talking about it (“What’s the matter with kids today?”) We wondered: Is it true? Are people more thoughtless now than we used to be? And, if so: Why? Is it characteristic of our entitlement society? Is it the lack of personal filtering on social media? Whatever the cause, people with manners are becoming an endangered species. If you are one of them, it may frustrate you as a driver, but it makes you a desirable employee. Here’s how to make your good manners pay off:
Go Back to the Basics
Workplaces have grown more casual over the past few years. While in some respects this is good, it has also promoted an environment of acceptable inconsideration. Buck that trend. Say please and thank you. Don’t interrupt when someone is speaking. Don’t talk with your mouth full of food. Act on the assumption that you cannot over thank your colleagues. For example: Our company uses an employee recognition platform that assigns us thousands of points to give to one another via a website when we help each other. The points add up to earn rewards such as gift cards or lunch with the CEO. I have the website bookmarked so when someone assists me I can easily give them some points. An added benefit: That person is happy to help me when I need them again.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Everyone has boundaries. If you work in cubicles, don’t just walk into someone else’s. Say, “Hello?” Or “Knock, knock,” or something to announce yourself. If you have a break room, don’t heat up last night’s leftover halibut without asking the people sitting there if it’s a problem. Do you usually put your phone on speaker? Let the person on the other end know. Do you forward other people’s emails? Ask permission first. Do you favor colorful curse words? Expand your vocabulary and avoid them at work (unless that’s part of your company’s culture code). Do you work with people from backgrounds different than yours? Don’t assume your communication style is the same. Many cultures’ business communications are more formal than America’s. If you initiate these practices, others will follow suit. You will not only be perceived as a leader, but also as emotionally intelligent. These are two qualities highly sought by potential employers.
You Don’t Have to Say Everything You Think
The immediacy of social media allows us to forget to use filters that make us stop and think before we speak or like or hit send. It also encourages us to voice our opinion on everyone else’s opinions. Before commenting, take a millisecond and ask yourself: Is what I’m about to say/write true, helpful, inspiring, necessary and/or kind? Social media also makes me feel like I need all my questions answered immediately. I really don’t and I especially dislike bothering my manager every time I have one. So, I’ve come up with this system: I sit at a transaction desk positioned next to the only entrance/exit to the whole office. Since my manager has to walk right by me to go to the ladies’ room, lunch, etc., I’ve gotten into the habit of putting paperwork or questions on the high shelf of my desk and she is now in the habit of checking it every time she walks by. This way I’m not interrupting her every fifteen minutes for non-emergency issues and often by the time she walks by, I’ve found the answer on my own. That’s my way, maybe yours is to send one email with three issues in it or meet with your manager for five minutes half way through the day. Find a consistent technique that works for you. Being considerate in what you say, as well as what you don’t say, makes you stand out in a good way.
The Golden Rule
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In business this moves from, “If you be nice to me, I’ll be nice to you”, to “If you do my pivot table for me, I’ll enter your QC data for you.” When you shift beyond coworkers to clients and customers, this becomes more than just being kind to other human beings, this is survival. Kindness can make clients loyal. Kindness can make customers buy more of your product or service and tell their friends to buy them too. If we get our ethics right, we build a reputation clients and customers want to share.
The bottom line is the Dalai Lama is right: “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” What are your thoughts on manners at work? Is your workplace so casual manners don’t matter? Or so formal it’s stifling? Do you see a cause and effect? Can you give me some real world examples of when manners mattered? Please tell me about them using the form below.
Photo by Markus Spiske freeforcommercialuse.net from Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/businessman-office-mobile-phone-finance-105472/
Like it or not we live in a 140 character society. I know a few pastors who REALLY don’t like it. I, on the other hand, LOVE it. I’m all about the KISS theory of communication (Keep It Simple Sister!). If you have to explain your idea too much, you haven’t communicated it very well. Your message does not need more words. It needs better words. Author Verlyn Klinkenborg says, “You can say smart, interesting, complicated things using short sentences. How long is a good idea?” Here are five tips for clear communication:
Use Action Words – Use the simple tense instead of the continuous tense of verbs when possible. Instead of, “I have been working at Acme Motors for 10 years.” Say, “I have worked at Acme Motors for 10 years.” Take time to choose your words. You may feel awkward with the staccato nature of simple tense verbs at first, but they set a nice pace and make your message clearer. Put yourself in your listener’s shoes: “If this was the first time I heard this message, would it engage me?”
Shut Up – When in conversation, listen more than talk. Figure out what really matters and filter your communication through that lens. Repeat in your head what you heard the speaker say and reword it back to her. My go to intro for this is: “Just to clarify what I heard you say…” Be aware of your listener’s non-verbals and make good use of your own like eye contact, nodding, smiling, and my favorite, the puppy head tilt. When you are on the phone, smile. Even though the caller can’t see you smile, they can hear it.
Broaden Your Vocabulary – Read, read, read. I read books suggested by Reese Witherspoon, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Susan Barber (http://susangbarber.wordpress.com) among others. A mix of fiction and non-fiction is vital. Don’t be afraid to read over your head. I keep a dictionary on my phone to quickly and surreptitiously look up words for which I can’t glean the meaning from the sentence (like the word surreptitiously).
You Got Some ‘Splaining to Do – You know what you’re talking about, but no one else does. Put your message in terms a 5th grader would understand. This is not belittling 5th graders. They are pretty smart, but they are not known for their patience. Give illustrations in a simple and concise context. Edit ruthlessly. Write a rough draft. Leave it alone for a while. Overnight even. When you go back to it, cut repetitive phrases. Things that sounded brilliant in your head at the time often look over explained in the harsh light of day.
Don’t Give Up – Does all this sound like work? It is. Rarely is communication complete. Keep refining your message. It’s like talking about the Birds and the Bees with your kids. You really don’t just sit them down one day and tell them about sex. It’s a years long conversation. One day your two-year-old daughter asks you where babies come from and you tell her, “Tennessee,” because that’s what her little brain can handle. When she is older, she asks again and you tell her, “When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much…” because she can handle more. As the years go by, the questions get more uncomfortable, but you keep communicating because the message is important. When your second child asks similar questions, you’re ready because you’ve communicated this message before and had a chance to edit and refine it. The same theory holds true for much of your communication. Your message is important. Work on it.
Have any tips for clearer communication? Share them here:
