The 1 Thing That's Killing Your Productivity, and How To Beat It

The 1 Thing That's Killing Your Productivity, and How To Beat It
Advice on how you can boost your productivity from a former Monk

Distraction is the one mortal enemy of productivity.

While lovely, light open-plan offices are undoubtedly more inspiring than the dimly-lit offices of the past, there are times when it can be hard to block out the noise and get your work done.

Add this to the already long list of distractions in your work day - notifications galore, chat apps, phones and emails - and you've got yourself a bit of a monster on your hands.

Former Monk, turned entrepreneur, Dandapani recently explained how your productivity is being sabotaged and what you can do to combat it.

Without walls, open offices are rife with distractions - colleagues interrupting to ask questions, the clinking of bowls being stacked into the dishwasher, your desk-mate talking loudly to a co-worker across the way about their weekend - these are just some of the diversions that may be breaking your concentration.

Dandapani explained how establishing a communication policy enables workers to get the most out of open-plan offices. One way is to establish a policy that outlines when it is not appropriate to interrupt a colleague should be treated as you would a dress code or a set of company objectives.

He gives his time spent as a monk in a monastery - where they also had open offices - as an example. He says, even though they worked on communication most of the day, there was still a system in place so you would know whether another monk was available to talk or not; in some cases just from looking at their body language.

"If another monk was walking down the pathway, hands in front of him, fingers intertwined, you would know he was in a contemplative state and reflecting while he was walking," Dandapani says. "If his hands were by his side then you could go up and talk to him."

Dandapani suggests designated uninterrupted time periods as an example. Maybe between the hours of 1pm and 3pm are for solo work and any collaboration or questions must be reserved for before or after. It's up to the team to decide what would work best.

"Distraction is a productivity killer and worse still it breeds a habit pattern of distraction in your subconscious mind," Dandapani says.

At my company, Xero, we have open-plan offices with built-in independent workspaces. We have private meeting rooms and quiet zones, some of which are bookable, enabling employees to get on with their workflow uninterrupted if need be. Some even just pop their headphones on as a way to signal they are unavailable.

We also give our team members the flexibility to work from home if they need to. We encourage open communication but also have a culture where personal boundaries are respected.

Dandapani certainly doesn't recommend becoming a recluse. It's all about knowing when to collaborate with your colleagues. Timing and discriminating between what's important and what's not, is everything.

At the end of the day, there is no greater tool than concentration when it comes to productivity.

Thank you to Russ Fujioka for writing this article.

How to Earn Respect at Work

These five simple rules increase your credibility and ability to influence others.

1. Be yourself and not your role.

Sometimes people think they must create a persona in order to command the respect of others. Bosses think they should be authority figures, salespeople think they should be fast talkers, engineers think they should be nerds, and so forth.

However, who you really are is more likely to command respect than your ability to play a role that's unnatural to you. People have a natural ability to detect fakery, and see fakers as untrustworthy, insecure, and ultimately insignificant.

On the other hand, people are drawn to individuals who truly are what they seem to be. Being yourself (and at your best for whoever you are) is therefore the foundation of earning respect.

2. Show curiosity about other people.

If you're curious about other people, you listen, truly listen, to what they have to say. When people realize that they're really being heard, they'll tell you what's important (to them) about their jobs, their dreams, their fears, their goals.

That knowledge not only gives perspective on how to do your job better, but also helps you see how you can best help others. That's essential, because whenever you help other people, it increases their respect for you.

In a larger sense, curiosity about other people helps you do just about any job better. Bosses more easily manage people when they understand them, salespeople more easily discover customer needs, and engineers even build products that more people want to use.

3. Give credit where credit is due.

There are times (such as when you're updating your resume) when you'll want to toot your own horn. However, if you want your coworkers to respect you, you'll make those times few and far between.

In business, almost every accomplishment is a team effort. When you publicly praise the people who helped you get your job done, they (and everyone else) will be far more likely to help you next time around.

More important, giving credit where it's due shows respect for others, which in turn creates more respect for you.

4. Dress appropriately for the job.

Rightly or wrongly, people judge based on the visual signals you provide to them. When you meet people for the first time, they take in everything about you: your clothes, watch, jewelry, briefcase, makeup, skin tone, facial expression, and so forth.

It is therefore in your interest to think about how the overall "package" is likely to seem to the other person. Consciously create a set of visual signals that is likely to communicate that you're a person with whom the other person would want to do business.

If you're not naturally style‐conscious, the best way to hone your appearance is to get feedback from a colleague or perhaps your boss. If there's a problem, make adjustments until you're presenting a visual image that matches your ambition.

Does this mean that you might have to spend money buying expensive clothes? Absolutely, if the nature of the job demands it. If you can't afford "the look," make getting the right clothes your top financial priority.

5. Think before you speak.

Nobody respects motor-mouths. Therefore, whenever you intend to say something, take a moment to frame your thoughts and decide how best to communicate them.

Pausing before you speak not only keeps you from half‐articulating half‐baked ideas, it also makes you seem thoughtful. And if you're responding to somebody's comments, it shows you've taken the time to digest what you've heard.

Thinking before speaking also prevents you from spreading gossip and saying things that you'll later regret. As Abraham Lincoln said, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

Thank you to Geoffrey James for compiling this information.

My Summer Internship with Cloud Gate Consulting

Today is my final day as an intern with Cloud Gate Consulting. Looking back at this summer, I can't believe my time with this amazing company has already come to an end. I started here back in May and I can honestly say that this has been the best summer of my life. I have been exposed to so many different areas of this industry and I can't thank Soloman and the rest of the management team for giving me this opportunity. For anyone looking for a career or internship that will truly change your life, Cloud Gate Consulting is for you. The skills and lessons they teach you here can be applied to every area of your life and I know that I will continue to use the skills that I developed here for the rest of my life. I have never seen an office with the type of environment that CGC has, and I doubt I ever will again. Everyone can not wait to come into work every day and there are always people hanging around the office long after the work day is finished. The amount of time and personal training they put into each and every employee still amazes me and shows just how much they care about their employees. I will never forget my time at Cloud Gate Consulting and I know that they will continue to do amazing things here and change the lives of everyone who walks into their office!

Best,

Matt

3 Core Behaviors of Brilliant Thinkers

3 Core Behaviors of Brilliant Thinkers
You can identify great innovators by the way they behave.

I am often asked how to identify the best innovators. People want to know if there are key personality characteristics that determine who will be able to innovate. I agree that it would be great to have a simple test you could give people to figure out who will come up with the most ideas and be able to bring them to fruition.

The science behind innovation, though, tells a much more hopeful story. The best innovators exhibit three core behaviors. The best part about recognizing that innovation is fundamentally about behavior is that behaviors can be changed much more easily than the motivational elements underlying personality characteristics. As a result, anyone can improve his or her ability to innovate by adopting these behaviors.

1. Learn widely

The best innovators have a base of knowledge that is both broad and deep. They start with an area of expertise that they deeply understand. They have a lot of causal knowledge, meaning that they are good at answering the question, "Why?" particularly in their core area of expertise. They understand both the big picture in that area of work as well as the fine details of how things work. To keep up with developments in their area of expertise, they are constantly learning more by reading, attending lectures, and engaging in discussions with other experts.

Innovators don't stop with their core expertise, though. They know that the best ideas come from combining their core knowledge with insights that come from other areas.  They recognize that drawing analogies from one area to another often provides the basis for new insights. As a result, innovators also explore new intellectual terrain regularly.

That means innovators seek out the time to learn about new things. It can be difficult to find this time, because the workplace is often busy. Taking the time to develop new areas of competence requires prioritizing learning over other aspects of a job. 

If you are trying to identify the best innovators, then you need to look for the most curious people. Who spends their time trying to learn?  Who asks the most questions?  Who is not satisfied to hear an answer, but really wants to know why that answer is correct?

2. Generate a lot of ideas

When the time comes to find ways to solve new problems, research on creativity confirms that the people and groups who come up with the best ideas are the ones who come up with the most ideas. The more ideas you develop, the more likely that you will find a great idea. 

This means the best innovators also come up with a lot of bad ideas. It is important to realize that, because when you are looking for good innovators, it is tempting to focus on people who had a particularly good idea. You might be tempted to discount the innovation capacity for anyone who has a bad idea.

Anyone can stumble on a good idea once. The people who generate lots of possibilities, though, have a better chance of being serial innovators. When the tendency to generate good ideas is coupled with a wide base of knowledge, then you have two core ingredients for a great innovator.

3. Care about the details

Creativity is wonderful, of course, but as one of my graduate advisers used to tell me all the time, "Ideas are cheap."  That is, having an idea is the easiest part of the process of innovation. The hard part is taking that idea and turning it into something that can be put into practice.

As a result, the details matter a lot. A good innovator takes an idea and then focuses on how it can be implemented. Indeed, innovators spend much more time honing the details of a new project than they do on spouting off ideas.

That means innovators have to be willing to commit to identifying the obstacles that will prevent a new idea from succeeding. Then they have to assemble a team that will adapt the idea to the world in which it is going to be used.

Ultimately, when you look for great innovators, you want to find people who care about both the forest and the trees. Innovators need to understand how their innovation fits into a broader ecosystem. At the same time, they need to be concerned about how to bring it into being. 

Look for people with a keen ability to identify obstacles combined with a positive attitude about overcoming those obstacles. Many people are good at finding reasons why an idea will not work. Most of them use those reasons as an excuse not to proceed. Those people who see the obstacles as a challenge are the ones who have the capacity to go from idea to innovation.

Thank you to Art Markman for writing this article.

7 Ways You're Making a Bad Impression at Networking Events (and How to Stop)

7 Ways You're Making a Bad Impression at Networking Events (and How to Stop)
Don't walk into the room with a self-centered mentality.

Whether you love them or hate them, networking events are a crucial component of being an entrepreneur. Mingling with other experts in your industry not only helps you generate leads, but it could lead to potential partnerships, give you new business ideas and maybe even boost your reputation.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that they're not all about you. Yes, networking events are a way to promote yourself and your brand, but if that's all you're doing, chances are you're making a bad impression. 

Seven entrepreneurs share how professionals are making a bad impression at networking events and how they can change their ways.

1. You talk too much.

So often at networking events, people want to talk about themselves and what they do, but they forget to listen. Listening is the most important part!

Think of networking as speed dating for your professional life: You're essentially looking for professional matches and creating relationships. When you listen as much as you speak, you'll create more meaningful connections.

- Laurie Davis, eFlirt

2. You make friends, not leads.

Networking is all about getting people to like you and getting them to be interested in what you're doing. The best way to do this is to practice active listening and aim to make friends, not leads.

- Lisa Curtis, Kuli Kuli

3. You advertise your business.

Rather than making new friends and connections, many business owners focus on advertising their business. They talk about their own company without hearing what other people have to say.

This leaves a bad impression because potential connections will think you're selfish and in turn try to avoid you.

- Ajmal Saleem, Private Tutoring Houston

4. You're self-absorbed.

Two things that make a horrible impression are making the conversation all about you and name dropping. To avoid this, focus the conversation around the other person and see how you can provide value to them.

- Arry Yu, GiftStarter.com

5. You don't ask how you can help others.

Go to a networking event with questions prepared for the people you plan to meet. Ask how you can help them, and they will often want to return the favor.

People love talking about what they do. Make a memorable impression by truly listening.

- Nick Francis, The Franchise Group

6. You bounce around.

I see a lot of people "bouncing around" and just dropping business cards to every person at the event. It's like their goal is to see how many business cards they can hand out.

I've learned that a better strategy is to have a few great conversations with select people rather than trying to have vague conversations with as many people as you can.

- Bryan Driscoll, Think Big Marketing, LLC

7. You're looking to take rather than give.

A major part of networking revolves around giving specific value to a connection, whether it's you or someone you know who can give it to them. Many times, I come across people who are looking to see how they can benefit from a relationship without considering the other person's needs.

The primary focus shouldn't be centered around how they can help you but instead how you can help them.

- Thomas Edwards, The Professional Wingman®

Thank you to Kevin Ryan for writing this article. 

7 Incredibly Useful Facebook Hacks You Probably Didn't Know About

7 Incredibly Useful Facebook Hacks You Probably Didn't Know About
You may think you've mastered the book of Face, but there is more to learn. Much more.

1. Share a post with everyone except one person

Friends with your boss or colleagues on Facebook but don't want them to know just how hard you partied last night? You can post a Facebook update and exclude only certain people from seeing it.

How to do it: Facebook app > start a post > dropdown menu below your name (starts with Friends) > Friends except ... > Add all the Friends you (don't) want.

2. Have Facebook stop automatically playing videos in your feed

Surreptitiously scanning your Facebook news feed during a meeting gets a lot more conspicuous if a video suddenly starts emitting loud sounds of a cat falling down a staircase.

Change your settings to prevent such autocratic auto-playing. Not only will this save your sanity, it will save you a lot of data on your phone plan.

How to do it: Facebook app > More > Settings > Account Settings > Videos and Photos > Auto-play > Never Autoplay Videos.

3. Change your relationship status without alerting the known universe

Heartbreak is hard enough without your college roommate's best friend reaching out about your newly single status. You probably didn't know you can switch your status without announcing it to everyone in their news feed. (Note: You can also do this with job changes.)

How to do it: Your profile in the app > About > Relationship > small button on bottom left with silhouettes > change to Only Me > switch status to Single (or whatever you like). Changes will not appear in others' news feeds.

4. Teach people how to pronounce your name correctly

Tired of having to explain it all the time? Let Facebook do the work for you.

Profile page in app > Edit info > scroll down to + How do you pronounce your name? This will then show up for people in your "About" section.

5. Disable Facebook Messages read receipts (when it says "seen")

If you're like me, you don't always want people to know when you've seen their Facebook messages. Sometimes you'll even studiously avoid a message because you know once you open it, you'll feel forced to reply.

Fortunately, there's an app for that - sort of. While you can't avoid read receipts on the Facebook mobile app, there are several options on desktop. The free app Unseen allows you to secretly read Facebook messages without the sender knowing. Unfortunately, enabling this superpower means you won't be able to see when others have read your messages. It's not perfect, but it's better than avoiding messages altogether for fear of being "seen."

How to do it: If you're using Chrome, download the extension Unseen for Facebook. If you use Firefox and/or Internet Explorer, install Chat Undetected.

6. Export birthdays into your calendar

One of the most useful parts of Facebook is getting to seem really thoughtful for remembering people's birthdays, but it can be annoying to have to check it daily just for that. Export birthdays into your calendar to never miss one again.

How to do it (easiest from desktop, not the app): Facebook homepage (not your profile) > Events > scroll down to box on the right that says "You can add your events to Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple Calendar." > Birthdays. Copy that link, then open Google Calendar > Other Calendars > click the down arrow > Add by URL > paste the URL.

7. Save articles for later

There are probably a number of interesting articles you see in your feed but don't have time to read right then. Facebook has a built-in bookmark feature to help with this.

How to do it: Click the Share button on the article > Save Link. On desktop, your bookmarked articles will stay in the Saved tab on the left; on mobile, in More > Saved.

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Facebook was created to help you connect with others. But let's Face it -- it's even better when you get to connect with them on your own terms.

Thank you to Melanie Curtin for writing this article.

5 Warning Signs of a Toxic Company Culture

5 Warning Signs of a Toxic Company Culture
Toxic cultures are everywhere. Watch for the signs and get ready to walk right back out the door.

The High Cost Of A Toxic Culture

Sometimes, a toxic culture is glaringly obvious. At other times, it is masked behind the gossip, fake smiles, and the knife in your back as you walk through the meeting room door. A toxic culture generates significant problems for an organization anything from financial loss, high turnover, lower levels of engagement and productivity.

The Access Perks Blog shows that in the United States 40% of organizations state the loss of personnel as a top concern, engaged employees are relatively low at 13%, employee turnover costs organizations $11 billion, with a massive 80% of employees reportedly being stressed out by work.

Here are 5 signs to look for prior to deciding to join a company or when you make the decision to type up your resignation and walk out the door.

1. Inauthentic Leaders

Inauthentic leaders who lack honesty, integrity and transparency.

They say one thing yet do something completely different. Live by the maxim - actions speak louder than words. These leaders are the first to speak and the last to take action.

In fact, employees find it difficult to trust them let alone believe a word they say. The Cornerstone On Demand report indicates that working with a toxic colleague encourages 54% of good employees to quit.

People naturally follow inspirational leaders who practice what they preach. Leaders who don't just simply say the right things, they also do the right things.

2. Unmotivated Employees

When employees disconnect from an organization it is usually very obvious. They are not connected to their work, they wallow, waste time and have little or no interest in the values or vision of the organization.

Subsequently, they spend more time gossiping, concocting ways to take extra time off or leave early and spend more time at the water cooler and coffee shop than they do working. These employees drain your energy as they are negative to be around and infect others with their constant complaints and looks of unhappiness.

They are highly unmotivated with little or no desire to be promoted. They are simply filling in their time until they decide it's time to move on or find another opportunity that has more 'perceived' benefits. 

3. Playing Games

Some leaders and employees may spend more time playing games, anything from complaining, blaming others, developing strategies to sabotage other people's careers, or devise a plan to remove them from the company altogether.

This may be achieved by building mutually beneficial relationships with other senior executives or becoming a part of a 'clique' that has significant power or decision making ability.

I once worked with a high profile organization that had a great brand, talented people and a long list of outstanding achievements. However, the tide had turned and they suffered from a toxic culture via ambiguous communication, changes in leadership, a vague vision, bad management practices, and leaders playing games.

The once highly successful organization suffered from negative press and massive financial losses which led to a high turnover, low levels of engagement and productivity and fearful employees. 

4. Zero Communication

When communication is reduced to a bare minimum, employees have no idea of what is really going on despite announcements being made and meetings being held. There is a lack of understanding with no-one knowing the 'real' truth of the current situation or what the future holds.

This leads to employee's feeling fearful, anxious, and nervous thereby accelerating gossip and 'stories' about what could or will happen within the organization. This leads to confusion, stress and major unhappiness. 

People love to be acknowledged, they want clear communication, to know and understand the direction of the organization which includes an inspiring vision for the future. At the end of the day, employees want to know that they are valued, that their contribution matters, and they are doing work that makes a difference.

5. Red Tape

In some organizations, the red tape is so entrenched, it would take years to untangle the mess.

Employees become really frustrated when they are constantly stopped or blocked by the obstacles created by red tape. The constant interruptions, endless processes and policies become overwhelming and exhausting for those keen to achieve and exceed their individual, team and organizational goals. 

Bear these 5 signs in mind, the next time you attend a job interview. Do your due diligence, ask lots of questions and take a good look behind the glossy facade.

Your happiness at work impacts every area of your life including your health, family and lifestyle. Be sure to make the 'right' choice for you.

Thank you to Angelina Zimmerman for writing this article.