Productivity Is All in the Word
Posted on December 7, 2010 | No Comments
Leanne Hoagland-Smith asked:
With information doubling every year to the ever-expanding global economy, today’s workers from the entry level to the president, must consistently deliver high levels of productivity especially if the business wants to outlast the competition. But, what does it mean to be truly productive?
One of best friends, Webster, shared with me that root for productivity is product which means:
Something made by industry Result Numbers obtained by multiplying two or more numbers together
Also, there is reference to the word produce that comes from two Latin words: forward and lead. This new definition has changed my paradigm.
Productivity is truly about leading forward and ending with a result.
A close friend and mentor once shared these quite insightful words with me.
“People confuse motion with progress and activity with results.”
What he had observed that people were spending the resources of time, money and energy being busy and involved in a lot of activities without leading forward (progress) and without achieving the products (results). Truly, these individuals were not productive even though they thought themselves to be demonstrating high levels of productivity.
To be a high performer where productivity is your partner demands a lot more than many companies and individuals are willing to invest. First, all individuals need to be incredible leaders where they integrate exceptional interpersonal skills and goal planning, setting and achievement skills that are focused on creating the desired results.
Since many individuals have never been developed to be effective leaders, their interpersonal skills may be weak. This weakness is now being identified by many of the top companies worldwide. The solution to this competitive disadvantage is through leadership development supported by corporate and executive coaching.
Over the last 50 years, an incredible amount of research reveals that good leadership development is directly tied to increased bottom line results. Companies that truly infuse leadership development into their people showed:
Outperforming the S&P significantly by 4.07% compared to .54% companies that did not develop leaders S&P 500 companies’ intangible assets value including leadership, patents and branding has risen from 20% to 79% 50% greater value for well developed leaders than average employees 50% reduction in employee turnover when a new CEO is hired from within
These leaders of productivity understand how to work alone as well as together to achieve these results or what could also be called organizational or departmental goals which is the second critical investment.
To increase productivity many companies set goals. Yet, how many employees have been trained to consistently set and achieve their own personal goals? The answer is probably less than 5% from my own research these last 10 years. When this investment is made to educate and train people to use the same goal planning, setting and achievement process both personally and organizationally across the entire company, productivity will dramatically increase.
Since goals are the desired results as identified through the strategic plan, then the third and final investment is the creation of an executable strategic plan. Without a truly well designed and even more so well communicated strategic plan of who does what by when, the best productive employees will quickly realize that they are being set up to fail.
Strategic plans are the foundation from which to build a high performance culture that maximizes the potential of the human capital laying within its boundaries. When people know what is expected of everyone and that management is truly committed in helping them remove the obstacles necessary to the achievement of the goals, then they will step up to the plate. If they do not, then management needs to assess if the current culture is the right place for those lower performing workers. One of the quickest ways to reduce the productivity of any organization is to keep poor performers because management is actually rewarding them for their poor performance.
The Pareto Principle probably speaks to performance productivity more than any other business model. The origins for this principle came from a mathematical formula created in the early 1900′s by the Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto. He realized that 20% of the Italians owned 80%of the Italy’s land.
In mid-20 century, Dr. Joseph Juran made the connection between the vital few and the trivial many to Pareto’s work. Juran recognized that 20% of something was always responsible for 80% of the results. This understanding created the Pareto Principle or what others call the 80/20 rule.
Management today must focus on the 20% of their employees who are creating 80% of their productivity. Ignoring this vital rule keeps good companies from becoming great ones.
The answer to productivity is within the word. To outlast and out produce the competition, your challenge is to lead forward by:
Developing a culture of leadership Establishing a consistent process for goal achievement Implementing an executable strategic plan
These actions reflect the words of Tom Peters: “The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.”
Create a video blog
With information doubling every year to the ever-expanding global economy, today’s workers from the entry level to the president, must consistently deliver high levels of productivity especially if the business wants to outlast the competition. But, what does it mean to be truly productive?
One of best friends, Webster, shared with me that root for productivity is product which means:
Something made by industry Result Numbers obtained by multiplying two or more numbers together
Also, there is reference to the word produce that comes from two Latin words: forward and lead. This new definition has changed my paradigm.
Productivity is truly about leading forward and ending with a result.
A close friend and mentor once shared these quite insightful words with me.
“People confuse motion with progress and activity with results.”
What he had observed that people were spending the resources of time, money and energy being busy and involved in a lot of activities without leading forward (progress) and without achieving the products (results). Truly, these individuals were not productive even though they thought themselves to be demonstrating high levels of productivity.
To be a high performer where productivity is your partner demands a lot more than many companies and individuals are willing to invest. First, all individuals need to be incredible leaders where they integrate exceptional interpersonal skills and goal planning, setting and achievement skills that are focused on creating the desired results.
Since many individuals have never been developed to be effective leaders, their interpersonal skills may be weak. This weakness is now being identified by many of the top companies worldwide. The solution to this competitive disadvantage is through leadership development supported by corporate and executive coaching.
Over the last 50 years, an incredible amount of research reveals that good leadership development is directly tied to increased bottom line results. Companies that truly infuse leadership development into their people showed:
Outperforming the S&P significantly by 4.07% compared to .54% companies that did not develop leaders S&P 500 companies’ intangible assets value including leadership, patents and branding has risen from 20% to 79% 50% greater value for well developed leaders than average employees 50% reduction in employee turnover when a new CEO is hired from within
These leaders of productivity understand how to work alone as well as together to achieve these results or what could also be called organizational or departmental goals which is the second critical investment.
To increase productivity many companies set goals. Yet, how many employees have been trained to consistently set and achieve their own personal goals? The answer is probably less than 5% from my own research these last 10 years. When this investment is made to educate and train people to use the same goal planning, setting and achievement process both personally and organizationally across the entire company, productivity will dramatically increase.
Since goals are the desired results as identified through the strategic plan, then the third and final investment is the creation of an executable strategic plan. Without a truly well designed and even more so well communicated strategic plan of who does what by when, the best productive employees will quickly realize that they are being set up to fail.
Strategic plans are the foundation from which to build a high performance culture that maximizes the potential of the human capital laying within its boundaries. When people know what is expected of everyone and that management is truly committed in helping them remove the obstacles necessary to the achievement of the goals, then they will step up to the plate. If they do not, then management needs to assess if the current culture is the right place for those lower performing workers. One of the quickest ways to reduce the productivity of any organization is to keep poor performers because management is actually rewarding them for their poor performance.
The Pareto Principle probably speaks to performance productivity more than any other business model. The origins for this principle came from a mathematical formula created in the early 1900′s by the Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto. He realized that 20% of the Italians owned 80%of the Italy’s land.
In mid-20 century, Dr. Joseph Juran made the connection between the vital few and the trivial many to Pareto’s work. Juran recognized that 20% of something was always responsible for 80% of the results. This understanding created the Pareto Principle or what others call the 80/20 rule.
Management today must focus on the 20% of their employees who are creating 80% of their productivity. Ignoring this vital rule keeps good companies from becoming great ones.
The answer to productivity is within the word. To outlast and out produce the competition, your challenge is to lead forward by:
Developing a culture of leadership Establishing a consistent process for goal achievement Implementing an executable strategic plan
These actions reflect the words of Tom Peters: “The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.”
Create a video blog