Be a Chief Change Agent, Part 1

This short min-series of posts is designed to help up cope with change by being an agent of change.  We all want things to be better and the best way to make that happen is to implement necessary changes to make things better.  Read on…

Whether you’re a CEO or simply a person who can drive change in your organization, you know that leading change is hard. Since 2009, the U.S. has seen unprecedented releases of CEOs who were held accountable for failures with change inside their organizations–either by omission or commission. Why does change cause so many failures?

Today begins a short series on driving change, starting with five easy failures.

Easy Failure No. 1–Bad Decisions. The CEO who allows the organization to make flawed strategic decisions destines failure from the get-go. Too easily, CEOs get sidetracked by complacency, pet projects, executive ego, managing for outside opinions or following an unanalyzed industry trend.

Easy Failure No. 2–Poor Leadership. If half of organizational changes fail because of bad decisions on what to change, then the other half of failures are caused by how the changes were executed. A bad change process or bad timing will ruin even good decisions.

Easy Failure No. 3–Unclear Results. When the CEO hasn’t made clear where the organization needs to go, any path managers and employees choose will get them there.

Easy Failure No. 4–Unengaged Workforce. Micro-management is the fastest way to kill employee engagement. When a CEO or top executive over-directs the organizational change, participation of other levels of employees is quickly squashed.

Easy Failure No. 5–Invisible CEO. Under-involvement of the CEO and top leaders is equally as damaging as over-involvement. Low CEO support throughout the change effort is taken as a sure sign that the change is not important and no one is watching.

Ready for a change? Follow along future posts to learn how to avoid these failures and ensure that your organization gets the desired results from your change efforts.

Source: Charlyne Meinhard is a speaker, trainer and chief results officer of Next Level Consulting, a consulting firm specializing in change leadership, talent development and innovation. With more than 20 years of experience, she inspires and teaches managers to lead successful changes in organizations such as Verizon and SunTrust. She is also the author of Change Agents to the Rescue! and Ahead of Change.

SEO for Dummies (not really, but this is some really good information to know about your website)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing the content of your website in order to achieve better results in the popular search engines (e.g., Google, Bing, etc.). As the number of sites on the Internet has grown, it has become harder for companies’ websites to get “to the top” of the various search engines.  Here’s what you need to know about SEO:

1. Does SEO really work?  To some degree, absolutely. It is true that search engines look at a variety of aspects of the content of your site and use the findings to order the results when a visitor is searching. Most modern search engines use a variety of factors to determine rankings, and content is only one piece (and a relatively small one at that). Popularity of the site is the main way that Google and others determine rankings these days. It’s just a good starting point.

2. Can I change the content of my site to become #1 in the search engines?  No. It used to be a lot easier to manipulate the search engines through your own content. Then the search engines smartened up and they developed ranking methods that the site owner is not in direct control of — such as the popularity of the site. Content is only one small piece of determining search engine placement.

3. Can I pay the search engine to be ranked higher?  No. Search engines will take your money for sponsored links, keyword ads, and the like. But none of the popular search engines determine placement of your site in the results list based on whether you advertise or how much you advertise.

4. Can I trick the search engines into thinking my site is something that it isn’t?  No. There was a time when you could use tricks to achieve “better” rankings. That was back in the 1990s. These days, the algorithms that the search engines use are extremely sophisticated. Not only will they detect sites that are “playing games” to try to get better rankings, but many of them will actually lower your ranking to penalize you if you try to do it. Therefore, be wary of SEO companies that purport to know “secrets” to getting better placement or that openly use schemes to try to achieve better results. There is really nothing “secret” about SEO these days. The information on how to properly setup your site for optimum (at least as much as you can) SEO is widely available and widely known.

5. Do I have to pay a company to get good results with SEO? No. While many people choose to engage reputable SEO companies to assist with setting up their site for good exposure on the search engines, it’s also possible for you to read up on how to set up your site properly and do it yourself.

So, what should I do to improve my ranking?

• First, adjust your keyword and description meta tags. This is a good first step in achieving a good ranking. Do not play games — make sure your keywords are good and that they actually describe your site.
• Second, try to get other sites to link to your site. Many of the search engines use popularity as a key driver in search engine rankings. The more OTHER sites that link to your site, the better your positioning will be.
• Third, be unique. The more common your description and keywords are, the more other sites there will be with the same information. It’s clearly not possible for everyone to be “at the top” of the search engines. So, instead of trying to be at the top of a long list, you can also help your visibility by making the entire list shorter.
• Fourth, advertise and market your site through other means. Even though SEO is a big topic these days, the reality is that in our industry most people do not buy from random websites. Your website product research interface is a very important parts of your business — but in general you’re probably going to have more success driving business to your website through traditional marketing mechanisms (emails, newsletters, local Chamber of Commerce, referrals, etc.) than you are through the website search engines.

Thank you so much to SAGE for this amazingly helpful information.  For all of us trying to get our websites found, it’s great to see an honest review of the facts.  Hope this helps you as much as it did me.  Let me know.  I’d love to read your comments.

14 Lessons from Benjamin Franklin about Getting What You Want in Life

I’m a bit of a history buff so any time I can read and learn from wise people who came before me in life, I sit up and take notice.  Benjamin Franklin was a man of so many skills and possessed much wisdom.  This article is just a small part of what we can learn from him. Enjoy!

Benjamin Franklin was a man of action. Over his lifetime, his curiosity and passion fueled a diverse range of interests. He was a writer (often using a pseudonym), publisher, diplomat, inventor and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

His inventions included the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove. Franklin was responsible for establishing the first public library, organizing fire fighters in Philadelphia, was one of the early supporters of mutual insurance and crossed the Atlantic eight times. Self-development was a constant endeavor throughout his incredible life.

Benjamin Franklin was clearly a man who knew how to get things done.

Here are 14 action-inducing lessons from him:

• Less Talk, More Action “Well done is better than well said.”
  Talk is cheap. Talking about a project won’t get it completed. We all know people who constantly talk about the things they are going to do but rarely ever take that first step. Eventually people begin to question their credibility. Taking action and seeing the task through to completion is the only way to get the job done.

• Don’t Procrastinate “Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.”
  This is probably one of the first quotes I remember hearing as a teenager. With an impressive list of achievements to his credit, Benjamin Franklin was not a man hung up on procrastination. He was a man with clear measurable goals who worked hard to turn his vision into reality. What are you putting off till tomorrow that could make a difference in your life today?

• Be Prepared“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
  You need a plan to accomplish your goals. Charging in without giving any thought to the end result and how to achieve it, is a sure way to fall flat on your face. Think like a boy scout. Have a realistic plan of attack and a systematic approach for getting where you need to be.

• Don’t Fight Change “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”
  Whilst many of us don’t like change, others thrive on it. Either way change is inevitable. The stronger we fight against it, the more time and energy it consumes. Give up the fight. Focus on proactively making positive changes, instead of having change merely thrust upon you. Wherever possible, try to view change as a positive instead of a negative.

• Get Moving “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.”
  There’s a reason we use the expression, movers and shakers. Movers are the ones who take action, the people who get things done, while the immovable are sitting around scratching their heads wondering how others could possibly be so successful. Which group do you want to belong to?

• Avoid Busywork “Never confuse motion with action.”
  We are always running around doing things. We rush from one meeting or event to the next, sometimes without achieving a great deal. At the end of the day, how much of our busywork are we proud of? How much of that running around improves anyone’s life (including ours) for the better? Make your motion mean something.

• Give Yourself Permission to Make Mistakes “Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
  If we fear making mistakes, we become scared to try new things. Fear leaves us nestled in our comfort zone. Staying in your comfort zone rarely leads to greatness. Taking risks and giving yourself permission to make mistakes, will ultimately lead you to whatever your version of success may be.

• Act Quickly on Opportunities “To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.”
  Opportunities are everywhere. The trick is being quick enough and smart enough to seize them when they arise. Instead of jumping to the conclusion that something won’t work or can’t be done, allow yourself the freedom to ask what if?

• Continue to Grow “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”
  We all have vices of some description. The key is to keep them under control or preferably eradicate them entirely. Be kind to those around you, whether they are neighbors, family, co-workers or friends. Never accept that you have finished growing as a person.

• Keep Going “Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
  Have you ever looked at a successful entrepreneur or business person and thought how lucky they are? Most of the time, luck has nothing to do with it. Hard work and sacrifice on the other hand have everything to do with it. Successful people deal with failure. They tackle their demons head on. They pick themselves up and keep going.

• Know Yourself “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.”
  Understanding ourselves is not easy. Sometimes we just don’t want to see ourselves for who we really are. It’s much easier to hold onto a romanticized version of ourselves or to simply view ourselves through other people’s eyes. Start by being brutally honest with yourself. Follow through with understanding, compassion and acceptance.

• Don’t Self-Sabotage “Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?”
  We spend so much time worrying about other people hurting us, yet fail to comprehend the damage we inflict on ourselves. If you are using negative self-talk, lying to yourself or indulging in addictive behavior you are self-sabotaging. Life can dish up enough challenges without us adding to the mix. Be kind to yourself. Treat yourself like you would a best friend.

• Don’t Give Up “Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
  Achieving our goals can be downright exhausting. There will be days when you want to give up. There will be times when your energy levels flatline and you wonder why you bother getting out of bed. Yet you push forward, day after day because you believe in yourself and you have the determination and strength to back up that belief.

• Wise Up “Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”
  Benjamin was definitely onto something with this one. Who hasn’t had the thought – I wish I could know then, what I know now? Unfortunately there is no time machine; there is no going back. The key is to wise up as early as you can to start forging a life of purpose, achievement and happiness.

Thea Easterby is a freelance writer. Her blog www.writechangegrow.com offers inspiring tips on writing, career change and personal development.

Choosing Between Making Money and Doing What You Love

One of the things I like best about the internet is the chance to read articles that make me stop and think.  I found this one today on the Harvard Business Review.  I have had to reflect on my business as recently we’ve been deciding on what we want our future to look like.  The question below is a valid one to ask even if you’ve been doing a job for years and are contemplating whether or not you should continue to do it….

“If you’re really passionate about what you do, but it’s not going to make you a lot of money, should you still do it?”

What a great question! It seems like just about everyone who has ever addressed a graduating class of high school or college seniors has said “Do what you love, the money will follow.”

Inspiring. But it is true? Couldn’t you do what you truly care about and very well go broke, as the question above (recently sent from one of our readers) implies?

Based on the research we did for our book, we’re convinced that when you’re heading into the unknown, desire is all-important. You simply want to be doing something that you love, or something that is logically going to lead to something you love, in order to do your best work. That desire will make you more creative and more resourceful, and will help you get further faster.

And, it will help you persist. When you’re trying something that’s never been attempted before — beginning an unusual project at work, or trying to get a new business off the ground — you’re going to face a lot of obstacles. You don’t want to be giving up the first time you encounter one.

But, let’s be real. None of this guarantees wealth, or even financial success.

A friend of ours was hanging out at a bar with a few fellow professional musicians after a recording session, talking admiringly about another musician they all know. One of them commented on how fortunate it was for this musician that his music was commercial. In those four words, you will find an enormous truth. We all have our music and there is no guarantee that anyone will buy it. Absolutely none. These are two entirely separate things.

So this reader question attacks us straight on and says, in essence, “I have the desire, but I am pretty certain it’s not going to lead anywhere that’s monetarily profitable. Now what? Should I still go ahead?”

Of course you should.

Now let’s qualify the answer a bit:

If you can’t afford to do the thing you’re passionate about — for example, if you do it, you won’t be able to feed your family, or it would keep you from graduating college (which is something you think is more important than whatever you’re passionate about) — then no, you’d better not bet your economic life on it. A basic principle concerning how you should deal with an unknown future is that every small smart step you take should leave you alive to take the next step. So, make sure you attend to your lower order Maslow needs of food and shelter and the like.

But even this doesn’t mean you can’t work on your passion a little — even if it’s just for 15 minutes a day.

And you should!

Why?

Research (such as The Power of Small Wins that ran in Harvard Business Review May, 2011) shows that people who make progress every day toward something they care about report being satisfied and fulfilled.

We’re in favor of people being happy. And we’re also in favor of provoking people into pursuing happiness. The nice thing about this reader’s question is that it might get people who have — by any objective standard — more than enough money to reconsider whether they want to continue to do things that are not making them happy, just because it’ll make them more money. More often than not, these people say, “Once I get enough money, I’ll do what I really want to do. I won’t worry about the money.” But somehow, they never get to that point. Time is finite. The question might be enough to get you to reconsider how you’re spending it.

And of course, the assumption embedded in the question could be wrong. You might, indeed, end up making money if you engage in your passion, even though you currently think you won’t. Remember, the future is unknown. Who knows what people will buy, or what you might invent after your very next act. At any moment in time, you are only one thought away from an insight — an insight that can change everything.

As we said in our previous post, when you are facing the unknown, they only way to know anything for sure is to act. When you are dealing with uncertainty — and whether you are going to make any money from your passion at this point is definitely an uncertainty — you act. You don’t think about what might happen, or try to predict the outcome, or plan for every contingency. You take a small step toward making it a reality, and you see what happens.

Who knows? Even the smallest step can change everything.

So take those small steps. You might discover that your passion does, in fact, make you money. After all, who knew you could make huge amounts of money figuring out a way to connect all your friends (Facebook) or make a better map (pick your favorite GPS tool).

Even if you don’t, you want to spend part of your day doing at least one thing that’s making you happy. Otherwise, something is terribly wrong.

Leonard A. Schlesinger, Charles F. Kiefer, and Paul B. Brown

Leonard A. Schlesinger is the president of Babson College. Charles F. Kiefer is president of Innovation Associates. Paul B. Brown is a long-time contributor to the New York Times. They are the coauthors of Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future (HBR Press 2012). Learn more at juststartthebook.com.

What do you think?  Are you doing what makes you happy?  Should you change gears or are you exactly where you should be?

Social Media is for the Dogs!

By Patrick Henry

Strange title, I know.  It’ll make sense in a minute…

I finally get social media. No, I didn’t just acquire 500 LinkedIn connections, or get my Twitter account up and running. Like 3/4ths of the human population, I have been a user of social media for years. It is only now that I finally get it.

Like most Facebook users over thirty, I segment my friends into those I went to high school with, college buddies, professional acquaintances, local friends, and cyber hookers with 46 friends who slip through the cracks undetected. I usually post witty remarks, photos, or videos about my life, business, kids, accomplishments, or challenges. I send it out into the universe hoping that my thousands of friends find me as interesting as I do. I am all things to all people.

Yesterday I had a pure social media experience that gave me my AHA! moment. My three-year-old was standing at the door yelling, “Goggy, goggy.” I was working in my office placating her with, “That’s right dear, doggy, good doggy.” She became more animated so I got up and walked to the glass door. She was nose to nose with a black, wolfish looking dog that had wandered onto our porch. It turned out that the dog was very friendly, very thirsty, and very lost. Its tag had fallen off, so after giving it water and explaining to my daughter why we don’t put our face next to strange dogs, I took a picture with my iPhone and posted on my Facebook page. My post simply said: “Lost dog. If you live in Burlington and recognize this dog, get in touch… before my kids get too attached.” Within half an hour the dog was back home safe and sound with its grateful owners, thanks to one of my Facebook peeps who lives next door to them.

I now realize that this is what social media is all about. It is certainly what the 25-year-old Twitter users with 150,000 followers have understood from the start. Social media is about more than connection, it is about connecting on common ground. It is about having a conversation with like-minded souls on a specific topic. Did my 1500 plus Facebook friends who do not live in my town respond to my post? No! Because I wasn’t talking to them and they knew it. Most of us are like the guy on the off ramp with the sign that says “Will work for food… God bless.” His message is generic and displayed without purpose. Thousands pass him daily with little interest in his message. When we start joining conversations based on topic, geography, ideology, brand loyalty, etc., we can then make connections with individuals on a personal level. They will buy our products, align with our beliefs, and drink our Kool-Aid. And by the way, if you happen to pay someone to tweet, post, or manage your social media, you have missed the point. In order to effectively use social media, you must be authentic and be willing to participate in a conversation. If you are the only one who is doing the talking, you are talking to yourself.

Patrick Henry is a songwriter, author, and Gitomer Certified Speaker who speaks to audiences on sales, customer loyalty, and attitude. To book Patrick for your next event visit www.GitomerCertified.com or contact the friendly folks at Buy Gitomer via email or by calling 704-333-1112.

via Buy Gitomer: Sales Caffeine Articles.

Did you have an Aha! moment reading this like I did?  Social media isn’t for showing everyone how great I am (because I’m not!) but about connecting with people, building relationships (or strengthening them) and being what I need to be to people when they need me, just as they are to me.  What do you think?  Please comment on this post and join the conversation. 

6 Habits of True Strategic Thinkers

I’ve been enjoying reading the articles that Linkedin suggests.  This was a good one I read today.  Enjoy!  Sandee

You’re the boss, but you still spend too much time on the day-to-day. Here’s how to become the strategic leader your company needs.

In the beginning, there was just you and your partners. You did every job. You coded, you met with investors, you emptied the trash and phoned in the midnight pizza. Now you have others to do all that and it’s time for you to “be strategic.”

Whatever that means.

If you find yourself resisting “being strategic,” because it sounds like a fast track to irrelevance, or vaguely like an excuse to slack off, you’re not alone. Every leader’s temptation is to deal with what’s directly in front, because it always seems more urgent and concrete. Unfortunately, if you do that, you put your company at risk. While you concentrate on steering around potholes, you’ll miss windfall opportunities, not to mention any signals that the road you’re on is leading off a cliff.

This is a tough job, make no mistake. “We need strategic leaders!” is a pretty constant refrain at every company, large and small. One reason the job is so tough: no one really understands what it entails. It’s hard to be a strategic leader if you don’t know what strategic leaders are supposed to do.

After two decades of advising organizations large and small, my colleagues and I have formed a clear idea of what’s required of you in this role. Adaptive strategic leaders — the kind who thrive in today’s uncertain environment – do six things well:

Anticipate 

Most of the focus at most companies is on what’s directly ahead. The leaders lack “peripheral vision.” This can leave your company vulnerable to rivals who detect and act on ambiguous signals. To anticipate well, you must:

• Look for game-changing information at the periphery of your industry
• Search beyond the current boundaries of your business
• Build wide external networks to help you scan the horizon better

Think Critically

“Conventional wisdom” opens you to fewer raised eyebrows and second guessing. But if you swallow every management fad, herdlike belief, and safe opinion at face value, your company loses all competitive advantage. Critical thinkers question everything. To master this skill you must force yourself to:

• Reframe problems to get to the bottom of things, in terms of root causes
• Challenge current beliefs and mindsets, including your own
• Uncover hypocrisy, manipulation, and bias in organizational decisions

Interpret 

Ambiguity is unsettling. Faced with it, the temptation is to reach for a fast (and potentially wrongheaded) solution.  A good strategic leader holds steady, synthesizing information from many sources before developing a viewpoint. To get good at this, you have to:

• Seek patterns in multiple sources of data
• Encourage others to do the same
• Question prevailing assumptions and test multiple hypotheses simultaneously

Decide

Many leaders fall prey to “analysis paralysis.” You have to develop processes and enforce them, so that you arrive at a “good enough” position. To do that well, you have to:

• Carefully frame the decision to get to the crux of the matter
• Balance speed, rigor, quality and agility. Leave perfection to higher powers
• Take a stand even with incomplete information and amid diverse views

 Align

Total consensus is rare. A strategic leader must foster open dialogue, build trust and engage key stakeholders, especially when views diverge.  To pull that off, you need to:

• Understand what drives other people’s agendas, including what remains hidden
• Bring tough issues to the surface, even when it’s uncomfortable
• Assess risk tolerance and follow through to build the necessary support

Learn

As your company grows, honest feedback is harder and harder to come by.  You have to do what you can to keep it coming. This is crucial because success and failure–especially failure–are valuable sources of organizational learning.  Here’s what you need to do:

• Encourage and exemplify honest, rigorous debriefs to extract lessons
• Shift course quickly if you realize you’re off track
• Celebrate both success and (well-intentioned) failures that provide insight

Do you have what it takes?

Obviously, this is a daunting list of tasks, and frankly, no one is born a black belt in all these different skills. But they can be taught and whatever gaps exist in your skill set can be filled in. I’ll cover each of the aspects of strategic leadership in more detail in future columns. But for now, test your own strategic aptitude (or your company’s) with the survey at www.decisionstrat.com.  Let me know what you learned from it.

Paul J. H. Schoemaker: Founder and Chairman, Decision Strategies Intl. Speaker, professor, and entrepreneur. Research Director, Mack Ctr for Technological Innovation at Wharton, where he teaches strategic decision-making. Latest book: Brilliant Mistakes

The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time

I just read this blog post and figured if it hit home for me, most of you would appreciate it, too.

Why is it that between 25 and 50 per cent of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work?

It’s not just the number of hours we’re working, but also the fact that we spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time.

What we’ve lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Technology has blurred them beyond recognition. Wherever we go, our work follows us, on our digital devices, ever insistent and intrusive. It’s like an itch we can’t resist scratching, even though scratching invariably makes it worse.

Tell the truth: Do you answer email during conference calls (and sometimes even during calls with one other person)? Do you bring your laptop to meetings and then pretend you’re taking notes while you surf the net? Do you eat lunch at your desk? Do you make calls while you’re driving, and even send the occasional text, even though you know you shouldn’t?

The biggest cost — assuming you don’t crash — is to your productivity. In part, that’s a simple consequence of splitting your attention, so that you’re partially engaged in multiple activities but rarely fully engaged in any one. In part, it’s because when you switch away from a primary task to do something else, you’re increasing the time it takes to finish that task by an average of 25 per cent.

But most insidiously, it’s because if you’re always doing something, you’re relentlessly burning down your available reservoir of energy over the course of every day, so you have less available with every passing hour.

I know this from my own experience. I get two to three times as much writing accomplished when I focus without interruption for a designated period of time and then take a real break, away from my desk. The best way for an organization to fuel higher productivity and more innovative thinking is to strongly encourage finite periods of absorbed focus, as well as shorter periods of real renewal.

If you’re a manager, here are three policies worth promoting:

1. Maintain meeting discipline. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes, rather than an hour or longer, so participants can stay focused, take time afterward to reflect on what’s been discussed, and recover before the next obligation. Start all meetings at a precise time, end at a precise time, and insist that all digital devices be turned off throughout the meeting.

2. Stop demanding or expecting instant responsiveness at every moment of the day. It forces your people into reactive mode, fractures their attention, and makes it difficult for them to sustain attention on their priorities. Let them turn off their email at certain times. If it’s urgent, you can call them — but that won’t happen very often.

3. Encourage renewal. Create at least one time during the day when you encourage your people to stop working and take a break. Offer a midafternoon class in yoga, or meditation, organize a group walk or workout, or consider creating a renewal room where people can relax, or take a nap.

It’s also up to individuals to set their own boundaries. Consider these three behaviors for yourself:

1. Do the most important thing first in the morning, preferably without interruption, for 60 to 90 minutes, with a clear start and stop time. If possible, work in a private space during this period, or with sound-reducing earphones. Finally, resist every impulse to distraction, knowing that you have a designated stopping point. The more absorbed you can get, the more productive you’ll be. When you’re done, take at least a few minutes to renew.

2. Establish regular, scheduled times to think more long term, creatively, or strategically. If you don’t, you’ll constantly succumb to the tyranny of the urgent. Also, find a different environment in which to do this activity — preferably one that’s relaxed and conducive to open-ended thinking.

3. Take real and regular vacations. Real means that when you’re off, you’re truly disconnecting from work. Regular means several times a year if possible, even if some are only two or three days added to a weekend. The research strongly suggests that you’ll be far healthier if you take all of your vacation time, and more productive overall.

A single principle lies at the heart of all these suggestions. When you’re engaged at work, fully engage, for defined periods of time. When you’re renewing, truly renew. Make waves. Stop living your life in the gray zone.

Tony Schwartz

Tony Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of Be Excellent at Anything. Become a fan of The Energy Project on Facebook and connect with Tony at Twitter.com/TonySchwartz and Twitter.com/Energy_Project.

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Tyranny of the Urgent

You’ve seen me post a lot about productivity and not multi-tasking.  This article makes my point even more clearly.  So far, personally, I’m not having much success at reducing my mutlti-tasking, but I really need to do it. My productivity depends on it. 

I had to pull one term out of this blog because it’s something I have struggled with for years:  tyranny of the urgent.  It is soooo easy to get drawn into things that seem urgent.  And when we do, we often end up neglecting what’s important, like family, long-term goals, goal-setting, good health, reaching out to do good to others.

What do you think?  Do you find this relevant for you in your business practices?