Productivity – part 1

As a leader, your number one responsibility is to increase productivity.

Whether it’s improving employee productivity, employee efficiency, meeting deadlines, or staying on task, it’s all about using time wisely. Helping people to use their time wisely involves a little bit of leadership “beingness” and lots of “doingness”.

It is often easy to look at others and describe their flaws that lead to poor productivity. But, it’s important to look in the mirror, which means putting your being and doing under scrutiny as you place others under scrutiny. An essential leadership question is: Who am I and who do I choose to be in light of the need to navigate uncomfortable and unpleasant conversations about productivity and efficiency?

The ultimate goal is to cultivate both a personal and group culture where everyone has a shared commitment to engaging in habits that increase productivity and efficiency.

Time is an indispensable asset. We all have a set amount of time and must decide how to use it. Over the next few articles, we are going to look to science to help us get the most out of your time.

The Course

WEEK 1 – IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY (120 minutes)

1. What does productivity mean?
2. The productivity buckets
3. Approachable leadership: Your open-door policy
4. Developing people: Four tools that support employee agency in improving productivity and efficiency

WEEK 2 – DEADLINES AND TASK FOCUS (90 minutes)

1. The case for and against stress
2. Human behavior: We are a collection of habits
3. The role of friction in meeting deadlines and staying on task
4. Three principles for using time wisely

WEEK 3 – MOVING WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY (60 minutes)

1. Supporting best practice: Giving and receiving feedback
2. Developing keystone habits to amplify important and time-sensitive tasks
3. Scenario: Putting it all together