Need To Increase End-Of-Year Productivity? Try This Timesaver
By Lisa Bodell for Forbes
Around 44% of employers report a decline in productivity between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, according to an American Management Association survey. While out-of-office messages during the holidays are inevitable, adopting a wartime mindset from here until end of year can enable your organization to maximize its output despite minimal staffing.
Wartime leaders are akin to a general in battle: laser-focused on the next short-term goal. A lack of time and resources requires them to make quick decisions and take swift action. Through the process of writing Why Simple Wins, I interviewed and studied leaders known for steady productivity in wartime as well as peacetime.
During tough times, these leaders actually found the path forward to be simpler than in seasons of prosperity. Why? When survival is your main objective, you typically have fewer choices — and the pressure to succeed can drive you to overcome any obstacle.
To shift your org (and yourself) into an agile mindset on-demand, start by answering a series of questions. The five questions below are designed to reveal immediate areas of opportunity for improving productivity in most industries.
To whom could I delegate this project right now? When you have unlimited time and money, ownership is an admirable trait. But if it’s December 22 and you’re the project lead on multiple deliverables? That’s when detachment is a virtue. Review your to-do list and your roster of available teams/employees: which one has the adequate skillset or experience to complete each deliverable? Hand it off now and resist the urge to micro-manage.