Make More of Your Job

Change Your Office Hours

I speak to a lot of people who are confused about why they haven’t been noticed by the higher-ups, or have even been passed up for a promotion or raise.  Every time I’m engaged in this conversation I ask the same question -- “What are your hours?"

Back in the day, the concept of 9 to 5 was the norm, where people punched in, worked their 8 hours and went home. However, that concept hasn’t been the norm for a while. The 80’s and 90’s ushered in the concept that if you weren’t working 60+ hours, you didn’t care about your job. But that idea too seems to be passé.  Today, technological innovation has swung the pendulum back the other way by creating an era of “out of office” working that is as ludicrous as it sounds.

It’s no surprise that rush hour commutes have become 3 hours long when you take a look at how much time people actually spend at the office.  So many modern workers are “telecommuting” or “working from home” that these days that it seems like no one shows up to the office at all.  If working at home worked was as productive as coming to the office and helped me avoid traffic, I’d be the first one to jump on the band wagon. But the problem is, there isn’t much evidence  that “working from home” or “virtual officing” is even close to as effective as showing up at the office.

I’m a pretty driven person - I run several businesses, both corporate and private, and over 600 people count on me to provide them employment and guidance. Despite my determination and drive, I’m the first to admit that if I’m working from my kitchen, I’m probably not as productive as I am in the office.  When I’m in the office, I’m more likely to be focused and committed. There’s no doorbell or TV or pantry to distract me.  More importantly, I’m surrounded by my contemporaries, who stimulate and challenge me to give my work my all.  So why is working at home so popular?  Because it’s a major excuse not to work at all.

If you don’t love your job, working at home may sound like a godsend.  You can seem connected with email, but don’t have to actually do much of anything.  While that might sound fine for a while, it can only lead to a dead end.

If you’re really serious about moving your career up the food chain, quit working from home.  In order to grow and develop as an individual you will need constant access to and input from your co-workers.  The old saying “out of sight, out of mind” is also a powerful truth when it comes to upward corporate mobility.  Even if you’re one of the extremely rare individuals who can work remotely and be productive, you still aren’t around to be seen and heard by your superiors. 

If you’re a skilled and inspirational employee, working from home mitigates your ability to be a positive influence on the office environment (and thereby on the company as a whole) as your co-workers aren’t near you to feed off of your energy.  Just because you have access to email doesn’t mean you’re delivering all of the value you have to offer.

If you really want to do what’s best for your company, and your career, take of your slippers and head into the office!

One Skill at a Time

When I think about the process of career advancement, I often remember what one of my mentors in life told me: every journey begins with a single step.

Most of us have at least a general idea about where we’d like to go in our lives and our careers. Take a look around at your friends and co-workers and you’ll find that they can be separated into two distinct groups: those who are constantly working to improve themselves, and those that continually stay the same.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess which group tends to have more upward mobility in the office.

But when we start thinking about all of the work it will take for us to get where we want in our careers, we get bogged down.  Becoming someone that can push past that mental traffic jam and work towards self-betterment is a vital process if you want to fast track your career.

Understanding that constant curiosity and self-development is the key to career advancement is half of the battle. Putting a plan into action, however, is the only way to shift your career into high gear.  Many of us don’t have the capacity to juggle multiple self-development goals at once in our already-full lives, but everyone has the ability to accomplish single, isolated tasks.  The key to continuous self-improvement is taking things one step at a time. By choosing just one of skill to focus on, you will dramatically increase your chances for success.

But which skill should you choose first?  The beauty of self-development is that it doesn’t matter what you choose to work on first.  You could choose public speaking, communication skills, or even accounting mathematics.  Pick up a book, register for a class. Just commit yourself to improving a little each day in one area of your choice. The magic comes simply from picking something, anything, to focus on improving.  Before long, you’ll have more to offer in your job, more to talk about with co-workers and superiors, and a growing sense of self-worth that will lead to greater confidence.

Once you’ve mastered about 80% of the skill you’re working on, it’s time to pick a new one.  This process should be easy, because chances are the learning process you’ve begun will naturally lead you another area to focus on.  If it doesn’t, though, don’t worry.  Just pick any other skill that you’ll need down the road, because it doesn’t matter what you’re working on improving. It only matters that you are.

Spring Cleaning

Spring has sprung, and it’s about this time of year that all sorts of experts start doling out advice about spring cleaning.  Open any business magazine, read any blog, and you’ll undoubtedly see a column about rearranging your work space in the name of spring cleaning. In fact, here are two articles that suggest quick fixes to clean up our workspaces and how they benefit our productivity and image at work.

However, I have yet to run across a significant amount of evidence that links organization and the quantity and quality of work produced. In fact, many of the most successful and productive people I know are, well, completely disorganized and messy. Sure, there are some jobs that require organization, mainly for safety or legal reasons. But for most of us, a cluttered desk does not necessarily indicate you have a cluttered mind.  My advice to you is this: if you’re thinking about cleaning out your workspace because it's “that time of year," forget it.  Your time is better spent working on other ways in which coworkers perceive you at work.

I spend a lot of time talking to hiring managers about why they chose to hire or promote one candidate over another, and nearly all of them look for one common attribute: accountability.  It’s also true that your reputation precedes you. All of us should be vigilant that our reputation matches the message we’d like to be sending to future bosses.  One of the quickest ways to earn a reputation as someone who isn't accountable is to send signals that you’re a procrastinator, or worse, generally unresponsive. In some cases, having and maintaining a perfect workspace could actually be a sign of procrastinating and putting off more important tasks.

If you want to do some spring cleaning that will give you the best chance at upward mobility, it’s time to clean out all of those tasks you keep moving to the bottom of your perfectly organized piles.

Each of us has a few tasks at work that we’ve been putting off, whether it's a long-term project we haven't started or a thread of emails we haven't responded to.  The problem is, those tasks are important to someone that we work with. Every day that we fail to produce, our reputation heads a step further towards the gutter.  Instead of putting off important tasks by rearranging your post-its and tape dispensers, instead take a day or two where you work on nothing but finishing up outdated projects or answering old voicemails or emails.

In a small amount of time, you can take the first step to polishing your reputation back to a sparkle. There may still be people who aren’t thrilled that it took you so long to follow up on your task. With proper ownership and sincerity, however, you can send the message that you’re busy and trying to be accountable rather than giving them the impression they are being ignored. You’ll be surprised how appreciative your peers are about your commitment to playing catch-up. Chances are they also know what it’s like to get bogged down with unfinished business.

If you have more backlogged tasks than you can complete in a 48-hour spring cleaning, you may want to put a regular cleaning on your schedule to make sure you aren’t slipping further behind. You could even schedule a daily cleaning of sorts by tackling your most difficult or inconvenient tasks (those ones you tend to avoid) first, as The Positivity Blog suggests. If you feel really bogged down by backlogged tasks, you may even want to speak with your supervisor about the amount of workload coming your way.

So what are you waiting for?  Make a list of your spring cleaning issues and start crossing them off one by one. When it comes to sending the message that you’re accountable and aware of your responsibilities, there’s nothing more important that you can do with your time. Once you've completely taken care of all your backlogged tasks, then and only then should you start worrying about what your workspace looks like.

Meeting to Meet About Meetings

I’ve spent my fair share of time in meetings in my career, including (at my first company) meetings about when we could schedule meetings.

The following article by Seth Godin explains how to make sure a meeting accomplishes its goal while taking up the minimum amount of your time necessary.  It offers definitions about the different kinds of meetings you might need in your job as well as tips for how to make them more productive.  It’s worth the quick read.

Focus On What You Can Control

Too often we allow our preferences, rather than our needs, to control the way we do our jobs.

Recently, I was asked on a speaking engagement what separated my star employees from the average ones.  The answer is simple: my best people focus only on what they can control.

Let me give you an example. I recently had a salesperson who works for me tell me that she could do a better job if we gave her an office, rather than a cubicle, to work in.  It doesn’t take much thought to realize that this is a “want” and not a “need," but it’s the kind of distraction we all give ourselves to explain why we aren’t doing more.  In her mind, this employee truly believed that if she had a quieter environment, she would be able to increase her productivity. But she was focusing on something that she couldn’t control rather than something that she could.

Let’s just assume that she was right, that a more private environment really would help her sell more products.  As the operator of the business, I can fit 150 salespeople on her floor using cubicles. But if I built everyone a private office, there would only be room for 50.  So without even considering the construction cost or the downtime taken to complete the project, I’d have to raise each salesperson’s quota 300% just to break even. I asked my employee if she’d still want an office if she had to be responsible for selling 3 times as much for the same pay: the answer was a resounding no.

Instead of focusing on what she didn’t have (an office), let’s imagine what that same employee could have accomplished if she had focused on what she could control with no outside help.  She could make more sales calls each day, study industry information to increase her knowledge, take a class in presentation to smooth out her pitch, read up on sales strategy to better understand her clients…the options are literally endless.

There’s always something you can do to perform better at your job, and it’s the employees who understand this concept that always excel.  It’s the employee focusing on what he or she can control who’s likely to get the perks because they are constantly adding value with almost no draw on management’s time or resources.  This type of employee gets noticed fast and is rewarded frequently.  I’m always willing to reward an employee that can get more done without my help, but I am less likely to reward when they need my assistance in order to raise their productivity.  If you want all of the credit and reward, you’re going to have to do all of the work!

The next time you’re thinking about how you could be more productive at work, try to focus on what you can control.  Make a list of everything you could do yourself to have more impact and then start chasing down each idea.  When you feel like you’ve accomplished everything on the list, it’s always OK to approach your boss for help. But before you ask them to make your job easier, try asking yourself “What do I think I could do to make myself more productive for the company?" I guarantee you’ll put a smile on their face.

Bringing Your A-Game During March Madness

There are several times a year that make employers cringe. March Madness may be the biggest of all.

It’s frustrating to walk through the break room and see dozens of my employees (who should be working) huddled around the television watching the game instead of doing their job.  In a perfect world, I could just wave a magic wand and make the problem go away (or at least make all the games start after 5 PM), but the truth is March madness is here to stay. That doesn’t mean it has to get in the way of productivity.

Kevin Eikenberry suggests some great strategies to turn March Madness into an opportunity, not an obstacle.  If you could help employ some of these ideas in your office, and keep productivity up, it might just get you a spot on the boss’ starting team.

Start Ignoring Deadlines

I know what you’re thinking. Wait a minute, isn’t this blog supposed to be about helping people advance their careers? And now you’re advising us to ignore our deadlines?

At first blush, it may seem odd. I am advising you to ignore your deadlines, just not in the way you might think.

As an executive, I am used to assigning deadlines or due-dates on a myriad of projects and tasks that I send out to my teams. Over the years I’ve noticed something disturbing about the deadlines I set: they’re always exactly observed. If I give an employee five days to complete a project, without fail, the project comes in before the end of business on the fifth day. Maybe you’re thinking I should applaud my employees for never missing a deadline. But when every project comes in at the buzzer, the facts seem to point to something darker.

I could take that evidence to pat myself on the back and assume that I just happen to be perfect at guessing how much time each project will take to complete. But perfect over thousands of projects year after year? Even I’m not that big an egomaniac. Besides, that’s not generally how I dole out time lines. I usually give the employee the time I think it would take to complete the assignment, plus some cushion. Could it be that I’m just faster than all of my employees, that the cushion I might need is just barely enough time for them to complete the job? Not likely. When I hire employees I look for people who are better and faster than I’d be at the job, not slower.

So what's really happening? Here’s my best guess: when I hand out a deadline, most of my employees (who are usually faster than I’d be at their tasks) automatically figure out how long it will really take them and then put off task until the very last minute. For some of them, it may be because they don’t want me to know they could do it faster -- then I'd just give them more work! But for most of them, I believe that it’s a simple matter of human nature: we all love to procrastinate.

I’ve found that even something as simple as a 10-second project (say, “respond to this email with yes or no”) will be pushed back to the last possible minute. If I finish my request with “by the end of the day” or “by noon at the latest,” you can rest assured that the responses won’t start to pour in until about 10 minutes before the deadline.

On the rare occasion when I give someone a due-date and the work is turned in a day or even a week early, that employee has automatically set themselves apart as a go-getter. The best part about it is they didn’t even do any more work than they would have if they put the project off, all they had to do to paint themselves in a positive light was start the project as soon as it was given to them.

On top of that, by beginning and completing each task in a timely fashion, that employee is creating the habit of working efficiently. This practice will inevitably increase their productivity over their peers' and set them even further ahead of the pack. It’s the simple actions in life, when added together, that will make your boss take notice and make your name the first that comes to mind when a promotion comes up.

So, if you’re looking for a quick way to send the message “I’m an employee who cares, and I’ll always give you my best,” start ignoring deadlines. Instead, assume that every assignment’s due date ends with an "ASAP."

Financial Problems Can Affect Your Job

We’ve spoken many times now how important a role that improving your productivity on the job will play when it comes to advancing your career. For many of us, making strides in any of those categories is easier said than done. If the steps were simple, then surely a large number of folks would be making the changes in their life that could lead them to a more rewarding career. But it seems like one thing always gets in the way: money.

A recent poll by Pew Research found that 72% of Americans worry regularly about money. With numbers like that, it isn’t difficult to see why many people think that getting a raise or promotion might be the solution they need for their problems. The truth, however, is that the equation really works the other way around: it’s worrying about money that often keeps American workers from getting a raise or promotion.

What do I mean by that? Employees who are constantly worried about making ends meet have a much more difficult time focusing on their job than workers who have financial stability. We can all think of a co-worker who spends a lot of time paying (or looking at) bills online, calling their spouse about funds, speaking to creditors about payments or billing errors all on work time. Even if that person is phenomenal at their job, they just don’t spend as much of their time at work doing work as their peers and it will probably prevent them from moving up.

To make matters worse, living expenses later in life (kids' college tuition, retirement and medical care) are skyrocketing while pensions and retirement programs are falling off the radar. Even the future of social security is in question these days! That means that even employees who have done a good job living within their means may start to feel worried about their financial future and, in turn, stunt their career growth.

The emotional impact of these worries can affect our performance. I know that my employees are always at their best when they feel comfortable and stable in their lives. When things are going right, they have more energy, more enthusiasm and the willingness to think creatively or take risks. Employees who are down about money often times feel routinely negative, place only the safest bets when it comes to ideas (after all, they can’t risk losing the job -- that would make things worse) and even project their pessimistic financial attitude onto the job itself. When you feel like you can’t afford to live a decent life, it’s hard not to blame your job. It’s almost unavoidable you’ll end up feeling like you’re underpaid even if you aren’t!

This week we'll continue our focus on finance and introduce two types of financial worriers that I've briefly discussed here. How can each type take control of their finances and, in turn, take control of their careers? Check back to find out.

In the News: Burning Out

Are you working up to a burnout? Read this article and take the quiz to find out.

Spending too much time at the office can completely change the way you look at your job and tremendously shorten your tenure. The key to avoiding burnout is getting more done with your time in order to maintain more reasonable working hours.

In the News: Is Your Job Extreme?

Do you feel like you live in your office? This article from Forbes.com shows that you’re not alone if you feel like the hours you work are sucking the life out of you. 

We’ve talked before about ways as an employee to get more work done in less time at the office, one of the most important factors to living a balanced and happy life, but this article shows that companies are starting to identify employee burnout as a problem as well. 

It’s good to see that some companies are starting to find some creative ways to help their key employees cut down on working themselves to death. Do any of you work for companies that have creative solutions to battling this growing problem? If so, I’d love to hear from you.