Now, more than ever, the pressure is on keeping the employees you have, especially your top performers. We have always heard that most managers believe that employees leave primarily for more pay. But we all know two things about that: 1) it is almost never about more money and 2) if it is, it was not the only factor in their decision. It is, most times, just the easiest thing for employees to say during their exit interviews. Having conducted employee opinion surveys for the past twenty-five years, our data consistently indicates that what matters to employees more than pay are the following aspects of their employment: 

• Having a good working relationship with their immediate supervisor
• Opportunities to learn and grow in their jobs
• Doing work that is meaningful
• Feeling like they are a valued, respected member of a team
• Able to connect with their team and feel they belong
• Being recognized for the contributions to the organization’s success
• Having autonomy and the authority to effectively do their job

The one we have to add to that list since the pandemic is having some type of remote or hybrid work option. It used to be people wanted flexibility in hours worked. Now, it is flexibility in where they work.

It is clear that you’ve got to be paying people a fair market wage in order for them to continue to align their efforts with your organization. However, beyond pay, which you typically have little control over as a manager, there are a multitude of other variables that are within your control. Consider the following tips to help ensure that you’re creating workplace excellence in order to retain your top performers.

Put People First 

More than ever before, today’s workforce values a balance between work and life outside of work. Acknowledge your people as unique contributors and value their time away from work. Entertain flex schedules and telecommuting when it is an option. Also, where possible, provide comp time after an extensive project. Try to promote a happy, productive, stress-free environment that acknowledges the fact that people have a life beyond work. Make it a priority to touch base with team members daily by asking them, “How is it going today? Do you need any support from me?” Regularly letting your people know how much you value them helps build strong relationships. Be visible, approachable, and accessible. 

Keep People in the Loop

We’ve never done a survey that resulted in employees saying that they got too much information. Now, more than ever, over-communicate. Give people all the information you can, and often. Talk about what’s going well, your organization’s vision, goals, and where there are challenges: in emails, formal and informal meetings, and most importantly, one-on-one conversations. If you can’t answer their questions, respond honestly, then try to get them the answers. Remember that no news is still news. And, in times of high change, people crave communication and recognition at a much higher rate.

Provide Training Opportunities 

When you provide training for your employees, it is a win-win for everyone. The organization will have employees who are more knowledgeable and efficient, and the employee will be able to increase his or her value to the organization, improving their future chances of moving up in your organization. This will result in fewer feelings of stagnation and frustration which translates to a more committed workforce. Investment in the training your employees need is an investment in the employees’ future and shows your long-term interest in him or her. Remember, training doesn’t always have to come from HR, you can conduct your own on-the-job training to help employees take their skills to the next level and broaden the bandwidth of your team. Doing so will allow you more strategic thinking time to take your department to the next level. 

Create a Learning Environment 

Get to know what type of work excites particular employees. Give more opportunities to do challenging work and opportunities to direct their own work. Delegate something meaningful. Provide training, resources, and learning experiences to help the employee grow and learn. Help employees connect the vision and goals to their own work to help raise the level of engagement. Be both the coach and cheerleader! The most engaged employees rate learning and growth opportunities as one of the most important things they look for in a job. You want to ensure you are filling this need.

Show you Genuinely Care

Listen to your team members and use their input about how to improve a process, handle a customer challenge, or increase efficiencies wherever possible. Be open to creative approaches for accomplishing work. Serve as a mentor. Model what you want to see. Look for opportunities to praise and recognize work and behavior that adds to the team’s efforts and the organization’s overall success. 

Reward The Right Things

Ensure you are rewarding the achievement of the goals and those that go above and beyond. When rewarding and recognizing everyone equally, you are actually rewarding mediocracy. And, more importantly, demotivating your top performers in the process. Ensure you outline the goals for everyone so that they are clear, then reward those that achieve the goals. 

Make Retention an Organizational Commitment

Now, more than ever, employee retention is critical to your team’s success. Know your employees and what’s important to them. Ask and listen carefully to the responses. Ask them to tell you what they like about their jobs, and what they’d like to do more of or where they want to grow. Conduct “stay interviews,” asking your team members about what factors are important to them. Make changes, wherever possible, based on what they say is an important “stay” factor to them. 

Fit People to the Job

To be successful, the employee’s strengths and job requirements have to match. Ensuring you have the right people in the right positions can’t be emphasized enough. When it is not right, everyone on the team feels it in some form or another. Take the time to get it right. That may mean a longer hiring process, but will result in a better, more engaged hire and less team stress overall.

Conduct an Employee Opinion Survey

Now is a great time to get in touch with the pulse of your organization. More than ever, you need to know, from your employees’ perspectives, what’s working and what’s not. Get a current read on the employee experience and take action to address some of their concerns where possible. Staying in touch with employees shows you care about their experience and will allow you to address issues keeping your organization from achieving workplace excellence.

Be proactive with your employee’s cultural experience. By implementing the suggestions above, you’ll be giving them the things they deem most important and be even more successful in retaining your top talent. 

The post Cracking the Code: Retaining Top Talent in a Competitive Market appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

Prepare Staff

Before you enter fully into vacation mode, make sure your team is thoroughly prepared for the tasks they will take on for you or make them aware of any possible things that could come up in your absence. Review your projects and tasks with your team. The easiest and most efficient way to prepare your team is by creating a project or task list/plan with the dates you are gone, the tasks they are taking over with instructions on how to complete them properly, and all necessary login information to access your work. This will give employees a clear vision of your expectations and prepare them for your delegated tasks.

Email Clients

Let your clients know you will be out of the office and what dates you will be unavailable. When clients know you are off the grid and who they can connect in the event they need support, this will significantly reduce the number of times that a client needs you.

Create a Clear Out-of-Office

It is crucial that you turn on your “out-of-office” email notification that is clear to employees and clients. Explicitly note the dates that you are gone and will have no email access during this time. This will ensure that employees and clients know you will be unavailable and avoid them thinking you are ignoring them. There are some positions and fields where clients and employees need to get a hold of someone immediately to answer a question or complete a task. For this reason, you should always provide an alternative contact in your out-of-office notification.

Leave your Laptop Behind!!!!!

I know this is a hard one. It is a security blanket for the ‘what if.’ But, if you bring your laptop on vacation, you are most likely guaranteeing that you are planning to work while you are gone. It’s like carrying a big candy bar around when you are trying to eat healthier. Sooner or later, you will give in to the temptation. If your job requires you to have some form of work on hand in case of emergencies, bring only a work phone and make sure someone on the trip keeps you accountable to stay offline as much as you can.

Avoid “Checking in”

If you check in every few days while you are away, it is highly likely that people will ask for help, your opinion, or want you to make a decision on one thing or another. “Checking in” sends confusing signals to employees because they thought you were unreachable. You are less likely to get emails from people when you are off the grid, but the second you ask how everyone is holding up, you enable them to come to you anytime with their questions.

Trust your Employees

Trusting employees to take over some of your tasks might seem daunting, but they are eager to offer their help and have many skills to offer. You have trusted them to be a part of your team in the first place, so giving them some more responsibility will only increase their competence, and commitment to you and the organization. Preparing them with some cross-training before your trip will ensure they are fully equipped with the skills and alleviate some of your worries while you are gone. Think of it as providing growth opportunities for your staff. The more they take on, the more you will have time to work on strategic thinking tasks to move your department forward vs operational tasks. It also makes it that much easier to take a real vacation.

In an Emergency…it is OK to Connect

The last thing you want during your relaxing vacation or time off is to be thinking about what could be going wrong at work. To ease your mind and focus on your loved ones, let one or two team members know that it is ok to connect with you in case of an emergency. Clarify what scenarios constitute an emergency and then let them know you have absolute trust in their decisions on everything else. From there, if an emergency arises, they can text you a summary of the situation or provide a more detailed summary in your email.

What shocks many leaders is that, although they are in high positions with stressful schedules, with these tactics, they can take a break and sometimes relax too. In fact, it makes them better, more engaged leaders when they are able to check out and take a vacation. While being a leader comes with a lot of responsibility, you should never forgo your mental health altogether to keep the business running. As a leader, employees will look up to you as a role model for their behavior. If you don’t unplug from work mode during vacation, employees won’t either. Enjoy your time off, appreciate those around you, and develop your employees while you are gone.

The post Are You Guilty of Working While On Vacation? appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

So what leads to this high level of dysfunction? Our research with teams tells us the following factors help promote team dysfunction and, thankfully, keep us in business.

Strong Individual Contributors: Individually, team players are technically competent and can produce the results they need without much reliance on other members of the team.

Individual Rewards: Individuals are rewarded for their own results, and there is no reason to work as a team if you not only keep your job but receive your full bonus. Sometimes, we see individual team players who are rewarded for not collaborating with other team members (the last team member who complained about the highly competent contributor was fired).

Values: If individual results are recognized and rewarded, and there is no value placed on teamwork, communication, and collaboration, then it will be difficult to see any improvement in the areas of teamwork.

Leadership: Managers who do not like conflict, tend to deal with a lack of teamwork one-on-one, rather than bringing the people who do not work well together and discuss the problem and the need to fix it collaboratively. These same managers fail to take a stand and hold people accountable. When there are no consequences on the people who either treat people disrespectfully or fail to collaborate or work well as a team, it is difficult to permanently change the culture to one that is focused on working as a team.

Although a team was dysfunctional yesterday, there is hope that tomorrow can bring better teamwork, communication, and collaboration. The following seven tips, if practiced by everyone on the team, will help build a stronger and more cohesive team.

Common Vision and Goals: There must be a reason or purpose for a group of people to work together. That reason or purpose may be that when everyone works well as a team, each individual and the team can produce an even higher result than if they worked on their goals alone. Or team members can be more efficient. Or, when we work as a team, there is less stress and there is a chance we might even have fun. A great question to consider is, “If no one else on the team supported you or communicated with you, could you still be successful in getting your job accomplished?” And, if no one else is hindered from accomplishing their goals by your lack of teamwork and communication, you probably do not need to be a part of a team.

Common Values: If you ask a leader in an organization, “How much can you steal before you are fired from this organization?” Most will tell you something like this, “You steal, you will be fired.” This is an example of the value of honesty and integrity. If you violate a value, you will be disciplined or thrown off the bus. Few organizations value teamwork to the point that if you do not communicate, collaborate and work well with other team members, you will be fired. If teamwork is not valuable, you are better off not having it on your walls telling team members it is important.

Focus on Team Results: With common vision, values, and goals, the end result should be greater than any individual can achieve.

Positive Assumption: Believe that other team members want to do the right thing for the company and the team. If you are looking for reasons of why team members exhibit behaviors that undermine the team or other team members, you will find them. Either way, you will prove yourself right.

Self-Confidence and Respect: If a team member leaves you out of important communications or treats you disrespectfully, call them on it. If they are in the same geographic location, push your chair back and go talk to them. Look them right in the eye and tell them what their concerns are and why they choose not to include you. Ask what they/you can do differently so this does not happen again, and you can continue to build strong communication and collaboration on the team. You ask, doesn’t everyone do this? No, people with low self-confidence and respect send a 10-page email to their boss, complaining about and blaming the other members of the team.

Value Diversity: A team that has people who are different (communication style; behavioral style; leadership style) will outperform a team where everyone is alike over time. Why? Because diverse teams see things differently and do things differently and, usually, because of diversity, they are able to figure out better ways to win. It helps to be a team member who truly believes you can be even better because of the other team members who surround you. To expect others to do things the same way you would do them will only breed conflict and leave you highly disappointed.

Be a Leader: Whether the manager of the team takes the lead in building teamwork, or they do not, you still can do the right thing and take the necessary actions that improve communication, collaboration, and teamwork.

The post What is Needed to Make a Great Team appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

One way to help with these stress levels is organization and having a plan. Below are tips for managers and employees to help ease their workloads: 

• Plan Out Your Week: Nothing adds stress to your life faster than a laundry list of things to do and the worry of how to accomplish it all. Creating a scheduled ‘to-do’ list can help relieve some of the stress by putting a plan in place on how to accomplish the tasks at hand. Make sure to include in your scheduled meetings, project due dates, and wiggle room to ensure success. With a plan in place, you are more likely to accomplish the tasks and lighten your stress level. 
• Destress with Wiggle Room: The unexpected can add stress to your life and negate any possible plan you may have had in a heartbeat and be quite overwhelming. One way to combat this is to ensure your plan and day include wiggle room. Add 10 minutes between meetings on your schedule. Actually, schedule time for the unexpected. When you do this but end up not needing it, I am sure you can always find a way or task to fill it. Or take a break and see the outside for that moment. Knowing you have time in your schedule will help you decompress from the heavy workload.   
• Communicate and Ask for Help: When all is said and done, we do need a way to decompress and get help. When it is possible, ask for help from a co-worker or even your boss. If it is the difference between completing an important task or not, it is usually the right move. Some people see this as they failed to ask for help. Nothing could be more incorrect. Asking for help shows confidence and your drive to see the team or task succeed. In my book, this is a sign of a strong leader. 
• Talk to a Trusted Source: Remember, we are social beings. We were not intended to fight the battle alone. Connect with people who are supportive, caring, and understand your stressors. Talk over the challenges with them. Most people like to help. A supportive network of caring friends, family members, and co-workers can help you put your stressors into perspective.
• Leave Work at Work: We live in an ever-connected world. If you work at home, it is even harder to disconnect. It is possible to work all hours of the day and night. Don’t. Figure out a way to turn off, tune out, and leave work at work. Close your laptop at home. This may require better organization or, occasionally, just learning to say no to a request that will add more to your already overflowing list of responsibilities.

While we’re on the topic of leaving work at work, don’t email co-workers late at night or early in the morning . . . it’s annoying and adds to their stress levels.

• Take Care of Yourself: Some stress is good. It can energize you and motivate you to achieve goals in areas that are important to you. However, prolonged stress will reduce your coping ability and, over time, lead to burnout which can impact your health. If you don’t take good care of yourself physically, it’s easy for the everyday stressors to beat up on you in your less-than-optimal state of well-being.

No one is suggesting that workplace stressors are going away. However, you can take control of how you react to the everyday stressors. Use the above tips we’ve shared to put things into perspective and keep your stress levels healthy for optimal health and performance. Remember, you only get one shot at this thing called life, so make the most of it.

The post Reducing Stress in the Post-Pandemic Workplace appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

 In the business of sports, it’s common knowledge that you can’t consistently win without working as a united team. Unfortunately, some executives and managers don’t feel the same concept applies to their work.

In one extreme case we worked on this year, the executives had not only stopped communicating with each other, they were actively trying to undermine each other’s success. In simplest terms, when managers are not able to work with each other, we describe this phenomenon as misidentifying the enemy. The teams get into turf wars and start battling each other as the enemy instead of the competition. 

If you are still looking for a reason to improve the cross-departmental teamwork in your area, remember, leaders who have a reputation for strong collaboration across departmental lines are more promotable than leaders who have a reputation for building a fence around their turf. Here are some ways to help your organization build strong cross-departmental collaboration.

Be clear on the mission, vision and goals of the organization. Firefighters, when on an emergency call, seldom face a lack of cross-departmental communication and teamwork. This is because the collective mission is crystal clear: Save someone’s life, or put out the fire. The power of a united team is significantly more effective than the work of individuals when it comes to achieving a mission. Could you imagine an engineer on a firetruck telling the rest of the crew, “My job is to flawlessly drive you to the scene and turn on the water pumps if needed. I did my job, now you go save those people.”

We can chuckle at this example, but the equivalent of this happens in organizations every day. “Our job in marketing is to get the message out. We’ve done our job, the problem is in sales and operations.” The first step to success is to gain agreement, from all departments, on a common mission, vision and goal.

Be a bridge builder. There are two types of managers: bridge builders and fence builders. Fence builders do their best to grow their departments, steer more resources into their area, and isolate exactly what they are responsible for delivering. Fence builders don’t want anyone communicating with members or their team unless the communication goes through them. With a good fence built around their department, the goal is to have less communication and reliance on cross-departmental teamwork. Fence builders are famous for words such as, “We’re too busy to meet,” or, “If everyone would do their job, we wouldn’t need to meet.” Bridge builders, on the other hand, are leading at a higher level. They recognize the importance of everyone working toward a common vision and goals and are actively building bridges between departments to make that happen.

Hold consistent cross-departmental meetings. When two departments are dysfunctional and not working well as a team, they will do anything humanly possible not to meet. When people know they’re going to meet face-to-face on a regular basis, there’s a strong chance they will start to work better as a team. As a bridge building leader, recognize that people are going to fight this initiative initially, and it will take strong leadership to improve cross-departmental teamwork.

Reward collaborative behaviors. Promote and reward the people who do what’s right for the organization, not the people who do what’s right for them individually and their specific team. Fence builders create teamwork problems that leaders need to waste valuable time trying to resolve. Reward the people who avoid or solve problems by working together, rather than forcing the leader to get involved to take sides or make a decision.

Take a strong stand. As a leader, you always have a choice. You can weaken cross-departmental teamwork by meeting individually with employees and listening to them complain about all the others, and you can set individual goals that ensure internal competition for customers and resources. Or, you can be a bridge builder and lead strong cross-departmental teamwork. You can set goals that all team members need to work together to achieve, and you can hold frequent meetings to help employees resolve differences and ensure they are working toward a common vision and goals.

Improving cross-departmental teamwork creates change that deeply impacts the culture of your organization. People will feel uncomfortable being forced to work with team members they have avoided in the past. If you want your organization to thrive and compete in the market, teams within your organization need to be united. It’s up to you to set the example and make sure each member on your team understands that teamwork is not an option, but a necessity.

The post Misidentifying the Enemy – Increasing Cross-Departmental Teamwork appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

You juggle multiple personal and professional responsibilities daily. Sometimes it can all feel a little overwhelming. Since the start of the pandemic, we have heard from leaders that they feel even more overwhelmed than ever before. Here is our New Year’s gift to you… Five simple tips for de-stressing your life.

Tips for De-stressing Your Life:

1. Practice positive self-talk – Rather than saying, “It’s hopeless. I’ll never get caught up,” try instead, “I’ve got a huge workload. Where do I start?” Changing your thought process from what won’t work to what will work immediately changes your energy flow. Go for what you want, not what you don’t want. Remember, if you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right!  
2. Begin with the end in mind – Identify where you want to spend your time. If you’re stressed because you feel the events in your life have taken over, step back and examine your core values. What’s most important to you today – career, school, family? Then, identify where you’re spending most of your time. If you are spending a portion of your day, each day, in those areas that you have identified as being of high value to you, then typically, you feel less stressed and more in control. When your core values align with your daily activities, a better sense of balance is achieved.
3. Do a time audit – How can you “find” more time for yourself if you don’t know where the time is going? Commit to keeping track of your time for at least a full week. At the end of the week, determine how long you spent on particular tasks, with family, involved in leisure activities, etc. Once you’ve decided where your time is currently going, determine where you want to spend more time. Then, take actions to ensure that you’re spending your time efficiently and, more importantly, in areas where you want to be spending your time. 
4. Prioritize – Now, how many times have you heard that? You already know how to determine your number one, two, and three priorities so we won’t elaborate. But, how about learning to not only prioritize but negotiate? Meaning, in some cases, the correct response is, “No, I’m not able to do that now, but would tomorrow morning work for you?” Too often, our first response is yes, and our second thought is, “Now why did I agree to that?” Prioritize your tasks, reprioritize throughout the day, and don’t forget to get your leisure activities on your list… time for you needs to be a high priority. To help in this area, check out our blog on a Better Prioritized Life.
5. Manage the technology so that it doesn’t manage you. Meaning, we are blessed with a wonderful array of tools such as cell phones, tablets, smartwatches, multiple emails, and the list goes on and on. Just because we can communicate 24/7 doesn’t necessarily mean that we should. Determine how often you will check-in, and then stick to your plan. For example, returning calls or emails only once an hour allows you to use your time and better focus on your priorities more efficiently.

That’s enough for now. Remember, you can’t really “find time,” “save time,” or “make time.” We’re each gifted with the same number of minutes each day. Our advice to you is to know where those minutes are going and take action to control your time. All the best to you in 2022!

Tips to De-stress your life in 2022

The post Tips to De-Stress your life in 2022 appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

With the pandemic and people still working from home, we hear from some that they have a hard time turning work off. While managers have staff working all hours of the day, that stretches out their day to the point that they are literally working day and night. This isn’t healthy for the manager, the direct reports, or the organization.

Managers tell us that they love what they do so it’s not really work. Although this may be factually correct, someone is going to suffer in this relationship. Maybe it won’t be the manager, but it could be the manager’s family or the people who have to work with the manager.

Working non-stop sends a message to the people in your life, both at work and at home. The message your friends and family receive is that you value work over spending time with them. If you have kids, this message can have life-long consequences. To your employees, constantly working signifies that you—and maybe even the company—value work over individuals.

It’s important to recognize that you model what you want your employees to emulate. An employee recently told me that he was hesitant to ask their boss for vacation time for fear of how his boss might respond since his boss never takes time away from work.

So what can you do to ensure that you have a well-balanced work and personal life? Speaking from personal experience, here are 10 tips that our team has put into play that have made a significant difference in improving our work-life balance:

1. Make a to-do list: Make a to-do list of what you need to accomplish tomorrow before you leave today. When the list is complete, prioritize what’s most important and what needs to be done first. And, you may not be able to get everything done at the end of the day, but at least you know that you can accomplish the most important tasks because you have identified them. If you can’t finish everything on your list, don’t worry—that’s why you’re coming back to work tomorrow.
2. Leave work at work: If you are back in the office, leave it in the trunk of your car or leave it at work. If you are working from home, put it away in a briefcase or drawer and turn off your computer. It is important to remember that you are not needed at work as much as you think you are. If you were wacked by a truck on the way home, the chances that someone will be able to do your work, are high. Since that may not be enough to motivate most workaholics, remember that Paul Tsongas said, “Nobody on his deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office.’”
3. Stay on top of your email everyday: Email is burying many managers and they find that they are spending all their time catching up on emails after hours. Schedule time in your day to catch up on emails. Even if that means you block off time on your calendar, so you are not booked elsewhere.
4. Build margin into your life: If you need to be somewhere at 5:30 pm, make sure you block off time in your calendar to leave at the right time so you can arrive early.
5. Buy tickets: If you buy tickets at the beginning of the year for your vacations, concerts, shows, etc., you’ll discover something wonderful: when you have tickets, you always find the time to go. As things start to open back up again, be on the lookout for things you want to do and book it.
6. Take notes: Create a system for writing down the things you need to remember to do. Worrying about the stuff you haven’t written down is what wakes you up in the middle of the night in a panic. Learn to utilize an electronic ‘to-do’ so you can add to it anywhere. 
7. Plan down time: Schedule time where you can turn off your email and computer and truly enjoy being disconnected.
8. Exercise: To prevent stress from taking over your life, you need a healthy mind and body. Regular exercise is key. Realize that you don’t need to be motivated to continue exercising, you only need to be motivated to start. As Nike says, Just Do It. Once you get moving, you’ll find it easier to accomplish your fitness goals.
9. Live in the moment: When you are home, be home. People tend to worry about work stuff when they’re at home and home stuff when they’re at work. Since most worries never materialize, it’s a total waste of what could be an enjoyable moment.
10. Decide to be happy: Research tells us that about 40 percent of a person’s happiness is a decision they make. Last week, I asked a gentleman how he was and he replied, “I am on the right side of the ground; therefore I am well and I am happy.” Happiness is a choice. There are people out there who are only happy when they are unhappy…let them be that way. After all, it’s their choice.

All of us are being asked to do more with less. On top of the stress of this workload, the world is changing faster than it ever has. Combine doing more with less with the accelerated pace of change and it becomes clear that something has got to give. That something is up to you. With the above ten strategies, we know that you will take one step closer to better balancing your priorities.

The post Secrets to a Better Prioritized Life appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

We all procrastinate from time to time, but when it affects your productivity, then that is when it is time to tackle this habit. By definition, procrastination is the intentional and habitual postponement of a task, in order to do a task of less importance. If we have a legitimate reason for postponing a task then, by this definition, it is not procrastination.

Real procrastinators have three strong characteristics: Perpetual Guilt, Crisis Orientation, and Self-Deception. 

First – Perpetual Guilt: Procrastinators know they have a problem and know they need to take action. Procrastinators generally feel guilty every time they look at the task that needs to be completed. They often have a good idea of exactly what needs to be done. However, great procrastinators continually postpone the very action that will relieve their guilt.

Second – Crisis Orientation: Great procrastinators always promise to take action at some indeterminate time in the future. The hallmark of procrastinators is that they do not ever take immediate action unless there is a crisis concerning the task. The self-talk of a procrastinator generally utilizes the phase “I need to” rather than “I will.” For example, a procrastinator feels comfortable saying, “I need to clean out the garage.” A more goal directed individual would say, “I will clean out the garage by noon tomorrow.”

Third – Self-Deception: Great procrastinators like to make the performance of the procrastinated task contingent on something else. This makes the delay seem rational and justifiable. For example, a procrastinator might say, “I will take a vacation as soon as the pace slows down.” Unfortunately, for the true procrastinator, the pace never slows down. In this scenario, the delay tactic is a convenient excuse rather than a legitimate reason for the delay. Most procrastination involves self-deception. We try to rationalize why we have not yet completed the task. 

When we procrastinate, we usually feel guilty or awkward because we acknowledge the fact that we are not weighing the penalties of not completing the task against the benefits of completing the task. Here are 8 steps to help you overcome your procrastination:

1. Decide What is Causing the Delay
   To win the battle with procrastination, it is critical that you figure out what is causing you to delay the task. Look back over the list of excuses to see which ones apply to you. Once you pinpoint the cause, it is easier to generate a solution.
2. Change Your Attitude
   Most people are not excited about completing a procrastinated task. It is this very lack of excitement and enthusiasm that creates a need to put off the task for one of lesser importance. In fact, you will find that with most procrastinated tasks, you use negative self-talk. If your self-talk consists of a statement like, “I don’t even know where to start,” or “This task is boring,” it will most likely have a negative impact on the outcome. You are much better off focusing on the benefits of completing the task rather than the negative aspects of getting started on the task.
3. Conquer Your Fears
   Sometimes we procrastinate a task because we fear the outcome. An individual puts off going back to school because he is much older than most students and is not sure how well he will do. A good way to overcome your fears and get on with life is to analyze what is the worst possible thing that could happen. After you recognize the worst possible outcome, then ask yourself, “Can I live with the worst possible scenario?” Most times, we can live with the worst possible outcome.
4. Organize a Plan for Completion. Break down the procrastinated project into smaller tasks. For example, if you presently have a large pile of magazines you need to read, it may be easier to accomplish the task by taking the following steps. First, separate the different magazines you subscribe to into individual piles by type. Second, work on only one type of magazine at a time. Third, highlight the articles you want to read in each magazine. Fourth, set a goal to read or review articles for thirty minutes a day until you have completed the task.
5. Set Goals
   Unless you set a goal that is realistic, measurable, and within a specific time frame, you will find that you tend to put off the task. Make a commitment and get the task done.
6. Act Now
   There is only one real solution to winning the battle with procrastination. Like Nike says, “Just Do It!” Let’s say you have to write an article for your corporation’s newsletter. The article will take approximately one hour to write. At this moment, you only have fifteen minutes before you need to be at a meeting. You can still act now. In fifteen minutes, you could put together an outline of the article. Then, the next available fifteen minutes can be used to expand the outline and, before you know it, the article is finished.
7. Do the Toughest Part First
   A young boy was sitting at the dinner table staring at some green peas that he did not want to eat. The problem was that his mother said, “You cannot leave the table until you finish all your dinner, and that includes your peas.” After looking at the green peas for over an hour, the boy’s father shared with him this pearl of wisdom. “Son, if you have to swallow a frog, don’t sit there and look at it.” And so is the case with procrastinated tasks; they normally do not get better with time.
8. Reward Yourself
   When you accomplish a task you have been procrastinating, reward yourself in a way that is meaningful to you.

Like the saying goes, there is no time like the present. Take the next step to work on those items you have been procrastinating. You know you’ll be glad you did.

The post 8 Pro Tips to Stop Procrastinating appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

1. Refuse to delegate. Many times, leaders refuse to delegate and instead do the tasks themselves or micromanage others because they do not trust that anyone will do the job as well as they could. By not delegating, they are unable to take on additional responsibilities or sometimes, get their most important work done. Successful leaders get bored easily. Once they know how to do a task, they are quick to delegate the task to a team member so they can focus more of their time working on strategic tasks and projects that improve the condition of their team or organization.
2. Focus on perfection, not success. When leaders are focused on perfection, they are perpetually late on assignments because to complete the task, it has to be done perfectly. Since very few things in life are ever perfect, it delays their ability to respond to emails, make decisions, or efficiently complete work in a timely manner.
3. Operate under an umbrella of arrogance. These leaders do not treat others with dignity and respect because they truly believe that they are the smartest person in the room and no one can live up to their expectations. They are disrespectful to others, belittle other’s ideas and seldom take personal responsibility for their misguided actions. The sad part of this point is these struggling leaders don’t realize that almost everyone in the room is smarter than they are when it comes to social or emotional intelligence (EQ).
4. Hire weak team members. People who have a difficult time getting promoted do not like to hire brilliant team members who have a stronger skill set than they do.  Great leaders know their strengths and weaknesses and hire strong, smart team members who challenge them by bringing talents and skills in the areas where the leader needs greater depth.
5. Live with poor work-life balance. If you are working 60 to 80 hours a week, you tell people in your organization that you cannot handle additional responsibilities. Great leaders are constantly asking themselves how they can be even more effective, focusing on success and not perfection, so they can maintain a successful work-life balance. When leaders can figure out how to be even more effective and efficient, they are ready to assume additional responsibilities.
6. Non-responsive: When managers have a back log of several hundred unread or emails that have been read but saved as new because they have not been responded to, the manager quickly tells everyone that does not get a response that they are in over their head and cannot assume any additional responsibilities or one more email.
7. Stop learning: When managers are in over their head, they struggle to find the time to just keep their head above water getting the most pressing day-to-day tasks completed. In other ways, these managers who are difficult to promote make a whole career out of focusing on putting out the most pressing fire that arises.
8. Road block change: Leaders who find it difficult to be promoted have the bad habit of displaying resistance to implementing changes that will improve the condition of the team or organization. They are great at making excuses like, “Why fix something that is not broken,” “We’ve never done it that way before,” or “I am not against change, I just don’t think we are ready for this change now.”

All of the behaviors outlined above build a leadership reputation that makes you and your boss look bad. People with bad reputations find it more difficult to be promoted. So, do you want to be promoted? To maximize your options, check out our blog next week on Managing Up to a Successful Promotion.

The post Eight Tips That Will Block Your Next Promotion appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

• A lack of clarity regarding the organization’s vision
• A lack of agreement about the organization’s target market
• A lack of clarity regarding the top strategic goals for the organization
• Disagreement among Board and Executive team members regarding budgets and project funding
• Board members who have a strong desire to discuss small operational details rather than focus on the bigger strategic issues that guide the direction of the organization

Are you procrastinating on your next strategic planning retreat? The following are suggestions to help you get started and ensure you have a highly successful strategic planning meeting.

1. Conduct one-on-one interviews with each member of the Board and Executive team to determine the organization’s strengths, opportunities and goals for the strategic planning retreat
2. Communicate the assessment results to both the Board and the Executive team
3. Facilitate strategic planning sessions with the Executive team to clarify the vision, target market, and the most important strategic goals that need to be accomplished to achieve the vision
4. Facilitate a strategic planning session with the Board to gain their input and ensure alignment with the vision, target markets and top strategic goals
5. Conduct an operational planning session with the Executive and Middle Management teams where each department head presents the highlights of what major tactical actions they will take to achieve the major strategic goals

Recently, we partnered with a financial institution with approximately $2 billion in assets to help them move from paralysis to alignment around a fully executable strategic plan.  We worked with the Executive team and their Board of Directors to update their vision, identify their target market, clarify strategic goals, and implement a tactical plan. As a result of the strategic planning effort, the Executive team and Board were in alignment on the vision, target customer, target market and major strategic goals; the strategic plan was given full approval by the Board; and the Executive Team was able to create an operational plan where budgets and actions were all in alignment with the strategic plan.

We have been helping organizations successfully plan for their futures for over 25 years.  We can help your team draft a new vision, identify target customers, create goals and strategies, and implement tactical actions.  Let us partner with you for your next strategic planning meeting or Board retreat.

The post Has your Strategic Planning Meeting Come to a Stalemate? appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.