Archive for September, 2006

Checklist For High Performing Teams

Wednesday, September 27th, 2006

This article by Susan Cullen talks about what characteristics high performing teams have in common. High performance relates to time management in that efficiency in work, saves time. Most of these 10 characteristics are common sense, but very necessary none the less in improving performance and time management.

Why do some teams perform well while others struggle? How can you assess how effectively your team is working now, and identify methods for improvement? Research shows that 85% of the reasons that teams of people succeed or struggle has more to do with interpersonal issues, than technical competence. But both are needed for effective teamwork.

Below please find a checklist you can use to identify the strengths and development needs of your own team:

1. Clear Goals.

It’s very hard to get there if you don’t know where you’re going! And it’s very hard to accomplish your goals if you haven’t made them clear. Make sure there’s no question about your team’s purpose, function and objective.

2. Clear Roles and Responsibilities.

It’s important that roles and responsibilities are clearly specified in order for people to be accountable for accomplishing their part of the team’s tasks. Misunderstandings and conflicts frequently occur when roles and expectations are not clearly defined.

3. Information Sharing.

In order for the team to make the best decisions, each team member needs to be provided with relevant information. High performing teams don’t guard information… they share it freely.

4. Competent Team Members.

Competent [tag]team members[/tag] need to be placed in the right position. At times, a highly talented person can be ill placed which can throw off the team functioning. Consider both the competency and placement of each individual team member.

5. Values Diversity.

We don’t all work the same way, or have the same styles. This can be a key source for interpersonal conflict. However, when teams learn to value each other’s differences they can leverage each other’s strengths. Team building exercises can help individuals to appreciate diversity and work together more effectively.

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Calendars and Personality Type

Wednesday, September 27th, 2006

This is a very interesting article by Janet Barclay that talks about the 4 different Meyers-Briggs personality types and how they use calendars and manage their time. A very inciteful article that gives very good insight into how you should use your calendars and manage your time based on your personality. If you aren’t successful with managing your time, then you should read this article as it should give you a lot of insight into why time management isn’t working for you.

I recently conducted a survey to look at the relationship between an individual’s personality type and his or her organizing and time management style, and noticed that the majority of participants said they have a calendar system that works for them. As there are so many time management systems available, both paper-based and electronic, I thought it would be interesting to find out which calendar systems are most popular with each personality type, and asked my ezine subscribers and visitors to my website to describe their time management system, what they like and dislike about it, and their personality type according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®). The MBTI measures your preferences in four areas: The source of your energy (Introversion / Extraversion) Taking in information (Sensing / INtuition) Decision-making (Thinking / Feeling) Dealing with the outer world (Judging / Perceiving) Because the Judging / Perceiving preference pertains to the way you deal with the outer world, it has the greatest influence on the way you manage time and space, however, the other preferences also come into play, as described in earlier articles. Your preferences in the four areas listed above combine to form one of 16 different personality types. This article is a summary of the responses I received, according to the participants’ stated personality type. Where specific time management products were named, this information has been included.

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BUSTING WORKPLACE CLUTTER. Getting Organized Means More Than Having A Clean Desk

Wednesday, September 27th, 2006

This is a good article that explains why we spend so much wasted time in the business workplace. Organization is a big key to time management and clutter can really eat up a lot of time for the busy professional. Read on for more ways to combat clutter and truly manage your time at your business.

Imagine meeting an attorney for the first time, whose office is a cluttered mess – papers piled all over the desktop, mail and files scattered on the credenza, and an overloaded bookcase with stacks of books on top and on the floor. Regardless of the actual skill or reputation of that [tag]attorney[/tag], might your first impression be a negative one? Might your confidence in that attorney be lessened as well? In business, first impressions are important. Clutter in the workplace ranges from merely annoying to nearly paralyzing and is always detrimental to productivity. A cluttered work environment also projects an unfavorable image to clients and associates. When the desktop becomes a storage place rather than a [tag]workspace[/tag], it’s time to reorganize! Several factors contribute to a disorganized workspace, but here are three ways to combat the saboteurs:

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Automated Expense and Timesheet Management

Thursday, September 14th, 2006

This is an interesting article on how businesses can manage time by streamlining and automating some of their business processes. This article specifically talks about time management by using software tools to automate timesheet management. It gives some good details and some sources for tools that can help businesses automate this particular process.

The pressure on companies to become ever ‘leaner’ and optimize the business processes is higher than ever. Investors demanding higher profits, customer’s demands for lower prices and greater quality and regulators demand for better controls and more transparency force organizations to improve, optimize and streamline their entire business process. The benefit of streamlining these processes has an immediate positive impact on the bottom line. The Improvements within manufacturing, including just in time production and material management have dramatically improved the bottom line.

While the focus on optimizing the logistic and production processes remains strong, optimization of administrative costs need similar attention. Companies actually realize productivity levels in their administrative sections today that are lower than before the introduction of IT solutions. The higher use of IT systems, while improving the amount and availability of information, is not being strategically used to lower costs associated with the administrative function.

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Are You an Entrepreneur That is Starved for Time

Wednesday, September 13th, 2006

This is a good article for entrepreneurs and how to deal with time management. It gives good reasons why entrepreneurs seem to be starved for time and what they can do to free up some of their time.

Being an entrepreneur and running a successful [tag]home-based business[/tag] is stressful at times, and can be hectic. Success within a home-based business though, absolutely demands time management skills, or the chores that need to get done will be left undone, and procrastination, as well as a serious “personal time deficiency” will occur.

Several studies have shown that many first-time [tag]entrepreneurs[/tag] spend too much time on “non-essential” activities within a business, activities that have nothing to do with business, or that have little impact on business success. At the end of each business day (when it finally ends), they are left feeling stressed out, burned out, separated from their personal lives, and worse yet, with a feeling of non-accomplishment and inefficiency.

You probably have met entrepreneurs like this occasionally in your own life. They constantly seem “busy”, yet they are constantly late for appointments, don’t ever have time to attend personal activities or outings, and are always stressed out about what still “needs to be done” each and every day!

A “personal time deficiency” occurs when an entrepreneur seems to spend all their time either working on the business, or thinking about the business. The entrepreneur can neglect family, friends, activities and personal pleasures, in pursuit of business functions. This is not only counter-productive to the business (creativity shines through when entrepreneurs also schedule time away from the business), but personal losses can occur to the entrepreneur. Horror stories abound about divorce among entrepreneurs, shattered family lives, and personal ruin.

What causes “personal time deficiencies”? A variety of factors: …

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