How to be remembered for the right reasons #5: Create shared connectionĀ
Earn the right to be heard by blending credibility with relatability, meeting audiences where they are, and building rapport through shared stories....
Brain Circuits
How productive are you, honestly?
This exercise helps you shorten your to do-list to become more productive. The math has already been done for you.
Ask yourself the following three questions:
- Are you prioritizing? (Hopefully, yes)
- Are you making space for the essentials? (You should be)
- Is your main concern sticking to the schedule? (It shouldnāt be)
We often feel the need to go full pelt at the start of the year, full of ideas and energy, in the name of feeling productive. But consider reshaping your concept of high productivity around the nature of your high-leverage activities:
Andy Grove, the legendary former chief executive and chairman of Intel, described the productivity (āoutputā) of a manager as āA managerās output = the output of her organization + the output of the neighboring organizations under her influenceā.
Letās imagine you are seeking to increase the output of your own organization (part one of the equation). You could try to speed up your own work, but thatās likely to lead to burnout. Option 2 would be to increase your managerial leverage. So how would that look?
- Many people would be affected by your presence and/or
- A single personās behavior would have changed over time by one brief encounter with you.
The above might come about thanks to training ā āone of the highest-leverage activities a manager can perform,ā in Groveās yes.
Grove was an engineer. He made Intel deliver microprocessors with doubling computing power every eighteen months. Like clockwork.
When you invest time in training your own people, you get to delegate more with trust. But donāt think thatās you being unproductive; it is in fact another way for you to further increase your leverage.
Now for part two of the equation: āHow can I increase the output of neighboring organizations?ā Grove recommends you supply them with a unique key piece of knowledge or information. A good example would be a data-driven suggestion ā an emerging trend of what works and what doesnāt. This stops predictions without seeing the full picture.
Put another way, a summary report given can quickly change the day-to-day practice of employees. Thatās leverage.
Further Reading: High Output Management, by Andrew S Grove
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