Go Home Early!

I know that's what you wanted to hear on a Friday and I aim to please. We've all heard the adage work smarter not harder; as it turns out, there is truth to it...sort of. Perhaps the better adage should be 'work smarter AND harder, but in less time', but that is not quite as catchy. A study done by Dr. K. Anders Ericcson, published in the Psychological Review and recently recounted in the Business Insider, found that working intensly for short amounts of time produces more results than drudging along for an 8 hour day.

Why is this? Many of us (myself included) work at a desk all day from 9-5, but Facebook or an email account stays minimized in the bottom of  our computer screens. The temptation is simply too great not to check that new notification or most recent email that comes through. While technology is often to blame, so is our temptation to eavesdrop on that hallway conversation or swing by the bathroom one more time. In what I am sure is only the most rigorous of scientific studies, I read somewhere that the average worker spends more time in the bathroom than on vacation. That's either sad, incorrect or we have a nation of people needing to see a gastroenterologist. Regardless of what pulled us away, our concentration is then broken and it takes us another minute or two to regain our focus and peak performance. Not only have we lost time, we have lost quality of work as well.

Dr. Ericcson's research followed violin students and compared the "best students" with the "good students". What he found was that the best students set a specific goal to complete during practice and then take longer breaks (or even quit for the day). This is also true with successful authors, many of whom write in the morning hours, finish before lunch and spend the rest of the day in leisure. Not too shabby. If you are thinking that you are neither a concert violinist nor John Grisham, follow some of these tips to apply the theory into your work day:

• Don't check your email. Not right away at least. Choose a time in late morning or just after lunch to check your email and respond to critical ones. Which leads me to my next tip...
• Know which emails are critical. Responding to the Evite for your co-worker's barbeque invitation is not critical. Responding to an invitation to conduct a training for a client is critical.
• Choose what project you are going to work on and then clear your desk of anything else.
• Give yourself a specific goal of what you want to complete and then give yourself a break. For a short project, your goal might be to finish completely; for a longer project, your goal might be to give it one, concentrated hour of your time.
• When you are done, stop.

So, right after you finish reading this blogpost, get to work and enjoy your Friday a few hours earlier!

Corporate Social Responsibility: Not Just About Being Mr. Nice Guy

Bleeding heart. Tree hugger. Do-gooder. Idealist. These are not the phrases often associated with those sitting in the C Suite. What those in the C Suite are realizing, however, is that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is no longer an option; it is a necessity. CSR might include green initiatives in the workplace or larger funding for global issues like the fight against human trafficking. Whatever the issue, it is about more than simply creating "good press"; indeed it is correlated to employee performance and the company's bottom line.
Towers Watson conducted a study on the global workforce and discovered that issues related to CSR is the third most important factor in employee engagement and the sixth most important driver when it comes to attracting new talent.
When senior management is visibly involved in the issue, employees are even more responsive. They tend to have more positive attitudes and they act more quickly to resolve customer concerns. People want to work hard for companies they believe work hard for them and their communities.
What is your company doing to promote corporate social responsibility? Are you able to say that your CSR efforts are having the impact you desire? If the answer is no or you are not sure, then your bottom line and the greater good might be suffering.

Contact Renee Branson, MA, NCC for ways to increase your company's CSR visibility.
720-220-1152
renee_branson@hotmail.com