Laura Stack

Laura Stack is one of America's premier experts on productivity, and her company, The Productivity Pro, Inc., provides workshops around the globe on productivity, potential, and performance. She’s also the author or coauthor of 10 books, most recently, "What to Do When There’s Too Much to Do." Contact her at laura@theproductivitypro.com, or you can connect with her on LinkedIn.

Articles by Laura Stack

Culture, HR Insights

Embracing Change: A Few Good Reasons to Keep It Moving Forward

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If you have always done it that way, it’s probably wrong.”Charles Kettering, American inventor.

“The only completely consistent people are dead.”Aldous Huxley, British writer.

As surely as hair grows and flowers bloom, change will come rolling through your organization today, tomorrow, and always.

Trying to resist it would be like trying to hold back the ocean. That didn’t work for King Canute, and it won’t work for you. Instead, take advantage of change: catch the wave, hang 10, and use its energy to your advantage. Read more…

Talent Management

What to Do When Your Co-Workers Fail You

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“Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable, and you will never be asked to do a thing.” — Paul Theroux, American travel writer and artist.

Volunteer leaders, freelancers, and corporate employees alike all depend on others to contribute or provide work.

At some point, you will run into people who fail to deliver what they’ve promised. How should you react when people leave you in the lurch?

Your reaction depends on a number of factors:

  • Was the failure an oversight, or did they outright break a promise?
  • Was this a one-time thing, or does it happen often? Read more…
HR Management, Talent Management

Six Ways to Spark Innovative Thinking in Your Workforce

Innovation1

You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” — André Gide, French author (winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947).

While the business environment requires a certain level of built-in routine in order to maximize productivity, that doesn’t mean you can’t have creative fun at work.

Remember what Peter Drucker taught us: “The business enterprise has two — and only two — basic functions: marketing and innovation.”

So what does that have to do with creativity? Just this: when you reduce it to its essentials, innovation is creativity. Read more…

Talent Management

How Much Work Is Too Much Work? What Is the Limit to Productivity?

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Don’t smoke too much, drink too much, eat too much, or work too much. We’re all on the road to the grave—but there’s no need to be in the passing lane.” — Robert Orben, American humorist.

Recently, I held a public seminar where one of the participants posed an interesting question to me in the Q&A section: “Laura, how much work is enough? I could work 16 hours a day, but I’m not sure when to stop! What is a good gauge?”

What a great question! One of the audience members said (only half-jokingly), “I stop when I finish my to-do list or can’t stay awake any longer.” Read more…

HR Management

Coping With Unlikeable Tasks: You Just Gotta Take Ownership

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Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” — Mark Twain, American writer and lecturer.

Have you found that perfect job yet?

Of course not, because the perfect job doesn’t exist. Every job in the world includes unpleasant tasks that may bore you to death, strain your capacities, or require such brainless repetition you’d rather go hide in the nearest swamp.

Whatever your job’s deficiencies, though, you’ve got to take ownership of those tasks — or how can you say you’ve done your job? Read more…

Leadership

Leadership 101: How to Help Your Team to Be More Productive

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In some situations, the concept of taking accountability for productivity and performance extends beyond your own job — especially when you find yourself in a leadership position — and team productivity becomes paramount.

In situations like these, doing your job well also means helping others do their jobs better and more efficiently, so their performance dovetails with yours in a satisfyingly synergistic way.

Carefully cultivated, the result can be a fruitful cycle of productivity, forming a positive feedback loop that expands into all aspects of the workflow process, making work life easier for all involved.

As a manager, you must constantly refine your organization’s workflow processes and streamline your systems. Actively pursue opportunities to eliminate nagging time bandits, frustrations, and productivity-sappers from your office systems every day. Read more…

Talent Management

Helping Employees Improve: You Gotta Do More Than Just Point Fingers

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When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.” — Louis Nizer, noted American trial lawyer.

Few of us truly appreciate criticism, because no matter how valid or constructive, it can be embarrassing or annoying (especially when someone fails to offer a solution to the perceived problem).

Poking holes in something is much easier than repairing them — yet most critics don’t let that stop them. Hence the saying, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach; those who can’t teach, criticize.”

If an error is definitely your fault, you should correct it. But it’s too easy to point fingers when something simply seems awry, or when a problem’s cause remains uncertain. Read more…

HR Management

Powering Productivity, or 4 Ways to Bust Through The Office Bureaucracy

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“Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.” — French author Honoré de Balzac.

“Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.” Laurence J. Peter, Canadian-American educator and formulator of The Peter Principle.

Remember the Biblical story of David and Goliath? It’s a classic of its type, right up there with Jack and the Beanstalk. In both cases, a little guy shocks the world by using speed, agility, and audacity to bring down an “unbeatable” giant. Read more…

Culture, Leadership

Slow Decisions Can Murder Your Company’s Momentum

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A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.”Rita Mae Brown, American novelist.

The ability to consistently make good, solid decisions lies at the heart of any productivity initiative, especially those affecting entire teams or organizations.

Those of us concerned with maximizing positive outcomes have invented a wide variety of guidelines to help people make such decisions. Some experts argue that all significant decisions deserve careful consideration and consensus building before implementation, which results in a slow, deliberate decision-making process. Read more…

Leadership

Want to Succeed as a Leader? Then You Need to Tighten Your Focus

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The modern leader’s biggest problems rarely stem from a lack of commitment or work ethic.

Most of us are quite willing to work hard, and often for a distressing number of hours. And it’s not as if we don’t understand time management; anyone who has made it to a significant leadership position has mastered the basics, or they wouldn’t occupy their current post.

The real problem is that many leaders haven’t learned to expand and refocus their understanding of time management to take into account the realities of their new positions — even as they accrue more and more power over the lives and livelihoods of more and more people. Read more…