Archive for the ‘Startup Business’ Category

Parkinson’s law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” In other words, if you have 8 hours to do a 2 hour project, it will take 8 hours to get done.

This is one of the problems with being your own boss. Before you know it, the day has gone by and you’re looking at your 327 task list with only three items crossed off.
What to do?

1) Keep a time log of your activities for a week, and how much time they take. Don’t do anything yet! Just the action of writing it down is enough to bring your habits to awareness and you’ll find yourself more focused and on task.

2) Make yourself have a daily “quitting time” deadline – a time to leave work daily each day, even if some tasks remain unfinished. Otherwise, your de facto deadline becomes “whenever I pass out from exhaustion at the crack of dawn.” And Parkinson’s Law will make those unlimited late hours the most unproductive time of all.

Have you noticed how quickly you clean your house and do laundry and have a nice meal when you know the in-laws are visiting? Or how quickly you button up lingering issues when you know you’re going to be out of the office for a week?

I promise: After about a week of time-logging, and self-imposed “quitting time” deadlines, you’ll start to notice heightened productivity: more done in less time and with greater ease.

Look. I’m a girly girl.

I am not a sports fanatic per se. But all this talk of Lebron vs. Jordan has reminded me of one of my favorite Jordan clips ever.
His last introduction in Chicago (as a Washington Wizard). Unforgettable.

A recent BCG survey shows a disquieting gap between CEOs and their top managers over the critical issue of innovation.

Here’s a peek at some of the results:

•          81% of CEOs believe innovation is a top priority for their companies while only 63% of lower-level execs share this view.

•          76% of CEOs believe their companies foster a culture of innovation, but 51% of lower level execs and employees disagree.

•          66% of CEOs say their senior management teams share a common view on managing innovation but only 53% of non-CEOs agree.

•          Some 56% of CEOs believe their companies have the right organization structure already in place to generate innovation, while 56% of lower-level people do not agree.

Why the disconnect?

It looks like many CEOs are naive when it comes to operationalizing innovation in their own companies. They’re not getting it — and perhaps not providing the resources (Mastery Step 4 – Manage Your Systems) to develop it.

And many managers don’t understand how important innovation is (Mastery Step 6: Make Mistakes Strategically) as a strategic imperative. It appears that senior managers of most companies are out of alignment (Mastery Step 9: Align Your Superlative Team) when it comes to innovation.

Out of the 10 steps to CEO Mastery which would you score the highest for your business? Leave your comments below.