How to approach the productivity problem | Helping yourself and mentees see positive, not negative | Are you really listening to your team? Are you sure?
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Common advice such as "dress for the job you want" might achieve results in certain circumstances, partly because this approach can help a person feel more confident. But the key to true success with this and other similar advice is to also do the internal work to develop skills and achieve personal growth.
Reverse the recent decline in productivity by investing in technologies that help people do their jobs, focusing on employee respect and learning, tracking employees' work routines and conducting fewer meetings, workforce leaders say. "If you're constantly interrupted with meetings, it makes it very difficult to do the job you were hired for," says Tia Silas, Shopify's chief HR officer.
Avoiding key leadership traps can help you be a better leader as well as provide stronger mentoring to up-and-coming leaders, writes Adam Bryant in "The Leap to Leader: How Ambitious Managers Make the Jump to Leadership." Bryant discusses ways you, or your mentees, can handle traps such as fear of failure, unpleasant realities and victimhood.
Improve your listening skills by putting away all distractions so you can be present, being curious about what's being said and asking questions to clarify anything that may be unclear, writes Lolly Daskal. "[T]he consequences of not listening are numerous, including a loss of teamwork and camaraderie, missed opportunities and ideas, overlooked logical discernment and cost-saving processes, and a breakdown of trust and respect," Daskal notes.
US nonfarm payrolls rose 209,000 in June, below expectations of 240,000, while the unemployment rate was 3.6%, according to the Labor Department. The report comes in much softer than a private payrolls report from ADP, which showed 497,000 new jobs added in June.
Oversight of artificial intelligence shouldn't automatically be shunted to the IT department, writes CEO Greg Matusky of public relations firm Gregory FCA. The actual nature of AI, as a productivity tool, not software, Matusky writes, "places responsibility squarely in the court of corporate communications."
With an eye toward reducing carbon emissions, Japan Airlines is trialing a program that allows passengers to rent clothing at their destination, rather than lugging it in a suitcase. Travelers can pick the clothes from an app, with the fee running from $28 to $49. Don't worry ... the program doesn't include socks and underwear.
