Team Taskmaster

If you see a co-worker in a neighboring cubicle contorting into a strange pose, relax. She’s probably not having a convulsion. Rather, it’s more likely that she has embraced the latest workplace stressbuster: yoga.

A pilot study published in the journal Health Education & Behavior found that 20 minutes per day of guided workplace meditation and yoga, combined with six weekly group sessions, can lower feelings of stress by more than 10 percent in sedentary office employees.

Researchers from Ohio State found that yoga and meditation combined reduced participants’ stress, improved their awareness of external stressors, and helped them sleep better. In addition to 20 minutes of practice at their desks, participants attended a weekly, one-hour session during their lunch breaks.

Since lowering stress can increase productivity, adding yoga to the mix can be a win-win for the workplace. Want to put this into practice in your office? Learn some simple yoga moves you can do at your desk or in your office, try a little meditation — the approach used in the study was mindfulness-based stress reduction, or MBSR, but any type can help — and try to attend a weekly yoga class.

(image by enfad via Flickr, CC 2.0)

Ever find yourself struggling to complete a task because it seems so daunting? We’ve all been there. Envisioning all the steps that need to be taken to get to “done” can be overwhelming. But if you reduce the friction that’s holding you back, says Leo Babauta on Zen Habits, it’s easier to reach completion.

What’s friction? Things like procrastinating, distractions, meetings, or even being intimidated by a big project. Focus on the friction and eliminate it, and you’ll find yourself moving forward.

Even better, think small. Start by getting the small things done to build momentum. For example, Barbauta explains how he launched a new minimalism blog (mnmlist.com) in just three days:

One day to buy the domain, set up Wordpress, and find a theme to start from. Another day to tweak the theme to what I wanted and write a few posts. A third day to write more posts and announce it on Twitter and here on Zen Habits. Three days, and I was at Done.

Starting a new blog might seem like a big challenge, but it’s not so bad when you break it down into bite-sized pieces.

So think “small” to get your project rolling, reduce friction points where you can, and enjoy the fruits of your labors a lot more quickly and easily than you might think.

Oh, you want me to join your meeting for a quick info download? Great. Don’t forget to tell me to build a PowerPoint presentation.

Instead of letting me speak to the group for three minutes to explain the new initiative, make me present a slide deck. With bullet points. And, preferably, with cutesy little graphics. Bonus points for animated slides.

Make sure we take time to futz with the A/V setup, pull the blinds, and make sure everyone in the room has a good sightline. Burn a little time by making me stand up in front of the group and assigning some random person to click through my presentation for me.

By all means, have me read verbatim from the PowerPoint slides. After all, it would be heresy for me to be spontaneous, natural, or (God forbid) collaborative with my audience.

Remind me to make 14 hard copies of the slide deck to pass out at the conclusion of my talk, which has now taken 20 minutes instead of the anticipated three. Why? Because no one was paying attention to the presentation anyway, so they might want to read it later.

Also, it makes people feel important to walk away from a meeting with a sheaf of paper. Let’s not worry about the trees or the company’s “Go Green!” initiatives.

And above all, never mind that it took me a grand total of two hours — building the slide deck, making copies, and presenting — to convey information that, again, should’ve taken three minutes, max.

What a great use of my time and a fabulous way to boost my productivity! The corporate reliance on PowerPoint for all purposes is clearly a wonderful, wonderful thing.

It’s been a tough year or two for most of us, what with the economy imploding, jobs getting slashed, and home values plummeting. But for a few, it’s proven too much too handle.

According to The New York Times, workplace suicides rose significantly from 2007 to 2008, to a series high of 251 nationwide.

The Times reported that:

• 94 percent were committed by men
• the suicide rate was highest for workers ages 45 to 54
• white workers were most likely to commit suicide (78 percent)
• employees in management positions accounted for the largest group of suicides

And keep in mind these numbers don’t include suicides that were committed outside the workplace.

What can managers do to make sure one of their team members is not in trouble? Educate your employees on the risk signs of suicide, says Workforce Management, and create a workplace culture that lets workers feel comfortable seeking help from the company’s Employee Assistance Program or other resources.

As a manager, cultivate an open-door policy and encourage your employees to let you know if they’re having difficulties.

Recognize, and be prepared to respond to, the warning signs of suicide. According to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), these may include:

• Talking about suicide or death
• Making statements like “I wish I were dead.” and “I’m going to end it all.”
• Less direct verbal cues, including “What’s the point of living?” “Soon you won’t have to worry about me” and “Who cares if I’m dead, anyway?”
• Uncharacteristically isolating themselves from others in the workplace
• Expressing feelings that life is meaningless or hopeless
• Giving away cherished possessions
• A sudden and unexplained improvement in mood after being depressed or withdrawn
• Neglect of appearance and hygiene
• Sudden unexplained deterioration of work performance or productivity

It’s okay to approach an employee directly and ask, “Do you feel like you want to die?”, says the SPRC. Be ready to offer EAP assistance or help your employee find outside counseling. If you feel that the person is in immediate danger, don’t hesitate to call 911.

For more information and resources:

• Download the SPRC’s handbook on what employers can do to prevent suicide
• Call (or direct your employee to call) the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
• Read ValueOptions’ guidelines for creating a comprehensive suicide prevention plan for the workplace

It’s been my son’s first week of kindergarten and let’s just say Mom was more stressed about it than he was. And unfortunately, anxiety and panic appear to be incompatible with coherent blogging, so apologies for the radio silence the past two days.

But I’ve regained my equilibrium and am able to view this past week with some perspective now. I’ve even managed to notice the ways in which the school leadership exceeded, met, or missed our parental expectations.

It’s the missed expectations, of course, that really got to the moms and dads sending off their wee ones for the first time. Amidst the playground grumbling, I noticed three common issues that seemed to get everyone’s goat: poor communication, a lack of collaboration, and no commiseration.

It struck me that these three C’s are crucial to anyone managing a team or directing a group, whether in the boardroom or the classroom. Here’s my Monday (Friday)-morning quarterbacking on what was could have been done differently, and how these lessons apply to your leadership role.

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Communication.
As of the morning of the first day of kindergarten, I did not know exactly when the school day began. That information wasn’t on the school Web site, in the manuals and handouts we’d received, or posted at the school. Word of mouth gave me three different answers. In the end, we showed up 20 minutes before the earliest time I’d heard, just in case.

Frustrating, right? And that’s how it feels for your employees when they aren’t sure what the deadline is, why they’ve been assigned to a project, who is responsible for a deliverable, and so on. A good leader always communicates with his team and clearly explains expectations and parameters. He should answer the who/what/when/where/why/how of any issue before anyone even needs to ask. It doesn’t take much to proactively keep people in the loop, and it pays off big time with a calmer, more prepared team.

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Collaboration.
On the first day of school, we newbie kindergarten parents were excited, engaged, and looking forward to contributing to our classrooms and the school. But for most of us, this week has been a splash of cold water. The principal allowed parents five minutes in the classroom for farewells on the first day and then shooed us out. The teachers have been harried and hurried and seemed to have little time to answer our timid questions. By Friday, our excited group had become cynical, complaining in the parking lot about how shut out we felt.

“They act like we’re a bunch of cats they just want corral in the sandbox,” noted one mom, “yet they expect us to contribute money and volunteer our time to the school.”

If you aren’t collaborating with your team — working together to solve problems, encouraging give and take, respecting their comments and concerns and valuing their contributions — then you’re actively disengaging them. If it took just four days to turn a bunch of gung-ho supermoms (and superdads) into a crew of kvetchers, how long would take to turn your employees into clock-watching, bitter, bored workers? No one wants that. So acknowledge them, respect them, and work closely with them, even when it’s not convenient for you. You expect plenty from them, so make sure you give back in return.

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Commiseration.
A uniting factor for all first-time parents: We were nervous. Yet the staff seemed impervious to our fears (and tears). It would have gone a long, long way to get some reassurance from the principal and the teachers.Yes, as my teacher friends note, it’s the most stressful day of the year for school personnel and all of them had their game faces on. I get that. But just a small comment (”I know this is a big day for all of you, but parents, don’t worry; we’ll take good care of your kids”) could have alleviated a lot.

The same goes at the office. If your team is busting a gut on an intense project, take a minute to tell them you know it’s been rough. If someone is having a personal crisis, let them know you’re there if they need you. When you’re asking a lot of your employees but can’t reward them with raises, tell them you know it stinks but you appreciate their hard work. Put yourself in their shoes on a regular basis and ask yourself what you can do to show you care about them.

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Did the first day of school (yours or your kids) teach you any leadership lessons? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section.

I write pretty regularly in this blog about how to get things done better, faster, and more effectively. I’m a big fan of tips and techniques that boost productivity, and I’m constantly looking for ways to hack my own workday to get more done in less time.

But maybe I am neglecting the other side of the coin: getting less done — deliberately.

Leo Babauta writes on Zen Habits about the beauty of relaxing. He says,

There’s too much emphasis these days on productivity, on hyperefficiency, on squeezing the most production out of every last minute. People have forgotten how to relax. How to be lazy. How to enjoy life.

Babauta thinks we should occasionally stop being productive and enjoy ourselves. Doing less and loving it is a great option when you’re battling a non-productive day: take a nap, read a book, listen to some music, enjoy a long lunch.

If you have trouble learning to relax, here are three tips:

• At work, give yourself an hour off. Don’t try to be productive — just have fun.
• Take 5 minutes to go outside for a walk and breathe the fresh air.
• Take evenings off (no working!).

For more on Babauta’s thoughts, including more tips on relaxing, read his full post. Now, I’m off to a long lunch (and maybe a nap). I’m done being productive for this week.

(image by pawpaw67 via Flickr, CC 2.0)

The folks at Pear Analytics have determined that a whopping 41 percent of postings on Twitter are “pointless babble” (their words). And to this I say:

What’s wrong with pointless babble?

Yes, I know that overuse of social media can be a huge time waster and productivity killer. But tweeting a bit during the workday, even if it’s about something mundane like where you’re going for lunch, is a pretty decent way to give yourself a mental break or blow off some stress.

You’re not sharing any earth-shattering observations with the Twitterati. So what?

Think about the person-to-person conversations you have every day at work. Aren’t many of them equally trivial? Yesterday alone, I had discussions about the best flavors of gelato, why Microsoft makes computers that take forever to boot, and whether snakeskin or patent is a better choice for strappy sandals. (Snakeskin, hands-down.)

Nothing there that’s going to establish me as a genius, but these little exchanges connected me with my co-workers, gave my brain a change of topic, and increased my engagement by reinforcing the fact that there are fun (and funny) people in my workplace. After a few moments of idle chitchat, I’m refreshed and ready to get back to work.

So I think pointless babble has a place, whether it’s in your office or online.

What do you think?

You know that all work and no play makes you a dull leader. But what happens if you habitually mix work and play? Too many managers make a habit of staying closely connected to the office during vacation, when they instead they really should be recharging their batteries.

I’m not immune to the siren song of connectivity. In fact, while at Disneyland recently, I caught myself killing time in the Space Mountain line by checking my e-mail, sending a couple of text messages, and reviewing some of my blog traffic stats.

And that’s definitely not the right mindset for what’s supposed to be a relaxing day at the park.

Robert Bruner, writing in the Washington Post, describes how work addiction can keep people from enjoying the benefits of time off. Effective leaders thrive on daily routines of connectedness, but that sense of being in touch can become compulsive. If you regularly divert your attention from meetings and conversations by sending e-mails or text messsages, or if you feel irritable if you’re out of touch, could be you’re addicted to the rush of that connectivity.

But healthy leaders know when to say when, says Bruner. Although emergencies might arise while you’re out of the office, you need to strike a balance between the fires and the fire drills you’ll respond to.

Here are six rules for leaders who want to vacation more wisely:

1. Commit to vacation as a time for rest, relaxation, and recharging. Consider it a time to “say when.”
2. Tell your staff, assistants, or anyone else who needs to be looped in that you will be offline except in cases of true emergency. For bosses and other stakeholders, plan ahead: Give plenty of notice about your vacation, tell them you’re serious about taking a real break, but assure them you’ll respond if issues arise.
3. Fight the lure of your electronics. Check e-mail — at most — once or twice a day. Concentrate on staying in the moment with your family and friends.
4. Get active. If you’re work-addicted, lounging poolside (within range of the free Wi-Fi) isn’t a great environment for you. Instead, go hiking, swimming, fishing, or horseback riding; play tennis, go kayaking, or explore on a bike.
5. Get away. You can bolster your mission by vacationing in a cellular and Wi-Fi dead zone. In an emergency, you can still be reached the old-fashioned way: by land line.
6. If the smoke from a work fire reaches you anyway, pause before you react. Can you delegate? Would there be consequences if you delayed until you returned? Can you limit the amount of time you spend on this fire?

And if you really have to spend some of your time off handling work issues, says Bruner, make sure you block out some additional vacation time to make up for it.

You can read the full blog post for more details, or check out more thoughts on leadership by Robert Bruner.

(image by epSos.de via Flickr, CC 2.0)

I was pulling my hair out recently when CBS Interactive’s version of WordPress — which I use to write this blog — was down. I was trying to get a post published, but the Web app wasn’t responding. While I cursed at my screen, my stress level rose, I lost my focus, and even when WordPress was up and running again, I couldn’t get on track.

Apparently, my experience isn’t unusual. CA (formerly Computer Associates) just commissioned a European study (the CA 2009 Web Stress Index) that confirmed what I suspected: Workers’ problems with under-performing Web applications is a major cause of stress, frustration, and lost productivity.

Um, duh, you might be saying right now — no whopping surprise there. But what is sobering is the discovery that so many workers rely on Web apps to get our work done. According to the study, 97 percent of respondents said they couldn’t do their jobs without them.

More sobering stats, from the press release detailing the CA study:

“Almost a quarter [of respondents] (24%) say that every day they have to cope with badly performing applications with an additional third (34%) claiming this happens on a weekly basis.  Worryingly, 81% say they have no choice but to use some business applications even when they aren’t working properly, painting a bleak picture of idle employees and wasted time.”

So, there’s the problem. How do you solve it? One option is to use an Application Performance Management (APM) solution. Shocker: CA provides just such a solution. Which explains why they funded the study.

But there are some obvious additional solutions. Make sure your infrastructure can handle the demands of Web apps. Provide the fastest Internet connections possible. Where feasible, reduce your team’s dependence on Web apps to get things done. Have a backup plan. (I often write my posts in a Word document, so I don’t run the risk of a sluggish blog interface while I’m in a creative mood.)

And of course, choose the right apps for your team. That cool little app offered for free by that start-up is a lot more likely to fail you than an offering from an established vendor with redundant systems in place.

Do you have any other suggestions for lowering Web stress? Share them in the comments section.

Is your staff feeling sluggish? Has there been a rash of sick days lately? Is your team complaining of low energy, stress, or just not feeling excited and engaged about work?

Maybe it’s time to whip them into shape.

Many employers are paying new heed to the idea of a workplace that incorporates exercise. The current national focus on health care has spotlighted the issue of how illness impacts productivity — and there’s a big effect. A 2005 study by the Commonwealth Fund found that labor time lost due to health reasons represented $260 billion in lost economic output per year.

According to Greg Justice at FitCommerce.com, the average employee misses 8.4 days annually, while employees with a serious or chronic condition (diabetes, lung disease, heart disease, cancer, etc.) miss 72 days annually, and work at diminished capacity when present.

Many illnesses can be linked to lifestyle, which is where corporate wellness programs can help. If you can help a portly employee shed a few pounds, their cardiovascular health benefits. Providing sweat-equity opportunities can help tightly wound workers manage stress better.

And exercise has been shown to have a powerful effect against depression — which, according to the American Psychiatric Association, is the most costly illness for employers, tallying more than three times the amount associated with lost productivity from all other illness.

So how can you give your employees more exercise opportunities on the job? Ideas abound. Some are more expensive than others, but compared to the cost of lost productivity, they’re negligible. And plenty of them are free, so no excuses!

Some suggestions:

• Install walk stations — a combination treadmill and desktop — to let employees work and work out at the same time.
• Offer on-site exercise classes (hire a local trainer or yoga instructor for daily or weekly classes)
• Equip an empty office or conference room with mats, free weights, and resistance bands
• Arrange lunch-hour outings, such as a walk on a nearby trail or a game of Ultimate Frisbee in the park
• Start a walking club
• Create a bike-to-work day or week
• Provide free or discounted membership at a nearby gym
• Start a soccer, tennis, or flag football team (softball is fun, but it’s not much of a workout)
• Offer incentives for employee weight loss or pedometer steps logged

Any other ideas? Have you incorporated fitness into your workplace? Share your stories and suggestions in the comments section.

(image by Joe Hoover via Flickr, CC 2.0)