Has anyone described you recently as sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic or choleric?  We may not use these terms as common descriptors anymore, but these are the personalities that Hippocrates categorized. While it is important to recognize your own personality traits and those around you, it is also important to recognize communication styles.  The problem is that, while personalities [...]

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In a world of distractions, what kind of work environment do you need to improve productivity?  There are constant debates about the value of cubicles and open floor plans versus enclosed offices.  Companies switch back and forth over the years, trying one and then succumbing to trends or complaints and reversing their layouts. While there can [...]

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We all recognize that an outsider coming in to speak or train has a degree of automatic credibility.  Even if the Human Resources Department has someone who can provide information on the same topic, there is cachet in hiring an external source. Since I am personally one of those outside people who are brought in [...]

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It is a common dilemma:  Should I work over the weekend so that I keep up, or should I take time off to maintain a work-life balance?  The more frequent response seems to be, “Keep working.”  A survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that 70% of workers go beyond scheduled hours and extend their work week into [...]

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I am certainly not one who is looking for more bills to pay.  However that may be coming soon because some Internet providers are considering a move from a flat rate, which they feel is no longer realistic given the increasing traffic demands, to a pay-for-usage plan. Although I am all in favor of saving [...]

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Want to limit how much you get done?  Work in a germy office and see how many ill coworkers it takes to affect your productivity level.  It would be great to limit the areas of susceptibility but reality is that there are germs on every surface, not all of them harmful.  Most of the time [...]

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 In today’s recession atmosphere, productivity is a keyword.   Here are seven ways to be sure you do not get the best from your staff: 1.  Value “busy” employees.  Busy does not mean effective or efficient.  2.  Pass on all the extra work.  You cannot just delegate more and expect it all to be done.  Provide guidelines as to what is the priority work. [...]

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“Banning Blackberrys from meetings would lead to shorter and more effective meetings.”  This is a remark by me when interviewed for Mark Lewis’s article just published at Forbes.com, titled “Ban Blackberrys! “  Mark does a good job of zeroing in on the deficiencies of multitasking, tying in my comments with those of Dave Crenshaw, the author of “The Myth of Multitasking,” [...]

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You have permission to eat!  Instead of fighting the proverbial competing figures on our shoulders—-the one who says, “It can’t hurt and you deserve it,” versus the one who says, “What about that diet?”—-how about eating to improve your productivity? Science now can confirm a lot of what we instinctively know about the effects of food.  [...]

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If a garbology expert came through your office or your home, what would he or she learn about you?  This specialist actually studies garbage and trash, with varying applications. Learning from this research can assist in many areas, ranging from archeological excavations to criminal investigations. I recently had the responsibility of emptying the house of an elderly family relation, [...]

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