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🟢 It’s All About Priorities

leadership productivity Feb 14, 2022

One of the most accomplished management gurus of recent times, Peter Drucker, used to say “First things first. Last things never.” This brings us to the point: don’t prioritize. Instead, simply decide what’s most important and then do it. If you constantly apply this principle in your life, you’ll never have time to do anything of low priority anyway. 

The amazing truth is that you always can spot, with any person or business (or even country), what’s their top priority and what is not.

I like this observation in any kind of corporate or country culture. I’m writing this memo while on the train from Switzerland to Venice, and for sure, it is clear that many things in Italy are not as clean and well maintained as they are in Switzerland. Instead, people take, on average, more time for personal conversations and other things. This is not about stereotypes, but about different priorities – without forcing any judgment. 

Here...

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😃 How happy are you as a leader?

Admittedly, the question in the headline may seem strange to you. Very few people associate "happiness" with leadership.

And wrongly so. After all, if you're going to put in all the hard work and overtime that usually comes with leadership positions, you don't want to be unhappy in the process, do you?

Quite a few don't let this consideration get to them. I love to ask my clients at the outset of our work relationship, "Are you happy doing what you do?"

Here's another hint: If you ask parents what they want most for their children, the number one answer you'll hear is, "That they're happy!"

So if it's most important to us for our loved ones to be happy, why not in leadership? And especially at this time of year, I think it's an obvious thought.

So, are you happy in what you do at work? And are the people on your team?

Because if you and your people are, everyone will enjoy performing at a higher level and have more fun doing it.

So, how do you manage to increase happiness for...
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Why time management is useless

productivity Dec 02, 2021

Most of my clients are constantly short on time. That's why one of the things we work on in coaching is to change this situation for the better.

And even those who have enough time often feel that they are not making the most of it.

For many, the solution seems to be better time management. And that's where the problems really begin.

Because if you're trying to manage time, you're sitting on a misconception and wasting your... well, yes: time.

Why is that? Here are three reasons why time management doesn't work (then, in point 3 is the way out):

  1. Time is always the same, so it cannot be controlled. Nobody on this planet can control or manage time. Time is the same for everyone. This is more than mere semantics. Because your energy will flow into what you focus on. And if that is something you can't change at all, it will only lead to frustration. You probably know this from your own experience.
  2. Focus on filling time instead of effectiveness. You will always find things to fill the...
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How to massively increase your productivity as a leader

leadership productivity Nov 12, 2021

It's simple: you'll fall far short of your potential in life and in your career if you don't have a handle on your productivity.

Most leaders I know - and people in general - either feel overwhelmed all the time, or they're not sure they're investing their time in the most important activities. Or both.

What's the key to massively increased productivity? It's what I call "time mastery": you decide what you invest in every minute of your life. 

Maybe that sounds idealistic, but think about people you see as exemplary on the topic of productivity and success. Do they give you the impression that they are constantly controlled by others? Quite the opposite: they determine their priorities themselves - at least significantly more than the average person.

How can you achieve this and massively increase your productivity as a leader? Here are 3 foundations:
  1. Winning Mindset & Energy, available at any time. First, you need to work on your beliefs and energy. Without these...
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🧭 More productive in sales: Here's how!

When you ask sales managers and salespeople how they can get better at selling, you usually get answers that relate to methods:

"We need to get better at phone prospecting." Or, "We need to contact more prospects." Or, "We need to get stronger at closing." And so on.

That's all well and good. Except that, in my experience and observation, there are two other factors that are even more important for sustainable success in sales: Mindset and personal productivity.

We'll cover the former elsewhere. Today, we're talking about productivity.

Imagine a salesperson creating 20, 30, or even 50% more in the same amount of time: how much more could they create and sell? What I'm saying is: the leverage of productivity in sales is enormous.

Here are 3 key starting points you can use to significantly increase sales productivity:
  1.  Conviction of your own value added. Surveys among customers show that the effect that most influences the purchase decision is the added value that the...
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🥸 Do you want to get better? Seriously?

The question "Do you want to get better?" is, of course, a rhetorical one. After all, who doesn't want to? But what most overlook is that to get better in a sustainable way, you need a system.

That's exactly why, when it comes to certain things, after a short learning curve at the beginning, our skills keep us on a plateau from which we hardly improve. 

What we need to improve continuously and significantly is what psychology professor Anders Ericsson describes in his book Peak as "deliberate practice."

Here, however, I am concerned with something that lies even before that. Because the reason why we don't really peak, even if it would be absolutely beneficial for us, lies elsewhere. If you are aware of that, you can deal with it accordingly.

Here are the three powerful levers on how any person or team can become better than everyone else:
  1. Clear Necessity. Outstanding individuals have a powerful difference from average that makes them see working on themselves completely...
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⚡️ How to have energy all day

productivity Aug 11, 2021

It's just a fact: you can have all kinds of great techniques to increase your productivity and get more done. However, if you can't keep your energy levels at their highest, it's not going to do you much good.

People who get significantly more done than the average person have higher overall physical and mental energy levels throughout the entire day. In my leadership coaching, this is often an important topic.

This much, though, is true: if you start focusing more on being in control of your energy levels, you'll almost inevitably increase your success. And - most importantly - with more fun and less time consumption.

Sounds too good to be true? 

Here are 3 ideas on how to increase your energy throughout the day (which are pretty simple, but few apply them consistently):
  1. Clarity about goals. Lack of clarity creates uncertainty and robs us of an incredible amount of energy. This effect is usually completely underestimated. Observe for yourself how much more you can accomplish...
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⏱ How to get 50% more done in the same amount of time

productivity Aug 05, 2021

Yes, I know the headline sounds a bit sensational, but it's still true: if you consistently apply the tips I'll give you below, you'll be able to do twice as much in the same amount of time.

It's just that, as with many strategies, they're relatively easy to understand, but by no means easy to apply consistently. What's getting in the way? Our deeply ingrained beliefs and our habits.

And yet, on certain topics, you are already 10x or even 100x more productive than someone who lacks knowledge. A top programmer, for example, programs up to 100x as fast as a beginner.

So, what strategies do you use when you are exceptionally productive? Once you know the answer, you can apply it to everything else.

Here are the top three strategies for getting 50% more done in the same amount of time:
  1. Clarity on value-added activities. It's one of my typical topics in leadership coaching: With which of your activities do you create the most value for yourself, others and the organization? As a rule,...
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How to reduce your productivity

productivity Apr 29, 2021

Few things are as critical to your personal success as your productivity. You can have brilliant ideas and be great at convincing people. However, if you don't put the famous "horsepower to the road," it will all peter out.

If you're wondering how to increase your productivity (and hopefully you do on an ongoing basis), you'll probably fall back on tactical tips like goal setting, avoiding distractions, and more, as most do.

These tips are important, too, but they often come to naught if some foundations aren't in place. What do I mean by that? 

Well, applying measures to increase productivity almost always requires a change in existing habits. And these habit changes are always difficult if the foundations I mentioned above are not strong enough.

So without these foundations, you are deliberately lowering your productivity. Here are the three typical "suspects":
  1. Too little sleep. It's a simple truth, proven many times over by science, that if we don't get 7 to 8 hours of good...
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What will you make of your gift?

leadership productivity Apr 08, 2021

The first quarter of the year ended a few days ago, and you have been given another 91 days. The crucial question is: are you making the most of them?

Both fulfillment and success also come very much from being aware of the finite amount of available time you have in life. That doesn't mean panicking at all. But it does mean that great things are usually only achieved when there is a certain urgency attached to them.

Otherwise, we all too easily postpone the necessary and sometimes unpleasant actions to the never-never day.

You know that, of course. The only thing is: I see far too few leaders (and people in general) who, for example, choose clear and challenging goals for the next quarter when one ends.

If that doesn't happen, you and your team are unlikely to reach your full potential in the future. That's unfortunate and dangerous.

Here are three ideas for what you should do this week:
  1. Situation assessment. Where exactly are you compared to last year and your previous goals? By...
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