13 Leadership Tips That Lead to Fast-Growth

Leadership Development is critical for growing companies. Leaders point the team in the right direction and inspire followers to be productive and engaged with the mission.

The Freeman School of Business MBA program (Tulane University) Professor Christopher McCusker is leading a dynamic class to identify successful business leadership techniques. Dr. McCusker invited me to share some ideas on leadership and here are the 13 critical leadership development techniques I shared with the class:

1. Swim In "Blue Oceans"
Leaders need to pull followers to Blue Oceans where companies can prosper and thrive. Markets appreciate the contribution a company provides when their offering is unique and will pay them handsomely. Exit out of the Red Oceans which are filled with sharks and you and your competitors are sure to bleed. MARLIN STEEL exited the Red Oceans of commodity bagel baskets and transformed itself toward a model of "Quality Engineered Quick" baskets for precision material handling applications. Where are your blue oceans? Read Professor W. Chan Kim and Rene Mauborgne legendary studies about seeking your blue ocean.

2. Create Entrepreneurial Culture
Compensate your employees with aggressive large cash bonuses to keep them engaged. Your team craves an achievable carrot that provide frequent gratification. This will encourage out-sized dedication and engagement from your employees. Eliminate the finger wagging middle management roles that monitor bathroom breaks and chatting about sports. Dedicated employees have no time to waste time.

3. Best Tools for Team
Provide superb support (equipment, software, etc) for your team and they will provide extraordinary results. At Marlin Steel, we purchased the best laser (it cuts steel 1 foot a second with 0.004" accuracy) from a factory in Connecticut. It costs more than their competitors however it enables our engineers to get more creative so we can solve our clients challenges. Clients are inclined to choose best of breed companies that utilize the best equipment.

4. Listen
Put a cork in it and listen to your clients or vendors or employees. Really listen. Turn off your cell phone. Listen intensely. You will get more out of meetings and will draw conclusions that will pay dividends. People will notice you are attentive and take meetings more seriously. The duration of the meetings will decline since meetings will go faster since everyone is engaged.

5. Continuous Improvement
Improve yourself and your company 1% each day. By the end of the year you will more than double your productivity or sales. Never be complacent. Even if your team is better than your competitors, they are gunning for you. Up your game so your clients are enchanted with your performance.

6. Cure Mistakes Fast or "Hire Fast, Fire Fast"
In prior Inc Articles, I discussed some of the following techniques (http://www.inc.com/drew-greenblatt/8-leadership-attributes-to-go-extra-mile.html ) like assessing mistakes and then lancing the boil quickly. As the economy picks up, hire people to keep up with demand. Be picky. Purge the mistaken hires quickly so that your "A" players do not become disappointed.

7. Grant Freedom--Hire Great People
Hire great people and get out of their way. If you have a wonderful person, why would you want to slow them down with pestering questions? It slows them down from their mission and makes them second-guess themselves. They will make mistakes but you will be way ahead on the deal if you give them opportunities for an unfettered launch.

8. Mentor, Not Bully
When discussing topics with your team mates, be a counselor. Mentoring talent is the best way to get a dedicated engaged employee. Many leaders get a thrill bossing around people. This bullying tendency drives down employee motivation.

9. Failure is the Leader's Fault
Ted Williams, the best baseball batter there ever was, never batted 50%. Mistakes will happen. Failure is common. Don't throw your team under the bus. As Truman said, "The buck stops here" and the leader should take the fall. Improve systems so failure does not occur again but stand in front of the troops or clients and take the blame. This conduct will ingratiate you with your associates and your team will embrace you for taking the heat.

10. Success is due to the team
Wins happen. Lavish praise on your team and thank them for the success. Do not take credit. The team won the game--you should not call out your contributions. People follow humble leaders.

11. Transparent
Be unique and call it like it is. Do not beat around the bush. When you first observe a problem, share the concern with the person that tripped up. Clearly articulate the failure and suggest ways to improve. Strike when the facts are in and be concise in your description of the problem and the remedy. Do not tolerate lies of omission.

12. Integrity
Be the most honest person on the team. Do not cut corners. Do not enter the "grey areas." People like working for honest people.

13. Cool
Leaders should be even keeled. Quiet understated approach is more likely to generate loyalty and trust. Raising your voice and getting in people's faces do not encourage long-term devotion.

Congratulations!

We are excited and proud to announce Maryos promotion to assistant management! We are all proud of your hard work and dedication! Congrats to the entire team as well for helping with this great accomplishment!

7 Decisions Millennials May Someday Regret

Since it's "back to school" week, I thought this would be a good time to remind the college-bound (and recent graduates) that this is the time when you lay the groundwork for the rest of your life. Here some known pitfalls that millennials should try to avoid:

1. Paying the wrong dues.

Every career has an apprenticeship when you're not paid much but you're learning like crazy. If you're doing what you truly enjoy, it's worth "paying your dues." If you're doing something that you secretly dislike or find boring, that investment of time and effort is a total waste. Even if you become wildly "successful," you'll be dissatisfied and be forced to start over.

2. Never starting a business.

In today's business world, job security is a joke and everyone is a freelancer. If you've never even tried to start a business, you'll always think of yourself as an employee rather than an entrepreneur. Creating at least some kind of business (even if it's small scale) weans you from the debilitating belief that you NEED a job to make money. There's simply no experience that's more valuable.

3. Failure to save long-term.

Given current trends, by the time Millennials are ready to retire, the .1% will have looted or gutted Social Security, Medicare and all the other government programs that benefit the less-than-obscenely-wealthy. So unless you've been lucky enough to be born with a diamond-crusted spoon in your mouth, you'd better start saving for retirement now or you may end up "retiring" in the gutter.

4. Marrying your college sweetheart.

Yes, yes, I know, I know... You're in loooooooooove... I hate sound cynical, but if you get married now, chances are that in a decade or so you'll barely know, or even want to know, the person to whom you're married. (There are exceptions to this rule, of course.) Divorces are easy to get, but they're always emotional and financial disasters. The old saying still rings true: "Marry in haste; repent at leisure."

5. Accumulating more "stuff."

Since you were a wee babe, you've been programmed to be a dutiful consumer. However, if you don't break the habit of buying "stuff" now, you'll eventually end up with entire rooms and storage units full of useless crap. I recommend this simple rule: "For every object that enters my life, I will trash or recycle something equivalent."

6. Never learning to sell.

Success in business or the arts is always proportional to your ability to sell your ideas and the value of your work. If you don't learn to sell, the only way to make big money is by selling out--pretending to be somebody that you're not. Unfortunately, most colleges--even business schools--don't teach how to sell, which means you'll need to acquire this vital skill on your own. A good start is signing up for my free weekly newsletter.

7. Not taking a year off to travel.

If you're the type of Millennial who's reading Inc.com, you've probably had your nose to the grindstone since preschool. Travel (especially on the cheap) is the best way to figure out exactly who you are and how you fit into the world. So if it's at all possible financially, you owe it to yourself to take a break between college and your first real job.

The above list BTW, is based upon my personal experience. I made all of these mistakes and saw most of my Boomer contemporaries do the same. I later made necessary course corrections, but it was harder to do so than if I'd had the courage to trust my gut when I was younger.

The 6 Things You Need to Know to be Great in Business

There are no shortcuts in business.  In order to be successful there are some things that you must know.  These are not all of them by a long shot, but IMHO they are 6 of the most important

1. Know how to sell.

Selling means being able to convey why your product or service, which may be you if you are looking for a job,  will make things better. Selling is never about convincing. It is always about helping.

2. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer

If you know how to put the person you are dealing with in a position to succeed, you can be successful. In order to do this, you must be able to quickly understand the needs and demands of that person and those of the company(s) they work for or with.  Every person and industry is different.  This is something that comes from investing incredible amounts of time to understand different industries , businesses, roles, and what has made them work and not work.

It is a never ending process of learning about what companies need.  What people in those companies need and how they work. If you don’t understand what it takes to make the people and companies you work with better, you don’t understand how to be successful

3.  Know as much as you can about technology

The beautiful thing about technology is that it changes every day.  Look at any tech you can see today or have ever seen. Any tech you have read about. It was invented by someone(s). They know the product better than everyone.  On the day that it is released, you are as knowledgeable about that  technology as anyone else in the world.  From there its just about effort to keep learning.

If you are one of the few people that know the new technologies, you are in a unique position to put yourself in the shoes of your customer(s) and determine if the new technology can be of benefit.  New technologies enable change and where there is change there is opportunity.  Its up to you to figure out  what that opportunity is.

4.  Always ask how you would design a solution if no current solution existed.

99.99pct of the things we do in business are being done the way they have always been done. No one has re imagined how things should be done.  That is what successful people do.  Every situation they are in they take their knowledge of the business or situation they are visiting, whether its buying a deck of playing cards,  eating at a restaurant or trying to solve a problem and think about how to re invent it.  They dont ask people what they would want. They envision a complete reapplication . Then they decide what to do with what they just recreated.

5. Is it the path of least resistance to something better.

Lots of people come up with ways of doing things that they think are great/amazing. What they fail to ask is whether it will make anyone else’s life better or easier. The simple test of any imagineering of a process or situation is simple. Is this the path of resistance  to a better place for the user ? Yes or No.

6. Be nice. 

People hate dealing with people who are jerks.  It’s always easier to be nice than to be a jerk .  Don’t be a jerk

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What Jay Leno Can Teach You About Growing Your Business

I have a rough homework assignment for you, entrepreneurs: Go visit a comedy club.

More specifically, try to find your favorite big name comedian working at a small club. Jay Leno, for example, usually appears in Hermosa Beach, California (just outside of L.A.) every Sunday.

At these often unbilled appearances, usually the comedians are only on stage for a few minutes, typically with notes in hand.

What they are doing is trying out material.

As you watch them work--and that is exactly what this is, work, as in research for them--don't pay all that much attention to the jokes, study their process.

Of course they want to know what's funny and what isn't.

But you'll see if you go back for a second night or a third, they are going far deeper than that. They want to know if it's better to set up the joke by saying X, or Y; they are trying to figure out when they should take a pause; should the new joke work in combination with an old one, or serve as a transition to the next bit?

In other words, they are dissecting their product--their future stand-up routine--down to the granular level and then they rebuild it from there.

Are you doing the same thing, when you are thinking about introducing a new product?

You should be.

Early on in the creation process it is remarkably easy and cheap to test what you have. Between online surveys and empty space in a mall you can get detailed feedback from your customers quickly and at little cost.

And because you are at the start of the creation process changes are easy. You can keep tweaking until you have something that truly resonates.

It is the best way to create the new.

This kind of preparation can be summed with four letters: ALBR

Act. You show people what you have, much like the comedian unveils the joke he has been working on.

Learn. You study their reaction. Did they like overall premise. (Did they think the joke was funny.) What did they tell you through their reaction about how your product (the joke) could be improved.

Build off that learning. Incorporate the feedback that makes sense.

Repeat. Show the second iteration to customers (just like the comedian will tell the revised joke at the next show); learn from this reaction and so forth.

This process works.

No joke.

5 Phrases Every Leader Should Overuse

As the leader of a startup, you have to deal with a never-ending series of issues. Startup CEOs must motivate the rest of the team, establish a company culture, and find a way to keep everyone together.

When stepping into a leadership position, it's easy to become overwhelmed. To help, here are five phrases that you should repeat as often as possible. Use these phrases as guidelines for decision making, and you'll become much more effective as a leader.

1. "I trust your judgment."

When your team members are facing hard decisions, there will be plenty of times when they come to you looking for a solution. While your natural tendency will be to tell your team what to do, it is better to let them make decisions themselves. It is your responsibility to help your team grow; if you always have the final say in everything, you prevent it from growing.

2. "I don't know."

As people step into leadership roles, there is pressure for them to act like they know everything. Many times, leaders will push an idea on their team or convince themselves that they have to know the answer to everything. This is a disastrous way to lead a company. As a leader, you have to be the first one to admit that you do not know everything. Members of your team may think that by admitting they're unsure of something, they are doing something wrong. This not only prevents them from improving, but also builds a company culture that won't allow people to make mistakes. When you show that it's OK not to know the answer to everything, your team will have much better communication and trust.

3. "What did we learn from this?"

Being a leader is a roller coaster ride, especially in a startup. One day your company is booming and the next you're almost out of business. Mistakes are happening and many times your team is facing obstacles for the first time. When things go sour, it is your job to make sure your team is taking full advantage of its failures. Instead of getting angry with team members, take a step back and ask your team what they've learned from their mistakes. Don't answer this question for them. Instead, give them time to think about what the root cause of the problem was, and how to prevent it the next time. When you do this, you not only prevent future mistakes, but you also keep your team motivated to take future risks.

4. "I'll take care of it."

The ideal situation for a leader is to recruit a team where every member is smarter than than the leader. Then, when faced with tough decisions, they can delegate to the best person on the team. With that said, there are times where you will be the only one on the team that can take care of a problem. When these situations occur, you need to tell your team you'll handle the problem, and to do whatever it takes to execute. Startups are anything but stable, which is why, as the leader, you have to be the one person upon whom everyone on the team can rely. 

5. "We're all in this together."

There's a lot of advice for how leaders should overcome failures. There's not enough written about how you should also celebrate success. Being the leader of a company is a double-edged sword. When your company fails at something, fingers usually are pointing at you. Even worse, when your team succeeds, people will try to say it's because of you that your team won. This is one of worst beliefs a leader can have. If you watch interviews with Steve Jobs, you'll notice how many times he attributes Apple's success to his team. While no one will make a movie about every employee at Apple, Jobs knew he would never have been successful without his team. When your team accomplishes something, remind them that they're the ones who got you to where you are. You win together, and you fail together. That's how you build a great company.

Why the Best Leaders are Servants, Not Kings

If you set out to climb Mt. Everest, one of the first things you do is hire a Sherpa. Originally an ethnic group in Nepal, today a "Sherpa" is the common term used for the leader of a mountain climbing expedition. In business terms, you are hiring a CEO to help you get to the top.

Thinking of yourself in the role of the Sherpa will help you become a stronger leader. This is especially true today where leaders must empower their people, not just command them. As I reflected on the treacherous and risky conditions endured by climbers, it reminded me of our current business landscape and the need for courageous and thoughtful leadership.

Here are five powerful lessons borrowed from those tough-as-nails, yet compassionate, expedition leaders:

1. Your real job is to lead others to the top.

Sherpas are successful by helping those around them reach their full potential. The same is 100 percent true for you as a leader in your organization. Ironically, the more you make it about others, the more individual success you'll enjoy.

2. Detailed planning saves lives.

If your Sherpa just looked up the mountain and said: "Let's go," you'd sprint in the opposite direction. Great leaders carefully plot out each step of their attack to ensure a safe ride.

3. Expect and prepare for setbacks.

Sherpas routinely deal with unexpected weather, animals, obscured paths, and many other obstacles. Rather than becoming derailed, they build contingency plans and adapt in real time. Do you?

4. Walk with your team.

The role of a Sherpa isn't to lead from afar. Instead, these leaders climb the mountain right alongside their teams. As a result, they build trust and achieve success. You can't ask your team to jump through fire unless you're willing to do it too.

5. Become a great listener.

To reach the summit, Sherpas must carefully listen on many fronts. They need to truly understand input from their team, the basecamp crew, and other hikers. They also need to hear rapidly changing weather reports, advice from other Sherpas, andthe latest advances in their field. Are you so busy talking that you fail to listen to others? Great leaders listen intensely and speak thoughtfully. Quite the opposite of the typical blowhard boss.

The old-school ways of barking orders from afar, thinking you have every right answer, shooting from the hip, refusing to adapt, and putting yourself first have been rendered totally ineffective in today's fiercely competitive economy. However, if you embrace the ways of the ancient Sherpa, you may just end up reaching that rarefied air sought by many but enjoyed by few. It's time to reach your own summit by shifting your approach. No ropes or helmet required.

6 Things All Successful Entrepreneurs Believe

Entrepreneurs have a different way of doing things.

It takes a special kind of person to be able to turn the spark of an idea in their minds into a full-fledged income-generating operation that's built to last. It's no wonder entrepreneurs seem just a little bit different from everyone else. They really are different.

By understanding these 6 things that successful entrepreneurs believe, you can learn lessons that will help you succeed in your own business--and in your career and life.

1. Entrepreneurs believe that anything is possible.

This is what drives them to create the impossible out of pure ideas. They don't understand why other people don't reach for their dreams and put everything on the line for an idea, because that's just how their brain works. Because of this, it may be difficult for some people to convince an entrepreneur that his or her idea is impossible. Entrepreneurs don't know the meaning of the word impossible, and they will pursue their ideas until they find the success they are looking for.

2. When people see hurdles, entrepreneurs see ways to get over them.

It's in nature of entrepreneurs to start figuring out possible problems before they exist, and to figure out ways to neutralize them the moment they arrive on the scene. if anything, obstacles and naysayers push entrepreneurs to want to succeed even more. Don't try to stand in an entrepreneur's way because you are likely to get run over.

3. Entrepreneurs are extremely optimistic.

They know they are going to succeed--eventually--and they always look at the word as a glass half full instead of a glass half empty.While this optimism is at times misunderstood, it's one of the best qualities that an entrepreneur possesses. The ability to look to the future with rose-colored glasses is a gift that many people wish they were blessed with.

4. Entrepreneurs can't stand authority.

Whether it was a boss in the past that they couldn't stand, the feeling of being stifled in a corporate position, or just the fear of mediocrity, there's a driving force behind entrepreneurs wanting to work for themselves. Entrepreneurs don't do well with authority because they are used to living up to their own expectations, not someone else's.

5. And the same goes for rules.

Entrepreneurs like to answer to themselves--and themselves only. They don't like being put in a box or confined to a set of rules that they didn't create. This doesn't mean they don't follow the rules that really count, because they do. They aren't going to break the law just because they don't like it. But entrepreneurs set very high standards to live up to, and their own expectations are higher others would expect or hold them to.

6. Entrepreneurs see limitless possibility.

Ask any entrepreneur if all the success in the world has already been exhausted, and he or she will surely look at you like you must be crazy. Entrepreneurs look at the world and see endless possibilities. Because of this, they never stop reaching for more opportunities and success, and are highly unlikely to ever retire. Most entrepreneurs continue to grow their ideas and start new companies for the entirety of their lives.

10 Excuses Unproductive People Always Use

They moan. They wail. They shuffle around the office looking for free candy. Unproductive employees have an excuse for everything. Here are a few of the phrases they use to explain away the problem. Listen for them, then correct the action to get things back on track.

1. I'm overworked.

I hear this one constantly. What unproductive people might not realize is that we are all overworked. We're in an overworked age. Instant access to email and a mobile browser means work is always just a click away. What separates the wheat from the chaff? The really productive people don't dwell on the problem. They just do the work.

2. That's not my job.

I've written before about staying productive by focusing on your job and not doing the work of unproductive co-workers. That's always a bad pattern to set. Curious, then, that the really unproductive people always seem to notice when they're doing extra work to help a project. They focus on their role too much and on what everyone else is not doing. Truly productive people don't even care. They just do whatever it takes to get things done and plow ahead, analyzing the exact role definitions later.

3. I'll finish that later.

Forget the Mark Twain quote about procrastination. Unproductive people waste time because they live in a constant state of incongruity. The loose ends of their tasks never meet up, and stay loose. They start one Word document, work on it for a while, drop it, then start working on a PowerPoint. In the "picking up and setting down" process they waste time because each tasks needs a jump start, which uses more energy.

4. I don't have all of the answers yet.

Overly detail-oriented people use this one. They wait until everything is perfectly lined up before starting a task, usually languishing in perpetuity because things rarely do line up. And, ironically, some of the employees in your company who are wasting time mindlessly browsing all day are the ones who think they have to wait for the project pieces to fall in place. The solution? Productive people just do whatever they can now on any tasks that need to be done. They don't wait for the perfect timing.

5. I'll wait for the boss to tell me what to do.

For any employee in a small business, a lack of independence is a true productivity killer. While someone is waiting to be told what to do, a project will spin out of control. We all know the "get it done" crowd just figures out the problem and starts working on a task. Besides, if the boss has to explain every little detail, that's using up valuable time anyway.

6. I don't understand all of the variables.

Really? Is there an employee who won't act until he or she has all of the answers? That is a sign of someone who will be waiting a long time because no one ever has all of the answers. The folks who started Airbnb and Uber didn't wait for all of the regulatory issues to be ironed out. And Google didn't wait to test driverless cars until every state allowed them.

7. I don't see the benefit for me.

We are living in a world of narcissists who take selfies every 30 minutes and post about their inner feelings on Twitter. The underlying problem? They're slowing down a project because they only care about their own rewards. Productive people see the greater reward of a successful company and want to play a part in building something cool. The selfies can wait until the weekend.

8. I might not get the credit.

Related to that problem is another productivity destroyer: the need to take credit for the task. The process of hyping up your work, demanding crediting, and pestering people to notice your actions all contribute to an unproductive day. The employees who are slowing things down the most are spending too much time trying to get the attention of the boss.

9. I'm worried about my quality of work.

Productive people know how to slam out good work in a constant flow of creativity and skill. They care about quality, but they also understand that being productive requires a push to finish. When the goal is to always create perfection, unproductive people create a serious slowdown. Praise quality, expect proficiency, but encourage productivity.

10. I might fail.

The hallmark of every unproductive person at work is being worried about failure. It's a time-tested truth. If employees don't ever start a project, they don't have to worry about failure, right? I've written about total failure before, but letting a few tasks fail is okay. It means you are trying new things and staying busy. Holding back because you want every task to succeed? It just means completing fewer tasks.

6 Quick Ways to Be Happier at Work

I've written about workplace happiness in the past, but many of my suggestions require consistent effort. Here are five sure-fire, incredibly easy actions that will immediately improve your workplace experience:

1. Take a "quiet minute" each morning.

Within your morning routine, carve out a minute--60 seconds--to be silent, by yourself. Don't think about work. Read a poem or say a prayer. Or just rest your brain. You'll be amazed at how much extra energy it will create for the rest of your day.

2. Smile more frequently.

Smiling accomplishes two things. First, it tells your brain to be more happy. (Try being depressed with a huge grin stuck on your face.)  Second, when you smile it tends to make other people smile, too. It's contagious, in a good way.

3. Give yourself more credit.

Take a second to give yourself a mental and emotional pat on the back every time you complete a project, even if it's only a small part of a larger effort.  This creates a sense of accomplishment that keeps you from feeling overwhelmed.

4. Celebrate when you learn something.

If you're alive, you can't help learning something new every day. The trick here is to recognize when you've learned something new and potentially important.  That's a victory and worth a quiet, inner "hooray!"

5. Enjoy human nature.

Let's face it: people do really strange things. You have a choice when confronted with these foibles: 1) be irritated or 2) be amused.  Being irritated makes you miserable but being amused helps you find creative ways to work around the limitations of others.

6. Say thanks to those who do thankless tasks.

You probably already know that you should thank co-workers and customers on a regular basis.  But what about the janitors, the facilities people, the call center staff? They've got really tough jobs and seldom hear that their contributions are valued.

These 5 Every Day Distractions Will Suck Your Life Away if You Let Them

We live in a world where almost everyone is in a rush – whether it’s getting to a meeting venue on time, submitting work notes on schedule, beating traffic so as not be late to work or school – these are just some of the common scenarios that mirror how hectic our schedule have become. With so many things to do in 24-hours, we seldom get the chance of getting everything done. When did things get so complicated???

Sometimes you have to sit back and ask yourself honestly: When was the last time you felt good because you were able to clear out your to do list? Can’t remember? That’s not surprising at all.
Now, if we’ve been spending hours rushing to get from one meeting to another or working from one project to the next, why is it that we never ever get to finish something up? This is because there are so many distractions in our world now and we are constantly multi tasking.

Ultra productive people know that in order to accomplish a massive amount and importantly to feel great about it and balanced that you have to be single minded in your approach and eliminate distractions so we can focus on completing the things which really matter.

Here are what I know to be some of the most common distractions many people are challenged with every single day.

1. Unnecessary Meetings
You know there is a problem in our working culture when there are books out now called ‘death by meeting’ This is a book by Patrick Lencioni and it is awesome. Have you ever wondered how much time you have masted being in meetings where your attendance seemed pointless or a waste of time? Where it just seems to be a meeting for the sake of a meeting which goes on for ages made up of mostly dribble and then at the end no real actionable items coming out of it? Shoot me now. Here are some tips to make meetings effective:

• Make sure there is a point and a clear outcome that must be reached before you go into the meeting
• Try having stand up meetings
• Set a time limit, where as soon as that time is up, everyone gets up and leaves – there is nothing like a bit of pressure to get a result
• Ask: do I really need to be involved in this meeting?
• 
  

2. Email

We are in a culture now where people expect instant responses. Someone sends an email and if you don’t respond within 10 minutes they are wondering if you are ok? This is a productivity killer. How many times a day do you check your email, honestly? 10 times a day, 20? Is it open all the time, just desperately waiting for that next earth shattering email to arrive? Seriously, most emails are a waste of time and don’t get me started on the need for people to cc the entire world in on emails.

Top tips
• Set specific times each day where it is only then that you check email. For me it is 11 am in the morning and 3 pm in the afternoon and I check it for about 30 minutes at a time.
• Condition others not to expect instantaneous responses from you (unless this is your job of course). If you don’t condition others, they will expect you to live by their conditions
• Set up rules and filters
• Get someone else to check them for you. I have a virtual assistant to manages my email for me and sorts them into one of four boxes: Action, review, Archive, delete. I have given her a clear set of rules to follow and it clears the clutter. (Stay tuned for a later blog on how to do this effectively)
• Finally, turn off that bloody pop up you've got mail or the ‘ding’ or the little envelope. As soon as it is there, you know you can’t help but check it. Curiosity will get the better of you

3. Social Media Sites

Can’t resist looking at your phone or logging in to your pc to check your Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube? Social media is fun but it can be a huge time-waster especially when you begin to lose track of how much time you spend updating people with your status posts, reading your timeline or tweeting people back. You can help minimize the time you spend with social media by designating a set amount of time each day for online social sites. In 15-20 minutes, you can update your status or send a few tweets and once the time is over, logout so you don’t get distracted by social media notifications and start working. It will take a lot of self-control to accomplish this, you know it will, but you will thank yourself for practicing restraint especially after you plough through one project to another.

4. Office Chit-Chat and Random Distractions
Ever noticed how a 5 minute small-talk with a co-worker can stretch into 30 minutes, even a full hour? There is nothing wrong with socializing but when it begins to eat up your time and affect your productivity, then you have to do something about it. Minimize office chit-chat by communicating to colleagues your need for focus time. Hang a sign/symbol on your doorknob or outside your cubicle to discourage people from chatting with you and to send a signal that this isn’t a good time to interrupt your work and learn this phrase: “Bill, I would love to talk to you, but I have an urgent deadline right now, can we chat later?”
People will tend to leave you alone when you say you have something urgent to complete with a deadline. We are conditioned to respond to urgency in this day and age.

5. Multi Tasking
I should really have this at the top. How big is your to-do list? Massive I bet if you are like most people. Now I actually don’t like to do-lists, they are ineffective and can be very overwhelming, there are much better systems based on outcomes, values and priorities, but this is for another time, but even this is better than nothing for most people who just let all of the things they have to get done rattle around endlessly in their heads and live in this constant state of reaction and drama.
I am only going to give you one tip here, there are many more I can add, but I reckon that this is so vital that if you did it, it could completely change your life. It is one question:
“What is the one thing I could do right now, that if I did it and made major progress would do more to advance me in my life and career than anything else? “
Now, do that one thing.
Then, you guessed it, ask the same question again, and do that one thing.
Then ask again
You get the point right????

If you let them, these distractions will suck away a major portion of your life and can hold you back from reaching your potential in work and in life.
Here are the 3 real themes to practice in your life:
1. Focus on simplicity and taking strategic action on one thing at a time;
2. Set up your environment around you and systems to eliminate distractions and ensure you stay on track;
3. Remember, that you are not playing life like most people are, you are extraordinary and are not going to follow like a sheep what everyone else does. So condition the people around you to your way of working. If you don’t, they will expect you to conform to their way and society’s norms which are totally ineffective.
One of the greatest things I learned when I first started out on my growth journey at a young age was to become ultra productive and it is a skill set and habit which has taken me a long long way and allowed me to outperform the majority of others around me. Any successful person loves time management. Do yourself a favor and become a time master.

Todd Polke provides coaching, practical workshops and keynote talks to help professionals of all ages achieve their own versions of a wealthy lifestyle. By drawing on his vault of knowledge in business, personal growth, wealth psychology and investment strategy, Todd is helping people just like you generate more wealth to support your highest values in life.

10 Scientifically Proven Ways to Build and Manage Great Teams

Try one. Try them all. They work. Science says so.

No one does anything worthwhile alone, and that's why we all want--scratch that--why we all need--to build great teams.

But is team-building an art or a science?

Great question--one I asked Gregory Ciotti, a Customer Champion at HelpScout, a company that provides email support software for SaaS and ecommerce, if he could answer. (Gregory also has a very cool blog.)

Here's what Gregory put together:

When it comes to assembling, motivating and keeping a great team happy so that they can flourish in your business, the truth is that it's a bit of both.

There's no way to overstate how important a great team is to a business' success. The quality of the work you do will exceeds the quality of the team behind it. Yet to many an entrepreneur's and manager's dismay, teambuilding often seems as complicated as watch making--there are a lot of moving parts and things have to be just right in order to create something magical.

Fortunately, academic research on team culture and group dynamics sheds some much needed light on creating and motivating the perfect team.

Here's a look at ten of the best studies available. Check them out to learn practical steps youcan do to ensure your team is set up for success.

1. Teambuilding exercises can work. Building a great team and actual "teambuilding" exercises are often viewed in very different lights.

Teambuilding is a business topic that generally produces a few eye rolls. The first thing that comes to mind for many are all the superficial activities that force people together into some sort of awkward scenario with all of the participants hating the process and wishing it would end.

Teambuilding shouldn't have that reputation.

The Small Group Research journal paper "Does Team Building Work?" analyzed data from 103 studies conducted between 1950 and 2007. This cumulative research provides the strongest scientific evidence to date that team building can have measurable, positive effects on team performance.

As you'll soon see, the "secret" in making team building work is to keep things normal, and to avoid situations that feel invasive, awkward, or forced. Do NOT assemble your team and ask everyone to share their greatest fear--a huge majority of the people involved won't appreciate this forced mix of their work life and personal feelings.

What far more practical things should you do instead?

2. The 5 best teambuilding activities. In light of the lackluster reputation of teambuilding, you probably aren't surprised to read that research from Citrix has shown that 31 percent of office workers say they can't stand teambuilding activities.

This negative association is a shame, because, as discussed in this Harvard Business School publication, a connected team is a motivated team. Further supporting research from the American Psychological Association (APA) finds that team building activities can help employees feel valued, and those that do are the most motivated to do great work.

According to that study, "Almost all employees (93 percent) who reported feeling valued said they are motivated to do their best at work."

There are ways to circumvent the negative association and provide great bonding experiences for co-workers. David W. Ballard, head of APA's Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program, shared in this U.S. News & World Report interview five simple team-building activities that have shown to be successful time and time again.

They are:

1. Volunteering. The best activities are those that the entire team feels proud to participate in. Research even suggests that helping others makes you feel like you have more time on your hands! The Help Scout team recently assisted the Cradles to Crayons project to help support a great cause in our community, and we all found it to be an incredibly rewarding experience that encouraged conversation outside the workspace.
2. Physical activities. Sports make for superb outings that allow employees to work together and get physical exercise. However, Ballard warns that always playing the sport that the CEO likes may make the activity feel like an obligation. Also, pick your sport carefully: activities that could result in injury (like football) aren't as effective as milder, non-contact options (like bowling or ice skating.)
3. Field trips. Simple, casual trips like visiting a park or museum or going to a baseball game can work wonders for your team.
4. Professional development activities. Quality workshops give teams the opportunity to stay up to date with education and develop professional relationships in new settings--all without the stigma of going it alone or the awkwardness of trying to network solo.
5. Shared meals. Eating regularly with your team allows for casual conversation in a comfortable environment, letting team members get to know each other outside of work. As a remote worker, I don't get to see the Help Scout team every day, but when I'm in Boston we spend lunchtime together and I regularly dine out with individual team members.

3. Great teams need non-work communication. A study from MIT's Human Dynamics Laboratory shows that when it comes to predicting the success of a great team, the most important element is how well the team communicates during informal meetings:

"With remarkable consistency, the data confirmed that communication indeed plays a critical role in building successful teams. In fact, we've found patterns of communication to be the most important predictor of a team's success."

This doesn't mean team members have to be best friends outside of work, but managers should recognize that non-work discussions are critical to creating a team that looks out for each other. Otherwise, co-workers may begin to view one another as just cogs in the machine.

How can informal conversations be regularly prompted within teams? According to the study, "We advised the center's manager to revise the employees' coffee break schedule so that everyone on a team took a break at the same time."

In short, a simple nudge works far better than awkward, forced team-building exercises that mandate casual conversations.

4. Star performers are often dependent on their team. Your rockstar employee that seems to thrive due to natural talent may be more dependent on their team than you think.

A Harvard study published in 2006 revealed that the overall performance of heart surgeons improved over time (patient mortality was the outcome measured) when they were able to consistently work with their usual team at the primary hospital they performed in.

When the surgeons would cover for other doctors, the researchers found that this measured improvement didn't translate to other familiar hospitals with unfamiliar personnel.

So even though these surgeons were well acquainted with the other hospitals (thereby sidelining worries about feeling confused or "out of place"), they didn't have the same tacit understanding of their team members. As a result, they did not perform at the same level as they did at their primary hospital with their primary team.

This finding is very important for both employees and employers to consider when evaluating how a particular team is contributing to their rockstar's consistency.

5. Remote teams can outperform local teams. Yahoo's recent announcement they would end their remote working program created significant debate. But the research shows that not every company should write off the practice just yet.

A 2009 study from MIT's Sloan School of Management found that virtual teams working for software companies were regularly outperforming on-location teams, as long as they had the proper systems in place.

What systems are required? According to the MIT study:

Those processes can be classified in two categories: task-related--including those that help ensure each team member is contributing fully; and socio-emotional--including those that increase the cohesion of the group."

The group's findings show these elements to be critical for remote-team success:

• Let remote workers know they are valued. Remote workers are especially vulnerable to being looked over and not feeling appreciated for the work that they are doing. Teams need to make sure remote workers feel supported and appreciated, even if they aren't in office.
• Find solutions for seamless work coordination. A much-needed tool for any virtual team is the ability to view, organize and change deadlines through a project management system that the entire team can access. Sharing calendars and project updates can get messy, and the best solution that our team has found is Basecamp.
• Task-related communications. The simple question "What did you get done today?" can be difficult to answer and track with remote teams. Our team currently uses and recommends P2, which acts as an internal "bulletin board" for our team to write and read longer updates about what's been accomplished that week. It also runs entirely on WordPress, so it's easy to set up.

6. In-person brainstorming is not the best option for teams. Great teams are often denoted by their ability to unite to come up with stellar solutions to brain-busting problems.

The problem is that study after study has shown that brainstorming in groups is generally a bust when it comes to generating the best, most novel ideas.

Here are a few reasons group brainstorming can fall flat:

1. Social loafing: Studies on the concept of "social loafing" show that in brainstorming groups, creative people often won't fully exert themselves because they feel that others are likely to pick up the slack (bystander effect, anyone?)
2. Production blocking: In a group brainstorming session, the rest of the group has to wait while a peer shares an idea. This has been shown to cause some folks to actively dissuade themselves from sharing when they feel they are being talked over.
3. Evaluation apprehension: Unsurprisingly, contributors to brainstorming groups know that their ideas will be judged. Researchers have found that this often prevents people from sharing, since they don't have the time to fully flesh out an idea the way they would if they were brainstorming alone.

But brainstorming is important for teams--research shows it gets employees invested in the projects they are working on. When people feel like they've contributed, they tend to be more invested in making the project a success.

So what's the solution?

According to this research, the answer may be a new form of online brainstorming known as electronic brainwriting. This practice consists of brainstorming through a chat program, which circumvents many of the face-to-face problems. The following rules are also recommended:

• Don't criticize.
• Focus on quantity.
• Combine and improve ideas produced by others.

The Help Scout team prefers HipChat for this sort of quick communication, and the app is also perfect for setting up the electronic brainwriting sessions mentioned above.

7. Great teams benefit from having an analytical thinker. When it comes to assembling a great team, this study from Carnegie Mellon University suggests that having an analytical thinker on the team is a must to balance out big-picture strategists.

How is an analytical thinker defined? The study described this person as someone who pays close attention to "process focus," which is the art of identifying and focusing on the sub-tasks needed to achieve the goal.

In other words, this detailed-oriented person sweats the small stuff; they're a great complement to the broad thinkers who concentrate on executing overall strategy.

They key is to educate team members on appreciating the process of creation, which can help negate potential disputes. When the entire team understands the nature of the details, this analytical thinker can thrive without being at odds with those planning out strategy.

As a software company, we can offer a candid example--adding "this one button" or "that one little feature" is almost never as easy as it sounds. Very rarely are these small changes actually small, and big picture people need to be in tune with this side of an analytical thinker's work, so that misunderstanding's and disputes can be avoided.

8. Forming "micro-cultures" can be bad for teams. Varying degrees of friendship are bound to form within teams. Research shows that it's common for closer bonds to be formed among team members who share similarities based on their social identity and by the department they work in (e.g., marketing, support, product, etc.).

In a psychological study on getting the most out of multidisciplinary teams, lead researcher Doris Fay found that multidisciplinary teams produced better quality innovations than more uniform teams, but that this boost in performance was only consistent if there wasn't a problem of teams fracturing into smaller subgroups.

Team leaders need to ensure that each member feels committed to the unified cause and that everyone on the team has a voice.

While private friendships are obviously fine, office cliques and inter-departmental rivalries aren't ideal for a positive, goal-minded environment.

9. Teams need "social sensitivity." For a team to perform well across a range of challenges, it's essential for its members to have the character trait of social sensitivity.

Recent research on this topic shows that the ability to read co-workers' emotional states is pivotal in determining a team's success. Detecting when co-workers may be frustrated, busy, confused or embarrassed has proven helpful to a team's cohesion.

Seemingly small things--such as being able to take turns while speaking--can go a long way toward increasing social sensitivity among teams.

You may not be surprised to hear that women are often more attuned with this trait than men. This may be why additional research suggests that teams that lead (company boards) with at least one woman represented will regularly outperform all male boards.

Either way, this is an important trait to establish in your company culture. Check out how the Buffer team promotes these values by encouraging employees to 'default to transparency' and to be a "no ego doer" when working with others.

10. The best teams have extroverts and introverts. "If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it'll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid."--Albert Einstein

Many companies actively encourage their employees to open up and be more extroverted. But be careful of this mentality; even though introverts don't tend to make as strong of a first impression as extroverts, they have proven to be key members of teams.

Research shows that although introverts "start off with the lowest status" (i.e., their peers didn't evaluate them as having much influence), as time progressed their status climbed whereas the extraverts' status fell.

These underrated quiet types offer a unique way to balance a team, so be sure that any 'wallflowers' on your team are given a chance; their reserved nature may just mean that they are shy, not that they have nothing to contribute.