Twice in the last three days, clients have brought up the aggravation of having to manage organizational politics to get things done. Like it or not, working with and through others is a fact of our matrixed world. “Politics” has come to have such a negative connotation, and I find that people shy away from getting involved. A better path: use the four simple steps below to navigate…

I recently listened to a TED Talk by Julie Lythcott-Haims, former Dean of Freshman at Stanford University. In the context of parenting, she talks about how we are raising our children as bonsai trees: carefully groomed, perfectly manicured, ever-presentable and close to perfect specimens.

As I write this article, I am seated in a big comfy chair with some amazing Oscar Peterson jazz in the background, which just always seems to make the morning go more smoothly. It got me thinking – with so much at work that seems beyond our control – how very important it is to create the right environment to produce our optimal work.

Invariably, on the days that I set out to be my most productive – the days I plan to shutter myself inside and get things done – whether its project work or blog-writing, something seems to go awry. In fact, as I sit to write now, well – life is happening in the background. Complete with all its noise, chaos, motion and emotion.

I recently read The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. The book is a quick read, with many notable insights. The core of the book asks readers to identify what’s the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? 

Ever have one of those days (weeks? months?) when you sit and stare at your to-do list? The times when you go on line to look up one piece of information and thirty or forty five minutes dash by? The days you’d rather clean your desk than tackle your to-do’s? These, my friends, are stall tactics. Here’s a way to break the pattern.

Amazing how that simple turn of phrase can have a tremendous impact, isn’t it? In our world of back-to-back meetings and jam packed personal and professional to-do lists, it’s easy to stay busy. The late Stephen Covey reminds us and asks: are you working on the things that are the most important?