Category: 1-Minute Strategy

Quick question: What’s the most dangerous thing you do all day? Answer: Sit.  Scientists at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana analyzed the lifestyles of more than 17,000 men and women over about 13 years. They found that people who sit for most of the day are 54 percent more likely to die of […]

It seems like a perfectly natural way to work: When a task comes in, it’s placed in the queue behind the others in front of it, and you finish one thing completely before you start on the next. But this method can wind up painting you in a poor light, as work that would take […]

The truth is, some employees grab items for home use (read: they pilfer) and some employees just get careless (I can’t find the pen I grabbed yesterday, so I’ll just go get a new one today). A solution: Keep a sign-out sheet near the supply cache and instruct employees that they must jot down the […]

How you position your desk in your office says a lot to your employees. Facing the door with your desk at a perpendicular angle makes you look rigid, like a high school principal ready to chew someone out. Against the side wall makes you look like a worker bee who doesn’t want to be bothered. […]

Ever agreed to give a lift to a co-worker or two—maybe even your boss—only to suddenly realize on your way out to the car that it’s filled with junk, soda bottles, food wrappers and whatever the kids have cluttered it with today? It’s not your proudest moment and tends to undo someone’s image of you […]

In his book The Lonely Crowd, David Riesman famously suggests that “inner-directed” people tend to be self-motivated, goal-oriented and led by their own sense of mission. Inner-directed people, he says, are most likely to become leaders. So if you have high ambitions, are truly locked onto them and can cut out the noise from others […]

If you’re gathering input from meeting attendees, you may want to go the oversized Post-it note route. The company makes 20-inch x 23-inch, 20-sheet pads that mount to a wall or easel. Sheets are bleed-resistant and can self-stick to other surfaces. Ideas can go from pad to wall to wherever, and can be repositioned without […]

Or, in other words, do you talk over a person’s last few words in their sentence just to get a jump on what you have to say? Be mindful if you engage in this rude conversation behavior. It sends a clear message that you haven’t listened to or don’t care what he or she is […]

Today at work, you may have dozens of interactions with people. How many of them, though, are actually worthy? Try this experiment on a busy day: On a sheet of paper, track with a simple mark how many individual times you discuss work with people—a mark for each meeting, office visit or casual chat at […]

If you send your print jobs to the copier/printer/scanner that all employees use, you’re asking for a security breach on the morale-busting level. An employee waiting at the copier for it to spit out his job just might see your “list of employees who are getting year-end bonuses,” and not see his name on it. […]