Quit Standing Beside Your Power

Listen up.

Do you routinely defer the floor to others before you are finished? Giggle when nervous or, worse yet, laugh uncontrollably? End your statements with a lingering request for support? Do you work to be seen as the always-agreeable-can-get-along-with-anyone person on the team? Start your recommendations with qualifiers such as, "I am not sure you are going to like this idea, but." Not ask all of your questions because you feel you may have taken up too much meeting time already? Do you do any variations of the above on a regular basis?

Yes? Well, stop that right now.

When communicating, be prepared and be professional. Articulate your position and state the reasons why. Don't soften a message that needs to be heard and don't think for a minute that you deserve any less respect than the person sitting next to you.

Quit standing beside your power and step into it. Now.

"Information Overload"

Every employee wants to be performing above and beyond their call of duty to sustain in this tough competition they face daily at their work sites. And hence multitasking.

Due to this juggling tasks has become an inescapable element of work as revealed by a new field recognized as "Interruption Science" (Source: HR Magazine; August 2008). Information Overload often challenges the innovative and creativity aspects of workers when they have to constantly multitask or shift from one task to another or tackling two cognitive tasks simultaneously.

"A study showed that workers on average spend just 11 minutes on a project and, within that time frame, typically change tasks every three minutes" (Source: HR Magazine; August 2008; "Quelling Distraction: Help employees overcome 'information overload'.")

Companies/Organizations are starting to realize the importance of need to allocate some time for employees to be creative and thinking.

So companies are dealing with this new challenge by carving out "Creative Spaces". Some call it "White space" or Creative room or Work-Out sessions or even "Think Fridays". All these efforts try to provide a physical place or a specific time or day for employees to focus on creative thoughts or agenda-free reflection without any interruptions.

For more information read the complete article HR Magazine; August 2008; "Quelling Distraction: Help employees overcome 'information overload'."