Gloss November 2015

GLOSS BUSINESS | MONEY | LIFE | REVIEWS | YOU

NOVEMBER 2015

GLO S S GLOSS MAGAZINE Issue 26 PUBLISHER Janine Garner

ART DIRECTOR Kirsty Russell

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Margot Andersen Dr Jenny Brockis Melissa Browne Nikki Fogden-Moore

Renata Cooper

FEATURED THIS MONTH

Atul Narang Dermot Crowley Emma Bannister Emily Verstege Fiona Anson & Alison Baker Jacqui Lewis Kate Savage Kelly Slessor Louise Agnew

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© LBDG 2015 All content in this newsletter is protected under Australian and International copyright laws. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of LBDGroup is strictly forbidden. The greatest care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information in this online magazine at time of going to press, and we accept no responsibility for omissions or errors. All rights reserved.

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As we head closer and closer to the end of one year and approach a new year of possibilities, now is an ideal time to check in on your progress, your results, your mindset and your beliefs of what you can achieve.

How many times have you heard others around you use the following words to explain why they haven’t quite made it?

‘If only my boss had…’

‘I’d like to move companies, but…’

‘I didn’t get a promotion because of this person/that situation/this occurrence…’

‘I can’t change because x/y/z won’t let me…’

‘It’s the economy. It’s holding everyone back.’

There are always going to be convenient excuses. Just as there are always external influences, which can affect your journey of growth and success. And admittedly, some things you absolutely cannot control.

MAINTAIN YOUR ENERGY

IN LIFE there are always people who seem to take that extra step above the rest of the pack to be extraordinary.

They are the movers, the shakers, and the people who dream and take action to turn their dreams into reality.

ATTITUDE IS KEY

FIND YOUR PASSION

YOUR NETWORK SUPPORTS YOU

Today, now more than ever, the role of a leader or manager has never been so demanding. Think about it — 24/7 communication, international and domestic travel, cross functional working, endless office meetings, However, are you going to be the kind conference calls, smaller teams, of person who grasps the business increased workload etc. Energy is equivalent of a stinging nettle, bears a critical to success. If you love what you little pain and rises above it – or will you do, you will have high energy. Passion allow the excuses to excuse you from and energy are identical twins that being the best? drive momentum.

The one thing you can control is you and your attitude to success. That is yours and yours alone. Understand what makes up your value system and own it. Live it. Work it. If you don’t start leading from within, taking control So what do they do differently? What to acknowledge your own values and drives the motivation and the energy to beliefs and the person that you are on keep following the dream no matter the the inside, you will never be capable of challenges along the way? being the better person on the outside.

You absolutely have to love what you do to have a sense of being and a mission.

The only judgment that matters is the one you have of yourself so decide what is it that you are going to stand for, what your testament is to the world, what difference you want to make today to influence the lives of others around you.

Your network drives you, lifts you, pushes you further and sees more in you than you can often see in yourself.

Build your network and spend time with them. Learn from them. Listen to how they speak. Be open to advice and feedback. Have the courage to ask GLOSS NOV 2015 | 3

questions and seek advice.

INVEST IN LEARNING Jim Rohn said: “Formal education will make you a living; self education will make you a fortune”. To not invest in you is a waste of potential talent. Read, listen, learn and become an expert in your field .

FIND YOUR INNER PEACE

Successful people all have a solidity about them, a calmness, an ability to take on more than your average Joe and this stems from his or her inner peace.

They are more self-aware, less stressed and let’s be honest — it’s far easier to get what you want when you can see the wood for the trees and the clarity of the decisions that need to be made.

SELF-CONFIDENCE IN YOU It’s not about being strong but rather having the strength, confidence, determination and resilience to succeed, to ask the questions when you don’t know the answer, to have an opinion and to be confident enough for others not to agree, to put yourself out there, to face your fears and failures head-on, to course correct and keep going.

A positive, motivated attitude and taking ownership of your own journey are intertwined and part of any true success story. It allows you to take 4 | GLOSS NOV 2015

strength and learning from the times when you fail; it allows you to turn the feeling of sometimes debilitating fear into useful adrenaline and a sense of excitement for the possible. It allows you to trust rather than doubt.

Just think about it. Say the words.

‘Yes I can’.

‘Yes I CAN!’ I am pleased to bring you this issue of GLOSS, packed with ideas to becoming a more productive and successful you. And with personal success stories jam-packed with insight and learnings there is no doubt that there is something for us all to take from the expertise within.

Enjoy

JANINE GARNER PUBLISHER

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FEATURED IN SUCCESS, VIRGIN VOYEUR, QANTAS MAGAZINE, THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, CEO MAGAZINE, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, AND MORE. FROM JANINE GARNER, HUFFINGTON POST COLUMNIST AND FOUNDER OF LBDGROUP.

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GLOSS NOV 2015 | 5

08

CONTENTS November 2015 12

68 14 30

46 72

42 6 | GLOSS NOV 2015

02

FROM THE PUBLISHER

06

CONTENTS

FEATURES 08 HASHCHING 12 WORKIBLE:

MONEY

52

DISRUPT, CREATE, IMPACT

BUSINESS 18

BUILDING A CULTURE OF PRODUCTIVITY IN STARTUPS

22

SMART WORK IN THE 21ST CENTURY WORKPLACE

46

PRODUCTIVITY AND THE POWER OF HABITS WHY FINANCIAL PLANNING IS NOW ALL ABOUT SEX!

YOU 62

WHY PRODUCTIVITY STARTS WITH H

66

STRESS-LESS TIPS FROM VEDIC MEDITATION EXPERT JACQUI LEWIS

26

UNLOCKING ORGANISATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY

30

DIGITAL PRODUCTIVITY

68

VITALITY 101 FOR FITPRENEURS. THE 1% RULE

34

GETTING READY FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON

LIFE 38

IN HER OWN WORDS

42

IN HER OWN WORDS

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 7

FEATURED

HASHCHING Atul Narang

“Every startup should address a real and demonstrated need in the world. If you build a solution to a problem lots of people have, it’s so easy to sell your product to the world.” Kevin Systrom, Instagram Perhaps, this is exactly the reason for the smashing success of HashChing, proclaimed to be Australia’s first online marketplace for securing best home loan deals from multiple lenders.

behind the scenes who conceived this idea, made it real and continue to make it work.

Atul Narang is the founder & CIO of HashChing and is responsible for Numerically, in the month of strategic decisions, technology road September itself, HashChing had map and partnerships. He has over 15 already received home loan applications years of experience in online and digital worth $56 million. space. Having landed in Australia in the year 2006 with his skill set and Launched in May 2015 and already experience, Atul worked with some of in its second round of funding, the biggest digital agencies engaging HashChing is one of the fastest in conceptualization to the launch and growing start-ups in Australia. promotion of products in the digital space.

What makes this venture so successful?

Of course, the idea and the people Before the HashChing story, he was 8 | GLOSS NOV 2015

heading up his own digital agency, Designworxz. As Director, he had developed a strong business model backed by a sound business strategy and was actively involved in client acquisition for the company. Handing over the reins of Designworxz to his brother in 2015, Atul is currently the CIO of HashChing, ably driving the investments through a well-planned technology roadmap, a sound digital strategy and focused online marketing.

doling out comparisons and free advise, HashChing stands out, thanks to the ingenuity of the founders as the platform is powered not by bankers, but by mortgagors. Mortgage brokers can offer better deals to consumers because they provide bulk business to the banks and can secure lower interest rates. Not only can they provide better rates to the consumers, they also provide more choice and convenience by doing all the hard work.

Credited to be a serial entrepreneur, Atul’s success is attributable to his knack for making solutions simpler,

HashChing aims to make home loans easier – a real solution to a real problem; an idea born out of

A REAL SOLUTION TO A REAL PROBLEM; AN IDEA BORN OUT OF EXPERIENCE. his out of the box thinking, a positive attitude and the ability to guide and steer his staff to meet the projected business deliverables successfully.

experience. Catching up on a regular coffee chat, Atul and his co-founder Mandeep happened to discuss their home loans and noticed a gap in the market. Atul, who dealt with a As a social non-profit initiative, he is broker, scored a much better deal than a part of the advisory board at YESSS Mandeep who directly dealt with a (Youth Engagement and Employment bank. As they delved into the issue Support System), working closely with deeper, they found that customers could the board on their mentoring initiative benefit by dealing with brokers. While for the young entrepreneurs. many people would advise you to ask your bank for a discount when you go HashChing is changing the way fishing for a home loan, in reality, it Australians look at home loans. Though is the brokers who can negotiate with there are many financial review sites the bank to get you better deals. The GLOSS NOV 2015 | 9

light bulb moment happened and to fill this gap, they decided to create a product that could help other people looking for home loans. The idea for the portal came from the fact that there was no place where mortgage brokers could display their negotiated deals.

This was the reason that everyone was more inclined towards dealing with the banks.

The perfect solution - HashChing - a portal where brokers showcase their deals and consumers get to shop for the best deals.

The startup was initially self-funded.

The portal was designed and brought to life by Atul and his team from Designworxz.

In January 2015, HashChing was accepted in the AWI FinTech accelerator program making its way through hundreds of applications. This program is open to only 5 FinTech startups at any time and provided invaluable guidance and mentorship to

HashChing.

Since launching in May 2015, HashChing has received a lot of traction and has appeared in national media multiple times including Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WAToday, Canberra Times and Financial Review. The site has managed to register about 400 unique visitors per day and generated 59 leads while in beta for the 15 initial brokers on the platform. In July, the second round of funding was raised from SG Capital and the revenue started flowing. The revenue figures for HashChing have grown by over 5 times since August.

HashChing is now looking to raise the next round of funding to accelerate growth.

Undoubtedly, HashChing has completely changed the way people look for home loans in Australia.

Certainly, change is good!

Atul Narang is a serial entrepreneur, a digital geek, a certified trainer and the founder of HashChing.

As a social non-profit initiative, he is a part of the advisory board at Youth Engagement and Employment Support System, working closely with the board on their mentoring initiative for the young entrepreneurs.

Contact Atul here 10 | GLOSS NOV 2015

WE ARE ALL GIVEN THE SAME HOURS IN A DAY - LIVE THEM!

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 11

WORKIBLE DISRUPT, CREATE, IMPACT

Launched four years ago, Workible’s aim was to disrupt the job board industry and it has succeeded. Now linking over 190,000 people nationally and connecting over 1500 companies to those workers, Workible is growing from strength to strength. Here Janine Garner finds out what drives the founders Fiona Anson and Alison Baker.

1. WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR WORKIBLE COME FROM? The idea for Workible came from our many car trips together when we were traveling to see a mutual client. We were both working with them on a contract basis and it wasn’t full time so we were both looking for other work for the days we had available. In one conversation one day we were chatting about how hard it was to find out the availability requirements of advertised jobs and we said to each other “if a dating site can match hair and eye color, why can’t a job site match days and hours?” And that was the genesis of the idea. 5 years on, and it’s now so much more - a full recruitment system that not only powers our own jobs marketplace but, we’re very proud to say, powers other systems as well such as Company career pages, job boards and careers platforms for TAFEs, universities and training organizations.

2. WHAT SORT OF TIMEFRAMES WERE INVOLVED IN TERMS OF IDEA TO CREATION? We started with a basic website with a custom-built availability matching engine.

To our knowledge, we were the first in the world to do this. A year into the business, we won a pitching competition and the prize was a trip to Silicon Valley to 12 | GLOSS NOV 2015

attend a conference there that changed everything about our business - and blew our minds. We knew that, if we wanted to build something world class, we needed to move into mobile, social and video and so we came back and reinvented the platform on mobile with a whole host of enhanced functionality. In terms of the timeframes, the first site, Hire Me Up, was built in about 2 months, but after 6 moths we realized that it didn’t have

more complex all the time. In reality, it will never be “finished”, especially given that technology is always evolving and we know that it can always be improved.

the administration back end we needed it to. We then found a piece of job board software that was customized to include the availability engine and used that until the Workible mobile MVP was built. From concept (after we returned from the trip) to launch was about 8 months however it’s fair to say that it’s an ongoing work of art and gets bigger and

The biggest two challenges are and have always been time and money. At first, we were juggling part time jobs and a full time business, because we both still needed to earn income while we built the business. When we decided to rebuild on mobile, we actually had to go and raise capital to do so - and we still worked part time. Once Workible got a

3. WHAT WERE SOME OF THE KEY CHALLENGES YOU FACED AT EACH TOUCH POINT?

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 13

bit of traction, our investors wanted us full time in the business so that we could focus all of our effort on it, so we raised a bit more money to continue the build and start to employ some people and we took a small salary, just enough to make ends meet, so that we could be in boots and all. As the business has growth, there is still the need for continued development and Workible is now a very powerful and sophisticated piece of software. We now compete with some of the big players in the HR technology space - and we have our own team of developers. All that costs a lot of money to run so we still struggle with the balance of time and money and we watch both like a hawk. We’ve purposely decided not to go down the road of raising obscene amounts of capital as we want to build a real business (and also keep as much equity as we can) so sales and profits are a huge driver for us but building worldclass software is not a cheap business!

Personally we both struggle with time issues as well. A business like Workible can be all-consuming and we have to be mindful to try to keep some balance in our lives as we’re both workaholics. We both have partners, and I (Fiona) have a son so family time is really important.

4. IN TERMS OF YOUR INVESTORS, HOW IMPORTANT HAVE THEY BEEN IN TERMS OF FISCAL VALUE PROVIDED AND ALSO BUSINESS AND EMOTIONAL 14 | GLOSS NOV 2015

SUPPORT? We have a great group of investors who leave us to run the business without a lot of interference. We have an Advisory Board made up of some of them and we meet with them monthly to review operations and report to Shareholders on financial and other matters. All shareholders are always invited to attend.

Certainly, they’ve been instrumental in terms of fiscal value - we couldn’t have done what we have without them. In terms of emotional support, there are a couple who keep reasonably close to us to ensure that we’ve got the help we need and we know that we can pick up the phone at any time to any of them should we need to. Our lead investor is probably the most proactive in terms of support, he’s always got our best interests at heart and checks in regularly - but leaves us to do what we do best. It’s a great combination.

5. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE FUTURE FOR WORKIBLE / EXPANSION PLAN? We have lots of big plans. The end of this year and the beginning of next are massive growth times for us. We’ll be powering a whole network of job platforms shortly and are really cementing our place in the education space. We plan to launch in the US early next year, hopefully followed

by Canada and the UK. There are more and more opportunities popping up in Asia as well. At this point, we have to

carefully weigh up where we focus our efforts and not be distracted by every “bright shiny object” as there are so many opportunities that come up weekly so we have to be discerning and stay on track with our plans while not discounting an opportunity that we might not have on our radar.

6. DO YOU SEE A DAY SOON WHEN IT WON’T BE ABOUT WOMEN IN TECH BUT JUST ABOUT TECH LEADERS We certainly hope so, although we think there’s still a long way to go. Women are certainly the minority when it comes to funded businesses and women in tech are still not as highly publicized as men.

We know so many amazing women who have started business in tech who, just like us have no specific technical skill but have passion and a great idea and so many of them are doing incredibly well. I think, in general, women tend to be quieter achievers than men and perhaps that’s why we seem to be under-represented in the media and at tech leadership forums. Recently, the organizers of SydStart, a tech event in Sydney publicized their speakers for the event and there was not one women on it. They got howled down in the media and on social media and, although I don’t think it was their intention not to include women, it was indicative that the first people thought of are the guys. To their credit, they released an impressive roster of female speakers who

are appearing at that event now. We do think, however, we probably have to do a little more work to have women in tech be front of mind when your talk about tech leaders but it would be great to see a great balance

To find out more visit https://www.workible.com.au

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 15

You can make excuses or you can make it happen.

16 | GLOSS NOV 2015

business

business: /ˈbɪznəs/ noun

1. a person’s regular occupation, profession, or trade.

2. commercial activity.

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 17

BUSINESS

BUILDING A CULTURE OF PRODUCTIVITY IN STARTUPS Renata Cooper

People working in startups are amongst the most agile and productive group you’ll come across. Combined with ingenuity, this has been instrumental in their rise to success – especially against bigger corporates. But the very thing that has helped build them could be their downfall too.

As an angel investor, I am surrounded by amazing people, particularly women, in startups and every one of them is driven, determined and passionate. Success to this bunch is not just about money, but a better way of doing things, betterment of lifestyle and ultimately, democratisation of opportunities.

18 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Look at any startup and you’ll typically see a small team working hard, a CEO juggling multiple roles, little money to use and a system that has to rapidly adapt to a growing number of customers.

Wearing many hats, the founder or CEO is constantly trying to get on top of business meetings, employee issues, chasing investors, marketing the product, networking, etc. And this does not even take into consideration juggling the family.

and if you do, then its too fast and you could potentially burn out like Zirtual.

I was driven by desire to build a successful investment model and, not compromise on my personal time. It wasn’t easy.

Here are a few things I learnt along my journey…

According to Atlassian, 31 hours are spent every month on unproductive meetings and half of these are considered a waste of time. Unnecessary meetings are also responsible for costing US businesses $37 billion!

Finding the middle ground is the key to success. The guys from Atlassian recently talked about how in their seventh year, they changed business practises to avoid burning themselves and their staff out.

The hard pace established early on, the never-ending new customer deadlines, and constantly chasing one’s tail is bound to plateau out if the business While startups and early stage companies isn’t reverse engineered at some level for are focused, riding the adrenalin wave future growth. Or if proper processes and very productive, making the buzz aren’t established in early startup stage. last isn’t easy. Many burnout well before their time.

HAVE A ‘NO MEETINGS DAY’ Facebook is known for its No Meeting As a woman who had kids and became Wednesday policy where engineers are an entrepreneur after the age of 40, I encouraged to focus on building the have had to learn the art of fine balance product. While you can’t do away with myself. I found that it was harder to all meetings, try to block a day where achieve balance in the early stages (1 – the team gets down to the core of the 3 year timeframe). But also knew that business and, like Facebook, focuses once this was done, processes would be just on the issues related to productive established for future growth. growth of the business.

FIND THE MIDDLE GROUND

The five to seven year timeframe is one TAKE A BREAK of the trickiest for most entrepreneurs. Most startup founders would baulk If you don’t grow quick enough, your at the idea of taking a break and view revenue doesn’t match incoming funding it as counter productive. Everything GLOSS NOV 2015 | 19

is a deadline and taking even a coffee break becomes impossible. Being ‘on the go’ all the time will obviously result in stress. And, our brains just process information without often storing it or relating it back to the bigger picture.

This energy has flow on effect on your team too. Even at my busiest periods, I try and take breaks – a walk on the beach, some time with the kids or even filling out a page of an adult colouring book at lunch. I am more productive and the business gets better output from me when I take breaks. Build a culture of taking breaks with your employees too.

STREAMLINE YOUR EMAIL

map on paper and scribble my thoughts down. I’ve found that when you stop looking at the screen trying to figure out answers and actually write things down, ideas get clearer.

Go old school and try visualising things on paper. It might not work for everyone; but give it a shot to see if it does for you. Once you fine-tune the art of mind mapping on paper, you could move on to online tools if they work better for you.

BUILD A GREAT TEAM AND KEEP THEM

Nothing increases productivity than surrounding yourself with the best team possible. Nurture and care for your employees well and you’ll see your productivity shoot off the charts.

Atlassian and pretty much every other successful startup have done so.

In their infographic on time wasting at work, Atlassian points to email as the number one culprit with people getting an average of 304 business emails a week, employees checking email about 36 times in an hour and spending 16 As iVvy CEO Lauren Hall said at the minutes refocusing after handling Ernst & Young’s Winning Women incoming email. lunch, “You can be the most amazing and visionary leader, but you’re only as good Try and dedicate blocks of time during as people around you.” the day to handle emails and avoid the temptation of looking at them on your phone regularly. Shut email off once done with it and move on to the next task.

USE PAPER

Our lives are now ruled by screen time.

As a tactile artist, I sometimes find it easier to step away from the screen, mind 20 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Renata Cooper is the founder of Forming Circles Global, a unique angel investment and mentoring organisation that predominantly invests in femaleled technology startups. Committed to empowering women entrepreneurs, Renata has invested in over 100 national and global businesses, individuals and organisations since 2011. She is a member of Scale Investors and a muru-D mentor.

Contact Renata here GLOSS NOV 2015 | 21

BUSINESS

SMART WORK IN THE 21ST CENTURY WORKPLACE Dermot Crowley

W

e all complain about being busy. Too much to do, too many emails, too many meetings. Our modern workplace demands so much from us. You may have numerous productivity tools at your disposal to help you plan your time and manage your priorities, but are you really leveraging your technology to meet the challenges of the 21st century workplace? Are you working smart?

To truly work effectively today, it is 22 | GLOSS NOV 2015

critical to harness the power of your technology, and to use it in a coordinated way to manage three core aspects of your work – your Actions, your Inputs and your Outcomes.

CENTRALISE YOUR ACTIONS Most of us made the transition from paper diaries to electronic calendars over a decade ago. We have one central place where we centralise all of our meetings,

and we collaborate with other people’s schedules using an electronic scheduling system. Yet, when it comes to the other side of our activity management, task management, most people are still very reliant on paper systems, and tend to manage their priorities in fragmented,

you to balance your meeting and task workloads. Best of all, as many of your actions are driven by email, you will be able to schedule emails into your task list or into your calendar for action at the appropriate time.

IT IS TIME TO PULL YOURSELF INTO THE 21ST CENTURY! ineffective ‘piles’. Piles of emails in our inbox, piles of paper on our desk, piles of actions in our notepad and piles of thoughts in our head. No wonder we are stressed, reactive and behind the eightball.

One of the most powerful ways of getting in control of your priorities is to embrace technology and centralise all of your tasks into the task system that sits alongside your calendar in your scheduling tool. Most organisations use MS Outlook, Lotus Notes or Google Calendar as their email and scheduling tool. All of these tools have powerful task systems built into them, yet few people use electronic tasks to manage their priorities. It is time to pull yourself into the 21st century! The benefits are huge. You can schedule tasks by date and create action lists for specific days. This will ensure you manage your priorities more proactively, and will help

ORGANISE YOUR INPUTS Once you have a solid system in place for managing your actions, you need to think about how you deal with inputs.

You probably get many inputs every day, including emails, paperwork, phone calls, interruptions and meeting actions.

Inputs have become a real challenge for the modern executive. Firstly there is the volume.

Where a few years ago 100 emails per day was a lot, now 300 per day is common. Secondly, how most people tend to manage these inputs is problematic. Many of us have hundreds (if not thousands) of emails piled up in the inbox. We desperately try to stay on top of the pile, marking emails unread or flagging them to maintain visibility of the emails that still need our attention.

But it just causes stress, reactivity and missed deadlines.

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 23

The secret to staying on top of your incoming work is to treat your inbox like a post box. It is simply where you receive emails. It should not be used as a to-do list or a filing system. It should be cleared to zero at least once per week. When you process your emails, be decisive. Delete what you don’t need.

File the things you are finished with, but feel you need to keep. Delegate anything that is not a good use of your time. But most importantly, schedule your actions into your task list or calendar rather than keeping them highlighted in your inbox.

This will give you greater control over the action as you will be managing the priority within the context of your time.

That time just seems to evaporate or get stolen by somebody else’s urgent crises.

While meetings and emails are a critical way of getting stuff done, your ability to deliver in your role requires more. It requires time to think, to plan and to

SOMETIMES WE DOING, AND TAK PLAN AND P

REALISE YOUR OUTCOMES

work on the activities that are driven by your outcomes, rather than just your inputs.

How often do you feel like your job has become a series of endless meetings and emails? What about the time that you need to work on the really meaningful work?

Many executives that I work with complain about not being able to find time for the important work. But you will never find time for this, you have to make time in your schedule. You

Dermot Crow productivity. H Adapt Training approach to pro

Contact Derm 24 | GLOSS NOV 2015

need to proactively schedule time for the important stuff, and then protect it fiercely. You should protect it from the other people that want to steal your time away, and also from yourself, as it is easy to procrastinate over the more complex work that contributes to our outcomes.

E NEED TO STOP KE SOME TIME TO PRIORITISE. The best way to create a connection between your outcomes and your actions is to invest some of your time in personal planning. Sometimes we need to stop doing, and take some time to plan and prioritise. Having a robust weekly planning routine in place is a good way to build a habit around this. Each week,

review last week, organise next week, anticipate what is coming up, and realign your priorities with what you are trying to achieve – your outcomes.

Tools like MS Outlook are seen as email tools, but they are so much more. They are designed to help you manage your actions, inputs and outcomes. If they are used in a co-ordinated way they can give you the leverage you need to stay productive in the modern workplace.

Nelson Jackson once said “I do not believe you can do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow”.

I would also suggest that we cannot do today’s job with yesterday’s tools and be in business tomorrow. Technology has contributed to our productivity challenges over the last decade, and it can also be a part of the solution. But only if we learn to use it in a smart way.

wley is one of Australia’s foremost thought- leaders on He is the author of Smart Work, and the founder of g Solutions. Dermot has a highly inspiring yet practical oductivity in the modern workplace.

mot here GLOSS NOV 2015 | 25

BUSINESS

UNLOCKING ORGANISATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY Margot Andersen

Productivity is never an accident.

As business leaders today we are constantly challenged to increase both productivity and profitability whilst being asked to conserve resources and do ‘ more with less’. As the quote above suggests, to do this requires an unwavering commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and highly focused effort. There is however one additional area I believe we need to build an unwavering commitment to developing: Trust Trust, which is widely regarded as the glue to any healthy and productive relationship, appears to be at crisis levels for many individuals and organisations today. In fact recent statistics suggest that only 47% of employees trust senior management and only 32% believe CEO’ s to be a credible source of information. (source: Centre for 26 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Organisational Excellence). This lack of trust represents not only a leadership crisis of monumental proportions but also a productivity crisis. When we don’ t believe or trust those around us, it not only sets in motion a tidal wave of negative attitudes and emotions, it actually significantly impacts our ways of thinking and behaving. So much so that it can all too easily become the biggest blocker to personal, team and organisational productivity.

Patrick Lencioni who is widely regarded for his work in team development and organisational performance identifies trust as the most basic requirement to building high performance. His pyramid The Five Dysfunctions of A Team defines the core problems of unproductive teams and subsequently by default the requirements for a high functioning and productive team:

of the pyramid crippling the potential of a productive team. Only people with high trust between each other will take risks, engage in healthy robust debate, seek solutions, commit to a vision, hold each other accountable and focus on delivering measurable results.

I love Stephen Covey’s analogy of trust as a tax or a dividend: When there is a lack of trust in a relationship or organisation, it is like a hidden tax that is placed on every transaction, piece of communication, decision and strategy, which brings speed down and sends costs up. By contrast, individuals and companies that operate with high levels of trust reap the benefits of a dividend that enables them to succeed by multiplying performance, productivity and capability.

Lack of trust therefore has the capacity to literally double the cost of doing business and triple the delivery timeframes; where as high trust has the capacity to not only significantly save time, money and angst but also deepen relationships, build greater collaboration, Failing to build trust is like allowing a career fulfillment and success for all disease to grow up and infect each level involved.

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 27

SO HOW DO THE MOST SUCCESSFUL LEADERS BUILD TRUST?

both, productivity is almost always compromised. The most successful leaders recognise this and focus on creating it as a core objective.

• Establish purpose and commitment: from individuals and between individuals • Communicate honestly and transparently: by talking straight and keeping it real!

• Ensure actions match words: removing ambiguity and taking the guess work out of situations • Deliver results: that offer lasting and meaningful value • Listen and observe: Not just to those that shout the loudest but to all members of a team • Demonstrate consistency: If you do what you say and say what you do, people will trust you • Remove the ‘landmines’: the hidden agendas, the vagueness and doubt • Clarify expectations, purpose and commitment: contributions, behaviours and attitudes • Value accountability: both for themselves and the team’s that they lead • Remain engaged: with individuals, objectives, processes and outcomes • Acknowledge and give credit where credit is due: both individually and publicly

Trust is not just a nice-to-have. It is a critical component of personal, team and organisational performance. It is a clear enabler of productivity and one that underpins your leadership skill set and true capability.

For leaders, trust is two fold. You need to be able to engender it and you need to be able to give it. Without 28 | GLOSS NOV 2015

The logic is pretty simple: if people trust you and that trust is reciprocated, they will give you their all. If people give you their all they are more willing to go the extra mile, more likely to perform at remarkably high levels and apply extraordinarily levels of discretionary effort. Productivity therefore becomes the natural outcome.

Margot is the Owner and Director of talentinsight Australia, a company founded on the principle that true career fulfilment and organisational success occurs when individuals and businesses talk openly and honestly about what they need, their responsibilities, and genuinely work to bring out the best in each other.

Find out more here.

Ask yourself if what you are

doing TODAY is getting you

closer to where you want to be TOMORROW

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 29

BUSINESS

DIGITAL PRODUCTIVITY Emily Verstege

Digital technologies - social media, data and analytics, mobile devices and cloud computing - are fuelling a shift in how economies, industries and organisations operate. They’ve rapidly and radically changed consumers’ expectations of how and when they interact with brands and business. The digital economy is valued at $79 billion, or 5% of GDP, which makes it bigger than traditional sectors including retail, agriculture and transport.

Leading organisations recognise their digital capabilities define their growth trajectory. Digital leaders are transforming their businesses with digital technologies and capabilities in 30 | GLOSS NOV 2015

ways that improve processes, engage talent and drive new, value-generating business. Smart use of technology helps leaders deliver personalised, consumerfocused services more efficiently within digitally connected ecosystems.

What sets digital leaders apart is their relentless and efficient pursuit of datadriven digital implementation and improvement strategies that heighten customer experiences.

In many ways, digital leaders are like MotoGP riders: they’re capable of focusing on the controls of a fast moving, complex machine, while also being highly aware of and responsive to their environment. They have a race plan, but

adjust it to suit changing track conditions and their fellow competitors’ strategy.

In the same way, leading organisations can maintain focus in a rapidly evolving digital environment. Their ability to stay centered helps them maintain their productivity and profitability, even as they bring about digital transformation.

Here are five key behaviours that keep digital leaders productive.

KNOW WHY Every business and organisation is unique, which is why there can be no cookie cutter approach to digital transformation. What works in someone else’s organisation may be fundamentally wrong for your industry or completely misaligned with your business maturity.

Leading organisations know it’s their own enterprise architecture - a fancy term for business DNA - that defines their digital needs and not the other way around. Organisations that digitally thrive are first and foremost clear on their long-term strategic vision.

LOOK OUTWARDS

and to review how other organisations’ use technology. This reduces the risk of investing too heavily in ideas that don’t generate substantial commercial. Digital leaders stay productive because they’re clearer on what constitutes an important trend and what is a shiny distraction.

PROBLEM FIRST, SOLUTION SECOND It’s tempting to get swept up in the digital wave and rush through a digital ‘solution’ before identifying if it’s a problem. Viewing digital as a commodity to implement is a performance killer: anyone who’s ever lived through a system migration will know how new technologies can be a productivity black hole. Leading organisations identify technologies that will enhance their whole business, rather than on individual technologies as solutions to specific problems. The key advantage of this approach is that your business is more successfully shielded from the whimsy of technology that is continuously and rapidly evolving. Your business is not irrevocably tied to a technology; it’s free to pursue its vision and to implement technologies that enable it.

With their own enterprise in order, digital leaders turn their gaze beyond CUSTOMERS ARE the four walls of their organisation. They (STILL) KING seek input from advisory groups, industry analysts, vendors and academia, from In a digitally transformed world, startups and the community to make customers hold even more power sure they understand the broad impacts than they traditionally did. Digital of digital technology on their industry leaders invest in analytics, platforms GLOSS NOV 2015 | 31

and capabilities that allow them to deeply understand their customers. As a result, these leaders hold a powerful competitive advantage: insight. They use it to build seamless, personalised, multichannel experiences that align closely with what customers want. Building once and building well is the ultimate productivity gain: say goodbye to endless reconfiguring and upgrades, and hello to solutions that make customer acquisition and retention much easier.

EAT THE LOW HANGING FRUIT FIRST

business can answer these questions.

• What is our long-term vision?

• What trends - within and beyond

our industry - are likely to impact

our business, and when?

• How will our business need to

change to respond to those trends?

• What would better customer

service look like, and how could

technology help us achieve it?

• Which projects will create a

relatively large impact, without

wasting time or budget?

Knowing the answers to these questions The most productive place to begin a (and others like them) is critical to change process is by identifying and developing a pragmatic but efficient prioritising potential quick wins. This digital strategy. is particularly important for digital transformation, where digital illiteracy and ‘shiny object syndrome’ can suck us in, swallowing up budget and weeks of productive work hours with no tangible Dr Emily benefits.

Verstege is an Digital leaders use data science to drive task scheduling. For example, it would be a smarter choice for an e-store with reasonable desktop traffic but low conversion rate to invest in small-scale design changes to simplify the desktop checkout process and boost conversions, rather than committing to developing a mobile responsive store. The business could assign budget from the extra sales to a mobile strategy in the medium term.

Before leaping into a digital transformation project, ensure your

32 | GLOSS NOV 2015

internationally published researcher, public policy analyst and tech startup survivor, who’s passionate about simplifying complexity. At Multiplicité, she helps forward-thinking organisations fast track their journey to digital leadership by focusing on business architecture, user experience and data science. Her work increases engagement, activations and efficiency.

Contact Emily here

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 33

BUSINESS

GETTING READY FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON Kelly Slessor

34 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Last week, I was in my local shopping centre picking up groceries. On my way out, I passed David Jones and stopped dead in my tracks. There, in the middle of the store, was a full Christmas display with lights and reindeers. My first thought? “We haven’t even celebrated Halloween!” My second thought? “I better get organised..”

Catch of the Day scored the number #1 spot. Once you have your gift list sorted, the app has a huge range of discounts and special offers across fashion, tech, beauty and more. For serious bargain hunters, sales are released at three times each day – 12pm, 4pm and 7pm – change your settings to push, and they are sent right into your hands.

Thanks to my phone, I have a handful of brilliant apps at my fingertips to not only help me browse, shop, work and play in lead-up to Christmas – but to also help me enjoy time off.

3. THE ICONIC

3.5 star by 450 people The festive season also means Christmas party season. If you are strapped for time to shop, The Iconic does a great job of getting something to you, fast.

Here are my top picks for the crazy 3-4 hours in fact (if you are in Sydney’s season; metro area). Free delivery, and free return of stock (within 100 days of purchase) 1. EVERNOTE makes ‘click-to-buy’ decision very easy 4.6 star rating by 11,900 people and painless.

The first thing you need is a list. Evernote is so simple yet the functionality is great. 4. CELLARMASTERS If you see something you like you can add 4.5 Star rating by 53 people a note, attach a picture, video or audio I love this app – as do so many others; file. You can set reminders and make it’s rated as Australia’s number one endless to do lists. You can also send direct wine store. Cellarmasters have yourself articles to be used as inspiration great prices and quick delivery – but for your table setting, decorations and in addition to this they do a beautiful recipe. An easy Chrome extension lets job of telling the story behind the wine. you clip just about anything you want Tasting notes, where the wine came from a browser, too. There is absolutely from, profiles on the winemakers and no excuse for forgetting a gift, event or vineyards – a great purchase experience. task.

2. CATCH OF THE DAY

5. HELLO FRESH

4 star rating by 37 people 4.5 star rating by 6,000 people If you don’t have time to plan meals – In a recent research study undertaken by HelloFresh is a great option. With five BanterMob of the top 100 mobile brands, main grocery boxes to choose from, they GLOSS NOV 2015 | 35

the art of leadership is in saying

also provide bespoke packages based on what recipes you would like to cook – ideal for entertaining. Delivery is free, and the recipes are kept very simple, most meals are under 30 minutes which I love.

6. SPROUT SOCIAL

4 star rating by 11 people To ensure business continues to grow Sprout Social allows you to schedule your social media in advance, as well as manage responses, queries, messages on-the-go. There are a couple of similar apps on the market – but the beauty with this one is that you can easily pull reports to give you an overview of what’s happened whilst you’ve been away.

in, so you don’t need to be in a quiet space, but can do so on-the-go – walking, commuting or during your lunchbreak.

9. HOPPER

4 star rating by 36 people Festive season signals holidays and time off for many. Using Hopper, you can analyse domestic and international flights and determine the best time to fly and buy. If you are not ready to purchase, place your destination of choice on a watch list – and you’ll be kept updated as the price goes down, or up.

‘NO’,

not in saying yes.

7. DROPBOX

3.5 star rating by 3418 people If you, like me, get a little too snap happy during Christmas, storage can be an issue. By using Dropbox, not only are the photos safely stored for good – but it’s also easy to share them with family and friends. You can access photos from any device, across mobile, iPad and Kindle as well as laptops and computers.

it is very easy to say ‘yes’.

8. BUDDIFY

4.5 star by 53 people One of the most beautifully designed meditation apps on the market. Whether you have 5 minutes or 30, Buddify makes it easier to reset, refresh and replenish – which couldn’t be more needed during the lead-up to the busiest time of year. It provides different scenarios to meditate

Kelly Slessor is a Digital Strategist specialising in mobile. With 17 years’ experience, Kelly began her career with British Telecom, the UK’s largest telecommunications provider, and is now the founder and managing director of BanterMob.Kelly has spent her career understanding consumer behaviour, simplifying technology and designing the future based on insights and research. Working with major clients including Westfield, Gluestore, Woolworths, Big W, Suncorp and LendLease right through to SMEs;

Tony Blair

36 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Contact Kelly here

the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.

l i fe

life: /lĘŒÉŞf/ noun

GLOSS NOV2015 2015 | 37 GLOSS AUGUST

51

MEMBER FEATURE

IN HER OWN WORDS

Emma Bannister

Where were you born and where did you spend your childhood?

Born in London / grew up between family house in Devon and London.

knew nobody was taking

Tell us more about what My company write, des presentations.

Where did your professional dream begin?

I have always been creative with an eye for design - which led me to becoming a graphic designer for the big banks in London. It was there that I learnt about trading, tight deadlines and working long hours.

We literally transform ho internally and externall message and designing in has clarity and walks away from your presentation.

Working with the fund managers taught me there needed to be a better way to visualise their communications and I

My role as CEO is to sp continue to lead and supp best full service presentat

38 | GLOSS NOV 2015

g the time to do it right.

t you do? sign and produce brilliant

ow companies communicate ly by developing the key nformation so your audience y remembering key insights

pread the word! As well as port the team so we are the tion agency in APAC.

What have you learnt about yourself during your career?

Change isn’t that hard, not if you really want it and never let anyone make you think you aren’t smart enough.

Decide what you want and go and get it. I was the girl who was too scared to talk in a WIP meeting once a month at work. Now I own a company with 25 employees and speak in front of hundreds of people.

What 3 key gems of advice would you share?

1. That you MUST outsource the things you can’t do (for me that’s numbers).

2. Remember you are the heart of the company. Your vision and values drive your culture - that MUST come from you.

I learnt that the hard way - when we were small our culture was naturally a reflection of what I believed. When we grew this was lost and but that was a mistake... but now its one of my key areas of focus.

3. Get help with your presentations! Haha.

But seriously, a professional presentation will influence your audience and make you look great.

We all say “trust your gut instinct”. when have you ignored it, and what have you learned from it?

I definitely haven’t hired right in the past. Not trusting my gut instinct. Hiring for skills and CVs rather than personality and cultural fit. We took the band-aid approach, sticking people on where we thought we needed them. But I have learnt to think smarter, act faster and approach GLOSS NOV 2015 | 39

“I’M PASSIONATE ABOUT GIVING PEOPLE A VOICE TO MAKE A CHANGE”

things differently now.

with their presentations (internally and externally). So, my role is to get out We have a fantastic team with a great there and increase awareness. structure so I’m really excited about the future.

Your favourite things: - Destination: Saunas - in any country!

What keeps you going?

- Drink: Liquorice Tea I’m passionate about giving people a voice - App: Uber to make a change. With our help I have seen start-ups get investors, charities If you were a hashtag what would it be? raise funds and careers launched… we #Passion make a difference and that is exciting.

What’s next in the journey of BRAND YOU? I believe companies need to completely transform how they communicate

Emma is the founder and CEO of Presentation Studio. Passionate about changing the way companies develop their presentations, Emma and her team transform lacklustre designs into powerful business communication tools.

Contact Emma here 40 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Make today COUNT you’ll never get it back.

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 41

MEMBER FEATURE

IN HER OWN WORDS

Kate Savage

Where were you born and where did you spend your childhood?

Where did your professional dream begin?

This is my ‘cool factor’ question as I was born in NYC. But as sexy as it sounds, we were only there for a year and moved back to London. We moved around a bit with Dad’s job. I spent my childhood rollerbooting in Wales, BMXing in Yorkshire and trying to get into 15 cert movies in London. I have no doubt that moving houses, cities, schools shaped who my brother and I are today. Each new school was a chance, a need, to make new friends. I don’t remember it being an issue, but I do remember my first day at my first primary school in London when David Eaves walked out as I walked in and scowled “Who the f*** are you??”. (We’re not in Kansas anymore Toto!). Despite the shaky start, London is, was, always home. Kilburn to be exact. Actually Ireland is where my mum calls home, even though she was born in London. You can safely say we were brought up as London Irish, and I loved it.

My professional dream began last year, when I was about to turn 40.

There were two things I wanted to do growing up. Fly jets in the RAF and end apartheid. Neither of which I chased with enough passion.

42 | GLOSS NOV 2015

I’ll admit, I’ve been a coaster. I fell into my courses at school, I fell into a university course in design, I fell into a creative agency role and then I stayed in that space for the people, the pay and the parties. And was a ball of tension for the next 15 years.

In 2014 I had a proper lightbulb moment. I finally left working in agencies, to work on them. I spent a year training in Workplace Coaching, NeuroLinguisticProgramming and extended DISC to ensure I had the training and credentials behind me, and started my own practice as a Career Coach.

Tell us more about what you do?

I’m now a Career Coach, Mentor, Speaker and Writer. In addition to all my training, I draw on more than 15 years creative agency experience in management, mentoring and team development, to help my clients find their direction and take control of their careers.

I work with High Performers- how to be them, attract them and inspire them.

High performance doesn’t have a gender or generational bias, but the recognition of it can. It’s not about profile or pay bracket. It’s not about your level. It’s about your attitude.

I work with individuals on their plan, their profile and working productively to achieve, and be recognized for, high performance.

I work with agencies on improving their communication, performance and culture through workshops and leadership coaching.

• That I cannot follow a leader I am

not inspired by.

• That I love writing.

• That I am a great connector.

What have you learnt about yourself • That I’m not as strong as a think I during your career? am.

• That I’m stronger than I think I • That I want to help everyone, but am.

have no patience for those who

won’t help themselves.

What 3 key gems of advice would you • Playing the game is necessary, in share?

your own way.

• I have no off-switch. Re: 1. Start before you’re ready. anything.

2. Make sure you follow your own GLOSS NOV 2015 | 43

advice.

3. Treat others as they wish to be treated.

Over the last year I have been building my credentials, my positioning and my brand - now it’s down to business.

What are some of the mistakes you made and learnings from them?

• Coasting. Staying too long in the

wrong role.

• Not going after the things you want.

• Not going after the things you

want because of other peoples’ opinions.

• Listening to every new idea or

model that promises the world –

it’s 99% likely you’ll end up where

you started. Trust yourself.

• I should have blown my own

trumpet more. Loudly. In public.

• And don’t listen to your new boss

when he says the Christmas party

is fancy dress.

I know who I want to work with and why. If you are driven, motivated and ready to take action…I’m in!

Your favourite things: - Destination: Anywhere I’ve never been before.

- Drink: Beer or Tea (What can I say, I’m a Pom) - App: Instagram – it’s facebook for visual-types with a short attention span!

If you were a hashtag what would it be?

#wakeupkickarsebekindrepeat

What keeps you going?

Every “a-ha!” moment with my clients.

From individuals’ breakthrough moments, to agency workshops where you see teammates begin to understand and appreciate each other more.

And constantly reminding myself that you only get one life, and you need to make it the best bloody life you can.

What’s next in the journey of BRAND YOU? 44 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Kate is a Career Coach, NLP Practitioner and Mentor. Her core focus is on helping creative thinkers, particularly career women, to define success on their own terms, find their direction and take control of their careers.

Contact Kate here

money

money: /ˈmʌni/ noun

a current medium of exchange in the form of coins and banknotes; coins and banknotes collectively.

GLOSS AUGUST 2015| 45 GLOSS NOV 2015

41

MONEY

PRODUCTIVITY AND THE POWER OF HABITS Melissa Browne

46 | GLOSS NOV 2015

I work with a colleague, Lauren, who gets up at 4:30am every day to exercise.

Yes, you read right, 4:30am. While, I admire her dedication I have simply no interest in getting up that early so I’m not even maybe inspired to join her.

to themselves before a race, what time and how often they train, what they eat and perhaps even the underwear they wear. It’s all designed to create a series of habits to help ensure success and the achievement of their long term goals.

Each week, however, I do tell myself that I should start exercising in the morning before the length of time I spend at work wears me down and stops me doing something at the end of the day. Of course I’m not a morning person (really, really not a morning person) and so any exercise before I start work simply never happens. And unfortunately, I don’t get any fitter by thinking I should do it.

Interestingly all athletes don’t have the same habits and rituals to help them succeed. There isn’t a secret formula for success that if all Olympic athletes adopt a particular training regime or eating pattern that they will win gold.

Instead it’s about figuring out what will work best with their bodies, their sport, their goals and their timetables and then having the discipline to see it through.

The difference between Lauren and I is she has a big goal (of completing a 60kms trail run in New Zealand in February) and has created a daily habit which means every day she is making sure she exercises. I’m sure she doesn’t enjoy getting up as early as she does and would rather sleep in some mornings but she keeps her eye on the prize and she simply does it.

It’s the same for us mere mortals. Too often clients see me and want the magic pill or formula which will guarantee success. Sadly there’s no such thing.

However by working out what is important to you, how you best work, what your goals are and what is best for your customers you can set up a series of rituals and habits that will to set yourself up for success and make you and your team the most productive.

Often we set lofty goals and things we want to achieve but before long the daily grind sets in and it becomes too hard and we quickly lose focus. The thing is, athletes don’t get to the Olympics by crossing their fingers and wishing or by waking up in the morning and deciding it’s too hard and hitting the snooze button. Instead they set up a series of daily habits and rituals that cover everything from when they get up, what they repeat

So if we’re talking business, money and achieving our financial goals, what habits or rituals can you employ that will help make you the most productive and hopefully help you achieve your goals?

Have a daily mantra. This might seem silly however often we carry around money messages in our head that are self-defeating. They might be, “I’m GLOSS NOV 2015 | 47

terrible with money”, “I can’t save”, “I’ll never understand the financial side of my business” or sneaky ones such as “I’ll never be able to buy a home until I meet my future partner”. Just like a successful athlete might repeat a daily mantra around how they want to achieve success, why not create a daily mantra around how you want to view business, money and financial success?

I’m not talking the Secret here but rather positive money messages that will infect the way you think. Stick them up on your mirror so you see them every day and start replacing unhelpful thoughts with affirming ones.

Set up daily rituals. These are the small things you do every day that will help set you up for success. These might include having a daily huddle with your team at 9:19am every morning so everyone is on the page, or perhaps it’s using blockout so that you or other team members can’t be distracted by phone calls or questions if you need to get a chunk of work done or it might be reviewing your five critical numbers with your team along with their priorities every Friday at lunchtime to make sure you stay on track. It’s all about creating powerful, everyday habits that will make you and your team the most productive and help set you up for success.

When in control take charge. This might seem like a strange one. Of course if you’re a business owner you’d take control, right? Well yes and no. I’ve met so many business owners that tell me 48 | GLOSS NOV 2015

that they have to do things a certain way because that’s how their industry does it.

My response? It’s your business – do it your way! For example most accounting firms track time in six minute increments and if you talk to any accountant they’ll tell you how frustrating it is and what a time waster it is. Which is crazy! So in my firm, we don’t track in six minute increments. Actually we don’t track time at all and yet we still know how long it takes for our jobs to get done and the sky hasn’t fallen in. My accountants

START REPLACIN THOUGHTS WITH A are more productive (and much, much happier) and they can spend their time on something more important. Of course in order to do this I needed to create other systems that worked far better than tracking time in six minute increments but I could do that because, guess what?

It’s my business.

Use technology. When I exercise there are amazing and cheap apps I use that track how I’m going, motivate me and keep me accountable. It’s the same in business. Make sure you research and use those things that will free you up to concentrate on the things that are most important. There is even cloud based accounting such as Xero to online note

books to online logbooks to time trackers to apps that will audit your social media usage to cloud based solutions that will all integrate and talk to one another saving you time inputting into three different databases. It’s all about making the most of the one thing that all business owners have a short supply of: time.

importance of daily habits and she knows that when she stops being productive on off-race days, she’ll be far less effective when it matters which ultimately will mean she won’t reach her goals.

Discipline. It’s the unsexy side that’s not often talked about – success consists of lots of small and often tedious steps.

Get help. There’s a reason why But once these steps or daily habits are professional athletes have coaches. Sure set up, they will help carry you towards they might be able to do it by themselves successfully achieving your goals. but it’s much easier when there’s someone

NG UNHELPFUL AFFIRMING ONES. there pushing them along, helping to correct any imbalances, celebrating with them and keeping them accountable to what they say they are going to do. It’s the same with the rest of us.

Often we see the athletes on the podium but we don’t see them at training again the next day. At the recent Commonwealth Games a reporter asked hurdler Sally Pearson if she was going to take time off to celebrate now that she had won Commonwealth Gold. She laughed and said she’d eat some Tim Tams and have a day off but then it was back to training and racing a few days later.

Melissa Browne is CEO of A+TA (Accounting & Taxation Advantage), Director of Business at Thinkers.inq and author of More Money for Shoes and Fabulous but Broke.

Find out more here

That’s because Sally understands the GLOSS NOV 2015 | 49

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MONEY

WHY FINANCIAL PLANNING IS NOW ALL ABOUT SEX! Louise Agnew

I continually harp on about the importance of financial literacy to achieve financial confidence in women.

There is now an epidemic this century.

It’s the emancipation of women globally.

Like it or not, we really are positioned to make a massive impact on changing the world and perceptions, in business, sport, politics and especially when it comes to changing perceptions about money. The time has come to start the conversation about sex and your money!

the book is clearly directed at women, its contents are useful to men alike. I go on to explain that although I love the opposite sex … especially so many of them within the financial planning industry who I work with daily, (in an industry with less than 25% female advisers), it’s become all too apparent that there is a huge need for female advisers … for female clients.

In my book Worthy Women, ‘stories to inspire financial confidence and success’, I explain my reasoning for writing a financial planning book geared at women. In the foreword by Paul Clitheroe he writes that although

There is a need for more female graduates and younger women to see the financial advice industry as a great career choice with the flexibility for a family life and an awesome way to earn a good living.

An industry that can give back - one

52 | GLOSS NOV 2015

So let’s talk about Sex, baby!

that has given me so much! There isn’t enough out there to promote this amazing industry to young women, even though there is a significant shift in the importance women advisers have in a fast changing industry.

We are no longer providing financial planning on risk and returns, cheapest products, portfolio performance attribution and outcomes, we have now become an industry of deeper connection through REAL communication, shifting from the ME to WE* in every sense of the words! Human touch,

education for you to make the financial decisions in your life.

A financial coach or mentor has emerged.

Why this dramatic change to financial planning ethos?

With the introduction of fee for service, planning has now become about relationships and long term strategy building. Gone are the days of “old, male and pale” advisers that simply set a few things up and continue to live off the commissions. The shift has become

WELL WOMEN LIKE TO BUY FROM WOMEN! WE “GET IT”! connection and collaboration and an more nurturing and who better to deliver adviser that comes along with you on this, than female advisers! your life’s journey!

Why do we need more female advisers?

We want to be a part of your wealth building team, and we prefer to project Well women like to buy from Women! manage your finances for you with a We “get it”! collaborative group of specialists that care about your financial wellbeing We all know the statistics that suggest while encourage you to live your dreams, that 75% of affluent working women say with financial confidence and a gentle the prospect of living in retirement on the guiding hand. We no longer “tell you poverty line is too much of a problem to what to do with your money” but rather face, so they are choosing to work longer come from a place of encouragement, to avoid it. Women lag behind men helping you stay accountable to your when it comes to contributing to their goals and providing the information and super simply for the fact that we take GLOSS NOV 2015 | 53

child rearing years out of the workforce, than not to fire their advisors within a invest more conservatively and therefore year of their husband’s death, said David end up with less overall.

Bach, author of “Smart Women Finish Rich” In a study, conducted in the USA last year, there was a large percentage of Women are simply running the women happy to work with both men household finances and becoming ever and women in most industries however more financially savvy and we need to when it came to the finance sector, cater to this rising need amongst growing women tended to prefer a female adviser, intelligent females and the rising wave although stating it was “harder to find of the female entrepreneur. them being that there are so few”!

So what does a female adviser offer that Women therefore ended up with male differentiates them? advisers but tended to select a male adviser who “gets it”! By that I sense 1. Women think differently, their brains they mean acknowledging the “female are in fact wired differently and they role” as an important decision maker in think more intuitively. the relationship, as well as understanding what a woman needs to hear.

2. Women think of love and security first. They tend to pass on values to their According to Jennifer Barret in her families rather than physical assets. They article featured in CNBC, don’t want to chase returns, they look at the big picture, long term goals and more “in the next five years, private wealth sustainable returns that provide for the is expected to grow from $14 trillion to future. Thus their desire to prefer direct $22 trillion. And women will control an investment property over entering the estimated two-thirds of that money. But markets of shares and managed funds. many advisors will never see a dime of it because they don’t know how to attract, or 3. Female advisers use storytelling and retain, female clients”. relatable language. In my workshops we use examples of women who are This is a huge opportunity. And it’s succeeding through gaining financial not unfounded. A study by Fidelity confidence.

Investments found that even when couples interact with a financial advisor, 4. The conversations with female advisers men are still 58 percent more likely than are more therapeutic. Some days it women to be the primary contact. That can be like a counselling session with may help explain why when male clients masses of tissue boxes being emptied, pass away, their widows are more likely but ultimately it’s about being able to 54 | GLOSS NOV 2015

connect, understand and hear your client in order to deliver on what’s important to them.

5. Women seem to work well with the “accountability coach” aspect of financial advice, and often use financial advisers to help them drive budgets, spending and financial decisions in their homes.

6. Female advisers communicate with simplicity and clarity. Less industry jargon and more personal experience.

7. Female advisers can cater and communicate better with the growing areas of divorced woman and certainly offer more empathy for the widowed woman, both of which are a large group of my current client base.

Ultimately however, sex may not entirely be the reason you have not yet sought out a financial adviser, it’s simply put, that you are just too busy! Male or female, advisers are there today to help you along the way, lay the pathway for you to create your life’s journey.

No matter the difference, having a guiding, helping and trusting hand in your financial confidence building is what you really need. A human connection and someone that ultimately “gets it”!

With 12 years financial planning experience in banks, boutique planning practice and corporate, Lou has an array of skills. From Personal Insurance, Property Strategy, Debt Reduction, Wealth Creation, Superannuation and SMSF credentials. Her passion is in Investments in International Equities and Australian Property Developments.

Contact Louise here GLOSS NOV 2015 | 55

le a y t y o ir u fa r n w o e t financial a e r C

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you

you: /ju:/ pronoun used to refer to the person or people that the speaker is addressing.

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 61

YOU

Dr Jenny Brockis

WHY PRODUCTIVITY STARTS WITH H

62 | GLOSS NOV 2015

While it’s true that busy bees make more us to prioritise the order of cooking honey, being more productive requires far and helps us focus on what matters more than busyness. Being busy might first. equate to the illusion that we are doing • This goes hand in hand with an very important work, yet our busy energy understanding of what the recipe is is often hijacked, putting out spot fires aiming to produce. If you think you’re and managing our multiple distractions. making meringue but your boss was expecting crème brulee, you have a To discover the secret to greater problem. productivity, we need look no further than Jamie’s Thirty Minute Meals. Any The one ingredient often overlooked tasty and fool proof recipe starts with the because it hasn’t always been considered list of essential ingredients assembled at an essential in many business-cooking the start: circles is the one that distinguishes

WHEN WE ARE HAPPY WE AUTOMATICALLY RAISE OUR LEVEL OF PRODUCTIVITY.

• One rested mind marinated overnight in sleep broth for 8 hours.

• Thirty minutes of aerobic exercise chopped if necessary into smaller pieces. Your choice of herby exercise determined by what’s growing in your garden and accessibility to a pool, running-wheel, cycling track or gym.

• Enough gas to cook with. There’s nothing worse than having everything in the productivity pot and then discovering the gas has run out.

Mental stamina has to be carefully measured and maintained through out the cooking process.

• A clear jus. Clarity of thought allows

between being an OK sort of productive meal and the Peter Gilmore Snow Egg. It’s called happiness. When we are happy we automatically raise our level of productivity.

A happy and healthy workplace is more productive, cost-effective and lives longer.

It’s more profitable too.

New studies have been revealing the Happiness Effect and while it might seem obvious that we work harder, persist longer with overcoming challenges and explore more options when we are happy, it is obvious too, that many workplaces GLOSS NOV 2015 | 63

are toxic breeding grounds of stress, interpersonal rivalries, bullying and micromanagement.

A study from the UK showed how providing a “happiness jolt” in this case a 10 minute comedy clip increased productivity by around 12% and up to 20% higher than a control group in some cases. They also showed a casual link between unhappiness and decreased productivity, which could last up to two years beyond the precipitating event.

This affirms the research done on people who watch cat videos at work.

Yes apparently there are a few of us who like to do that. Cat videos are the most watched genre of video by far on You Tube. While you may be wondering how someone got funding to do research on this, what was interesting was that cat video watchers get a boost of positive energy and emotion leading to increased productivity. So next time you get that urge to watch a cute feline online, fear not about being discovered because you can simply tell your boss you’re undertaking a productivity boosting exercise.

and attention to what is going on our immediate environment to be curious, to explore and most importantly feel rewarded.

At any given moment our brain is on the alert to detect change because its primary function is to keep us safe. Every 1/5th of a second our cerebral radar completes a sweep to check out whether we should stay or make a hasty exit. The default setting is to assume anything new is potentially dangerous which means that if we are uncertain about what we are being asked to do, or lack trust in those we are working with or sense we are not being valued for our contribution we are less happy and productivity plummets.

Boosting happiness and productivity boils down to keeping us moving to a place that feels rewarding so we experience higher levels of dopamine and away from a place of danger that shuts down access to high performance thinking.

There are six TRAICE™ elements that foster happiness and productivity:

The IOpener Institute that works to boost performance and productivity has found that the happiest employees in a workplace spend twice as much time on task (because they are engaged), have 65% more energy and stay in their role up to four times longer.

TRUST RESPECT AUTONOMY IMPARTIALITY CERTAINTY EMPATHY

From a brainy point of view this is because when we are happy, we feel safe and able to divert more energy

Because feeling trusted takes our relationships to a higher more meaningful

64 | GLOSS NOV 2015

level. Plus we will do whatever it takes to help someone we trust.

Respect comes down to being acknowledged for the person we are.

Status matters to us; it even determines how long we live. When we feel snubbed or ignored, that social pain undermines confidence and self-esteem and performance plummets.

Autonomy is deeply engrained into our psyche. Having a sense of control in our environment allows us to demonstrate what we are truly capable of.

It is enjoyable to then step up and look forward to the continuing challenge.

Micromanagement is the quickest way to lose staff. Period.

Impartiality is one of those factors we ignore at our peril. That sense of what’s fair or not triggers a deep reaction we experience deep down in our guts. If we witness something we perceive as unfair we wrinkle up our nose as if we’ve smelt something really rotten and feel disgusted. It fractures trust in a nanosecond. Impartiality goes beyond avoiding playing favourites; it’s about being perceived as fair in all our actions and words.

Certainty in an uncertain world might appear to be an oxymoron but it is the actions we take to lessen that uncertainty that counts; such as providing as much information that you have as possible, using language that makes the information easy to understand and

follow and providing the opportunity for discussion and dialogue to allay fears and anxieties.

Empathy is the ability to understand the perspective of another person’s world.

Empathetic leaders invoke loyalty because they make people feel safe, secure in that knowledge that they will be taken care of through the tough times as well as the good.

Happiness is not just genetic. We can foster a higher level of happiness through making a conscious decision to do so; choosing to thrive, accepting our imperfections and working with TRAICE™ is a great way to boost our performance, productivity and happiness levels.

Dr Jenny Brockis is the Brain Fitness Doctor. She helps fine tune brains for high performance.

Her new book Future Brain The 12 Keys to Create a High Performance Brain is due for publication by Wiley in October 2015.

Contact her here GLOSS NOV 2015 | 65

YOU

STRESS-LESS TIPS FROM VEDIC MEDITATION EXPERT JACQUI LEWIS The Broad Place in Sydney’s Paddington is quickly becoming the kind of place people really want to hang out. Teaching easy, everyday techniques to detox your mind through meditation, it’s easy to see why word is spreading.

Here, The Broad Place co-founder and one of Australia’s most highly qualified Vedic Meditation teachers, Jacqui Lewis, shares her top 5 tips to say seeyou-later to stress.

everything. We need to banish busy and stop rushing around like crazy people! Busy says ‘quick, emergency!’

We need to reframe our thinking and our vocabulary to things such as ‘I have a lot of exciting things on at the moment’ ‘I’m really engaged with a project at present’ or ‘I am achieving a lot’.

Being ‘busy’ means that you don’t have control of your time and your priorities, that you aren’t functioning well in the STEP 1: BANISH BUSY world. Busy is an excuse. So cut it out We’re all so stressed. We are all so busy. of your language and be honest about Did you know that when we say ‘I’m so why you haven’t called someone back/ emailed/exercised/meditated. busy’ our brains think ‘panic’ and our bodies go into a fight/flight response?

We have published an e-book with a This only creates more stress. whole chapter on banishing busy within our 7 Day Mind Cleanse if you want to Busy is a toxic word. Everyone says learn more. it as the standard go-to response for 66 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Meditation is incredibly powerful in producing happy hormones and allowing the body to release the build When we are experiencing stress, up of stress, tension and fatigue. we are over-stimulating our stress Meditators constantly report their hormones (adrenalin and cortisol) practice makes them happier, more and in turn creating a lack of happy joyful, relaxed and inspired. The results hormones (serotonin and dopamine). are quite incredible. So find yourself One way of reducing our stress levels a teacher or come learn with us and is ensuring that every day you do something small that makes you happy. upgrade your life.

We call it Joyriding. Not huge things I highly recommend meditation as like going on holiday or getting a it increases those happy hormones promotion. serotonin and dopamine. People say to Seemingly small things, little activities me all the time ‘Oh I don’t have time to meditate or do little things that make that are unique to you. Like watching me happy’ ‘I am SO BUSY as it is!’ If the sunrise instead of lying in, eating you don’t have time to ensure you are a cooked breakfast as opposed to a happy every day, even if just for 15-20 takeaway muffin, going to a new cafe minutes, tell me, how are you finding for your coffee, or catching up with a the time to read this article? girlfriend for dinner instead of taking that Spin class you hate but feel you need to do. Every day do at least one thing that brings you joy. Not only does it bathe your mind in happy hormones, it stems the tide of stress hormones.

And every day you increase your happiness little by little.

STEP 2: JOYRIDE

STEP 3: MEDITATE There is no better tool than Vedic Meditation for reducing stress and increasing happiness in one’s life. Even if you think you can’t meditate, the good news is you can. Vedic meditation is a simple, effortless technique that can be mastered over a course of 4 sessions by absolutely anyone!

Jacqui Lewis is the founder of The Broad Place, a thoughtful, modern approach to conscious living. Visit her, and The Broad Place here

YOU

VITALITY 101 FOR Nikki Fogden-Moore FITPRENEURS. THE 1% RULE How 14.4 minutes a day can change your life for good.

Does it ever feel as if life is just speeding a business, a healthy body and the life by and you’re running from one thing you love. to the next, without time to pause and regroup?

Despite all the technology we have in our lives that is supposed to save time, it You’ve lost your sense of humour, seems like people are more stressed and balance in life, feeling more sensitive, time poor than ever before. So how can are easily stressed and just not feeling we get our mojo back without turning quite yourself. There’s a pile of goals on our life upside down? a vision board or sheet of paper that you stare at, a to do list as long as your desk, Good news! I’m going to help you fast fitness plans that get pushed back each track the most important goals off paper day and nothing really comes to fruition? and into action - and more importantly show you how you can make 100% Being a Fitpreneur, the new breed of change in just 100 days. leader, means you need to be - healthy, wealthy and wise. Have energy and IT ALL STARTS WITH JUST vitality and handle pressure well and 14.4 MINUTES A DAY. create a sustainable platform for running 68 | GLOSS NOV 2015

First up you need to be accountable and • Be Transparent: No need to hide recognise success comes from a tangible well-being or mini break moments approach to creating a sustainable from your team or your family business and personal vitality. lead by example and show them the importance of creating space Identify the business wellbeing formula for vitality, clarity and personal as well as your own. accountability. Reap the rewards of achieving and sharing these small • What exercise do you love the most, daily milestones. how can you make active living a part of your day and what helps you relax?

• Do you work best in the morning or the evening? - acknowledge your creative DNA and plan around that to get the most out of your focus time and plan down time, reading of materials and exercise in the other parts of the day.

• Run your body like your business.

Plan your winning week every Sunday and include my 5 key element’s as an integrated part of your time. Transfer tasks and these elements into your agenda and make the time use transparent.

• Health and fitness are important tools when running a business or working inside a busy corporation - they form credits in your Vitality Bank.

Plan your exercise, healthy food and travel prep for the week. Adapt your wellbeing to a fresh air session or meditation on busy days before you start your day and use the weekends for longer cardio, strength or yoga sessions when you have more time.

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 69

I coach my clients that consistency and conviction for what you do is the key to success. It works, it lasts and it is sustainable. So how can you make this happen? Here are 4 steps you can use 1% of your day to achieve your goals and be a true Fitpreneur.

1. Make a list of 5 key things that really make your heart sing and you have had on your to goal list for longer than you can remember. Take a moment and choose one thing that is THE most important to you right now.

4. Practice the 1% rule daily for 100 days. You are a reflection of your approach to health, mindset and wellbeing. If you want to be fitter, healthier and happier YOU need to make this happen.

Change your mindset, throw out the old stories of hour long sessions, strict diets and gruelling gym regimes - the biggest gains are often from the smallest steps.

Put 15 minutes of your agenda aside for your fitness/well-being/mental clarity, and recognise each day when you cross that time off your list as complete.

POSITIVITY BREEDS POSITIVITY, ENDORPHINS, PRIDE AND CAPABILITY. 2. Then take your agenda and block out 14.4 minutes every day to dedicate towards something to do with this one goal/subject. It could be more cooking, spending time with your kids, doing yoga, reading or just being outside in the fresh air.

The feeling of satisfaction, personal achievement and ability to actually lead others by example will lift you up emotionally. Positivity breeds positivity, endorphins, pride and capability. Your body will reward you for being less stressed and more focused.

3. Make the agenda note transparent and truly visible. i.e don’t code it to hide it. If you want others to support you then be clear with what’s important to you, and that this time is sacred. You can’t be interrupted, have meetings set or move it for anything other than a natural disaster. Plan ahead and ask for support if you need to shuffle things around.

Replace the old habits with new ones 1% at a time. If you do this for 100 days you will be 100% better off than where you are now. What have you got to lose?

70 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Go out there and start making it happen.

Welcome to feeling fantastic and being a FITPRENEUR.

COACH NIKKI

Need an extra push or motivation? Take advantage of the GLOSS reader offer and get 10% off my new book VITALITY. www.vitalitythebook.com - click ORDER for your signed personalised copy and input the code GLOSS10 at check out.

CLICK HERE to get the 5 Elements Of A Winning Week for free Nikki Fogden-Moore specialises in private coaching for high achievers to bring business and personal vitality to life. Engaging in next level thinking to create harmony and purpose. She runs tailored corporate vitality programs, writes regularly for several business magazines, is the head trainer for Women’s Health and Fitness Magazine and has been running leadership, Boardroom and private retreats for over a decade internationally.

Author of VITALITY. Worldwide on Amazon. You can reach her on nikki@thevitalitycoach.com.au or www. thevitalitycoach.com.au

Purchase Vitality here GLOSS readers can use the code GLOSS10 and get 10% off

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 71

AN EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT SMART WORK

BY DERMOT CROWLEY

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ORGANISE YOUR WAY TO RENEWED FOCUS AND CALM Smart Work is the busy professional’s guide to getting organised in the digital workplace. Are you drowning in constant emails, phone calls, paperwork, interruptions and meeting actions? This book throws you a lifeline by showing you how to take advantage of your digital tools to reprioritise, refocus and get back to doing the important work. You may already have the latest technology, but if you’re still swamped, you’re not using it to your advantage. This useful guide shows you how to leverage the technology you have to centralise your work into one integrated tool. You’ll develop a simple and sustainable productivity system to organise your actions, manage your inputs and achieve your outcomes. The highly visual nature of the book helps you quickly grasp the ideas you need most.

Like most professionals, you want to do great work and achieve great things. But when half your day is spent on emails, phone calls and ‘extra’ duties, you rarely get a chance to shine. This book changes that. Get back in control so you can start performing like a star.

• • • •

Get organised, focused and proactive Conquer the daily incoming deluge Spend more time on important work Leverage your desktop and mobile technology

When work is coming at you from every direction, it’s difficult to focus and prioritise. Things get lost in the shuffle. But when you channel everything into a single stream, you settle into a flow and get more accomplished in less time. Smart Work is your guide to finding your flow— and the bottom of your inbox.

Enjoy this exclusive extract.

GLOSS NOV 2015 | 73

INTRODUCTION

some not so good, but all very different from what we have been used to.

The workplace has changed. How we work has changed. The pace of business Figure A: traditional to 21st century has changed. How we communicate has changed, and the tools we are using workplace to organise ourselves have changed. It stands to reason that we need to adapt our work practices to deal with these changes.

Productivity in the 21st century From a productivity standpoint, our workplaces have seen massive changes over the past 30 years (see figure A, overleaf). The tools we use to organise our work have shifted from paper diaries to personal desktop organisers to sophisticated group scheduling systems. We have progressively moved from a paper-driven workplace, to an electronic workplace with a computer on every desk and handheld devices to help us stay organised.

The challenges we face to stay productive have also changed. Many of us are now working in a global workplace, with colleagues and clients located all over the world. We are working longer hours to keep up, and more is expected of us as we compete in the global economy. The workspace too has changed, from individual offices and cubicles to open plan for all and activity-based working where we don’t even have our own desk. Massive changes to how we work and stay organised have occurred — some good, 74 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Many modern workers and managers face three key productivity challenges in this 21st century workplace.

Too much to do, too little time Today we have way more to do than we have time in which to do it. Most organisations expect management and staff to get more done with fewer resources. They are downsizing their workforces, but not downsizing the work! Add to this the number of meetings we are expected to attend, and the volume of emails we have to wade through, and it seems hard to imagine how we will get it all done.

Of course, many people are throwing the only weapon they feel they have available at the problem — more time.

We are working longer hours to cope with the increased workload. Many senior managers I work with are in

meetings between 9 am and 5 pm, time, priorities and information. then catch up on emails and other tasks between 5 pm and 9 pm. We know that Instead, we are grappling with modern this is not the solution! productivity issues using old-fashioned tools and strategies. Paper lists, sticky notes and piles of paper — none Information overload of these answer the challenges of As the volume of information we managing our work in the modern receive each day continues to grow, the workplace. We need to get smart about pressure is becoming overwhelming. leveraging our technology.

It is not unusual for me to work with managers who receive 300-plus emails per day. This is crazy! We do not need The real issue — a sense of urgency or 300, or even 100 emails a day to do our senseless urgency? jobs effectively. I would argue that these There is no doubt that these three emails are actually stopping us from issues are having a major impact on doing our jobs effectively. But that sense our effectiveness and motivation. But I of overwhelm is definitely being felt at believe there is a fourth issue that has all levels in organisations. We need a an even greater negative influence. solution, fast.

When is everything needed? Now! ASAP! Yesterday! Five minutes ago!

Still using outdated tools and We are under great pressure to deliver strategies to organise our work everything instantly, and this constant We are not leveraging the technology urgency is affecting the quality of our at our fingertips enough — tools like work. It is causing reactivity in the Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes®, workplace that is increasing stress Google Calendar™ and smartphones. levels, increasing working hours, and We use them every day, but in my decreasing the quality of our thinking experience most of us are not really and outputs. harnessing their power. In fact, I would suggest that the average worker This reactivity has come to be accepted probably uses about 20 per cent of the as the norm in many organisations. ‘But functionality of a tool like Outlook. that’s just the way it is around here’, And yet this is the first thing they they say. It’s just how it is in global turn on every day to check their email. finance, the legal sector, the insurance We learn the basics — how to send an industry, even in the consulting email, how to schedule a meeting. But industry. Well, I don’t agree. I do few of us go on to utilise these powerful not accept that it has to be that way. tools in a holistic way to organise our I believe that to a large degree this GLOSS NOV 2015 | 75

urgency has been driven by the ‘instant’ nature of electronic communication.

Certainly we need to ensure that we all work together with a sense of urgency to get things done. But have we gone too far with this, creating instead senseless urgency?

needs our urgent attention and could not have been planned for. Something has happened, and it needs our prompt response. Unreasonable urgency is work that has become urgent either because someone else has not done the work in a timely way or, worse, because we ourselves have not done the work in a timely way. This needless crisis now risks throwing your day (or someone else’s) into chaos.

Sometimes I imagine myself as a superhero, flying in to save the day in my clients’ offices. If I was, I would have to have a nemesis, an arch-enemy.

The enemy I have sworn to banish from as many organisations as I can get to is The cure for urgency — working unnecessary urgency proactively This last scenario is avoidable, and I see workers battle with urgency every much of this book is aimed at reducing day. And they are losing. They are this unacceptable and unnecessary becoming resigned to the fact that this frenzy of activity. We need to get is ‘just the way it is around here’. The back to completing tasks in a timely battle is complicated by the fact that way, to working proactively most of there are different types of urgency the time, and reacting only to the real at play. There is the real urgency the and reasonable urgency that should things that crop up which need our arise infrequently. If we dial down the immediate attention, no question. But urgency just a couple of notches, our often masquerading as real urgency is work lives will become less stressful, false urgency These are the things that more enjoyable and, ultimately, more are not really urgent, but other people productive. have worked out that if they shout loud enough they will get cut- through in a So how do we change this dynamic hectic workplace. And sometimes we that is so entrenched in the modern make things seem urgent when they workplace? Can we control urgency? I are not. Do you react instantly to email believe we can. It requires a mind-shift alerts and allow yourself to become and a certain amount of discipline, but distracted from other, more important I do believe we can move to a more work? proactive work style.

Urgency can also be reasonable or unreasonable. Reasonable urgency applies to time-sensitive work that 76 | GLOSS NOV 2015

In my observation, the most productive (and inspiring) people are proactive.

This means they are driving the next

steps and are in full control of their work and priorities.

We can drive productivity at the individual level, at the team level or at the organisational level. But it always starts with the individual — how we behave, what we choose to focus on, what we allow to drive our day.

This book is designed to help you dial down the urgency and work more proactively using an integrated productivity system (illustrated in ďŹ gure B, overleaf) that I have developed over the past 13 years while working with corporate clients. It sets out the steps and strategies to help you take control of how you organise and keep track of your incoming work (inputs), what you spend your time on each working day (actions) and what you achieve (outcomes).

Figure B: integrated productivity system

The integrated productivity system at a glance

Centralise your actions As our work becomes more complex, we need a system to manage what we need to do and when we need to do it.

Centralisation is the key. To manage our actions, commitments and priorities effectively, we need to have everything centralised in one organising tool.

Increasing your productivity is not just a case of implementing a few tips and tricks, and it’s not solely about email management or how you organise your priorities. True productivity in the 21st century workplace requires a more sophisticated approach. That does not mean it has to be complex, though. All of the productivity strategies in Smart Work can be implemented to increase your productivity in a simple and practical way.

Having everything in one place gives you focus, clarity and a better ability to prioritise. The electronic calendar has become the default tool for managing meetings and appointments, and has been embraced widely in the corporate workplace. The calendar centralises all of your meetings in one place, and it works pretty well most of the time.

But you also have many, many tasks and priorities to juggle outside of meetings. This is where systems become GLOSS NOV 2015 | 77

decentralised, with work buried in separate ‘piles’. This is neither efficient nor effective

massive increase, as you start to manage all of your activities from one platform.

The case for using electronic calendars as your main meeting scheduling tool is obvious to most. Meetings happen in collaboration with others. Our schedules are complex, and using a system that allows us to clearly check everyone’s availability and lock in mutually convenient meeting times seems only logical.

Organise your inputs Once you have set up a centralised system for managing your actions, you need to look at what feeds this system.

How does work arrive on your desk (or in your inbox), and how do you make good decisions about what work should get your time and attention?

These inputs are the second element that needs to be considered in your integrated productivity system.

The case for using an electronic task list is not so clear to many, so fewer have made the leap to ditch their paper lists in favour of digital tools. For me, it all boils down to one simple but compelling function. With the click of a button emails can be converted into tasks and scheduled as prioritised actions in tools like Outlook! Just as you benefit from the efficiency of meeting invitations that are scheduled at the agreed time once accepted, your productivity will be increased once you begin to schedule emails as tasks to be prioritised and completed at the appropriate time.

So you need one tool to manage your meetings and one tool to manage your tasks. Just taking that first step towards centralisation will increase your focus and effectiveness. And if you create a system that combines both your meetings and your priorities in one view, it is very likely that your sense of control and productivity will undergo a 78 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Many of us receive hundreds of inputs every day in the form of emails, phone calls, voicemails, instant messages, physical interruptions, meeting actions and thoughts. Much of this is just noise and does not deserve much of our time and attention, but some of it is important and does need action. Should we do it now or later, though? We need to avoid reacting instantly to every incoming email, but at the same time, we don’t want this work just to pile up until it overwhelms us.

The key to managing your inputs effectively is to take a proactive approach to processing incoming work and to create a connection between your inputs system and your actions system. New inputs that need your attention should be either dealt with immediately or recorded in your action management system, depending on their urgency. Using your inbox as an

action system for emails does not work, as you just end up with a pile of ‘action emails’ buried in a pile of ‘non-action emails’, with no sense of their respective priority or timing.

outcomes. To ensure you are doing the right work, you need clarity of purpose.

What are you trying to achieve? What are your goals and objectives? Where do you want to end up? You need to look beyond simply reacting to everyone Your inbox has one purpose, and that is else’s needs and proactively schedule to receive emails. Just like the letterbox into your system the right actions outside your house, it should be emptied that will help you to achieve the right regularly and the mail dealt with results. appropriately. Of course, on any given day you will receive way more emails To do this you first need to clarify what than letters, and you need strategies to you are trying to achieve and get some reduce the noise so you only have to perspective on what is really important deal with relevant messages. You also in your role. Your goals and objectives need an efficient filing system in place are often linked to team, departmental, so you can file things quickly and easily divisional and organisational goals — and find them again just as quickly and objectives. In most organisations, and easily. much time and effort goes into creating performance plans that align and Your ability to manage the flow of cascade to ensure everyone is pulling in incoming work, whether it is email or the same direction. But does this really any other form of input, is critical to drive your activity on an individual your productivity. If you do not control level, and on a day-to-day basis? Not your inbox, it will control you. Email is often enough, I fear. There is frequently not the main reason you have a job. You a disconnect between what you are could contribute so much more than trying to achieve and what you are that, if you only had the time. We need actually spending your time on. to make the time by being clever and harnessing the power of technology.

Taking time out to plan and prioritise is crucial to creating both clarity of purpose and a connection between your Realise your outcomes outcomes and your actions. Creating If efficiency was your only productivity regular spaces where you stop doing goal, then processing your inputs and and think about the bigger picture is managing your actions would achieve the real key to working effectively. it. But to be truly productive, you also need to work effectively. To work effectively you need to look at one more core element in the system — your GLOSS NOV 2015 | 79

Making the system work for you every day

of incoming work but not dominated by it.

So your actions, inputs and outcomes come together in an integrated system for working productively. Yet systems only organise information. You still need to do the work, and you need to feed and maintain the system constantly to ensure it keeps you organised and moving forward. There are three key practices that maintain and sustain the integrated productivity system. They will keep you on track, even when you are at your busiest, and will allow you to be productive without even having to think about it — they will, in other words, shape ‘the way you work’.

2 Planning. Monthly, weekly and daily planning rituals create the connection between your outcomes (what you want to achieve) and your actions (what you will do). Each planning routine has a particular intent. Monthly planning gives you perspective; weekly planning gets you organised; and daily planning gets you focused for the day ahead. Planning ensures you are doing the right work at the right time — that you are being proactively productive.

In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg discusses ‘ keystone habits’. These habits, once formed, increase the chances of other habits forming successfully.

Processing, planning and prioritising are the keystone habits for maintaining the integrated productivity system 1 Processing. Processing connects your actions and your inputs.

It is the practice of proactively reviewing your incoming information and making decisions about what needs to happen to every input. Processing your inbox(es) down to zero once a week is one of the most effective strategies for working productively and focusing on the important work that deserves your precious time. Processing ensures that you are on top of the flow 80 | GLOSS NOV 2015

3 Prioritising. Processing and planning both involve prioritisation.

But as a practice, prioritising should stand alone. Prioritising helps you to manage the opportunity cost of spending your time unproductively, and sits at the heart of effectiveness.

If you have more to do than you have time available (and who doesn’t), prioritisation helps you to consider all the things you could invest your time in, and choose the right actions. Prioritising therefore creates a connection between outcomes and inputs.

In the pages that follow, I unpack and explore the integrated productivity system in depth, suggesting simple, practical ways you can incorporate it into your day-to-day work and better leverage the technology already at your fingertips. So if this sounds like

an approach that could revolutionise your work life, let’s get stuck in and get productive!

sense to look at our inputs first, then our actions and then our outcomes.

This is a sensible progression. But there is good reason why I have chosen the sequence I have. My experience is The Smart Work roadmap — nine that we need to set up a foundation to manage our actions, before we productivity skills can effectively manage either inputs or outcomes. If we do not have a This section is designed to provide way to action work in a timely way, an overview map for the book. The principles outlined in figure C represent it is impossible to get on top of our incoming work. And getting traction the key areas you need to focus on with our outcomes relies heavily on to clarify, organise and protect your time, priorities and commitments. Use having a good action management system. this section to navigate to topics of interest or to zoom out to see how the So the nine chapters of the book productivity practices fit together. correspond to the nine productivity skills of the Smart Work roadmap.

Here’s how the chapters break down.

ACTIONS

Figure C: the Smart Work roadmap So we have looked at how Actions, Inputs and Outcomes work together in an integrated way. Now let’s unbundle the three key principles that sit under each of these areas of our productivity.

By the way, I am fully aware that to many it would seem to make more

1 Consolidate your work. The starting point for your new productivity system is to clarify everything that currently needs your time and attention. This chapter will help you to achieve clarity through centralising all of your actions into one electronic organising tool.

2 Schedule it forward. To manage your actions in a proactive way, you need to link the resource of time to the things you need to do. This can be achieved by scheduling both meetings and tasks in a proactive scheduling system that will allow you to focus GLOSS NOV 2015 | 81

on the right work at the right time, as outlined in this chapter.

like that. This chapter focuses on the strategies needed to get your inbox to empty on a regular basis. This puts you in control of your inbox, and provides clarity as you work out what needs your attention and what does not.

3 Focus your day. Without a plan, your day can easily be hijacked by everyone else’s crises. With a plan, you can begin to control how your day plays out, and therefore what you actually get done. This chapter outlines a range OUTCOMES of strategies to help you to get focused and to protect your focus from the 7 Identify your value. Many of distractions in your busy workplace. us have performance plans, key result areas, key performance indicators and objectives coming out of our ears. But INPUTS it can be hard to stay focused on the right work to achieve these outcomes.

4 Reduce the noise. The volume of This chapter looks at how you can gain non-essential information that vies for clarity in your role by looking at the big our attention is constantly increasing. picture and working out the activities This noise prevents us from focusing on that will really make a difference more important work.

It is crucial that we protect ourselves 8 Make time to plan. Many from noise as much as possible. This teams undertake a range of quarterly chapter looks at a number of strategies or monthly team planning exercises, you can use to control the noise levels yet few of us stop to personally plan our time and effort. We are usually 5 Keep it simple. One reason many too busy to stop and take time out to people do not have control of their plan. Chapter 8 looks at three levels of inbox is that their filing system is too personal planning that will help you to complicated. This chapter explores get organised and focused on the right strategies for managing and filing work. emails quickly, and finding them again quickly.

9 Fight for importance. It doesn’t matter how much effort we put into 6 Process to empty. Most people planning and organising our priorities, see their inbox as a never- ending list other people will have different ideas. of work tasks. They use it to manage They will feel that their work is more their email priorities — and end up important or more urgent than ours. feeling stressed, out of control and And they will ramp up the pressure demotivated. It doesn’t have to be to get what they need, now! We 82 | GLOSS NOV 2015

need to dial down this urgency and protect our priorities by fighting for what we believe to be important. This final chapter looks at strategies that can reduce the focus on urgency and protect some of your time for the truly important work that will actually make a significant difference.

Processing, planning and prioritising As already noted, the three core practices that you should build habits around, and that will drive your productivity behaviours, are processing, planning and prioritising. At the end of each part we will explore one of these practices in detail in a key practice feature.

A note on leveraging technology Now we have examined the core areas we need to focus on to work productively in the modern workplace, we should take a look at the tools available to us when implementing these principles, practices and skills The first step to working productively in the modern workplace is to meet the productivity challenges we face with the appropriate tools — 21st century tools. As the volume and complexity of our work increases, we need to leverage technology to help us deal with this complexity. Relying on our overtaxed brains to remember everything is no

longer a viable option. Paper tools such as lists and calendars cease to be relevant when so much of our work is driven by email.

You need more sophisticated tools to manage the sheer volume of emails and the complexity of your busy days.

The good news is you have these tools at your fingertips already — you just might not be leveraging them enough or using them in an integrated way.

In fact, you may be applying a 20th century methodology to a 21st century tool!

There are a plethora of devices, apps and software programs available to help people to work more productively, although most corporate environments use a few standard productivity tools across the organisation. These can be broadly split into desktop tools, mobile tools and satellite tools.

Desktop tools Every organisation, big or small, uses some form of desktop software to manage emails. In my experience, most medium to large organisations use Outlook as their core email client.

Some use Lotus Notes, and a number have switched to Gmail and Google Calendar over the past couple of years.

Outlook and Notes have been the traditional big players in this space, with Outlook leading the race in terms of the number of organisations using it. While all of the principles that I GLOSS NOV 2015 | 83

discuss in this book can be applied to in the email environment. any electronic tool, I will focus mainly on Outlook. For this reason, however, I will endeavour to discuss how techniques can be applied to Lotus Notes or Gmail if different from Outlook. While I may refer only to Outlook at times, take it that I am talking about all three platforms.

So Outlook is installed on your desktop or laptop. You use it every day to manage your email. But how else do you use Outlook? What other parts of Outlook do you leverage to boost your productivity? What functions do you regularly use to stay on top of your workflow? Maybe not as many as you could or should.

In Part I we will look at how tools such as Outlook were designed to be used as a one-stop shop to manage all your activities. With most of your work driven by email these days, it made sense for Microsoft to design workload management functions around the inbox. So Outlook has a calendar and a task list, both designed to manage your actions. It also contains a contacts folder, a notes folder and, of course, filing folders, designed to help you to keep and retain information (see figure D). We will examine how to make all of these functions work together as one cohesive system for managing your workflow. If you get this right, you can discard many of the paper tools that you have relied upon for so many years but that no longer serve their purpose 84 | GLOSS NOV 2015

Figure D: workload management in Outlook Mobile tools What if you are not at your desk? Some form of paper (a notepad, a printout of your schedule or printed emails) may be needed to stay organised on the run.

But with the right mobile technology you can dispense with most of these as well. There is a wide range of tablet PCs, smartphones and handheld devices available to help you to stay organised on the run. Again, though, you may not be taking advantage of these tools and their capabilities, beyond glancing at emails when in meetings.

Many organisations have deployed smartphones and tablets for certain roles or levels of management, or have introduced a BYO policy for devices.

At the time of writing, Apple iOS and Android seem to be most popular, with Windows Mobile close behind. For

simplicity, I will refer to Apple iOS devices, as these are the most prevalent, but all concepts can usually be applied to most mobile devices

capture notes, agendas and actions in a range of notebooks, which can be shared with others in the team. It links to Outlook, so meeting details can easily be linked to the notes, and meeting actions can be scheduled straight into your task list in Outlook

I believe the key to harnessing your mobile technology to help you stay productive on the run is to ensure that your device synchronises with all of • Evernote® Similar to OneNote, the core elements in your desktop tool.

Evernote is a popular program that Ideally your email, calendar, tasks, works across your devices and is contacts and notes should sync across to great for managing meeting notes, your device and back again. This means as well as capturing ideas and you can stay organised anywhere, organising information. Evernote is without duplication. You can process often used in organisations that are emails on the run and need touch less reliant on Microsoft Office. them only once. You can schedule or reschedule meetings, as well as check • Mind mapping software. Planning your meeting commitments for the and managing more complex work is day ahead. You can capture tasks in better done using tools designed to your centralised list when away from simplify complexity. Simple projects your desk and take advantage of any can be quickly and easily planned spare moments in your day to knock in mind maps. I have traditionally a couple of items off the list. And you used Mindjet, but there are many can access all your contact details and software apps available. miscellaneous notes. What a perfect system!

• Cloud project-planning tools. Most individuals and teams don’t need The technology is already here. You just complex tools like Microsoft Project need to think about how you can best to plan take advantage of it. the more complex work they are responsible for. But they do sometimes Satellite tools need tools to help visualise the work While I won’t spend a lot of time on and to collaborate with others in a the following tools, they are a part of smart way. There are now the mix and rate a mention: many online tools, such as Asana, Trello and Basecamp, that can help you • OneNote A note-taking program and your team in this area. These tools that is now part of the Microsoft may not link with your main organising Office suite, OneNote allows you to tool, though, so you still need to ensure

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that any next-step actions make it into your schedule.

So you have a range of electronic tools at your disposal. But to really leverage their power, you need to use them in a synchronised way. Recently a participant in one of my workshops made a really good point about his use of technology. He considered himself a reasonably effective user of technology and had definitely made the shift from paper tools to digital technology. He used Outlook to manage his emails, schedule and priorities. He used OneNote for capturing meeting notes and a number of apps on his iPhone to manage task lists on the run His insight was about how he used these tools. While he used them all every day, he used each one in isolation.

He was not coordinating how he managed the information across these platforms. This meant he had a task list in Outlook but other task lists in an app on his phone, and yet more task lists in OneNote.

Using electronic tools in isolation will definitely be more effective than using paper, but as I will demonstrate throughout this book, true leverage comes from using these tools in a coordinated way.

Finally, a note on tech tips: As so much of this book focuses on working smarter with your technology, it makes sense to include some highly practical technology tips in each chapter. Every 86 | GLOSS NOV 2015

chapter finishes with a tech tips section that outlines some relevant technology strategies to help you to implement the concepts discussed in that chapter.

So, on to the first section — Actions.

Let’s build a foundation for our productivity system that will help us to manage our activities in an efficient, effective and proactive way.

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