Productivity – The Chalifour Group

5 Ways to Limit Smartphone Use during the Work Day

Smartphones are one of the most exciting modern-day inventions, but they can also become a major source of distraction during the work day. Before COVID, studies found that the average American spent around 5.4 hours a day on their mobile phone. Just 6 months after the COVID-induced lockdown, a December 2020 study found that mobile phone usage was up 25% to 7 hours a day. This increased mobile phone usage could contribute to decreases in productivity and motivation, as more mobile phone usage is correlated with increased anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance. Even knowing all of this, it can be difficult to limit screen time because these devices are insanely addictive. Here are 5 ways to help you limit smartphone use during the day so that you can hopefully be happier, healthier, and more productive:

Set time limits on certain apps

Most phones have settings that allow you to limit the time spent on specific apps each day—this feature is called ‘screen time’ on iPhone and ‘digital wellbeing’ on android. This allows you to actively limit the time spent on particularly addicting apps, such as social media applications (e.g. twitter, reddit, instagram, youtube). This feature is a great way of preventing you from mindlessly scrolling for longer than you intend.

Leave your phone in a separate room

If you find yourself unable to stop habitually checking your phone or scrolling through social media, one option is to just leave your phone in a different room than your work office. If you are working at home, then you could leave your phone in the kitchen or bedroom, far away from your desk or office. This way, you will have to intentionally walk across your living space in order to check your phone. This adds both a mental and physical barrier to checking your phone, which can be extremely helpful.

Turn off email and text notifications

Email and text notifications can be very distracting during the work day. You could be working hard to solve a problem and then a random email or text can totally take your out of your flow and halt your momentum. When you turn off or mute notifications, this distraction is completely removed. Then you can check your emails or texts every few hours, in a proactive and intentional way. Research has shown that batching notifications in this way can improve wellbeing and productivity.

Delete distracting apps from your phone

If you find that you are manually overriding the time limits or walking across the room to check reddit, one idea is just to delete these apps from your phone entirely. This adds another degree of friction between you and distracting phone applications, as manually re-downloading apps and signing in (i.e. having to remember your password) is quite tedious. This may your best option if you find that just having the app on your phone makes it difficult to have a balanced relationship with your mobile device.

Turn your phone into greyscale mode

One thing that makes our smartphones so dazzling is that they are full of rich colors and exciting videos/images. One way to make looking at your phone less appealing/stimulating is to turn on greyscale mode, which essentially turns everything into black and white. This makes looking at your phone much less absorbing and therefore easier for you to put your phone down after you are done using it for your intended purchases. Here are instructions for this setting on iPhone and Android.

Final thoughts: Hopefully these tools help you curb your smartphone usage so that you can be happier and more productive during the work week. That said, all of these settings can be manually overridden and turned off. The ultimate truth is that you are in control: you have to make the choice to limit your phone usage, and the best tool for doing so is self-discipline. Perhaps find a different activity to take breaks during work, such as meditation, walking outside, or exercise. Have a great week everyone!

5 Ways Science Can Help Your Business

Science can be a great tool to improve your business, as it allows you to get objective, quantifiable evidence that you can use to make evidence-based business decisions. Here are 5 ways you can use science to help your business:

Survey your employees

A great way to get feedback from your employees is to just ask them. Surveys can be a great way for you to select the questions you are interested in, and then survey employees across your company to get both quantitative (i.e. ratings of agreement) and qualitative data (i.e. open-ended responses). This can help bring to light issues within your company you may not be aware of, which could differ by department—maybe the sales employees face a different set of issues than the human resources team. You can also make your surveys anonymous to get more honest feedback than you might from a face-to-face conversation. Overall, this technique can really give you a better idea of what is going on within your company.

Survey your customers

If you are designing a new product, a great way to get feedback from your target audience is to survey existing customers. This can allow you to see what they might be interested in and what might determine whether they purchased your new product. In addition, you can conduct a product test with a focus group to get their opinions on different prototypes. Getting to know your audience through their ratings of likelihood to buy as well as candid feedback can be really helpful before launching your product into the public market. Qualtrics is a great tool to survey both employees and customers and easily analyze your data.

Use psychometric tests when hiring

Job applications and interviews often don’t provide enough information about candidates to decide whether you want to hire them or not. The employees you bring into your work place directly contribute to your company’s culture and overall success, so having more information when hiring is extremely helpful. Using psychometric testing can be a great way to learn more about a candidate’s personality, work ethic, and potentially their long term success at your company. There are many different tests you can use, and it depends on what you are looking for in new hires, but one great resource is the Predictive Index, which is “an untimed, free-choice, stimulus-response tool that measures a person’s motivating drives and needs” that can be used to “hire candidates who are hardwired to be a great fit, to design teams that perform like magic, and to manage employees in a way that pushes them to perform at the top of their game.” Do keep in mind that no scale is perfect and it can never truly encapsulate a person—for this reason, interviews and ‘gut feelings’ are still very important.

Run an experiment

Not sure what option will work best for a particular problem in your business? The best way to find out is to run an experiment, where you can compare multiple options and see the different results. You can then use basic analysis techniques to see if there are significant differences in outcomes between the two options, products, etc. For example, you could have sales associates use two different scripts at random for 100 times each and then compare the success rate for the different scripts.

Research the psychology behind your industry

Every business is run by humans. Psychology allows us to better understand the human mind, what motivates us, and why people do the things they do. One way to improve your business is to research the psychology behind your particular industry. The sales process is very psychological, and different findings from the scientific literature can be leveraged to improve your business practices and increase success. Learning about the science of psychology can really help to improve your communication skills and the way you interact with your human customers. We are all people and we are all motivated by similar things.

Bonus tip: If any of these ideas sound appealing to you, but you aren’t sure how to properly implement them in your business, hire a scientific consultant to help you accomplish these goals and provide evidence-based solutions for your business. We at The Chalifour Consulting Group offer scientific consulting services, so feel free to reach out at info@consultingandsuccess.com.

Hiring – Ability vs. Personality

Managers have a lot to consider when hiring employees. Two of the most important aspects to consider are the candidates ability and personality skills. Employees have both soft skills (conscientiousness) and hard skills (general mental ability) in the workplace. Understanding the important skills that someone should have can be a crucial indicator in determining whether or not you believe they will have a high performance level. When looking to hire someone new, a manager should be looking for employees who can do the basics first, and then keep a smile on their face when things go wrong . Both traits are important to have, however, one may be more beneficial than the other.

First, you want to make sure the potential employee fits the mission of your company. Personality is so important whether the candidate has the skills to go along with it. You can teach someone technical skills but you can’t teach someone how to put a smile on their face. Friendly employees keep customers happy and satisfied and will most likely keep them a loyal customer. Kathrine Palju said, “it’s not about electronic or internet skills, it’s not about mechanics. It’s all about interpersonal relationships”. Being able to keep a conversation going and understanding what the customer wants can go a long way.

It is also important that managers and business owners are aware of what type of skills and personality traits their employees possess. In the future this could help managers with their weekly schedules so that they can have a balance of employees with general mental ability and conscientiousness. When managers are able to understand which employees have one or both traits, it can help decide where to place each employee and may help in a better execution of service.

All in all, it is preferred that an employee has both GMA and conscientiousness but it is understandable that this is often not the case. Being able to understand what stages these skills are important and how to find them in a person can really have an impact on the overall performance of a business.

Mondays Don’t Have to Be Miserable

The feeling of waking up on a Monday is so iconic. Tired, still holding onto the bliss of the weekend, not quite ready to work, slightly anxious about what is to come for the week. And yet we face these same feelings nearly every Monday. After so many times of experiencing this, we can learn to notice these thoughts and patterns and accept them, so that we can rise above and not react to these thoughts or let our entire energy be dictated by them. The best way to promote this awareness and create our own energy & perspective for the day is to start off our morning with meditation. This helps to clear the anxiety, the tension, all the bubbling thoughts. The mind is like a cup of sediment-filled water. At first, it is murky and dirt is floating everywhere. But as the cup sits, slowly and surely, all of the sediment starts to sink to the bottom, and the rest of the water becomes clear. This is what happens to our mind during meditation. Especially at the beginning of a week, we tend to have lots of chaotic and frantic thinking, as well as general feelings of avoidance and resistance. Meditation helps us let all of that sink to the bottom so we can see clearly once again. What do I have to do today? Okay, I will do it. It’s that simple, but we make it so complicated with all of our likes and dislikes, our beliefs and opinions about the work we do and what we would rather do instead. Start a daily practice of just 5 minutes each morning and see how it helps your life and work productivity

Even after reading this, you may still have the same feelings arise next Monday. The difference is how you react to those feelings—instead of getting sucked into them and believing them, just note that they are there and then let them go. I am not as successful every Monday, but I’ve noticed that taking this mindful approach really helps work get off to a good start each week. Another really important thing is to try and keep the same sleep schedule on the weekend as you have during the week. When we don’t do this, and we stay up late and sleep in on the weekend, waking up early on Monday morning is an even bigger shock to our system. It is much harder to be mindful, productive, and motivated when we are exhausted. So make sure to take care of both your body and your mind in order to set yourself up for success this week. And just know, hey, it’s a Monday, it’s never going to be that amazing. When we accept this, it takes a huge amount of pressure off how our Monday goes. We shift our view from anticipation to acceptance, and embrace whatever comes. This change of mindset has been incredibly helpful for me in enhancing my enjoyment of work and my overall productivity, and I hope it can help you too.

5 Tips for Mindfulness at Work

Work has been challenging and different for nearly all of us this past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A report from Stanford University estimated that, “42 percent of the U.S. labor force now working from home full-time. About another 33 percent are not working – a testament to the savage impact of the lockdown recession. And the remaining 26 percent – mostly essential service workers – are working on their business premises. So, by sheer numbers, the U.S. is a working-from-home economy. Almost twice as many employees are working from home as at work.” Given all of these unexpected changes to how we work, many Americans are facing increased stress and anxiety. Reports indicate that, “up to 72% of American employees experience daily stress and anxiety that interfere with their day-to-day lives.”

Mindfulness is a great tool that can be used to help handle work-related stress. Mindfulness is the practice of maintaining awareness of our thoughts and feelings, and is often paired with meditation to help calm down and re-center. Extensive scientific research has demonstrated that mindfulness can effectively reduce anxiety and stress. Below are 5 tips to promote mindfulness while you work:

Meditate before work every day. This is very helpful in establishing a calm state of mind before you begin work, and it also helps you let go of anxious or avoidant thoughts about the tasks you have to complete each day at work. A recent study found that “meditation practice may positively influence job performance, including job satisfaction, subjective job performance, and work engagement.”
Take short breaks at the top of each hour. This is really important, because as we work we start to use our thinking minds, and that can create a lot of chaos and pressure inside of us. Take a 1 to 5 minute break at each hour to re-center and clear your mind. Research has shown that taking breaks can improve mental well-being, motivation for work, increase productivity and creativity, and improve learning.
When you notice yourself getting stressed, come back to your breath and slow things down. Try not to rush through the tasks you have to do to get them over with. Instead take things slowly and do them with 100% of your effort. Not only will you do a better job, you will feel calmer and better about the work you’ve done.
Go outside. Many studies have shown that going outside improves mood and concentrations. For me personally, it blows my mind how stuffy and tense things can get when I stay inside working for too long. Then when I finally walk outside, especially in nature, feeling the fresh fair clears everything away, and I realize all that tension I’ve been building was unnecessary.
Exercise after work. This can be really helpful to relieve the tension you build during a normal work day, and it can provide a nice break between work and the rest of your night (dinner, hobbies, etc.). Extensive research has shown that exercise improves anxiety, stress, depression, as well as psychological, physiological, and immunological functions.

So try these tips and let us know if they improved your mindfulness at work, and how this impacted your mood and stress at work. Wishing you all the best during these challenging times.

Leadership, Culture and Retention

My business partner always says that for the most part a person does not quit their job, they quit their boss. If you are in a leadership position of any kind, this statement should immediately grab you and cause the hair on the back of your neck to stand at attention. If it does not then you should not be in a position of leadership – period.

Retention is a direct result of the leadership. It’s as simple as that. Leadership is not about telling people what to do, we should know that by now as leaders. It’s about listening, guiding, teaching and doing the right thing. Everything has changed from the days of the baby boomer’s 30 years and a gold watch.

Medium.com writes in a recent blog post that according to a 2018 study by Mercer, a whopping third of all employees plan on quitting their job in the next 12 months. That number is astronomically high compared to when our our parents and grandparents were our age. This growing amount of turnover is getting more and more expensive for companies. In fact, one study revealed that replacing a high-talented employee will cost a company 200% of the employees annual salary.

Leadership is culture. That’s right, the culture developed by leadership is one of the most critical components of retention. How a team member feels they are perceived by the leadership will dictate the commitment and diligence put forth by the team member. Long gone are the days where a simple transaction takes place everyday – a wage is paid to perform a job. The days where an employee shows up in the morning with their lunchbox in hand, punches a clock and leaves at the end of the day with another clock punch.

Today, the working culture is more committed to the overall function of the day. There is more skin in the game and they wanted to be treated accordingly, do you blame them?

Take a look at these stats compiled by Marvin Russell on Medium.com:

In a survey of 2,000 employees, almost half (43%) said they are looking for a new job, and corporate culture was the main reason.

Source: hayes.com

When surveyed, 82% of employees said they’d be more loyal, and less likely if they had more flexible jobs.

Source: FlexJobs

92% of employees said that would be more likely to stay with their job, if their bosses would show more empathy.

Source: Businesssolver

Engaged employees are 59% less likely to seek out a new job or career in the next 12 months.

Source: Gallup

37% of employees would quit and take a new job that allowed them to work remotely part of the time.

Source: Gallup

A strong learning culture led to 30–50% high retention rates in companies.

Source Robert Half

70% of 2,000 millennials surveyed said they would quit a job if lacked high performing and fast technology.

Source: Jive Communications

62% of millennials are willing to quit their job in the next two years and work in the gig economy.

Source: Deloitte

71% of employees would accept a pay cut, just to get a better job.

Source: hayes.com

Money is not the problem. In fact, only 12% of employees actually leave their job because they want more money.

Source: CareerBuilder.com

89% of bosses wrongly believe their employees quit because they want more money.

Source: Source; Leigh Branham, author of The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave

Generation X, employees born between 1961 and 1981, reported the highest levels of stress in the workplace, and thus have the highest risk of leaving your company.

Source: hayes.com

Employees who feel they get to use the best strengths and abilities and work are 15% less likely to quit their job.

Source: Gallup

When surveyed, 76% of employees who don’t feel valued at work are seeking other job opportunities.

Source: Lifeworks

Over 70% of “high-retention-risk” employees want to leave because they see no future advancement in the current job.

Source: Willis Towers Watson

20-50% of the reason people quit is burnout, according to almost half of all HR professionals surveyed.

Source: Kronos

In a global study, 60% of millennials have worked at 2 to 4 different companies, and 43% of them feel like their company only cares about profits.

Source: O.C. Tanner

42% of millennials, who have worked at 2 to 4 different companies, said their job creates a huge amount of stress, and 36% feel their job has a negative impact on their health.

Source: O.C. Tanner

30% of employees would consider quitting if they were unhappy at work, and 79% of employees said their bosses didn’t care about their happiness level.

Source: One4All

Organizations with poor on-boarding programs have double the chances of experiencing employee turnover.

Source: Digittate

Clearly the paycheck is not the major issue here. It’s important that as leaders we recognize and value the team members in a way that brings them into the fold as pseudo partners and contributing assets. If we are not able to do that the simple truth is that they will move on and look for that with another company.

Are we listening and recognizing talents? Are we taking the time to talk with the team? Are we spending time in the trenches with them to see what it’s like from their perspective? How does a person manage when they have no idea what goes on in the various departments that they have charge over. Have you given your team members a voice? Do they feel like part of the solution and therefore part of the success of the company?

These are questions that really need answers and those answers will dictate your leadership style and also the changes that need to take place.

If you’re unsure about what the culture is in your workplace, let us help. We can get these answers for you and customize a workplace mindset and new culture, just give us a call.

We are always at your service and eager to help.

3 ways to work smarter!

Life is short and often times we are just working to get to the weekend. In addition, we find ourselves saying “there just is not enough time in a day.” That is just not true, it is all about how we use the time that we have and by measuring your results rather than your time.

Time management is the number one factor in successful people. They know how to work hard and often how to play hard. Time is the one resource that we can not waste. It all begins with a solid plan that includes short term plans and long term goals. These two points play in together as all your short term plans/lists should coincide with your long term goals. I have said before that when I work with businesses my number one objective is to increase a companies valuation making it more attractive for purchase. In a personal career or life, the long term goal should be retirement which is essentially the same thing for the sale of a business.

Goal setting is the first priority in working smarter. Set your end goal, say it is to retire by 40 years old with 2,000,000 in the bank. Then, as I have said before work backward from that end goal. Start with the end in mind. Then you know what you have to do to get to the goal, if you fall short one day, week, or even year, then you know exactly what you have to do to make up for the loss.

With all that said here are the top 3 ways to become more productive and to achieve your longterm goals.

Plan your days and weeks in advance

Each day I set forth making a to do list. This to do list encapsulates everything that I would like to get done on a given day. Often times, it is a mix of both personal and professional activities. If you have a cloudy mind in your personal life your professional will suffer, so be sure to stay active and up-to-date with your personal priorities. The list starts with the most important tasks that I absolutely have to complete by days end. The list ends with tasks that are “less important” but do have to get done at some point.

As I go through my day I complete my tasks and typically start my to do list for the following day. Anything that I will not have time to get to, I move to the top of the list for the following day. Additionally, as your day progresses you get new projects that have later dates and thus you are able to start to do lists for the following days. Often times I have a to do list scheduled out for the week. I spend much time scheduling and compiling lists as it keeps me on track and organized. It is important not to take too much time that it becomes a distraction but you do have to make it a priority. Having a road map for your success is critically important to staying on track.

Measure your results not your time

This is a tough benchmark to wrap your head around and typically requires a complete shift in mindset. This productivity tip is why it is so important to know where you are going and what your ultimate goals are. If I close or complete a large job at 10am or 11am I may call it a day or even take the next day off. I am measuring my results not the time I have into it because the week before I probably worked 80 hours. I know how much money I want to and need to make so when I hit that benchmark it is my decision if I want to keep working for the day or week. However, I am measuring my results not my time. You may not have to work 40 or 50 hours to make the amount of money that you want to make. Even with a normal 9-5 job you still have the power to measure results not time.

Measuring your results is a great way to mind your headspace. As Americans, we get very wrapped up in work, putting in 40+ hour weeks fully encompassed by our profession and often let the results fall behind. Time card punchers should never be the goal, have pride in the work you do.

Minimize Distractions

Distractions are the root of all evil. Distractions are, where the phrase, “there is not enough time in a day” stems from. Hate to break it to you but everybody has enough time in a day to accomplish what they need to the issue is with distractions. Fortunately or unfortunately, we live in a technological world where just about everything is available at the tip of our fingers. Our two most productive tools, phones and computers, are also our two biggest distractions. It is important to silence or delete apps that cause distractions while you are trying to be productive at work. Not only does it take away precious time but it also affects your results. Distractions affect both time and results.

Bottom line is there is plenty of time in a day to achieve the results we desire. We simply have to be well organized by compiling lists and scheduling your tasks, we need to measure results not time, and strive to minimize daily distractions. When beginning this life altering shift, start with the end in mind by setting goals. If you have questions on setting goals check on our blog on “Don’t dream, set goals.”

A Remote Workforce – Changing the Management Process

It’s no surprise that today’s business office looks very different. The proverbial water cooler is now your phone, the conference room is your bedroom, living room, bathroom or whatever room you can have a quiet conversation in. Break time is ubiquitous and chances are you are no longer worrying about someone taking your lunch from the fridge in the break room.

The question that employers and employees alike need to ask themselves is; Am I more productive, less productive or equally as productive as I was Pre-COVID? Is the work getting done? Are the customers happy? Is production on schedule? Many times most companies will find that they are in fact as productive, if not more productive and they employees are far happier that they were when they had to deal with office politics, traffic and a general sense of stress or dislike. Today, people are continuing to do what they like to do, what they were hired to do and without any of the outside influences that commonly attach themselves to the office environment.

It is, however, very important that the company has some sort of accountability policy or efficiency statement. There needs to be a system in place that creates a sense of responsibility and accountibility. People still need to answer to management and sometimes that’s not an easy thing to do when we are working from home. Creating some sort of “check-in” or workflow process statement is critical and must be done now before there is too much latitude generated to pull things back in.

Creating a method for process development will help in determining where the potential holes are and where the improvements need to be made. A manager can walk through a department and get a sense for the productivity in the room and be able to ask questions on the fly and make changes or modifications almost instantly. With a remote workforce, this is virtually impossible.

Make sure that everyone is on the same page and that there is a means for instant correction and also oversight. Creating a solidarity from a remote standpoint doers not have to be daunting but is absolutely must be done.

Contentment does not mean Complacent

These days it seems like people jump from job to job (called spring boarding) all in the hopes for more money, benefits, prestige or a myriad of reasons. Long gone are the days when you would begin and end your professional career with the same company.

I am also not too naive to recognize and appreciate the fact that those companies that people would give 20-30 years of their life to are few and far between. Companies that truly value the employee and recognize that growth may not have happened without them.

Those companies do exist and when you find one, you can rest in the fact that if you are contributing to the growth and success of the company, you will be rewarded with some sort of compensation. That compensation could be a pay raise, promotion, additional benefits or even recognition. That fact of the matter would be simply this; You are very happy where you are working and the company you are working for values you and your contributions. You both work hard to move toward the future and it is evident. This would be contentment, you are happy. Plain and simple, no need to move on to another company and even no desire to see what’s out there.

There is an explanation why people like to hold the remote control when watching TV. Basically it has nothing to do with the current show they are watching. The reason they want the remote is so they can see what else is on TV. They may be happy with the current show but they always want to know if there is something better to watch and there is the lack of contentment and they want more or better.

Don’t confuse complacent with contentment. If you cannot stand going to work every day, the people are terrible and there is discord, do something about it or simply become complacent and do nothing. If that’s you and you are frustrated then move on to see what else is out there or figure out a way to be content where you are. Nobody wants to do something they don’t want to do. The question you have to ask yourself is whether you are content or complacent.

Read our blog about pain and pleasure here.

Are you lucky or prepared?

Many people hear and say “good luck”! You may be going to an appointment or visiting a cantankerous relative and in either case you hear good luck as you walk out the door. What is luck? Is it some sort of cosmic power source that someone is tapping for you or is it a spiritual plea to God? No, luck is really not a thing. Certainly some people may have the Midas touch and all they touch turns to gold but you can’t seriously think that there is some sort of luck god that is bestowing good fortune upon you, can you?

Here’s the truth: Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity. Seriously, do you think Richard Branson is lucky? Jeff Bezos? Elon Musk? No, they are not lucky they are prepared and when an opportunity presents itself, they take action. We all hear so many success stories about many of these highly successful people but what we don’t hear is their failures.

Success and failure go hand in hand. If you can be prepared and able to recognize an opportunity, you will be able to act on that opportunity and the odds of probability will dictate that your success will be as the foundation of their success they can add layers of preparedness to enhance success.

Take a sales person for example, They are trained and seasoned in sales and closing. They know about assumptive closes and can recognize buying signs and signals. They know not to speak as much as they listen and are able to stop talking when closing questions are asked. This is trained and seasoned and acts as the foundation. Examples of the layers they can add would be researching their prospect, what are their big projects, who are their main customers and what is their competition doing. Another layer would be to research the person, look at their social media and find out some of their interests to determine if you can develop common ground. When you walk away from the meeting with a contract then I would submit that you are far more prepared than lucky.

I will agree that a broken clock has the right time twice a day and that a blind squirrel will get luck y every now and then with an acorn but for the most part, when you are prepared for what you are doing and have the proper training, you will encounter success not luck.