A Checklist for Organized Executives

I could begin this article by providing a checklist of organizing techniques for you to incorporate into your daily work routine. The goal would be to become and remain organized, improve your time management and reduce your stress while increasing your productivity. This checklist could include items such as managing incoming information, keeping the desktop free of clutter, creating a user-friendly filing system, etc. And I suspect there are many other organizing and time management consultants out there who could provide something similar. But I want to share a different type of list with you.

It's a list with a bigger picture. It's got more to do with preparing yourself to move forward than with taking immediate 'action steps'. In fact, it's about the groundwork you need to lay in order to have the action steps work.

Reality check

Are you organized? Are you an effective time manager? Ask yourself. Then ask others. If you are a supervisor, you are a role model and your actions are studied by others. You might not have asked for this particular role, but your staff or team is watching and wondering how they can be just like you? or not anything like you. Same is true of your peers. How often do I hear, 'If you think my desk is bad, let's go for a walk and I'll show you Ted's.' So take a reality check and be honest.

Skills check

Do you have the skills necessary to become organized? Contrary to popular belief, an organized person is not genetically pre-disposed to this condition. Getting organized is a learned skill. Some of us had great role models, some had poor role models and some had no role models. Some of us are organized in one area but not in another. Whatever your situation, there is plenty of information out there on ideas of how to improve your skills and plenty of help to guide and support you to success.

Emotional intelligence check

Daniel Goleman coined this phrase and spawned a revolution. Without emotional intelligence the rest seems somewhat moot. Ask yourself some tough questions about what you need to do to be more successful and less stressed. Chances are that getting organized and becoming a more effective manager of your time might crop up as areas of importance.

What will you do about it?

Copyright 2005 Cynthia Kyriazis. All rights reserved.

Cynthia Kyriazis is an organizing and time management consultant, trainer, speaker, coach and author with over 20 years management experience in multi-unit corporations. Organize it, a division of Productivity Partners, Inc. is an organizational training firm she founded in 1995 and has been serving Fortune 500 clients ever since. Cynthia works with business and their employees to help improve performance and realize productivity gains.

Cynthia has appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kansas City Star and the Legal Intelligencer. She currently serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), member of the National Speakers Association (NSA), member of the Kansas City of the International Society for Performance Improvement ? (ISPI-KC) and consultant to the American Coaching Association.

---

Get More Impact From Your Annual Conference

How can you get more attention for your conference and... Read More

Use QA As Your First Step To Outsourcing

Quality Assurance, or QA, is often given short shrift in... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management :- Thought Leadership

Leadership is only sustainable when leaders consistently come up with... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Directors, Consultants and Managers

Creativity and Innovation is essential for competitive advantage, yet the... Read More

3 Ingredients of Highly Profitable Organizational Change

As waves of organizational change sweep across the business landscape,... Read More

Quick Tip - Effective Meetings Earn a Profit

Most people treat meetings as a free resource that can... Read More

Best Practices Plan: Dissemination of a Great Idea

Good news spreads quickly News of the invention of the... Read More

Productivity Through Positive Reinforcement

Most people just want to be appreciated. If you're a... Read More

Business Knowledge Management

In the last few years a lot has been written... Read More

Five Steps to Successful Business Succession

The great majority of family businesses in North America are... Read More

Steps in Using the Critical Incident Technique

STEPS IN USING THE CRITICAL INCIDENT TECHNIQUE:1) The incident. Read,... Read More

How to Get Your Procedures Project Done

Wouldn't it be nice for business owners and executives to... Read More

Sharing the Reins: 10 Reasons To Sell Your Company To Your Employees

In 1987 I sold my business, South Mountain Company, to... Read More

You?re Hired, Now Go Home: Managing Workers at a Distance

Telecommuting or virtual work opens up a wider net of... Read More

Climb out of the Box - How to Hold Effective Meetings

Out of the box thinking is a popular fad today.... Read More

A Corporate Facelift With Sound Bytes

If Baby Boomers can get botox and tummy tucks, then... Read More

Micromanagement and Delegation

Micro-Management and Delegation ... Read More

Five Problem-Solving Success Tips

The ability to solve complicated problems quickly is more important... Read More

Muggers in Our Midst - When Rumour and Gossip Pay You a Visit

'I heard it on the grapevine' the old song goes.... Read More

Is Your Management Style Assisting or Hurting Your Business?

Many times business owners can have significant differences in management... Read More

Taking Care of Middle Manager Bounce Off

How many times have the management consultants been 'in' and... Read More

ISO 9001 Okay Now You Have It How Do You Market It?

Marketing ISO 9001 2000.Lately we've been seeing a lot of... Read More

Avoid These Seven Deadly Dangers Of Outsourcing

Here are seven dangers of outsourcing your software development. They... Read More

The Silent Assassin - What to Do When They Visit You?

IntroductionThere are a group of people in the community that... Read More

Got A Meeting Planned? Ask This Question

Meetings ? they are a fact of our business lives.... Read More

The Gift of Gratitude

Gratitude might seem like a soft or even an obvious... Read More

The Narcissist in the Workplace

To a narcissist-employer, the members of his "staff" are Secondary... Read More

Why Your Company Needs An E-Mail Policy

Everyone at the office thought that using the company e-mail... Read More

The Business Shaman: Exploring the Mystery of Success!

Note: This article was written for a internet business site.... Read More

Make a Difference - Sweat the Small Stuff First

My background is in retail management - yes, running stores,... Read More

Corporate Governance for Business Owners

It is clear that good Corporate Governance is in the... Read More

Motivating For Higher Performance

Employee motivation is probably the most important single manageable factor... Read More

Outsourcing NOT Just for Big Business

Outsourcing has become a controversial issue and a hot topic... Read More