• WHY are you doing it? What results are you aiming for?
• WHAT is your purpose in doing it? Make sure your employees get that their assigned tasks aren’t just so much “busy work.”

The key is to make them think in a results-oriented way before they act, so they consider  the end results you want them to achieve on the team’s behalf. Help your team members to go beyond saying, “What do you want me to do?”

Jerry Acuff, President of Delta Point and a highly respected pharmaceutical sales training professional I greatly admire, shares this valuable advice in one of his recent blogs in which he asked his readers:

“What is the best interview question?”

Jerry set the stage by explaining the current economic climate. You hear about 500 resumes being received for 10 jobs. The odds of getting an interview are 50 to 1. So if you do get an interview, you just might want to assume that everyone else being interviewed is as qualified as you are. To set yourself apart from the competition, I propose that you ask the following question:

Does it seem like time slips through your employees’ fingers? When you pass their desks as quitting time draws near and sneak a peek at their work, does it seem like they’ve made little progress since you passed their desks that morning? Kathleen Alessandro, president of the consulting firm Energized Solutions, in Dearborn, Michigan, knows from experience how workday life’s little interruptions can eat away an employee’s time. She suggests these two tips to help your team members get their projects finished, off their desks, and into your in-box.

Unnecessary work meetings can rob you of time you (and others) can be using to actually accomplish things. Sure, communication is important — you need to keep your colleagues in the loop. However, it’s also easy to overdo it. Before you know it, every little thing turns into an occasion for a meeting or conference (possibly with a side of bagels or danish). If the meeting organizers have valuable information for you and your co-workers, that’s fine. But just as often, the meeting ends up being an exercise in aimless chit-chat (to say nothing of overeating) that only drains away valuable time for all concerned. Author Nicole Blades shares six secrets for pruning away unnecessary meetings in Sidestep Pointless Powwows, Part 2 of her January 2009 Women’s Health Magazine article Work Less, Do More. Try the following list of…