10 Superstars we would Love to Recruit for Our Productivity Team

10 Productivity Superstars

 

Here is a list of the 10 Superstars we would Love to Recruit for Our Productivity Team!

• Jack Dorsey - Founder of Twitter

It was reported that Jack works an 8 hour day. Well, that’s nothing special, I am sure you agree. However, it is the way he plans his working week that is meticulous and makes Jack a high productive businessman. Jack themes his working week. This allows him to ensure that his time is equally spent across all aspects of running his business. A typical themed week for Jack looks like this:

• Monday: Management and running the company
• Tuesday: Product
• Wednesday: Marketing and communications, growth
• Thursday: Developers and partnerships
• Friday: Company culture and recruiting

• Steve Jobs

A productivity list surely could not be complete without one of the world’s most iconic businessmen. Steve Jobs was a true inspiration and was passionate and focused on his company. Three things we could learn from Steve are: He would keep all his meetings extremely small , only having the necessary people at the table. This kept the energy and professionalism high and the unnecessary/ unproductive ‘noise’ low Steve believed in holding people accountable for each agenda item during each meeting. This was mirrored throughout the company and he had processes in place to make sure that everyone knew who was responsible for managing what in each and every department. He encouraged round-table free thinking rather than allowing people to hide behind power-point slides. Brain storming and passionate conversations meant more to Steve than simply hiding behind technology to present ideas.

• Carly Fiorina

Carly was the VP running mate for Ted Cruz in the 2016 republican nominations for the US presidential elections. However she came to fame earlier than this when she was the CEO of Hewlett Packard (1999 – 2005), who managed in 2002 the largest (at its time) merger in technology history between HP and Compaq. http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/speeches/fiorina/forbes04.html Here is a little about what Carly says about productivity: “You have to start thinking about processes as horizontal across the company - a requirement for processes to work together better, for applications to work together better, for systems to work together better, and so it is now all about not just simply automating processes, it's about digitizing processes, making them simpler and easier to manage”

• Richard Branson

Richard Branson is possibly one of the UK’s and the world’s most charismatic business men. He is a serial entrepreneur and certainly has a few things to teach us about productivity. Two tips he has to offer are simple and lay the ground rules for a productive session.

1. Exercise – work out and feel empowered, exercise energises you and sets you up for the day
2. “Whether it is a meeting, a flight, an appointment or a date, ensure you are there when you say you will be there. This may feel like an old-fashioned tip to give, but it has served me well for five decades in business.” Richard Branson https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/how-to-increase-your-productivity

• Karren Brady

Karren Brady is an exceptional businesswoman. She is the former managing director of Birmingham City F.C. and Karren is currently the vice-chairman of the London Based West Ham United Football Club. Known for her business prowess she was appointed Business Ambassador to the UK government and even has a spot on the BBC1 Apprentice show, as an aide to Lord Sugar. Karren ‘s tip is don’t be overly emotional “Karren is not advising being cold and harsh in your dealings with people, but to rein in the emotions and be as straight-talking and direct as possible: “It’s about being clear, precise and operationally succinct. Everyone should know in which direction they are going, who is doing what and why.”

• Michael Phelps

Serial Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Phelps knows all about how to be productive, his whole daily routine as a sportsman is designed around making the most out of his training, ensuring he eats the right food at the right time and so on. Unsurprisingly, he sets goals. Every morning he will set himself the days objectives, intentions of the day, feelings about the goals and how it would feel to achieve them. It is this type of sel-help and planning that focuses the mind on what is important, what needs to be achieved, how it will be achieved and what it will feel like to achieve it.  No wonder he has 18 Gold medals.

• Wilma Rudolph - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilma_Rudolph

Sometimes we all need a little inspiration to be productive and to achieve our goals. If you have not read Wilma’s story then I suggest you take a minute and read it on Wikipedia. Here is an extract. “Wilma contracted infantile paralysis (caused by the polio virus) at age four. She recovered, but wore a brace on her left leg and foot (which had become twisted as a result) until she was nine. She was required to wear an orthopedic shoe for support of her foot for another two years…. Fast forward: “In the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games.  A track and field champion, she elevated women's track to a major presence in the United States. As a member of the black community, she is also regarded as a civil rights and women's rights pioneer. “

• Henry Ford

Henry Ford decided that he was going to produce an affordable car for the masses,  his achievement and  use of mass production strategies to manufacture his famous Model T revolutionised industrial manufacturing and provided many lessons in productivity that are still used today. His manufacturing process was all about focus, time management, direction and confidence.

• Benjamin Franklin

An odd one I know, but Benjamin Franklin was one of the key founding fathers of the United States and around 9pm every day he would consider his day and ask himself ”what good have I done today?” By recapping the day’s events and activities he was able to prioritise and set a road-map for the next 24hours, focusing on what is important and what to deliver on a daily basis. He analysed his progress and knew what important tasks to complete where and by when.

• You!

I hope that this has inspired you a little and now that you have read this and seen how you can become more productive at work and in your life, make sure that you learn from these exceptionally productive superstars and really put these tools into action. Make a difference in your life and work now and become the next Productivity Superstar we write about!