Extraordinary management requires extraordinary thinking, and these creative workplace strategies are proven to supercharge team productivity over a sustained period. The following are innovative ideas used in companies all over the world to help high-performance teams crank efficiency up a few notches. 1. Schedule a FedEx Day Australian software company Atlassian holds what it calls FedEx…

We’re at the halfway mark of Lifehack’s 12 Days of Giveaways holiday promotion and it’s been a great success so far. We’ve received plenty of entries with some great comments for each — it’s too bad we can only choose a limited amount of winners. That said, there are still giveaways coming each weekday until…

I have a family member who is always clashing with her boss. I wonder if part of the problem is that she takes professional criticism personally. Over Thanksgiving one year, she explained to me that she is rejection sensitive, meaning that she’s attuned to any cue that she is being rebuffed, and has the…

In a recent TED talk, activist Jeremy Gilley discusses his inspiring mission of “Persuading the world to try living in peace for just one day.” Adhering to a single day of peace allows for the immunization of rural populations, aid to be distributed, freedom to travel and the transmission of information. Most importantly…

My first boss disliked me so much I thought I had hurt one of her relatives.  She’d call me into her office and yell at me for dressing too casually, interrupting colleagues in meetings and other infractions real and imagined.  I didn’t know how to talk to her but I couldn’t stand the situation…

Humor and laughter provide so many rewards. Studies have shown 20 seconds of laughter yield the same benefits as 3 minutes of hard rowing. A Robert Half International study reported 84% of executives believe a worker with a good sense of humor does a better job. Incorporating humor more effectively in the workplace allows…

Do you have any friends or colleagues who are negative? If so, you’ll know they aren’t the most enjoyable people to be around. Negative people can be real downers in any conversation. No matter what you say, they have a way of spinning things in a negative direction. Some negative people can be so negative…

In high school, didn’t a part of you always wonder how the cool kids did it? Popularity remained an enigmatic aspect of human existence that ceased to be relevant once we threw our caps in the air…right? There are scores of research studies on popularity in schools, and most have indicated that popular children…

Productivity expert Jason Womack is working on a project aimed at teenagers on the careers of tomorrow.  He asked me to contribute a few ideas, and he graciously agreed to let me turn it into an article for Lifehack.org.  From where I sit, there are a couple of very broad categories in which people can…

If there’s one person to keep happy at work [other than yourself], it’s your boss. When they’re not happy, though, it can be difficult to stay on their good side. So when faced with a grumpy boss, try not to give in to a negative workspace and attempt to change the situation for the better. Brad…

Two of the greatest influences on management thinking and practice have been the militaristic politics of the Roman Empire (via the Roman Catholic Church—a masterpiece of top-down, centralized, hierarchical control) and the world’s armies. Look at the words we use: “command and control,” “stuck in the trenches,” “didn’t have the firepower.” We “attack the issues head-on.”…

Research at the Norwich Business School by Prof Yehuda Baruch is suggesting that allowing, or even encouraging, some bad language in the workplace could benefit employee morale and spirit. “We hope that this study will serve not only to acknowledge the part that swearing plays in our work and our lives,” said Baruch, “but also to…

Can you name four different facets of energy that will get you through your work day? Do you know how you can better manage that energy so you work, and play, better? President and founder of The Energy Project in New York and a co-author of The Power of Full Engagement Tony Schwartz says the key…

It’s been said that a man who stands on principle is bound to face personal attack. In my line of work, school administration, this has certainly been true as attacks can come literally from out of the blue. A longtime colleague can take you on, seemingly out of the blue with a laundry…

Author of “Motivation from the Inside Out: Rethinking Rewards, Assessment, and Learning” and “Beyond Bribes and Threats: Realistic Alternatives to Controlling Students’ Behavior”, Alfie Kohn wrote this piece for the New York Times in 1993 about rewards in the workplace not motivating employees the right way. Kohn suggests that these rewards act the exact same as…