Robert C. Pozen > Quotes

“PREPARING FOR A SPEECH The key to effective speaking is preparing well before the event. Preparatory activities can be divided into three main areas: knowing your audience, structuring your speech, and practicing your delivery.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“First, read the introduction carefully, looking for the theme sentence or paragraph that will unlock the whole article or chapter. The theme sentence or paragraph often encapsulates the ideas and structure of the piece. Then skip directly to the conclusion. Why? Because the conclusion tells you where the writer is going to end up. It usually summarizes his or her main points and, if it’s well done, suggests what the writer thinks are the key takeaways. Only when you know where the writer is aiming should you read the body of the text. (I’ll have more to say on how to read the body of text shortly.)”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Although most people believe they are ethical, few have actually written down their own code of ethics. Don’t rely solely on the mission statement or compliance manual supplied by your firm. Instead, identify three or four main principles that will guide your personal behavior over your professional career—and write them down. For each principle, think about why you believe it is important. Then think about a situation in which you would find it difficult to abide by that principle, and consider how you would address the challenge.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Once the Q&A session begins, you should abide by the following ground rules: • When someone asks a question, make sure it is heard by everyone. Repeat the question if necessary. • To encourage more questions from the audience, respond to initial volunteers by saying, “That is an excellent question.” • Don’t let one person dominate the Q&A session; if no one else volunteers, call on one of your “planted” questioners. • Don’t let anyone give a speech instead of posing a question; if someone starts down that road, ask him or her politely to get to a question. • If you are asked an unexpectedly tough question, repeat the question to give yourself time to think of a good answer. • Give a thoughtful answer to each question, but don’t go on too long. An in-depth answer might be of interest only to the person who asked.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“When Amabile analyzed the data, she came to a clear conclusion about one key factor: workers are happiest—and most motivated—when they feel that they accomplish something meaningful at work. These accomplishments do not need to be major breakthroughs: incremental but noticeable progress toward a goal was enough to make her subjects feel good. As one programmer described it, “I smashed that [computer] bug that’s been frustrating me for almost a calendar week. That may not be an event to you, but I live a very drab life, so I’m all hyped.”1 The lesson here is that managers can get the most out of their employees by helping them achieve meaningful progress every day.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“My approach to creating an outline is completely systematic: first I brainstorm, next I categorize, and then I outline the final product. • Brainstorm: I take a blank piece of paper and jot down all my thoughts on the relevant subject. My goal is to get down as many ideas as possible, not to put them into any particular order. • Categorize: Next I put the ideas into various categories and subcategories. This process helps me organize my ideas into groupings, which will become the building blocks of an outline. • Outline: Then I arrange and rearrange the groupings in various combinations. In the end, I try to find a logical order for the groupings, which can serve as a writing outline.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“1. Understanding key ideas. I recently read an article in the Economist on declining marriage rates among women in Asia. I had no immediate use for the detailed statistics in that article, but I thought I might use them in the future to describe how demographic trends affect public retirement plans. So I skimmed it to learn the general trends. 2. Finding specific facts. At the opposite pole is reading closely for facts. When I’m preparing for a board meeting, I carefully look over the memos and reports related to the company’s quarterly performance. I want to be able to remember certain key statistics and substantive points to discuss with the board.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Start with an Introduction In my view, a good introduction must fulfill three objectives: • Provide the reader with context • State the main theme of the author • Explain the organization of the writing At the start, the reader needs background facts to understand why he or she is spending time on the piece.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Consider the following questions when deciding whether to discuss a disagreement with your boss: How big are the stakes involved? Do you think you can prevail in this argument? What will happen if you don’t fight at all? If the stakes are modest or your chances of prevailing are low, grit your teeth and go along with your boss’s position. Remember the lyrics from the Kenny Rogers song: “You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.”5”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“By letting the participants create their own follow-ups and time schedule, I’m trying to create a sense of ownership in them. This principle is known as the “IKEA Effect,” named for the home furnishings retailer whose products are notoriously difficult to assemble. The IKEA Effect states that by forcing consumers to play an active role in the assembly of their dresser or bookshelf, they will value the product more highly than if it were assembled in store.11 In a similar fashion, by creating their own deadlines, employees will be more motivated to meet them.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Unfortunately, a good reputation for personal integrity, developed over many years, can be lost quickly. Warren Buffett was exactly right when he said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”20 The psychologists John Skowronski and Donal Carlston have demonstrated that people don’t evaluate someone’s integrity by observing all of her actions and taking some sort of “average.”21 Rather, people place a heavier weight on negative actions. For a person to be a “liar,” he needs to tell a lie only occasionally; for a person to be “honest,” he must tell the truth all the time.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“But I’m not talking about that kind of passive skimming. To actively skim the body of an article or chapter, you should read the top of each paragraph. A good writer starts each paragraph with a topic sentence, followed by supporting facts or arguments. Once you’ve read the first sentence, you can decide whether it’s worth reading the rest of the paragraph. To figure out whether you should read the rest of the paragraph, you should answer this critical question: will the rest of the paragraph help you achieve one of the reading purposes that I mentioned earlier? If you’re reading for specific facts or to discover new sources, the question is easy to answer: read the rest of the paragraph only if it includes such a fact or source.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“One way to keep a meeting to ninety minutes is simple: schedule it for ninety minutes. If you schedule a meeting for two or three hours, that is how long it will take. If you schedule a meeting for one hour on the same subject, it will still finish on schedule. As Saul Kaplan, the founder of the Business Innovation Factory, put it, “Meetings are like a gas expanding to fill all available space.” Cabletron, a cable TV company in New Hampshire, takes a more radical approach: it bans chairs in its meeting room. With everyone standing, it’s easy to enforce the company’s thirty-minute limit on meetings.6”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Introductory Presentations If there are no advance materials—or if participants do not have the time to read them—the convener will have to make extensive opening remarks describing the issues in detail.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“I like to speak from a one-page outline. The outline might include an actual sentence to get started and another sentence as a closer. But the rest would be a brief sketch of the main steps in the speech, with a few supporting points for each step. This helps me keep the line of argument foremost in my mind and convey it clearly to my audience. It also allows me to adapt my speech to the audience easily as I sense the mood in the room.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Personally, I type the left-hand side of my calendar on Microsoft Outlook, then print out the pages and write the right-hand side in longhand. That way I can easily revise my goals throughout the day using a pen, instead of tapping on my BlackBerry’s keyboard. Other people manage their calendar exclusively on their computer or smartphone, through Outlook or products such as Google Calendar. It doesn’t matter—do whichever works best for you. The Left-Hand Side: Meetings, Phone Calls, and Other Assignments Take a look at my schedule for the day. Note that I have not filled up every hour—there are several blocks of “free time” in my schedule.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“ACTIVELY REMEMBERING As you read an article or memo, constantly ask yourself what you want to remember from it. Although this is closely related to the earlier discussion of reading purposes, it has a different time dimension. Think about your purpose for reading before and during your review of the material. Think about what you want to remember during and after you review the material.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Even in the United States, I recommend that you appoint someone in every meeting to play devil’s advocate. That person’s job is to argue against what is being proposed by emphasizing the negatives, such as tough competitors or regulatory hurdles. In that manner, the meeting avoids the problem of “in-house baseball,” where everyone agrees on a proposal without careful analyses of the counterarguments. I’ve attended too many meetings that proceeded as if the firm faced no serious competitors or resource constraints.10”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“managers don’t seem to be aware of this. In a related study, Amabile asked 669 managers to rank five different factors affecting employee morale: support for making progress, recognition for good work, monetary incentives, interpersonal support, and clear goals. Only 5 percent ranked support for making progress first, and most ranked it dead last.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Show Clear Relationships When you are trying to connect more than one clause, sentence, or paragraph, make sure to express the relationship between them clearly. This means using words such as “since,” “because,” “after,” “before,” “however,” or “nevertheless,” which show the reader why, when, where, or how the new idea relates to the prior one. By contrast, additive words such as “and,” “in addition,” and “besides” fail to show how the ideas are related.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Next, the introduction should summarize the main theme of your memo. In other words, tell the reader the core of your argument. Here is one illustration of a thematic summary for such a memo: This memo will argue that a “greening” initiative would improve the company’s bottom line. The costs of this initiative would be more than offset by reduced energy expenses, potential tax savings, and long-term improvements to our company’s image. The final portion of the introduction should lay out a road map for the rest of the memo, explaining the structure in a way that’s consistent with any headings or subtitles. This will help your readers follow your reasoning. A good road map should be just one paragraph with a clear sequence.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Neglectful Boss Some managers are on the other end of the spectrum. Instead of micromanaging their subordinates’ projects, they fail to give any directions at all. In an extreme case, their subordinates may feel that their boss is ignoring them. As a result, they feel that they have to guess what their bosses want. To fix this problem, you’ll have to be very assertive to get your boss’s attention. If you receive an assignment with unclear goals, ask for clarification right then and there. Don’t leave your boss’s office or hang up the phone until you are satisfied that you know what you need to do. During the course of the project, you should also communicate more frequently with your boss. For instance, if you send your boss a key email every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 4 p.m., he or she will know that it’s important—and be more likely to respond to it. If that doesn’t work, try to speak face-to-face with your boss about getting more direction. Be specific about what you need and how your boss can be helpful. If your boss still ignores you at this point, look elsewhere in the organization for mentors who can provide you with some form of guidance.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“How can you make that happen on a regular basis? Try to sleep during the same hours each night (e.g., 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.); this routine will help you develop a sleep rhythm. Don’t have dinner after 8 p.m., or you may have digestive problems when you get into bed for the night. Install effective window coverings to keep your bedroom very dark. Take extra care to eliminate blue light coming from cell phones, clocks, and so forth, as blue light is especially disruptive to the hormones that make you feel sleepy. Last, keep a pad of paper on the nightstand next to your bed. I sometimes cannot fall asleep until I have cleared my mind by jotting down reminders of things to do or ideas to explore.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Again, we want our writing to support effective reading. That means doing two things: 1. Dividing the body with headings or subtitles to show the structure of the document. 2. Starting each paragraph with a topic sentence so readers can easily read off the tops of the paragraphs. Readers should be able to follow the progression of your argument by reading only these topic sentences; the rest of each paragraph should provide factual or analytic support for the topic sentence.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Writing requires a high degree of concentration. You should try to find a place that is a little out of the flow and clear your plate of possible distractions such as computer games and ringing cell phones. Personally, I like to write early in the morning before the buzz of the day begins. I have a friend who can write only in the evening after everyone has left the office and it is very quiet. Both of us like to write on long plane or train rides, where we can get a several-hour block of undisturbed time. You should write regularly at the time of day that works best for you.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“You and your lieutenants need to embrace the principle of “Owning Your Own Space.” Under this principle, all employees in a large company view themselves as the owners of a small business. I’ll show you later exactly how to implement this principle, but here’s the gist of it: after setting clear goals for a project, give your employees broad discretion to decide how best to achieve these goals—and then get out of their way. This creates the right environment for your employees to do their best work, and it frees up time for you to focus on your highest Objectives and Targets.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“In my view, you can increase your career options if you start by studying a “hard” subject instead of a “soft” one. A hard subject is one that is more rigorous, where there is generally a right answer and a wrong answer, such as physics. You should learn hard subjects first because they teach you the fundamental skills that are needed to evaluate softer subjects. For example, if you first obtain a rigorous education in statistical methods, you will have some of the tools necessary to analyze the impact of many public policies. Furthermore, softer subjects are easier to learn on your own. You might be able to pick up the main ideas of a certain field of sociology by reading some papers, but you probably can’t learn the fundamentals of neurophysiology without formal instruction.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Second, you need an effective opening. That means thanking the group that invited you to speak and expressing appreciation if someone gives you a nice introduction. Next, you should tell a joke or story to loosen up the crowd and show your human side. For example, after expressing appreciation for an effusive introduction, I might say, “But you forgot my basketball career!” I would then briefly recount my teenage efforts to guard Calvin Murphy, who went on to be a high scorer at college and an All-Star player for the Houston Rockets. I was determined to guard Calvin closely—if he went to the water cooler during time-outs, I went, too. By guarding Calvin really closely for the whole game, I held him to 56 points—only 6 above his season’s average. At that point I decided to give up my basketball ambitions and concentrate on finance.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Many “pure volume” metrics, such as calls made and repairs completed, are susceptible to cherry-picking concerns. In such cases, use multiple indicators that are adjusted for the risks involved—metrics that take into account the difficulty of cases taken instead of encouraging your employees to take only the easy ones.”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

“Over the past twenty years, various researchers have shown that making conscious decisions (“Which shirt do I want to wear?”) as well as engaging in self-control (“I’d better eat the carrots instead of the cookies!”) tire out your brain, much as a muscle fatigues from exercise.4”
― Robert C. Pozen, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours