Receiving a promotion or an increase in responsibility usually comes as good news. It’s positive recognition of a job well done. But with it can come an uncomfortable anxiety: now what? How am I going to find the time to get everything done?

If you’re in a situation with more responsibility than than you know what to do with, let me share my number one productivity tip – and a few others that will help you manage the load.

#1 Tip: Stop Doing Things That Don’t Matter

Have you ever decluttered a closet, an office or a messy garage? Invariable, you found items that were taking up space that served no purpose. The same thing can happen with our schedule. The most important thing you can do to increase your productivity is to stop doing the things that aren’t on the critical path to your objectives. In fact, don’t allow them time on your calendar to begin with.

We all have the same amount of time in any given day. How we spend it is up to us. Once you’re clear on what must be accomplished, you can decide in advance to cut out not only the time wasters but also the activities that add no real value.

Note that clarity about what is most important is always the precursor to productive execution.

Do Similar Tasks at the Same Time

One way to streamline your productivity is to group like tasks and complete them together, rather than spread out over several different times. I always try to schedule multiple meetings back-to-back so I can save the downtime to focus. Instead of reading and responding to emails as they come in, wait to address them together at certain points throughout the day. Leading means breaking out of “managing the queue” mode – even when the queue becomes quite large.

Have a System for Storing for Key Information

All of your important information needs to have a home. I use the Evernote app as my information hub. All my meeting notes, ideas, lists, etc. get recorded as soon as I have an update. This saves me from having to determine where to store new information and allows me to reference it immediately when I need to. Some people still use a pen and paper journal. The medium isn’t as important is simply having a system.

Read Articles Together

One of the upsides (and downsides) of living in the information/social media age is the wealth and breadth of information we all get bombarded with each day. In any given day, I receive articles from colleagues, find news items, see social media shares or do my own research. As with emails, instead of reading each article as it comes in (and interrupting whatever else I am working on in the moment), I save them to an article clipper (I use Get Pocket) and read them together when I have time.

Set Key Routines

Some of us like structure more than others, but routine enables certain critical tasks to get done in a timely manner. Consider these routines:

• What time you go to bed each night
• What time you get up each morning
• What you do between the time you get up and the time you arrive at work
• How you spend the first hour at work
• How you spend the first 30 minutes after returning from lunch
• How you spend the last 30 minutes at the office
• What time you leave work each day

Some of these times likely represent opportunity to reduce variability and set a routine you can use to streamline your key tasks.

Delegate Critical Tasks

The #1 productivity tip is to eliminate non-critical tasks altogether. This last tip is to delegate the tasks that are critical, but do not need to be completed by you.

A few weeks ago a met a virtual assistant at a networking event. (Yes, they actually exist!) She explained that she helps leaders accomplish as many tasks as possible to enable them to focus on the few critical tasks (e.g. revenue-producing) that must be completed by them.

The challenge for many leaders who have been given new responsibilities is that many became successful because of their careful management style. New responsibilities mean learning the new skill of delegation, which can be very uncomfortable at first.

At the end of the day, your productivity is your responsibility. Some leaders figure it out and rise to the challenge. Some struggle and reach their leadership ceiling. All of us have opportunities to improve. The good news is that as you commit to improving your productivity, each incremental improvement will increase your effectiveness.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

Now I’m thinking maybe they were on to something. Instead of ignoring the stress, they’re trying to be proactive about it. If the business reality won’t change anytime soon, maybe we can better adapt to it.

If you’ve got stress (or even if you don’t), this is probably a good place to start.

Get Clarity

One of the quickest ways to create stress for yourself and others is to be unclear on the desired result. Ambiguity and unclear expectations carry extremely high costs! Ultimately, it’s not mediocre results that limit effectiveness, it’s any kind of results (good or bad) spent heading in the wrong direction. Clarity brings focus. It makes it easy to distinguish between otherwise good options.

Investigate, Decide, Act!

I used to think I had a good handle on stress and worry. Then someone recommended reading Dale Carnegie’s classic book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. It not only raised my awareness immensely – it gave me many tools to combat stress, and also to limit the amount I bring onto myself.

One such example is the decision-making process. There’s something about a tough decision with many consequences that can really test our mettle. Carnegie had a simple response to this situation. First, get the facts. The longer you delay, the more ambiguity you choose to accept. Once you have the facts, make a decision. The act of not deciding keeps the burden squarely on your shoulders. Finally, once a decision has been made, act. In fact, until you act, it’s possible you haven’t really decided.

Talk it Out

One of the best ways to solve your stressful situation is actually one of the most simple: talk about it. It’s uncanny how effective this can be. Putting a feeling or state of being into words forces us to articulate and interpret our experience. Then, what we need to do often crystallizes when we speak it. This is particularly true when speaking with a good listener. If you’ve ever experienced an “ah-ha” moment in mid-sentence, you know what I’m talking about.

In some instances, you may benefit from a conversation with a professional leadership coach.

Let it Go

It’s sobering to realize how much is outside of our individual control – and embarrassing how hard we try anyhow. Many years ago I heard the mantra, “Change what you can control, and for the things you can’t control, change your attitude.” Organizational politics isn’t worth it. Personal drama isn’t worth it. Choose your battles wisely. Better to let the small things go and save your energy for when you really need it.

Rest Up

I worked with a leader recently who told me she routinely fell sleep well after 1 a.m. responding to work emails on her laptop in bed. It’s normal to experience temporary stretch periods but that work style is simply not sustainable in the long-term. In the case of this particular leader, her stress transferred onto her team and her best team members eventually found opportunities in other organizations.

Setting healthy work and life routines is a larger discussion than this one point can address, so let’s simply focus on rest. Vince Lombardi preached, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” Can I be incredibly practical? It is squarely your choice what time you go to bed and what time you get up in the morning. Any stress you experience will be exacerbated by a lack of sleep.

The longer I go, I realize talent can be an overemphasized predictor of success. Other factors, such as responding to stress, often make the difference.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

That’s a question we considered at a workshop I attended recently. Author Mark Miller and a team of facilitators walked a large group through the content of his new book Chess Not Checkers. The boardgame imagery? It’s symbolic for what happens as organizations grow. In the early stages of most small organizations or teams, the rules are simplistic and team members may play interchangeable roles much like the game pieces in a checkers game. But as growth occurs, complexity kicks in. Roles require specialists to address additional complications. The playing field starts to resemble a game of chess, rather than checkers. If we’re not careful, we’ll fall behind.

That’s what the workshop addressed. How do leaders elevate their game to match new organizational complexities? You can find the answers in the book (as well as the digital field guide), but let me share the four big ideas we discussed.

Bet on Leadership

It shouldn’t be a surprise that organizational success starts with leadership. But many organization are extremely reactive in this respect. They place their bet too late by waiting until new leaders are needed to begin looking for them. The best organizations have a strong leadership bench. They know who their future leaders are and work hard to prepare them beforehand so they are ready to go when the call comes.

The other thing to note is that a bet is not a sure thing. Not every leader works out. But in Mark Miller’s words, “You cannot be a great organization without great leadership.” Why? Because leadership growth always precedes organizational growth.

Act as One

It’s one thing for a leadership team to be on the same page. But what about the rest of the organization? It’s true that leadership teams are uniquely responsible for creating clarity. That is one job that cannot be outsourced. But do key organizational messages cascade effectively throughout the organization or quickly go awry like a kid’s game of telephone? Or worse yet, do they even leave the boardroom?

The silver lining in this regard is that nearly every organization struggles with communication at least to some extent. Perhaps it’s just part of the human condition. But great leaders make the extra effort to ensure key messages get to every level using multiple communication methods. And by the way, it’s impossible to over-communicate what’s truly important (in case you were worried about that).

Win the Heart

Great organizations foster a spirit of shared ownership. Instead of working for “the man,” followers and employees show up to work for themselves. It’s a completely different mentality, but it’s starts with leadership.

Has your organization ever helped your followers’ dreams come true? I’m not just talking about their need to make rent that month. Actual dreams. This was a real question posed at the workshop. Everyone present wrote down a life dream and shared it with the rest of the table. It may not be realistic to deliver the final product, but many times we can do more than we think to help followers take the next step on their journey.

Remember this: when you win the heart, you get best of everything else a person brings to the table with them (hands, mind, energy, skills, etc.).

Excel at Execution

Without results, the rest of the discussion about leadership is pretty useless. What’s the point? Unfortunately this is where many leadership initiatives start rather than end. Still, excelling at execution is a leadership responsibility. One way to improve is simply sharing the score. People tend to work harder and smarter when they know where they stand.

If your team is operating at less than full potential, there’s room to improve your leadership execution. It may be up to you to raise the bar.

So how about you – are you playing chess or checkers?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

What is your process for determining which projects get priority and which ones either get saved for later or dumped altogether?

Add your thoughts in the comments section below!

View the rest of the Powerful Questions series by clicking here.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

This may be how you feel about evaluation… unless you have a built-in evaluation plan. In that case, you’ll be ready to hand over the results of your training before management even asks for it.

So how do you evaluate learning programs? In this post, I’d like to summarize the Kirkpatrick Four Levels of Learning Evaluation.

Donald Kirkpatrick is the founder of training firm Kirkpatrick Partners and a past president of the American Society of Training & Development (ASTD). In 1954, Kirkpatrick developed what is now known as the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model as part of his doctoral dissertation. The comprehensive guide is presented in his book Evaluation Training Programs: The Four Levels. Here are the four levels:

Level 1: Reaction

This level measures the initial reaction of training participants to the content and event. It focuses both on their thoughts and feelings. Were they actively engaged? Did it seem relevant to them? Did they get to participate in the learning process? The Level 1 evaluation is most easily conducted onsite at the conclusion of the learning event, or at least very soon afterward. A short form or survey is usually the easiest tool to use.

Level 2: Learning

This level measures the increase in knowledge or capability as it relates to the course’s content. The ultimate goal is for participants to learn the material, develop the necessary skills, believe it is worthwhile, and be both confident and committed to using what they’ve learned. Depending on the course subject, evaluating this level may be a bit tricky. To measure an increase, obviously there ought to be a pre-event and post-event assessment. One method is to have practical exercises at the conclusion of the training to measure learning. Another is to use a test or observe on the work site afterwards.

Level 3: Behavior

This level measures the application of the learning in the participants’ work roles over time. The crucial part of this level is that the course’s learning goals must to be supported by the organization’s infrastructure, processes & systems in order to provide the sustained motivation for application. In other words, it needs to be easy for the participants to practice what they’ve learned without interference, and there should be visible rewards. One way to measure this is to interview managers who have been encouraged to observe their teams’ behavior after the learning event has taken place. (This is one reason it’s so important to involve managers in the course development).

Level 4: Results

This level is the ultimate measure of learning effectiveness: improved business results, such as increased sales, decreased turnover, higher employee engagement, etc. The great thing about this level is that management already measures these business results. The important thing for you is to be able to link the training to the results it ought to affect. Next, identify the performance of the participants for the next time period. Then you’ll be able to report that, “the average training participant had a 30% sales increase in the year following the training” or “customer service satisfaction levels for participants were 20% higher than for non-participants.” The more you can measure results, the better a case you make for your learning program.

Learning evaluation can at times seem complicated but it can also be provide immense clarity. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be. If you aren’t currently doing any evaluation of your learning programs, simply pick one level and start with that. The feedback you get will let you know if you’re on the right track.

Which level do you focus on the most?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

Complexity is the enemy of clarity.

Andy Stanley opened by sharing that complexity is a natural part of growth, but it can also be the greatest barrier if we’re not prepared for it. To keep things simple, always revisit these three questions: What are we doing? Why are we doing it? and Where do I fit in? As leaders, simplicity in the midst of complexity is our responsibility, and it’s hard work!

People don’t need more time, they need room to think.

Getting Things Done author David Allen reminded us that we can only feel good about what we’re not doing if we know what it is. How much time does it take to have a good idea? Only moments, but we don’t have creative space when our minds are cluttered. We are most productive when we have room to make a mess, but if we start with a mess, we’ll always feel out of control and lack focus.

We can’t have new beginnings without new endings.

Author Henry Cloud used ideas from his books Necessary Endings and Boundaries for Leaders to show the benefits of pruning. Organizations, just like plants, have only so many available resources. Make sure the best opportunities have enough resources by putting an end to the merely “good” opportunities.

Leaders should be good at math.

Leadership guru John Maxwell says that leadership is simply influence. His four math tips for leadership are: 1) Add value every day, 2) Subtract leadership landmines, 3) Multiply your strengths by developing them, and 4) Divide your strengths by delegating them.

Trust is a team commitment.

Duke University and Team USA head basketball coach “Coach K” Mike Krzyzewski explained that trust is the essential element to any great team because “when you have trust, two is better than one because two does it as one.” When you have trust, you tell the truth and expect the truth in return. There is no need to look sideways, only forward.

Leaders simply must be optimists.

In an interview with John Maxwell, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointed out that no one wants to follow a pessimist!

The one who fields the best team wins.

Former CEO of GE, Jack Welch, pointed out that “widgets” only last a short time. Good teams know where they’re going (vision), why they’re going there (mission) and how they’re going to get there (behaviors).

Values are always more important than performance.

When it comes to personnel moves, employees with high performance and high values should be put on the leadership track and low performers with low values should be cut loose. This is pretty much a no-brainer for everyone. What you do with the other two groups of people is crucial. According to Jack Welch, under-performers who model the organization’s values should be given second and third chances to get it right while high performers without the values should also be cut loose. Otherwise, they’ll ruin your culture.

If you don’t like people, leadership stinks!

Jack Welch said 70% of his role at GE was people development. There are teaching moments each day both for the positive and the negative. You have to be interested enough in people to use them! In Welch’s words, “you have no right calling yourself a manager if people don’t know where they stand with you!”

Invite your employees to be prepared to leave.

Of the many thoughts Jack Welch shared, this one was perhaps the most radical. Don’t invite your employees to leave if they can’t hack it – invite them to leave if YOU can’t hack it. Up the ante on yourself. If you aren’t giving your people the environment they need to succeed, tell them they owe it to themselves to have the self-confidence to find a better organization. Then work to make the job so good the people won’t want to leave.

Leadership is contagious.

Navy SEAL LCDR Roark Denver encouraged the audience to fight for every inch of improvement in an elite environment. Calm is contagious. In fact, everything is contagious, whether it’s calm, patience, even stupidity. If you do something well, your followers will do it better. Unfortunately if you do something poorly, your followers will do it worse.

Our country is worth it.

LCDR Roark Denver closed the event explaining what he called the unique covenant between our nation’s warriors and civilians. Our nation’s civilians give the military something worth fighting for, he said. Because of that, there ought to be as much interaction as possible for us to collaborate and learn from each other.

Of course there were many more teachable moments, but these were the biggest ones for me. To catch up on the social conversation, view #CFALeadercast on Twitter. (It was trending all day!). Next year’s event will take place on May 9, 2014. For more information, visit www.chick-fil-aleadercast.com.

For those who attended Leadercast (past or present), what were your biggest takeaways?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.