Attracting, Energizing, and Retaining the Best Talent with Maura Thomas

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Do you feel productive? How do you measure productivity? Maura Thomas joins Kevin to discuss the pitfalls of constant busyness versus true productivity and the need for leaders to prioritize thinking. She shares that leaders and organizational culture can unintentionally hinder productivity. Leaders often underestimate their influence not only on employees' work lives but also on their personal lives, attitudes, and mental well-being.

Listen for...

00:00 Introduction

00:07 Importance of creating a desirable workplace

02:15 Discussion about Maura's journey into productivity

06:50 Focus on knowledge work and defining it

08:13 Challenges of measuring productivity in knowledge work

09:01 Impact of leaders' behaviors on organizational culture

10:31 People view leaders differently than they view themselves

12:19 Four quadrants of attention management: reactive, focused, daydreaming, flow

17:20 Task switching has a cost and disrupts productivity

18:45 The difference between being busy and being productive

22:07 It's not just about the tools, but how we use them

24:41 The volume of communication in organizations is too high

26:13 Agreements are needed for communication expectations

27:10 Resetting the culture of urgency is important

28:27 Importance of efficient remote communication

29:15 Tips for effective one-on-one meetings

33:11 Impact of after-hours communication on employee stress

37:23 Closing

Meet Maura

Name: Maura Nevel Thomas
Maura's Story: Maura Nevel Thomas is the author of 6 books, including her latest, Everyone Wants to Work Here: Attract the Best Talent, Energize Your Team, and Be The Leader in Your Market. She is an award-winning international speaker and trainer on individual and corporate productivity and work-life balance, and the most widely-cited authority on attention management. Her proprietary Empowered Productivity™ System has been embraced by the likes of NASA, Google, and Dyson. She is a TEDx Speaker, founder of Regain Your Time, author of six books, and was named a Top Leadership Speaker in Inc. Magazine. Maura is frequently featured in major business outlets including Business Insider, Fast Company, and Washington Post, and she’s also a regular contributor to both Forbes and the Harvard Business Review, with articles there viewed over a million times.

"Most leaders are unaware of how much impact their everyday behaviors have on the organizational culture and how seemingly innocent decisions can negatively impact the lives of their employees." Said by Maura Thomas on The Remarkable Leadership Podcast with Kevin Eikenberry

This episode is brought to you by...

The Long-Distance Team. Remote leadership experts, Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel, help leaders navigate the new world of remote and hybrid teams to design the culture they desire for their teams and organizations in their new book!

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