Keys to Personal Productivity
Robert E. Megill · SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition · 1984
ABSTRACT Too often persons with technical skills believe that their productivity is dependent solely upon their professional skills. There is a lot of experience that proves otherwise. There are several key ingredients that affect all professional productivity and they have little to do with technical skills. A complete list of these attributes would include attitude, the urge to accomplish, integrity, the ability to supervise people effectively, skills in writing and oral communication, the recognition of the need to train and get along with others, teamwork and finally the need to find your niche in the organization. This paper will discuss the first three of these attributes, primarily because they are the most important. They are partly innate, yet the inherent basic ingredient can be augumented with proper attention. They are also important because they influence all of the other key elements in personal productivity. Attitude, the urge to accomplish and personal integrity are the three most important keys to personal productivity, and they are almost completely within the control of the professional. If you ask employees why a company exits the most common answer is "to make a profit". That is, in reality, the wrong answer. Drucker aptly defined profit as the cost of staying in business. It is a vital ingredient. But let's approach this question from a different point of view. When you buy a new car is one of your personal concerns that the dealer make money? Probably you think not. So from a buyer's point of view a business does not exist solely to make a profit. Why, then, does a corporation exist? Any profit making entity exists for one of two reasons: To supply a better product or to provide a superior service. This statement does not diminish the value of profit. It does, however, begin to help us immediately focus on what we can do -- first -- in thinking about our own personal productivity. We will do a better job in whatever we are assigned if we constantly remember that our firm exists to provide a better product or a superior service. Furthermore, if we do this at a reasonable cost profits will be a natural consequence of our business activities. All too often persons with technical skills believe that their productivity is dependent solely upon their professional knowledge. There is a lot of experience that proves otherwise. There are several key ingredients that affect all professional productivity and they have little to do with technical skills. An extensive list of these attributes would include attitude, the urge to accomplish, integrity, the ability to supervise people effectively, skills in writing and oral communication, the recognition of the need to train and get along with others, teamwork, and finally the need to find your niche in the organization by capitalizing on your strengths. This paper will concentrate on the first three, primarily because they are the most important. They are partly innate, yet the inherent basic ingredient can be augmented with proper attention. They are also the most important because they influence all of the other key elements in personal productivity.