Productivity: Up & Challenged

Productivity, the amount of goods and services Americans produced in each hour they worked, grew rapidly in the third quarter, the Labor Department reported yesterday. The gain was the fifth consecutive quarterly increase, a much stronger performance than usual in times of economic weakness.

On the other hand, the New York Times reports,"economists said the gains did not necessarily foreshadow a quick upturn in today's slack economy. In part, that is because the sources of productivity gains have changed. Corporate leaders who turned their attention outward in the late 1990's, looking for advanced technologies to expand their businesses, are returning to the search for internal efficiencies — how to be better, rather than bigger."

And that, of course, is why a leader's influence on a colleague's effort is so critical today...

Lead Well® helps organizations to improve measurable results by developing their current and future leaders. For more information, please contact us. By phone, toll-free in the USA: 1-888-LeadWell (532-3935), or 1-609-716-9490. By email, Info@LeadWell.com.

REPUBLICATION: Permission is granted for publishing this article in periodicals provided that you:

1) Notify us (Info@LeadWell.com) and

2) Include the following attribution statement:

Don Blohowiak, a management consultant and popular conference speaker, is the author of several business books. The executive director of the Lead Well® Institute in Princeton, NJ, he may be reached at http://www.LeadWell.com/.

SELLING this material requires our written permission.

TRADEMARKS: "Lead Well" and "Natural Selection" are registered trademarks, and "Lead by Design" is a trademark, owned by Don Blohowiak, Lead Well Institute.

Copyright © 2005, Don Blohowiak, Lead Well Institute

~ All Rights Reserved ~