Can Slow Productivity Actually Make You Successful?

What makes you successful at your job?

Is it your salary?

Regular promotions?

The ability to come into the office later than everyone else?

It’s actually none of the above. While you might think you’re doing good at your job, you’re probably not as productive as you think.

As more and more companies announce layoffs, it’s clear they’re looking for ways to reduce costs. The name of the game moving forward is productivity and efficiency. For workers that means understanding how your job relates to the bottom line and making yourself more valuable.

Productivity for today’s knowledge workers isn’t as clearly defined as it was for workers during the industrial age. When Henry Ford introduced the assembly line into manufacturing, workers and management could clearly track progress and efficiency. A factory knew how many widgets it produced per hour and management could determine which workers were helping them achieve production goals — and which were not.

Knowledge work is completely different. Most tasks are bespoke and subjective to the needs of individual organizations and clients. The process Nike uses to launch a new product, for example, is different from Google. While you can compare the economic value…