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Better Time Management in an Instant!

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Time Management

Time management has been on my mind for a while now. Early last year I re-read Druckers’ Effective Executive – the second chapter of which, ‘Know they Time’, is devoted to time management. I recommend it highly!

For the vast majority of managers that I work with making significant improvements in their time management is quick and easy. It simply requires them to:

  • Work out their top priority for the coming week/month
  • Block out at least 2 x 90 minute slots each week when they are going to work – without interruption – on moving that priority forward.

It takes no more than that – get time for your priorities on your schedule!

This is important because so many managers just hope to fit progress on key priorities around a morass of standing meetings, e-mail and fire-fighting. Weeks slip by without any focus on progressing the priority. Yet once it is scheduled – and the time protected – BINGO! – the priority gets time and progress is made.

And while I am at it – unless work is really THE most important thing in your life – take great care about giving up week-ends and evenings to do it. Working longer hours is rarely the key to getting more done. It usually results in getting less done and only serves to slow down the rate of work; why have a sense of urgency to get the job done if you can always stay just another half an hour?

If you find that you must work evenings or week-ends then always make sure that you have a firm end-time for the work fixed – and stick to it. Make an appointment with what you love outside of work (family, hobby whatever) immediately after your work commitment and keep it. This will force you to use your time effectively.

Are You Managing the Whole Team?

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In my experience most managers spend much of their management discretionary time working with their stars: those employees who are really up for the job and always willing to take on new assignments as they look to develop their careers. The rewards of working with this group are seductive – but not without risk.

Firstly they are not representative of the majority of your employees. It is easy to believe (or hope) that they are, and that what works with them can be extrapolated successfully to the wider team. For example, crafting an internal communication about the latest management initiative with this group can often result in sending out a message that others find naive.

Secondly this group are unlikely to REALLY challenge you or give you the unvarnished truth. This group are ambitious and want to do well. They will see you as a gatekeeper to career development and are unlikely to risk rocking the boat.

I see managers spending some time managing under performers but usually only when things have become really critical and the issue can no longer be ducked. Instead of actively managing the very first signs of under-performance and getting things back on track quickly, most managers wait until the problem is almost irreparable. When they do act it is usually pretty drastic. Managing under-performance is, in my experience, one of the most poorly executed management tasks and one of the most immediately damaging to both morale and performance.

This leaves a band of employees that get relatively little management attention.

These are the loyal employees, perhaps in their 40s or older who have decided that they don’t want to get to the top. But they do want to do a good job that they feel proud of. They want to work with good people and they want to learn how to do their current job better. Much better in most cases. Yet they often get very little management time.

In part this is because they no longer choose to get involved with every new project that comes along (they are not interested in being ‘seen’ by top management as a promotion candidate). And in part is because they will continue to work well with a minimum of maintenance – for a while. It seems that we can afford to neglect them and no harm is done.

Unfortunately this is not the case. Over time this group can become cynical and jaded as their contribution is rarely recognised or rewarded. They can easily become technically skilled but disengaged – doing just what they need to get by. This is one reason why this group should always get their fair share of management time. But they are also a tremendous resource in at least two areas. Firstly they have experience and technical skills. They are usually pretty good at what they do. This means that they could do a good job working with some of the less experienced team members and passing on what they know. Secondly, if you build the right relationships, and ask them the right questions they are far more likely to tell you the unvarnished truth.

  • How much of your time is spent working with your stars?
  • How much of your time is spent managing under performers? Do you do this effectively? Really?
  • What about with that middle band of loyal employees that can so easily be allowed to retire on the job?

A well established programme of 121s, supported by effective team meetings and good performance management processes including feedback, coaching and delegation can go a very long way to helping you become an effective manager for the whole team.

Give Your (Best) People Compelling Reasons to Stay

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This is a time of year when people reflect on careers and opportunities. Your best people will have aspirations and ability to pursue them.

  • Do you know what they are?
  • Are you are doing enough to help them stay?

The Mavericks at Work Blog has just published a post helping those with restless hearts and souls to reflect on reasons for leaving or staying in a job. They encourage potential leavers to reflect on the following:

  • Does my company stand for something—anything—special? It’s hard to be thrilled with your job if the company you work for is struggling to succeed, or feels stuck and irrelevant.
  • Am I excited to see my colleagues when I show up for work on Monday morning? “Working for” a company is an abstraction. The reality is that you work with the people closest to you.
  • Do I have a voice at work—does anyone who matters listen to what I say? There’s nothing more depressing and demotivating than feeling that you don’t matter as a person.
  • Am I learning as fast as the world is changing? In a world that moves so fast, the most dangerous thing in anyone’s career is the sense that you’re standing still.
  • Am I making enough money? Strange as it sounds, this is the worst reason to leave a job.

Research tells us that people ‘join an organisation but leave their manager’.

  • Are you doing all that you can to make sure that your best staff, when they think about these questions, decide that there is nowhere they would rather be?

With recruiters telling us that the cost of making a new hire is typically something like 140% of the annual salary of the post this could a very valuable or expensive exercise!

Action Yearning

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‘Santiago taught me about turning dreams into reality – he taught me how yearning has a dynamic to it that is incredibly powerful.  It is important, simply to be open and alive to possibility, to encourage people rather than to be suspicous of them, and to see the potential for success rather than the potential for failure.  This is where true knowledge and learning can be found…’

The Social Entepreneur – Andrew Mawson 

Much wisdom in this piece – whether you are a manager trying to get the best from a team or whether you are supporting entrepreneurs.

The book is a great read too!

Qualifications or Achievement?

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I am often asked whether I would ever consider linking the Progressive Managers’ training to an external qualification such as a management NVQ or similar.  There are several reasons why I resist this.

I work best with managers who are interested in developing their practice – not theory.  Managers who want to make things happen and achieve outstanding results.  Not managers who want to spend time sharing their thoughts on case studies and texts or preparing evidence of what they can do for an assessor.

Most learning does not happen in the workshops that I run. It happens when people go back to the workplace and start to follow the recipes and routines that they have been taught.  I know that what I teach is useful, practical and effective.  I also know that the best results are obtained when managers take what I teach, apply it and then develop it based on their own experience, context and culture.  It is only those that apply what I teach and learn from it that should be recognised.  Not anyone who happens to show up for training.

Why pay an awarding body or an assessor to make judgements about what you know and can do?  Let your results speak for themselves.  Focus on being recognised by your peers, reports and your boss as an outstanding manager who achieves outstanding results – both in terms of performance and people development.  As long as you keep your CV up to date with clear descriptions of what you have achieved you will be as attractive to a future employer as any MBA.

I know very few people that really trust management qualifications.  Management qualifications are increasingly becoming devalued.  The qualifications are poor proxies for what someone can actually do.  Do any serious recruiters really pay much attention to whether you have an NVQ level 4 in Operational Management or not?  Certainly not the ones that I talk with!

This devaluation is partly because assessment, although expensive in time and effort, is very weak.  Having a qualification is, in my experience, no guarantee that you can achieve results as a manager.

The complexity of most management qualification structures does not help either.  Nearly all have a ‘core and options’ structure that means Sherlock Holmes might struggle to understand from a qualification what you know and can do.  Indeed in the UK if you look up management qualification there are over 400 recognised on the National Database of accredited qualifications.

Now please don’t get me wrong.  There are some great managers who have worked hard to get qualifications.  The problem is that there are also many average and poor managers who have the same qualifications.  If you want to make a positive difference and develop a successful career then focus on developing your practice – not picking up qualifications.

And if you are one of those good managers with the qualifications then don’t rely on the qualification to make you stand out from the crowd.  Emphasise the responsibilities that you have held and what you have achieved in relation to those responsibilities.  If you are a good manager then this will get you recognised by your bosses, peers and recruiters.