Managing people
takes time. It may take an inefficient or in effective manager longer
to plan, supervise, and evaluate some one else’s work than to just
do it herself.
The answer isn’t
to fire the staff. The Answer is to manage them effectively. Here are
seven time management tips that will help you do it.
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1. Never
waste their time :
Does the sight of one of your workers standing idle threaten you? If
so, resist the temptation to assign busy work, just to keep them moving.
You waste their time, of course and you also waste your time, thinking
about the work, explaining and supervising it, pretending to care about
it when it’s done. You’ll also be eroding their trust in you
and yours decisions. They know its busy work. Don’t fill their
time for them. Show them what needs doing show them how to do it. Make
sure they have the tools they need. Then get out the way.
2. Make Sure
the Time Savers are Really Saving Their Time :
A Researcher recently conducted a time management seminar at a large
Wisconsin company as his host led him through the bullpen office area
to the classroom, he noticed two folks standing by the fax machine,
their tensed bodies tensed with anticipation. As the machine started
to whir, one reached out and actually tugged on the sheet of paper to
make it come out faster.
What’s wrong
with this picture, two workers employed waiting for a fax to arrive?
The fax is supposed
to save time, right? But we soon learn to fax material that could have
gone by good old pony express, and we put off writing the letter until
it has to go by fax. That doesn’t save time: it just increases
pressure. Some body has to choose the fax with the new, improved, faster
fax, bought with money somebody had to spend time to produce. Have we
saved time here? Not really.
We are not advocating
a retreat to the Stone Age. We don’t even want to think about trying
to write without a computer, research with out the internet or handle
phone calls without voice mail. But these good slaves can make terrible
masters, driving your staff to distraction with their bells and beeps
and buzzers. Make sure the machines work for the people and not the
other way around.
3. Separate the
important from the Merely Urgent for your Staff :
For your staff, as for yourself, you need to distinguish between truly
important activities, those that serve the central mission, and the
stuff that seems to demand immediate attention without really meriting
it. Do you and your staff ever engage in long – terms planning,
skill training, or needed conflict management? Or do these things get
lost in the daily clamor? You’ll never “find” time to
do these vital activities with your staff. As a good manager, you must
be sure to make the time. Ask “why? For the phone calls and memos
and faxes demand your staff’s immediate attention. Can you relive
some of the pressure and release your staffers for more important work?
4. Tell Them
why : “ why do I have to do this ?”
If that question from a staffers feels like a threat to your authority,
if you become defensive when you hear such a question, your staffers
will learn to keep the questions to themselves. But they’ll still
wonder. They have the right and the need to know the purpose of their
work. When you ask them to do something, give them a good reason. You’ll
have a more motivated and mere efficient workforce.
5. Allow them
Enough time for the Task :
Be realistic in your demands. Don’t overstuff the staff. For what
you do, you’ll get shoddy work. You might even get less work. Even
a conscientious, willing worker does not perform well under unreasonable
pressure.
6. Encourage
them to do one thing well at a time :
Watch your staff work. Are they on the phone, jotting notes, eyeing
the computer screen all while trying o grab a fast sandwich? Getting
a lot done? Probably no, and they’re probably not getting anything
done well. If your co worker is on the phone with a potential client,
you want that worker’s total attention on the task at hand, not
thinking about the next project or the last project or the work that
isn’t getting done. They’ll work faster and better, with less
need for clarification during or revision later.
7. Cut down on
Meeting Time :
Ask your staff to make a list of things they least like to do and chances
are “ go to meeting “ will rank right up there with “take
work home over the weekend”,. Most of us hate meetings, and with
good reason. We avoid them if we can resent them when we can’t
and complain about them before, during and after. So, our first tips
here ought to be obvious but apparently isn’t doing have a meeting
if you have a good reasons to meet. That means never, right? Wrong.
You really do need meetings you can create a productive interaction
that just doesn’t occur with memos or e-mails or phone calls or
one on one conversation. People get a better grasp of the whole operation.
Names become faces, and faces become individuals. You can develop and
maintain a sense of shared purpose and cooperation. In a meeting:
· Every one
hears the same thing at the same time, remaining some (but, alas, not
all) miscommunication.
· If people don’t understand , they can ask for clarification
· The speaker can use non verbal clues(crossed arms , frowns
, glazed ,eyes, eager nodding ) to determine how people are responding
to a proposal
· Most important, when people interact, they create ideas that
never would have occurred otherwise.
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'Time tunnel' encapsulates Gasan's 80 years (Times of Malta)
Gasan Group chairman Joseph Gasan (left) and Gasan Enterprises managing director David Gasan show the Prime Minister and Mrs Gonzi round the 'time tunnel' at the Mediterranean Conference Centre last Wednesday. A 1931 Ford Model A is in the background.
Chess Match: Managing the pitchers (Major League Baseball)
Chess Match: Managing the pitchers
