“Time once lost, can never be recovered.”    Geoffrey Chaucer en-route to Canterbury

Time is a resource. According to Peter Drucker “Time is the scarcest resource. Unless it is managed, nothing can be managed.” An effective manager make decisions everyday on how to use their time to achieve results that matter.   This involves goal setting, planning, prioritisation, saying “no”, effective communication and delegation and managing time wasting activities.

Goal Setting and Planning

Follow Stephen Covey’s advice and “Begin with the end in mind” (Covey, 1999).   If you don’t know where you are going, you may be busy all day however you won’t achieve very much.   Determine what you want to achieve by the end of the year, quarter, month and why.   This will give you direction and focus your attention on the important things rather than reacting to what lands on your desk and other people’s request.   If you fail to plan your time, then expect that someone else will plan and fill it for you.

• Know what you must achieve by the end of every month and why it is important to achieve it.
• Plan steps to get you there.   For example, what must be completed/in place by end of week 3, end of week 2, end of week 1 to deliver the desired results?
• Schedule in the tasks and activities into your diary system and allocate a time. Mark it as a MUST Do task for that day. Build in contingency time as tasks may take longer to complete than expected.
• Identify tasks that you can delegate and to whom.   Plan time to delegate the task effectively.

Create and follow a prioritised To-Do-List

To-do-lists are an essential time management tool, if they are used well.   Write a prioritised to-do-list at the end of every day.   This way you get to review what you have achieved during the day and can go home with a free mind i.e. not trying to remember things you need to do the following day.   Prioritise your list. I like using MUST DO’s, SHOULD DO’s and MAYBE’s. The Must Do items are those tasks that no matter what other unplanned or unexpected items crop up you MUST DO.   The next items on the list to be completed are the Should’s and then the Maybe’s, if time allows. If you can’t get them completed due to unplanned, unexpected tasks that must be done then they will move to the next day – and moved up a priority level.

• Review where you are against your goals for the month/quarter end
• Determine what Must be done the next day and write it in your prioritised list as a MUST DO task.   Failure to do this will mean that other people’s priorities will fill up your time.
• Complete your MUST DO’S first.
• Group similar items together, including reviewing and replying to emails, calls, certain queries, admin tasks.
• Some tasks may not be urgent but are important. For example, one-to-one meeting with your team members, team briefings, planning and thinking time, training/coaching time for yourself or with a team member.   Schedule these tasks in. If they are never completed you will possibly create a crisis or emergency for yourself or someone else.
• Your prioritised To-Do-List will help you a) say no to certain requests and b) reduce some time wasting activities e.g. manage interruptions and procrastination.

Communication and Delegation

Communication and delegation are two essential skills of managers and effective time management.   Delegation empowers your team, giving them opportunities to learn and develop their skills and knowledge.   Poor communication and delegation skills wastes your time and that of others and steals our energy.   Take the time to plan your communications effectively to clarify your message, listen and understand feedback received and you will reap the rewards.

Review

At the end of every day, week, month, quarter review what you have achieved, look ahead to the following day, weeks, months, quarter and refine your plans as needed.

Time manage is about self-management: In the words of Gandalf, Lord of the Rings “All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us.”

Covey, S. D. (1999). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Simon & Schuster UK Ltd.

A common question I am asked is “How do I motivate my team?”   I usually respond, “You don’t.   However what you can do is to create the right environment, the right factors and opportunities that will motivate each of your team members to give their best.”

Each person in your team is different. They have different interests, strengths, skills, needs, desires, behavioural characteristics.   Different work will energise different people.   By building a relationship that is based on trust, respect and a belief in each person you will be able to gather information to help you answer the above question. The information you learn will help you to:

• Agree objectives that will give each person a sense of achievement from their work and opportunities to learn and further develop their strengths. Studies from Gallup (Rath, 2007) indicate that people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths everyday are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs.     Their studies also suggests that when a manager focuses on an individual’s strengths the chances of them being disengaged is 1%.
• Delegate interesting, meaningful and challenging work appropriately to your team members.   The work you delegate should create the right opportunities for growth, learning and development and advancement.   Be there to support, encourage and coach your team member. People want to feel that they are making a contribution that there is a purpose behind what they are doing.
• Take a genuine interest in them as a person, their career aspirations/path and work-life balance. Work with them to identify steps and actions that they can take to move them along their desired career path while achieving their desired work-life balance.
• Give recognition and feedback in a way that acknowledges their strengths, skills and that they are valued.   Help them to feel that they are making progress. Too many manages focus on weakness’s rather than strengths. Gallup research (Rath, 2007) has shown that when a manager focuses on an individual’s weakness’s the chances of them being disengaged is 22%.   However this is better than when a manager primarily ignores a team members when the chances of that person being disengaged is 40%. Therefore, do not ignore your good or high performing team members.
• Empower your team members. Share your vision for the team and what is expected of each person clearly and precisely and ask them for their ideas, input, feed-back. Genuinely listen to them.   If your team know, are bought into your vision and know clearly what is expected of them i.e. a detailed understanding of what they are supposed to do, how that fits in with what everyone else is supposed to do and how those expectations change when circumstances change (Wagner & Harter, 2006) they will be more creative.   Help each team member to feel that their opinions count. Explore their input with them openly, act on it and implement where appropriate.

What about pay?   In Dan Pink’s YouTube video “The surprising truth about what motivates” he says that you need to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table and that for complex tasks we are more motivated by mastery, autonomy and purpose.

Have the right conversations with each person in your team. It will provide you with the information and answers to create an engaging and motivating work place for each person. Challenge yourself to build these relationships, to have a genuine interest in each person and their growth and development, set yourself objectives to create a motivating environment and measure your progress through your team’s engagement and results, look for feedback and ideas from your team to help you with this.

References

Rath, T. (2007). Strengths Finder 2.0. New York: Gallup Press.

Wagner, R., & Harter, J. K. (2006). 12 The Elements of Great Managing. New York: Gallup Press.