How are you managing your time? What does your calendar look like? If
you are like most leaders your calendar looks awful. Everyone and I
mean everyone wants a piece of you. Your boss, peers, direct reports,
clients, vendors and other stakeholders are requesting your time to
attend meetings and conference calls. You are constantly bombarded with
emails, phone calls, text messages through out the day. We have not even
mentioned the demands of your partner, family and others outside of
work.
The noise is constant, ever present and can get very overwhelming. No
wonder many of us burn the midnight oil, look tired and are exhausted
at the end of the five-day workweek. What's that you say? Five day work
week, right! So, what can you do to take more control of your time? I have found these 7 work quite well:
1. Focus on your top 3 urgent and important priorities! ~ Your
priorities will demand you attention, enable you to take action and
produce results. What is your top 3? If you don’t know, perhaps that is
why your calendar looks the way it does and you feel the way you do.
Figure out your top three urgent and important priorities and put them
in writing. Share them with your stakeholders and revisit them and
revise them frequently.
2. Understand your behaviors and recruit an accountability partner ~ Don't
go at this alone! Find an accountability partner; one who you can share
your time management and others goals and then who will hold you to
them. By all means you don't want a sycophant. Get someone who will keep
you on track. Meet often, talk straight and analyze what is working and
what is not. It is also important to understand your behaviors.
Determine those behaviors that will help you reach those goals and then
your attitude will follow. Behavior drives attitude!
3. Track how you are spending your time on your top 3 priorities! ~ That’s
right, track your time. If you don't know where your using your time,
you'll never know what to change. Use a journal or some other source to
track your activities and behaviors each hour of your working day. I
highly recommend you do this exercise for two weeks and assess how much
time you are spending on your top 3 priorities. If you not spending 75%
of your time on these 3 issues then you will need to evaluate what,
where, and how you are spending your time. Tracking can be a real eye
opener and can help you change the way you manage your time.
4. Delegate ~ Spend time on only those things that
you can do. Delegate everything else. Delegating is a great way to
develop your team, assess their capabilities and allow them to feel they
are contributing.
5. Learn To Say No ~ If you are not setting
boundaries, you're buried. Say no to the meeting or conference call that
you really do not need to attend. Make your team responsible.
Distinguish between what is urgent and what is important. See #4.
6. Communicate To Your Team What You Need ~ Tell
your team what your priorities are, how bet to communicate with you,
what your expectations are, when to CC you on correspondence, etc. Be
specific and clear. Customize your communication to your audience.
7. Read Your Emails During Certain Periods Of The Day ~ Read them once and do something with each message. Respond, forward with instructions, file or delete.
Your time is a precious commodity. Stop giving it away. Use your time
efficiently and effectively by implementing these seven steps. By doing
so, you will begin to manage your time instead of time managing you!
Thank you for taking the time to read this. How would you begin to
break through and better understand the behaviors and actions you need
to take to control your schedule and time? We would love to hear from
you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.
Why do companies lose their best talent? This challenge is not
unique to large organizations. Organizations of all sizes face this
dilemma and leaders need to spend more time critically analyzing and
adjusting their talent management matrices and objectives. Talent has
always been and will always be a top differentiator.
Clearly this is
not an exhausted list, but here are some solid reasons why organizations
lose their top talent.
1. Organizational Bureaucracy ~ This maybe the #1 reason we hear from
disengaged employees. However, watch this one at it is usually a
reason that masks the real reason. No one likes rules that make no
sense. but, when top talent is complaining along these lines, it is
usually a sign that they did not feel as if they had a say in these
rules. They were simply told to follow along and get with the program.
No voice in the process and really talented people say "I'm out of
here!"
2. Failing To Find A Project For The Talent That Ignites Their
Passion ~ Companies, especially large ones, have many moving parts.
Therefore, they usually don't have people going around to their best and
brightest people asking them what are they enjoying most about their
current project and why or what new opportunity would you really be
interested in which would help the company. Unless, you see this as a
must have conversation, say adios to some of your best people. Top
talent is not driven by money, but by the opportunity to be part of
something special, which they are really passionate about.
3. No Discussion Around Career Development ~ Here is a little secret
for most managers: most employees don't know what they'll be doing in 5
years. However, everyone wants to have a conversation with you about
their future. Most managers never engage with their employees about
where they want to go in their careers and why - ever more so with top
talent. Here is another secret, have these conversations often. Don't
make them part of annual performance reviews. To discuss succession
planning or career development takes real focus and determined action.
If your best people know that you think there is a path from them moving
forward, they'll be more likely to stick around.
4. Shifting Priorities ~ The challenges for most organizations is not
setting up a strategic priorities and, if they do, staying the course
against shifting whims and pet projects. Top talent, like all of us,
don't like being jerked around. If you commit to a project that they
will be heading up, you've got to give them an opportunity to deliver
what they have promised. Therefore, set priorities, allocated proper
resources and let them flourish.
5. Lack of Openness ~ The best people want to share their ideas and
have them listened to. However, companies have a vision/strategy which
they are trying to execute and often find opposing voices to this
strategy as an annoyance and a sign that someone is not a team player.
If all the best people are leaving and disagreeing with the strategy,
what are you left with? You've got to listen to others' points of view ~
always looking for ways of incorporating the best parts of these new
suggestions.
6. Top Talent Likes Other Top Talent ~ If you want to keep your best
people, make sure they are surrounded by other great people. This starts
with your organizational values/mission and strategies and then going
out to the market to ensure you are interviewing and hiring the right
people with the right behaviors and relational and technical skills and
help drive the organization achieve its strategic priorities.
7. Lack of Accountability and/or Telling Then How To Do Their Jobs ~
It is a mistake to treat top talent as "untouchable." Top talent, like
the rest of us, demands accountability from others and they should not
mind being held accountable for their work. Therefore, have regular
touch points as they work through their projects and assignments, as
well as their development goals. They will appreciate your
observations/insights/constructive suggestions.
This is a two way street. Top talent must assume responsibility and
accountability as much as the organization. This is a two way
conversation. Smart organizations are the ones who get out in front of
these areas, rather than wait for their people to come to them. Get
bold, get out there and LEAD!
Thank you for taking the time to read this. How would you begin to
break through and better understand the actions you need to take to keep
your top talent spirited engaged and seeking new opportunities in your
organization? We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.
