 LEADERSHIP:
Time Management Bandits
So I’m
sitting in a waiting room waiting to go and do one of my talks on success. In
comes this wonderfully excited lady who had been looking for me and was hoping
to get some ‘quality time’ with me. She introduced herself and got right into
her problem. (Note: People seem to confuse a speaker with a therapist, but
that’s another article).
She said, “How do stop people from loading you down with last minute
projects?”
I
looked at her with a deadpan face and use the Ronald Reagan drug program line,
“Just say no!”.
Suffice it to say it wasn’t the enlightening response she was anticipating.
She said, “No, seriously.”
I
said, “Yes, seriously.”
“But
Victor” she retorted, getting a little peeved, “I just can’t say no to my
bosses.”
I
said, “Bosses? How many do you have?”
She
said, “Too many. I get direction from too many people.”
Sound
familiar....
So I
paused to give her situation some thought. I asked more questions since I still
had another 20 minutes before show time. A few minutes later we hatched a plan
of attack to fend off the time bandits who were robbing her of her most precious
commodity; time. Here is the 4 point program I gave her:
Point 1: Realizing that she had a lot of people to report to AND were taking her
for granted, I suggested that her first step was to speak with the ‘big cheese’.
Every organization has a big cheese, where the proverbial buck stops…the boss.
She mentioned that she had frequent access to the boss. This was perfect.
Point 2: Having identified the big cheese and gaining access was key. I then
told her to have a sit down with the Boss and discuss what projects were
important to him and the university. This would allow her to define which
projects to focus on and get the Boss to buy in. I then told her to get the Boss
to prioritize the 5-10 projects. Again, more boss ‘buy-in’.
So far the master plan was going well….
Point 3: I then told her that the next step would be to adopt a “I’m a team
player, BUT…” mentality. In other words, the next time someone approached her
with an unplanned project, she shouldn’t reject it but instead inform the person
that she is working on projects that the boss deemed important. And, that she
would be more than happy to work on other projects, BUT, they would have to
speak with the Boss. I told her, “People will not want to go to the Boss, or at
a minimum will have to justify their request the boss.” This technique allows
her to shift the weight of accountability to the person requesting help.
Point 4: This could also be Point 1. I told her she needed a job description.
The next time she spoke with her boss, I told her to get specifics about her
duties and responsibilities. This will help her in fending off those who want to
graciously ‘expand’ her responsibilities when it’s convenient for them. So the
next time someone approaches with a project that falls outside of her job
description, she can still use the strategy of redirecting them to the boss or
simply saying that according to what you been instructed to do, you simply
can’t. But you would be willing to do so if approved by the boss. See what I’m
saying?
Now, I want you to take this model and tweak it to what you think would work for
you. The key points are the following:
1) By defining with the boss what projects are important, you and the boss are
on the same page.
2) By making those who dump projects on you accountable for jeopardizing other
pre-approved projects, you are creating an ‘inconvenience’. So they now have to
talk to the Boss in order to justify why their project warrants priority over
the original items agreed upon.
3) The problem the young lady had was that every time someone came to her with
an orphan project (i.e., no one wanted to own) she said yes. What she was in
fact doing was conditioning those people to dump more stuff on her because they
knew she never said no. By setting up the barrier of approval from the boss, she
made it tougher for them to do so.
When someone has an emergency, and they come to you to solve it, and YOU DO,
guess what will happen the next time they have an emergency? That’s right!
They’ll come to you again with no warning. This is known as ‘positive
reinforcement’ of the negative kind…this is bad conditioning.
As we parted and I took to the stage, I reminded her of the adage, “An emergency
on their part, does not constitute an emergency on your part.”
Final Point: You need to be diplomatic and polite when you ‘redirect’ people to
speak with your boss. You can’t say, “It’s not my job.” This approach will
ostracize you and overtime you’ll get a reputation as not being a team player.
Learn never to say “No”, but to redirect them through your boss.
What happens if you boss says, “Yes.” to another project. That’s fine. At least
he’ll be aware of how much you’re contributing to make the organization
successful. Whereas before your added contribution was going unnoticed and
unappreciated.
Download a
seminar outline of
The Logic of Leadership
Success (pdf)
Victor
Ps
Please email me (victor@thelogicofsuccess.com)
so we can discuss your event and what it is you’re looking for in a speaker.
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