My Essay Blog

Having a clear, unambiguous understanding of role and responsibilities is one of the foundation stones on which successful managers operate. Without this, the manager cannot be sure what activities to lead on, take part in, praise, reward, discipline, or not be involved in. Managers will inevitably become involved in activities and take responsibility for activities that they should not. Worse, areas of responsibility that are those of the manager will be ignored. Managing personal workload and other individuals and teams effectively is not possible when the role and responsibilities of the manager are uncertain. The solution is to arrange for these to be discussed, clarified and agreed, and communicated to other managers and to operational employees. The manager and their line manager must then regularly review the role and responsibilities and make adjustments when necessary.

Whilst role and responsibilities can be relatively easily agreed, the question of degree of authority is often more difficult. A manager that has the responsibility for activities but, for example, has no authority to make necessary local activity changes, be flexible in managing budgets, praise or reward good performance, or discipline poor performance, will run into difficulties that can delay progress, consume unnecessary time, confuse operational employees and undermine the status of the manager. The solution is to discuss and agree, with line and specialist management, the areas and degree of authority of the manager, in general terms but also in regard to specific decisions. Once agreed this should be communicated to other managers and to individuals and teams.

In most organisations the pace of change and the complexity of activities are such that it is essential to forecast, plan, and prioritise. Unless this is done the manager will not be able to defend against potential problems, will waste time on unimportant activities, miss important deadlines. All of these negative effects will then, in turn, exacerbate the problems faced by the manager. The solution is to adopt a system of forecasting, planning, and prioritising. Prioritising can be determined through discussion with senior management and specialists, then communicated to the team. Activities should be linked to outcomes, objectives, deadlines, so that all involved are aware of the purpose of the activity. As part of this process, the manager should involve other individuals and teams as appropriate, and communicate the plans and priorities to all involved. In this way the manager will be in control of activities, prepared for potential difficulties, and have the support of key colleagues.

We look at this separately from the section above because setting unrealistic deadlines is a hidden cause of many time management problems. The manager must ensure that deadlines are achievable, otherwise the failure to meet them will itself become an additional problem that will impact on other outcomes and deadlines. However, it is rare for a plan to prove perfect, and deadlines do come under threat and may have to be changed. The solution is to make certain that deadlines are set as realistically as possible, and that where circumstances do change appropriate corrective action is taken, to enable the deadline to be met, or to set a new one. This flexibility of response to change must be a part of the plan. In major projects there should be contingency plans in place to allow appropriate responses to be made to known potential threats.

Usually this is not the direct fault of the individual manager, rather it is caused by corporate decisions that leave areas of activity under-resourced. However, it is a problem that individual managers must deal with. In situations where physical or financial resources are inadequate, the manager must take these factors into consideration when forecasting, planning and prioritising. Being realistic about any resource shortcomings will produce a realistic plan. Where the resource shortage is one of people, manpower, the same planning approach must be taken. However, in cases of forecast shortage of human resources, and particularly when unexpected shortages occur, there is an added danger that the manager will take on additional tasks, roles, responsibilities, and add these to the existing workload. This is to be avoided if at all possible, except for extreme emergencies and very short periods of time. It is impossible for the manager to manage effectively if they are overburdened with additional workload. Worse, they will often be unsuitable, in knowledge, skills, expertise, or physical attributes, to carry out these activities to a high standard. The result, potentially, can be highly damaging, as the manager loses control in key areas, and loses respect through their inability to perform to an acceptable standard in the inappropriate work they have taken on. The solution is to find another solution. This could be to: adjust the plan and deadlines to take into account the missing resources; negotiate for additional resources; bring in appropriate resources from lower priority activities. Due to the culture in some organisations it is difficult for managers to take such assertive, positive action, but if a strong, logical case is presented to senior management, most will accept the necessity of providing the required resources or adjusting the plan.

This is a major cause of problems. At the heart of it is the lack of understanding of the role of delegation. Because delegation is not understood, managers fall into many delegation traps: some do not recognise when delegation is necessary; some believe that it is better to do certain tasks themselves, as they see themselves as more expert or more trustworthy; some delegate but to the wrong people; others give insufficient information when delegating; many do not give sufficient support to the person delegated to; many do not monitor the delegated activity; many do not review the performance of those delegated to; hardly any ensure that individuals receive training and development in how to deal with delegated activities and responsibilities. The solution is to learn about delegation and to adopt best practice in this activity. Effective delegation releases the manager to focus on other issues, generates positive responses from individuals and teams, and develops individuals and teams. It is a highly valuable technique that the manager must learn to do well.

Meetings are necessary, but they must be productive meetings. The manager has two types of meetings that they must manage effectively. The first type is the meeting where the manager is the leader, the chair, the caller of the meeting. With these, the solution to making them productive is to manage them according to the established best practice. Those meetings that the manager attends purely as a participant should also be managed, but in the sense that the manager makes optimum use of the opportunity to obtain and present information, contribute to decision making, and maintain positive relationships.

Information that is insufficient, inaccurate, invalid, out of date, not relevant, will result in decisions that are flawed and this will impact negatively on the control over time management of the manager (and others). The usual cause of poor quality information is the lack of an effective system for gathering and analysing information. This can relate to external environment information and internal monitoring, control, and review of activity.

The underlying cause of poor time management and resulting problems is the personal behaviour of the manager. As well as the manager’s response to the problems described above, there are a number of negative personal behaviours which aggravate the situation, including:

Lacking assertiveness: leading to problems such as being unable to deal with conflict or poor performance. Having a disorganised approach: visible by an untidy desk, rushing to meet personal deadlines, submitting reports late. Fear of loss of control: leading to an inability to delegate, and in extreme cases refusing to take holidays or legitimate sickness absence. Aiming for perfection: an impossible dream but one that some managers pursue relentlessly. Inability to complete tasks: linked to the previous behaviour, this is a weakness that leads to the build up of workload and unnecessary pressure, and often has negative repercussions on others. Being over-ambitious: some managers believe that appearing to be managing a huge workload, or carrying out key tasks personally, will be viewed as attractive qualities and lead to promotion, whilst the opposite is usually true. Over-reacting to events: not giving enough reflection, analysis, discussion, to events, and rushing in with an inappropriate and potentially damaging response. Inability to refuse work: resulting in taking on too much work and potentially causing damage in terms of raised personal stress levels, poor quality outcomes, and conflict with others. Procrastination in dealing with difficult decisions or taking difficult action: resulting in the building up of tasks and problems which combine to cause time management problems but also could cause damage as they reach crisis level. Not managing interruptions from colleagues, visitors, telephone calls, emails: caused by not planning how to deal with unwanted interruptions, overestimating your own importance, being too easily available, having an open-door policy, not having unavailable times, being afraid of offending others, working in an inappropriate location.

The solution is obviously for the manager to change their behaviour. However this is not easy. It can only be achieved by building behavioural change into personal development activity, and with support from the line manager, specialist help, and other colleagues. The manager can, of course, take some independent action, once the causes have been identified, but many are not able to recognise that there is a problem. Most managers are not aware of the extent to which their behaviour is causing them time management difficulties. Appraisals and other performance feedback channels should be used, pro-actively, by all managers to examine their time management performance. Where shortcomings are identified then appropriate corrective action should be built into the next phase of the manager’s personal development plan. Improvement in the identified areas then becomes one of the aspects of the manager’s future performance that is monitored and appraised.

Managing time in the workplace successfully is not an easy task. However, despite the difficulties, by implementing the solutions suggested here the manager will be able to effectively manage their role, responsibilities, and workload. With help from others and the application of a consistent, positive, thoughtful approach, the manager will find that they can manage time effectively.

Here are practical, easy to apply techniques that will help. Once the initial, analytical stage is completed, the techniques outlined here are simple ones that can be applied on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, as a matter of routine.

Preparation Week: the first step is the most time consuming one: analysing your current situation. To establish in what condition your management of time is at this moment, you will need to complete at least a week, perhaps two, of preparation. You will also need to make note of any activities that fall on a monthly basis, such as team meetings, or budget performance reviews.

Recording Your Activity: for one week at least, on a daily basis, you will need to keep a detailed record, diary, or log, of what activities you are involved in, and how long you spend on each of these. Be as detailed as you can, so that you can analyse your activities in depth. The experts in the time management field recommend that you split your day into at least 15 minute periods, and for very busy periods even smaller time periods of 5 or 10 minutes. For example, for that first 30 minutes after starting work in the morning, don’t just write down 8.30 to 9.00 Started work, opened emails, talked to colleagues, you need to break this down into at least three x 10 minute periods. If you have chosen an unusual week, for example when you are absent from the usual routine, on a training course, complete the log for the missing days, the following week. Be disciplined about this. Use a notebook, or diary, or prepare a paper or pc based time-sheet for each day. Take this with you everywhere, or at the very least, complete it every time that you return to your personal work area. If it will help you, get the support of your colleagues, and ask them to remind you that you should be recording your activities diligently.

Analysing Your Activity: at the end of this period you will need to carefully analyse these records. The primary aim is to identify negative activities and events. These will include activities that you shouldn’t be involved in, or could delegate, activities that you are spending too long on, activities that are unproductive, and events which are disruptive or unproductive. Some of the activities that you identify here will be unique to your situation, but some will be common to most professionals, such as being inappropriately interrupted by colleagues, by telephone calls aimed at others, by attending meetings which are not relevant to you, by surfing on the internet, by focusing on low-priority tasks instead of more important, but more difficult, ones. However, it is also important to identify the positive activities and events, so that you can consider how appropriate is the time that you are currently allocating to these. Examples could be how much time you are spending in supporting, or coaching, your team members, or how much time you are giving to the building and maintaining of relationships with others, or how much time you are spending on addressing quality management issues. With a clear picture of how you are spending your time, you can then move on to the next step.

Talk With Stakeholders: these are the colleagues, the teams, the managers, perhaps suppliers, perhaps customers, who have a legitimate interest in how you perform at work and who will be affected by the changes that you will be making. You may also need to arrange discussion with key individuals, before you take the next few steps that follow.

Listing Your Responsibilities: separately from the recording activity, you should make time to review your job description, yourself if it is current and up to date, with your line manager if it is in need of a formal review. The purpose of this is to clarify what your role is and what are your formal responsibilities. It is often the case that, because of poor time management and the problems that this creates, role and responsibilities are allowed to drift, to the point where the individual is not carrying out the activities that they are meant to. A clear picture of what the role and responsibilities actually is an essential part of building a strong foundation on which to plan your new approach to managing your time.

Listing Your Goals: this is another essential part of building that foundation as a professional, a manager or specialist, you will have corporate level and operational level goals which your activity is meant to contribute to and help achieve. In parallel, you will have personal work performance and personal development goals that you should be working towards. Identifying and reviewing these will enable you to clarify them and take them into consideration when you plan the changes that you will be making.

Eliminating Or Reducing Unnecessary Activities: with the information that you have collected and considered, it is now time to take some action. In simple terms this means identifying those activities, events, and periods of time, that are not contributing to you fulfilling your role and your responsibilities, and not helping you to contribute to the achievement of the corporate and operational goals nor your own personal goals. In your action plans, and your daily, weekly, monthly, lists (that we discuss below) you can then ensure that you do not continue wasting time and effort on any of these negative, unproductive, activities.

Prioritising Activities: you may need to talk with your team, and-or with your line manager, possibly with internal or external suppliers and customers, to clarify and confirm what your priorities should be. This could be an opportunity to discuss how you could delegate some tasks to others, perhaps simply because you should not be doing them in the first place, perhaps as a developmental activity to help a team member learn new skills. The aim is to have a clear picture of which are the high, medium, and low priority tasks and events. You can then allocate an appropriate time of day, week, or month, to work on these, and an appropriate time period that ensures that you will be able to complete these successfully.

Preparing Action Lists: sometimes called To Do lists. This is a relatively simple activity, where you look at the tasks and events of the coming day, week, and month, and list the activities that you intend to carry out, and when and for how long you will work on them. You will, of course, need to continually check that these activities match up with your role, responsibilities, and goals.

Starting Each New Day: in reality, this can mean taking action at the end of the previous day, your last task of the day being to plan your specific activities, perhaps as a simple actions or to-do list, with times, perhaps as a list of priorities, that you intend to complete on the following day. Then, on starting work the next day you will have an action plan waiting for you. As the day proceeds, you should review your progress at intervals, and make adjustments where necessary. Then, at the end of the day, draw up the action plan, the list, for the next day.

Building In Break Times: don’t fall into the trap of trying to work continuously, all day without stopping, working through all your breaks, and worse, not taking a lunch break. Overwhelming evidence shows that we need to have breaks, and that without them our performance deteriorates dramatically the longer we go without. You should take at least one short break mid morning, a minimum of 30 minutes at lunchtime, and a short break in the afternoon. Your organisation should encourage you to take these breaks, as it is required by health and safety at work legislation.

Starting Each New Week: try to adopt the same approach as with daily planning. At the end of the last day of your working week, draw up an action plan for the next week, or at least for the first day in detail and the rest of the week in outline. Starting Each New Month: again, adopt the same approach as with weekly planning. During the last week of the calendar of budgetary month, prepare your action plan for the following month.

Strategic Planning: in parallel with the daily, weekly, and monthly planning, you should also have background plan that focuses on medium term and long term objectives. These can be workplace performance targets, such as end of year financial results, but should also include softer, but equally important targets, such as the development of individuals and teams (not forgetting your own, personal, development objectives). They can also include targets such as the improvement of working conditions, or relationships, for example between departments or with suppliers. These longer term plans should be referred to and progress reviewed, on at least a monthly basis.

In summary: without a structured approach to managing your time it is inevitable that you will run into difficulties, miss important deadlines, not give enough attention to your career and personal development, not deal fully with the needs of your team members, allow others to dictate how you spend your time at work. The result is that work will become a burden, and your performance will deteriorate. In addition, others will notice and your performance will be judged negatively. By following the simple, practical, steps outlined here, you will take control of the time you spend at work, and take control of the activities that you carry out. Once you have consistently applied these techniques for a month or two, they will become habit, absorbed seamlessly into your daily work life. You will find that you have less conflict, fewer problems, and you will meet most of your deadlines and targets. You will be managing your time effectively.

I am a student of Time Management and a big part of time management is beating procrastination. We all procrastinate, even those of us who pride ourselves in having good time management skills.

From my studies, I have come up with seven proven ways to beat procrastination.

1. Do the worst task first: I have used this technique for years. I have even created more than one “first thing.” There is first thing in the morning, there is first thing after lunch, and there is first thing in the evening. I take a look at the items on my To Do List and figure out which one I am dreading the most and spend a limited time on it at least moving it forward. This is known as swallowing the frog first thing; if you begin your day by swallowing a frog, then the rest of the day looks good.

2. Break it down: Often the reason that we procrastinate is because the task ahead of us is too big. Often there are small parts of the task that can be done. How do you climb a mountain? One step at a time.

3. Use a friend: I am not actually referring to delegation (but of course I don’t mind that either); what I mean is to tell a friend what you want to do and get them to help you start the task. Often it is the act of starting a task that is enough to get the task done.

4. Do the pleasant part of the task: Often many distasteful and large jobs have some parts to it that are not particular distasteful. Do them so at least you are moving forward on your most important items.

5. Fifteen (15) minutes: Just spend 15 minutes on a task. I have the attitude that I can spend 15 minutes doing virtually anything and I can certainly survive spending 15 minutes on something. Often by spending the 15 minutes on a task, I either complete it or I will get it moved forward enough that it has momentum to finish.

6. Track it: The simple act of tracking a goal is often enough to keep the goal moving forward. It seems odd, but knowing that you are going to write down whether or not you have done something is often enough to make you move forward.

7. Reward or punish: The reason we do something is because it is more painful than not getting it done, so if we can make the completion a task more rewarding or the consequences of not completing it more painful, then we tend to move forward on things. Tying successful completion of a task to a reward is often a successful technique.

Remember that even successful people occasionally procrastinate. Procrastination is not a permanent condition.

No matter how expert or experienced you are, when you are applying for a promotion in your own organisation, or a post in another organisation, being fully prepared for the interview is critical. Your expertise, knowledge, reputation, experience, and appearance, will help you, but it is highly likely that the other candidates will have similar attributes.

Here is list of actions that you should carry out in order to be fully prepared. Gather information about the recruiting organisation (this includes your present employer if it is an internal interview): before you decide whether to attend the interview, it is essential that you gather information about the organisation and analyse this. You need information on its recent and forecast performance, the condition of the business sector in which it operates, and the post that it is offering. If the organisation and sector are healthy, and the post looks secure and has potential, then you can move on to the next stage. If your findings are negative then it is almost certain that the best decision would be to reject the opportunity. You need to gather information about the condition of yourself, looking at how your personal and career plans are progressing, focusing on how the prospects in your current job match with your personal and career objectives, and then how the new post could help you to achieve those objectives.

Decide to attend or not to attend the interview. You need to make an objective decision as to whether taking up this new post is the right decision for you, at this time. Armed with the information that you gathered earlier, you can assess the merits of being appointed to the new post, against staying in your current post, albeit perhaps until a more appropriate opportunity arises, and make your decision confidently. It is, of course, tempting to apply for a job which appears to offer a higher salary, more responsibility, more status, and new directions, and if this is so appealing that you are confident that you can adjust your development plans to match it, and be happy with that decision, then yes, attend the interview and perform to the best of your ability. However, be warned that the interviewers may well reject you because it will become obvious to them that the position they are offering is not a natural fit with your career to date, and worse, they may well ask you how this new opportunity fits with your future personal development plans, and be disappointed with your unconvincing response.

Gather details of the job itself. You need as much information as you can gather about the nature of the job, the role, responsibilities, reporting relationships, location of the workplace, working conditions, and conditions of employment such as working hours, holidays, and corporate policies and procedures that apply to the position. Some of this information will be given to you in the information pack sent to you by the interviewing organisation, or department, but often, sadly, the quality of information sent out is poor. Most professional organisations will have HR departments that will answer your questions on these issues, or pass you on to the appropriate line manager.

Research the interview format: you need to do some basic but essential research on the practicalities of the interview. Again, some of this information will be sent to you. You should be clear about: how to get to the organisation and the specific interview location (don’t rely on asking for this information when you arrive, as this adds to the stress of the occasion); who is on the interview panel (their titles will give you important clues as to their relationships to the post); what format the interview will take (there is nothing worse than arriving expecting a traditional face-to-face interview and finding that it is a day-long series of tests, group activities, and interviews).

Timing of arrival. Make sure that you arrive in good time, allowing time to tidy your physical appearance after your journey, and sufficient time to become calm before the actual interview.

Your appearance. Do not make the mistake of thinking that it is only your history, qualifications, skills, and knowledge that will win you the job. Most other candidates will have similar attributes, so you need to make an impression, to look professional, smart, and appropriate for the post. In many cases, there will have been a previous holder of the post that the interviewers may be using, albeit subconsciously, as a benchmark. You can’t guess what the interviewers want, or don’t want, in terms of physical appearance and personality, but don’t for one second believe anyone that tells you this doesn’t matter (it shouldn’t, perhaps, in certain circumstances, but you are being invited into their world, and they will be looking for someone who they will be comfortable with (even if the role requires you to be an aggressive change-agent). Yes, in some countries there is legislation that says the job should be offered to the most appropriate person, regardless of appearance, but in real life this isn’t what happens. The answer to this dilemma is to research the culture of the organisation that you are joining, so that you are aware of how people, in positions similar to the one you are being interviewed for, dress and behave, and you can comment on or ask questions about this during the interview. However, don’t go to the interview in jeans and t-shirt, even if that’s the day to day standard. You need to look as professional, as serious about obtaining the job, as possible. For men, that almost certainly means a business suit, or jacket and trousers, with or without tie. For women, a business suit or business outfit. For both sexes, smart-casual can be acceptable, if, but only if, it is that type of environment. In most situations, for most posts on offer to professionals, specialists, managers, experts, consultants, a business outfit is expected at the interview, even if, after appointment, they would never again expect you to come to work in anything remotely as formal.

Your approach. In a word, think positively. You are offering your talents, your experience, your time, effort, and energies, to this organisation, and you need to give the impression that you would be a valuable asset that they would be foolish to reject. This doesn’t mean being aggressive, over enthusiastic, pompous, or pretentious, but it does mean showing the interviewers that you are a confident, assertive, pro-active, flexible, professional who would perform successfully if appointed.

Prepare for, and practice answering, the interview questions: think about questions that you are likely to be asked. Brainstorm this with a colleague, friend, or partner, and practice answering. Practice using the interview questions to strengthen your argument that you are the best person for the job. For example, you will be almost certainly be asked about your experience and qualifications, even though this will be shown in your CV. Your response should be phrased in such a way that you relate your experience, knowledge, and qualifications, to the role and responsibilities of the new post, showing how these existing attributes will give you the confidence and skills to successfully handle the tasks that lie ahead. With luck you will not be asked questions such as - What do you think are the main benefits that you could bring to this job, if appointed? However, it still happens, so you must be prepared for them. Again, practice responding in a way which links your experience and existing skills to the demands of the new role. If you are asked - What would you say are your biggest strengths and worst weaknesses? then talk mostly about your strengths, giving examples of how these have been effectively used, and be very, very careful talking about your alleged weaknesses. Choose a relatively harmless weakness that could be interpreted as a strength, such as being over-zealous about quality criteria being met, or insisting on deadlines being met which can upset some team members. Don’t, under any circumstances, negatively criticise your present or past employers, or colleagues. Even if the organisation that you work for is known to have faults or bad practices, don’t criticise it or any personnel within it. This is almost always a fatal mistake. You will almost always be asked some questions about the interviewing organisation. Again, use these as an opportunity to show you have researched the organisation, but also to explore what the organisation is planning (at least in the area that you will be working in), and-or what they are expecting of you. For example, you could mention new markets that the organisation has recently entered and ask if that will impact on the post that you are being interviewed for. If you are asked about hobbies and interests, don’t give a list of twenty, keep it simple and don’t try to impress with esoteric hobbies that you don’t actually have. Imagine saying that you enjoy watching French films and then being asked a question about this, in French, by one of the interviewers who is fluent in the language!

Questions asked by you. Most interviews will close with the interviewee being asked if they have any questions to ask. The answer should always be - Yes. Have two questions ready, and either ask these or ask one of them and one that has arisen because something raised in the interview. Make sure that your questions are ones that reinforce your suitability for the post. You could, for example, ask questions about personal development opportunities, explaining, briefly, what you feel would be a potentially useful development activity (of benefit to you and to the organisation) if you were to be offered the post (this should be an area that you have considered whilst researching the organisation and the job itself).

General behaviour: remember, you are being assessed at all times, possibly from when you enter the building and approach the receptionist, certainly from the moment you walk into the interview room to the moment you leave. You must be as natural and relaxed, physically and mentally, as possible, but also professional, polite, and courteous. Never argue, unless you have been given a direct instruction to give your opposing views. Be alert, show an interest in each interviewer as the ask questions, and answer directly to that person, but occasionally look at the others during your answer. In answering questions, don’t be evasive, be confident, and use your answers to demonstrate how you would make a good match for the position on offer.

Final word. As the interview ends, thank the interviewers for their time and questions. Say that you would be very pleased if appointed to the job and that you look forward to hearing from them. Even if you have doubts at that moment, this is a courteous and wise way to end the interview. You may later decide that you would like the job and if you have appeared negative as the interview ended you will have reduced your chances considerably.

In summary, the key to being successful at an interview is to treat it as a project that needs to be planned and executed in as professional a manner as possible. Changing jobs, moving into a new position, changing organisations, changing the direction of your career, perhaps moving into a different business sector, leaving behind friends and colleagues, meeting, working with, managing, new colleagues, is a major change in your life. The interview is your doorway into a new world, into the next stage of your personal development. It is a major event, a major opportunity, and must be treated as one.

As a busy professional, it is vitally important to manage your time. There are some broad principles, approaches, that you need to learn and apply. The first is to take the view that your time is precious, and should not be wasted. By the way, relaxation time, leisure time, relationship time is not wasted, it’s important, valuable time that you need to plan into your life. These broad principles include, you need to take control. That is, to take control of your time and the way in which you approach the activities that you have to be involved in, such as work activities and family commitments, and ensure that there is also time in your life for the personal activities that you wish to be involved in, such as leisure and relaxation activities. You need to plan ahead. This is vital. Being successful means being busy, and to manage being busy you need to plan ahead. You don’t have to perform at genius level. If you work hard and as efficiently as you reasonably can, you are doing well. You need to prioritise. You need to rank activities into an order where you can see which activities, what work, which tasks, are the most important and need urgent attention or a specific amount of time spent on them, and which activities are less important and can be pushed back, or worked on over a longer period, or delegated to others, or even abandoned.

Look at your current situation. This is important. You need to evaluate, to analyse, to consider, what condition are you in now? how well, how poorly, do I manage my time at the moment?. The only way to do this effectively is to maintain a log, a diary, a record, of what activities you are involved in, how much time you spend on them, how many interruptions do you suffer from, how many targets do you achieve, how many targets/deadlines do you miss, what activities (work, personal, family, social) are you not involved in which you would have liked to be involved in?. The way to evaluate this is to keep a log, a record, ideally for a month, but if that’s too long, then at least for an absolute minimum of a week. Try to keep this record for at least two weeks, and if there are unusual events, disturbances, interruptions, that do occur occasionally or irregularly, that haven’t occurred during the period that you have kept your log, then make a note of them. You can then analyse this record, to obtain a picture, a snapshot, of how your time is taken up, how your time is consumed, and what influences, what events, are disturbing and disrupting your activities.

Remove obstacles, barriers, conflicts, time-wasting activities. When you have analysed your log, your record, you will have identified many negative influences that affect your management of your time. These can include: colleagues coming to talk with you on important matters, but at unscheduled times, when you are trying to concentrate on other activities; telephone calls that are not ones that you should deal with; emails that are not important, or not relevant to your main priorities, but you feel obliged to answer; colleagues visiting you because they are bored or just want to chat; distractions that you generate, such as searching the internet for leisure or social interests, when you should be working or studying; accepting new tasks or projects when you know that you should be focusing on existing activities.

The next step is to take action to eliminate or reduce these time wasting events or activities. This can be as simple as telling colleagues that you are too busy to talk at this moment (but you will get back to them later), or more subtly, standing up as they enter your space and saying that you are on your way to an appointment or meeting, and can only spare a few seconds, to just being more disciplined about not drifting off into cyberspace when you should be working on a project or task on your pc. It should also include the more serious, and more difficult, action of saying, No, to new activities, new workload, new projects, when you are fully aware that you need to give your full attention (time, effort, energy, intellect, expertise) to existing work commitments. No-one will thank you if you say,Yes,to additional work and then manage it poorly, make mistakes, and cause problems, because you don’t have enough time, effort, energy, to manage that extra workload effectively. They will only blame you for being over-confident, at best, and inefficient and incompetent, at worst!

One of the most effective ways of managing interruptions, disturbances, and unexpected activities, is to take preventative, pre-emptive, action. This is the time management equivalent of prevention not cure, as promoted by those in the Quality Management field. In time management terms, this is taking action to prevent other people and other events from causing you difficulties. One simple example of how this approach can make a major difference is in thinking, in advance, of all the people that are likely to interrupt you, or to ask to see you, and, instead of waiting for them to decide when they want to come to visit you, email you, or telephone you, or ask you to come to them, you plan when you want to see them, or email them before they email you, or telephone them when it is convenient to you.

Use physical tools to help you manage your time. This includes an electronic or paper personal organiser, Filofax style, or a computer package, such as comes with Outlook. These will help you to be visibly organised and get you into the habit of thinking about how to plan and manage your time. If you are by nature a forgetful person, use post-it notes to make reminders and place them on your desk or work station, and review them and act on them regularly.

Set goals, objectives, targets and aims. This is not so easy, but essential. Work targets, objectives, are relatively easy, as they are often imposed upon you. With workplace activities, you need to plan, prioritise, schedule, and manage these, but of course, taking into account the targets and deadlines imposed by your organisation. Personal development or career development objectives, goals, targets, are not so easy to set, as they need to be ones that you, only you, have decided on. With these, you need to decide what activities will help you to achieve your personal and-or career development goals, ambitions, targets, objectives, and schedule space, time, for these activities into your plans. Make action needed lists. Set priorities, tasks to be completed, for each day, and for each week, and for each month. For each daily list, ideally, do this at the end of the previous day, so that it is waiting for you at the start of the next day. Follow this approach on a weekly and monthly basis for the weekly and monthly lists. Prioritise jobs and activities, and eliminate, discard, activities which are not of any use to you. Then concentrate on the important jobs first.

Managing your time effectively is not easy. It is a task in itself, a discipline that has to be learned and applied consistently. But it can make a tremendous difference to your life, at work, at home, whilst studying, and at leisure. If you follow the advice given here, you will have made a good start on the road to managing your time more effectively, and making time for the important activities in your life. These can be work related activities, but can also include study time, relaxation time, relationship time, and, as important as any of the others, time simply for yourself!

The clock ticks non-stop and the time passes by. Time used to pass even when the clocks were not there. What is time and how it affects us in our thoughts, shall we examine? Let us go to our childhood days. We were small kids. We had no worries, no need for inspiration and no goals. Our only goals were to find new ways to play and look at everything curiously.

Everything has changed. Now our perception of life has changed totally. If we are in our youth or middle age, we are worried about many things. We have to plan for money. We have to set goals and achieve them. We are becoming passionate and frustrated with many things. On and on, we are changing. Why? Time has brought these changes. If you are an old person, go back to your formative years, then to youth, then to middle age and then now and think about how everything is changing. Technology is changing life, but that apart, our own thoughts are changing. As the outer world is changing, so is the inner world.

The playful curiosity of childhood is long lost. The stamina and determination of youth is lost, the worried thinking of middle age is lost and all is replaced for most of the old people by thoughts of only a creaking body. The diary notes are less about attending parties and more about visiting doctors. The conversations are less about career and more about the joint pains. For a large old population, the body becomes the center. For a lucky few, mind becomes the center. They become very philosophical.

Time is a constant that changes constantly. Nothing can stop it. But with changing times, we change. So the question is- who are we? Because if our body and our thoughts are undergoing changes at every moment, what is the constant in us other than our name? Nothing. This thought can bring a new perspective in our life. Why have fights, why be intolerant, why carry rigid positions, why worry so much, why suffer over losses and why do all this that we do. After all, time will change everything.

When we buy anything new, we care so much for it. We look at that object with love and display it lovingly. Maybe a new dress or a new car, any such object. Slowly, as time passes, the object gets old and then gets discarded. That is life. If we keep this perspective in our life at all the times, it will bring a new peace in our mind. Keep a clock screensaver on your desktop or a screensaver on seasons, or one with clouds. These all will always remind us about the change that is taking place with every second. Remembering that thought during all the times can surely bring a sea change in our thoughts forever and that change will be good.

Are you looking for someone who will hold you accountable to achieving your goals? Career coaching and mentoring may be what you need to accomplish what you really want in your career. Your friends and family certainly love you and want the best for you, but they can’t always make the time to devote the necessary hours you may need to achieve your objectives and goals. Your friends and family have objectives and goals that they are looking to achieve as well.

Coaching is one of the best investments that I have made. Although there are many coaching packages that you can choose with becoming a coaching client, generally speaking, the coach and client usually have a weekly call, which lasts from about 45 to 55 minutes. Email communication is usually included between each coaching call.

I have worked with many terrific people who were extremely talented and were over qualified in the position in which they were working. I could only imagine how much happier and productive they would be if they had hired a career coach to work with them.

Why should you consider hiring a career coach?

1. You have someone who is focused on your objectives and goals.

Your coaching calls are all about you. Your coach will hold you accountable for your actions to achieve your goals. Many career coaches have graduated from CoachU (.coachu.com) and have been educated and trained on holding clients accountable to achieving their goals.

That’s why many coaches offer a free initial consultation. This initial consultation will better determine if you and your potential coach are compatible. There’s nothing wrong if a particular coach and you are not compatible. The same principle applies with other professional services. You may not be compatible with every accountant, lawyer, contractor, plumber, hairdresser, mechanic or web-designer.

2. You have someone who is objective toward you.

As mentioned before, you have family and friends that love you and they may think that any work you do is awesome, but you are generally getting a subjective opinion. A coach would be able to objectively prepare you for such events as a job interview, calls from clients, querying an editor, writing a resume and getting better organized.

3. Someday leads to a town of Nowhere

How many of us have always said that we wanted to do things such as write a book, start our own business and switch careers? When did you want to start doing those wonderful things? I have done all three by working with a coach! From what I know of myself, I would not have done these things had I not been working with a coach. I might have looked back and thought shoulda, coulda, woulda. I didn’t want to look back years from now and have those regrets.

4. Coaching Can Be A Great Investment

Coaching can cost a lot less than many seminars. What is the total amount of money that you have you spent on self-help items, such as books, audiocassettes, CD’s, Videos, DVD’s and seminars? Did you spend hundreds &ndash maybe thousands of dollars? What kind of rate of return did you get on your investment? Did you achieve your objectives after you read that book, listened to that CD, watched that DVD or went to that seminar? The aforementioned items most likely contained great information on how to achieve your goals. But did any of those items personally hold you accountable and ensured that you achieved your goals?

Like any other professional service, coaching costs money. Coaches are educated and trained professionals who provide valuable services. If your sink needed fixing and you had no idea how to fix it, would you hire a plumber to fix your sink? Hopefully! A plumber is paid to do something with specific measurable results: fix your sink. If your career needs fixing, what would you do? Coaching goes beyond specific measurable results. Can you put a price on having a career that you love?

I have always wanted to become a writer. My coach taught me how to write more effectively to express my point, get the attention of editors, and get my articles published. I cannot put a price on what I have learned by coaching!

In recent years there has been a significant rise in the demand for mentors and coaches. The driving forces behind this are: executives, managers and other specialists are increasingly expected to demonstrate that they are undertaking significant professional development; the workplace and business employment environment is becoming even more competitive; the influence of the emerging industrial nations is forcing radical changes in the skill mix required of managers and other professionals in the developed countries; the diversity of personal and professional skills, knowledge, and expertise needed to be successful in today’s global business environment. As this demand has increased, so has the diversity of roles played and the range of services offered. Indeed, there are so many variations and combinations of mentoring and coaching, that it is increasingly difficult to differentiate between them and almost impossible to categorise the variations available.

Workplace mentoring is, despite appearances, a structured, organised, element of the organisation’s training and development activity. It is, however, usually quite separate from organised training activities and from the formal appraisal process carried out by the line-manager. This formal, hierarchical relationship that exists between a person and their line-manager is usually not a suitable vehicle for a mentoring relationship. Mentoring generally takes the form of a confidential, one to one relationship, where a more senior person, at least one position higher than the line-manager of the person being mentored, helps a more junior one to make progress, usually as part of a planned development programme, such as management fast-tracking, preparing for a more senior post, or leading a phase of workplace activity, such as a project. The mentor offers guidance and advice, in a supportive and non-threatening manner, but in a format and style which is designed by the organisation’s human resource department and then monitored by that department. The aim is to provide the recipient with support that will enable them to move forward confidently and to achieve their personal workplace objectives and also the objectives set for them by the organisation.

In an organisational setting, coaching has traditionally been part of the supervisory role played by line-managers, or more experienced employees, who show less experienced colleagues how to carry out an activity, or set of activities, competently. This is by default part of the cyclical process of developing an individual’s skills, evaluating their performance, appraising their progress, carried out by the line manager. If the line manager does not carry out the coaching personally, they will have arranged for an experienced employee, usually within the same team as the person being coached, to deliver the coaching. In this context, coaching is, in effect, the teaching of a skill until the skill is learnt and can be consistently performed, independently, to the required standard. Although the majority of this type of coaching is delivered by people who are more experienced, it is not always the case that they are more senior. Often, because the coach is explaining or demonstrating a skill, or process, the coach can be a younger person, but someone who is capable of passing on their skills to others who are less experienced in that activity.

Today, the traditional roles of mentors and coaches can still be seen in action. However, in many organisations, and particularly in most business sectors apart from the heavy industries and manufacturing, there has been considerable change. The main changes have been in the widening of the range of coaching approaches and the merging of mentoring and coaching into one approach, generally under the title of Coaching. Despite the best efforts of some academics and management gurus, senior managers in some organisations, and the human resource purists, the terms mentor and coaching, and the roles, are now used interchangeably in many business sectors. The main reason for this is that individuals are demanding and expecting their mentor-coach to have a wide range of skills that encompasses the best features of both categories. Many organisations are also establishing mentor-coaching systems that also combine the best practices of both. The result is that, increasingly, the terms are in effect synonymous, and what one individual or organisation will label as Mentor, another will label as Coach.

Also, many individuals are arranging to work with a personal coach, whose role is a combination of mentor and coach. This is similar to the relationship between a sports person, for example athlete, and their persona coach, and that between individuals and their personal fitness trainer. In the business and professional development world, the result is a hybrid of mentoring and coaching that most people now label as Personal Coaching.

The ideal mentor is a person who has been trained in mentoring techniques, and has a blend of appropriate work experience, qualifications, and general business knowledge, that can be used to guide and advise a particular mentee. In addition it is very important that the mentor is a person who has an enthusiasm, if not a passion, for helping others to develop, fulfil their potential, and achieve their and the organisation’s objectives.

The ideal coach is a person who has been trained in coaching techniques, has a broad range of experience and expertise, has knowledge and understanding of current business activity and trends, and an understanding of how an individual’s career and professional development should be tailored in order to assist that person in being successful in achieving their development objectives.

As can be seen, there great similarities in the two roles, and, as a result, the differences are virtually indistinguishable and they are now frequently combined. Both are expected to have appropriate knowledge and experience, both must be skilled in: listening actively; communication techniques; being able to understand the work and personal environment of the person being coached; building a rapport and developing a relationship; asking appropriate questions; directing the coachee to other sources of help when appropriate; identifying, agreeing and setting goals; helping to devise action plans to achieve the goals; helping to monitor and make adjustments to the plans; and finally, knowing when it is time to end the relationship.

A coach works with individuals and organisations to help them to achieve higher levels of performance and-or specific goals. The coach will, by necessity, take into account past performance and events, but focuses on actions and goals for the future. The approach is action oriented, focusing on where the client is now, where they want to be in the future, and how best to get them there. This framework is familiar to those involved in strategic planning or project management, as it is the foundation of both. The coach takes this simple, structured approach, and builds on it to develop a plan of action that will enable them to help their client achieve their objectives.

For individuals, the benefits can be many, including helping the individual to: avoid making mistakes in their business or personal lives; achieve more, in less time; minimise current problems; effectively prepare for potential difficulties; be happier with their personal and-or work life; achieve career or personal development targets; change career or career direction; become more effective and influential in all areas of their life; be more attractive to others, in their career and professional development and-or their personal life.

For organisations, the benefits are similar. They include: learning from a person who has a broad range of knowledge; obtaining independent, unbiased, objective, advice and guidance; gaining improvements to productivity, quality levels, customer satisfaction, shareholder value; gaining increased commitment and satisfaction levels in operational and management staff; improved staff retention; supporting other training and development activity; visible evidence that the organisation is committed to developing and improving; establishing an effective process for organisational development.

The role of mentoring and coaching has changed radically over recent years. However, the changes are generally accepted as being positive ones, and today coaches are accepted as an integral feature of the development process, both for individuals and for organisations. As always, great care must be taken to ensure that the coach and any process that is undertaken is appropriate for the particular client, but with this caveat, it is now clear that coaches have an important role to play in the development of individuals and organisations in today’s business world. As the pace of change and the complexity of business activity increases, it is certain that coaches will continue to play a key role in helping individuals and organisations manage that change and complexity more effectively.

Coaching is perhaps the most effective method of increasing performance available to managers, team leaders, and colleagues. This article defines coaching and outlines a process for effective coaching.

Coaching Defined

Coaching is perhaps the most effective method of increasing performance available to managers, team leaders, and colleagues.

If you wish to improve the skills of your employees, you must plan to observe them and provide them with feedback. If you’re like most supervisors or managers, you have limited time and are looking for employees to become proficient &ndash and independent &ndash faster.

Entelechy’s Coaching Model is designed to help you do just that!

The Coaching Model is appropriate for developing the skills of employees if the employee is willing to improve. Coaching should not be used as a softer, gentler version of corrective action; if a performance problem occurs, you will want to use the Problem Solving model.

The Coaching Model is based on several important principles:

1. There are two primary goals to coaching:

• To improve performance.

• To help employees gain the ability to self-assess.

2. It is important that the coaching sessions follow a predictable process. This will help the coachees feel more comfortable and relaxed, which will help to ensure they actively participate in these sessions. It is for this reason that we suggest that you share the coaching model with your employees prior to coaching.

3. Coaching is a planned development process and should not be a surprise.

4. The way you open the conversation sets the tone for what will follow.

5. After we open the conversation using our initial probe, we discuss positives first and areas for improvement last. Beginning with positives first is motivational and accomplishes the following:

• The goal is to have employees increase their performance. If they are not in a positive frame of mind, they will not be open to this change.

• Reinforces good behavior and ease into the coaching session.

• Builds self-esteem.

6. Ending the coaching session with a discussion of areas for development ensures that they are focusing on those areas.

7. Always give the coachee a chance to self-assess before you offer your insights. Encouraging self-assessment is positive for several reasons:

• It encourages improvement even when you are not coaching.

• It allows you to determine why the employee may not be performing as desired; they may not know that they’re doing something incorrectly.

• It builds self-esteem.

• It increases the chances that behavior will change.

8. Reinforce correct self-assessment.

9. Defer or redirect inappropriate or incorrect self-assessment.

10. We focus coaching on only two strengths and two areas for development. Limiting the discussion is important and accomplishes the following:

• Increases the coachee’s ability to reach proficiency.

• Focuses on the most important issues.

• Other issues can be addressed after some progress has been made on the most important issues first.

11. If an employee is not identifying areas that you identified (or has identified them incorrectly), use increasingly specific questions to allow the employee to self-assess if possible. This allows you to determine if the employee doesn’t know what’s expected, doesn’t have the skill, or simply chooses not to demonstrate the skill.

The Coaching Model at Work

Now let’s turn our attention to Entelechy’s Coaching Model in practice.

Step 1: Open the Conversation

The coach opens the conversation with a general question; this helps the coach get a sense for the accuracy of the coachee’s self-assessment. If the coachee responds with, “that was the best call ever” and you thought that the call was poor, you know that you’ll have to adjust your coaching conversation.

Step 2: Probe for What Went Well

The coach asks the coachee what went particularly well and listens for the responses. By identifying what went well first, a positive tone for the coaching session is set. We want to make sure that the coachee continues doing these things. This also forces the coachee &ndash NOT THE COACH &ndash to identify superior performance.

Step 2a: Redirect or Defer

Sometimes the coachee will bring up a negative when you’re discussing positives. You will want to defer that discussion until later in the coaching conversation by saying, “I’d like to talk about that more later. What else went particularly well?”

Other times, the coachee will claim something as a positive that &ndash in your opinion &ndash was an area that needs development. You will want to redirect their perception by pointing out what you saw that helped you conclude that it was less than desirable. “Oh, really? Did you happen to see John’s face when you discussed the product’s features? That’s right, he seemed to lose interest when you started talking about us rather than about him….”

Step 2b: Support and Build

When the coachee correctly assesses his performance &ndash both strengths and areas for development &ndash support the assessment by saying, “I agree.” Build from their conclusions to reinforce the accuracy of their self-assessment. In this way, you are reinforcing one of the most valuable skills anyone can acquire: the ability to assess and improve their own performance.

Step 3: Probe for Areas for Development

The third step is to ask the coachee what he would change if he could do it again. Obviously, if the coachee knows what could be improved and knows how to improve it, he won’t benefit from YOU telling him! And by mentally rehearsing what he will do differently, the likelihood of him actually carrying out the improvement is increased.

Most experts agree that two or three areas for development are enough for anyone to work on. Working on a laundry list of things to change is frustrating and futile. Focus on the areas of greatest need.

When identifying areas for development, the coachee may not have identified the one that you thought was most important. Again, you can redirect their perception by identifying what you saw that they might not have that allowed you to come to your conclusion. “I agree that the two areas that you identified would definitely had made the call go better. What do you think the effect of your product feature presentation was on the customer? Why? What might you do differently the next time…?”

Step 4: Summarize and Support

Even though you may have limited the coaching to a few strengths and a couple areas for development, you will want to briefly summarize the discussion, especially what the coachee will do differently the next time. This recap will cause the most important things to remain fresh in memory. You will also want to support the changes by saying something like, “I think those changes will make your next call go even better.”

Follow these four steps to help your employees and colleagues increase their performance. In the next issue we discuss how to give feedback within the coaching framework.

(This information comes from Coaching for Performance, a module in Entelechy’s High Performance Management program. Check out this module as well as our 40 other modules, training tools, and eGuides at .unlockit.com.)

Your restaurant seats are highly important in dealing with accommodations for your restaurant. There could be a lot of people who would want to make reservations especially during Friday or Saturday nights but you have to make sure that you decide wisely on this.

Before deciding if you’re going to accept reservations of a big group for a Friday or Saturday night business, try to check your records first of the history of reservations you usually receive. If you don’t keep a record of this, make sure you do starting now.

The point here is that, you need to find out how much percentage each person from a large group can contribute to your bottom line during these times (especially that your restaurant can get full-packed) then, compare them to the smaller groups of reservation you receive during the same time. By doing this, you’d get a concrete estimation of how big your chances are going to be in earning more if you accept groups of 2 or 4 persons through walk-ins or reservations. If this is the case, you can now turn down the reservation for the larger group.

Don’t think just because a large group of diners who want to have reservation for your restaurant could already mean good profit. Make sure that you conduct a study of these matters before you make your final verdict. After all, what you’re trying to do is for the overall benefit for your income.

The opposite thing may happen as well. You could be expecting that a large group makes a reservation on a Friday or Saturday night and yet you get reservations for 2 or 4 persons. All you have to do is to take chances. You can never be too sure of what could happen on a night like this but if you continue to keep your restaurant records, you’ll realize that it would be okay not to rearrange your seating arrangement and yet, earn extra by utilizing what you already have in your restaurant.