T I M E M A N A G E M E N T
6. Encourage Them to Do One Thing Well—at a Time
Watch your staff at work. Are they on the phone, jotting notes, eye-
ing the computer screen, all while trying to grab a fast sandwich?
Getting a lot done? Probably not. And they’re probably not get-
ting anything done well.
If your coworker 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. Have Productive Staff Meetings
Ask your staff to make a list of things they least like to do and
chances are “go to a 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. That’s because most meetings are a waste of time, too
often involving certain individuals talking to hear themselves talk.
But, you really do need staff meetings. You can create a produc-
tive interaction that just doesn’t occur with memos or e-mails or
phone calls or one-on-one conversations. 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 pur-
pose and cooperation. In a meeting:
- Everyone hears the same thing at the same time, removing
some (but, alas, not all) miscommunication. - If people don’t understand, they can ask for clarification.
- The speaker can use nonverbal clues (crossed arms, frowns,
glazed eyes, eager nodding) to determine how people are
responding to a proposal.