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Editor: Dr. Wolf J. Rinke
Publisher: Wolf Rinke Associates, Inc.
(c) 2007 Wolf J. Rinke
Vol. 10 No. 6, December-January 2007-2008
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IN THIS ISSUE
1. NEWS YOU CAN USE
2. A HOLIDAY GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING AND GIVING
3. DON'T RESPOND TO THE URGENT--Part II
4. HEAR WOLF HOWL--I MEAN SPEAK
5. HUMOR BREAK
6. ABOUT THE EDITOR
7. PRIVACY STATEMENT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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REALITY CHECK
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"Time is the scarcest resource of the manager. If it is not managed,
nothing else can be managed."
--Peter F. Drucker
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1. NEWS YOU CAN USE
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DON'T LEAVE YOUR TEAM MEMBERS ALONE
Some managers believe that empowering team members means leaving them
alone. That's laissez-faire management, not empowerment. And, according
to a new study, laissez-faire management leads to ambiguity regarding
responsibilities, goals and priorities, which in turn leads to high
levels of interpersonal conflicts among co-workers and increased level
of confusion, stress and job dissatisfaction. It may even lead to "serious
psychological distress in the workplace."
ACTION STEPS
Get interested in, and involved with, your team members. Provide them
with role clarity and structure so that they are very clear about what
is expected of them. Provide them with specific feedback when they meet,
or fail to meet, performance expectations. In other words, catch them
doing things right, and equally important, coach them when they fail
to meet mutually understood expectations, so that they know what they
are doing well and what they can do even better.
Source: A. Skogstad, et al., "The Destructiveness of Laissez-faire
Leadership Behavior." Journal of Occupational Health Psychology,
12 (1), pp.80-92, 2007.
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2. A HOLIDAY GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING AND GIVING
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3. DON'T RESPOND TO THE URGENT--Part II
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In the previous issue of this eNewsletter (10-5) www.WolfRinke.com we
talked about "chunking your time," "routinizing crisis"
and "establishing critical priorities (WRAs).
Now let me describe five steps to help you get the most out of every
24 hours:
Step 1: Record your time
Keep a time log for three to five days. Record how you use your time
as soon as possible after you have completed a particular task or activity.
An easy way to do this is to record your activities on your calendar,
electronic or paper, in half-hour increments.
Step 2: Analyze your time expenditures
Take a look at each task listed and ask yourself several diagnostic
questions. The first and most important:
1. What would happen if I did not do this task or activity at all? If
the answer is nothing, stop doing it! (This will save you more time
than you can begin to imagine.) If you are not sure, figure out how
it originated. Go back and find out whether the originator wants you
to continue or if it is still required in a current regulation. Note
the words are required and current, not nice to have or because we always
have done it that way.
If you can't figure out how the practice originated, and you don't see
any positive impact on the bottom line, quit doing it, but be sure to
track it by making a note in your computerized tickler file that will
remind you to check on your decision. Next question:
2. Will this activity move me closer to the attainment of my top three
critical priorities? (I refer to these as my "do-or-die" priorities.)
If the answer is no, don't do it, unless of course you boss asked you
and in that case it is a critical priority, unless you talk your boss
out of it. If the answer is yes, go to Step 3.
3. Can this be delegated? If the answer is yes, ask for a volunteer.
If no one volunteers, assign it to someone who will grow from doing
it. If the answer is no, keep reading to find out what to do with it.
Step 3: Look for Time Patterns
Next look for patterns in your use of time so that you can figure out
how you can chunk your time. Let's assume that your 3 day time record
reveals that you are faced with constant interruptions from the telephone,
employees and salespeople as well as a wide variety of administrative
functions such as signing requisitions and other documents. These patterns
will provide you with an opportunity to stretch your time rubber band
by collapsing like activities. For example, you might establish a policy
that you will only talk to vendors and answer other routine calls during
specified times of the day, let's say from 2-3 p.m. Or you answer e-mails
only once a day--ideally just before you go home--that way you will
spend less time on it.
To address the constant interruptions, you may want to abolish the sacrosanct
open door policy. You would be much better served by scheduling a large
chunk of time to practicing Management by Walking Around (MBWA). In
the long run, this will help you be more responsive to the needs of
your team members and enable you to keep in touch with them. By setting
time aside in this fashion you will find that you are much more attentive
and listen more actively.
Step 4: Categorize Your Tasks
Your next step is to categorize your time to figure out whether you
spend most of your time on the many trivial tasks--let's call them the
"Irrelevant Many" (IMs)--or on the important biggies--let's
call them "Winning Result Areas" (WRAs). To make this more
meaningful, think of the Pareto principle, better known as the 80-20
rule, which maintains that 80% of the important results are accomplished
in 20% of the time? This phenomenon exists because work falls into two
major categories the IMs and the WRAs. The IM's are all the things that
have to be done to keep your organization going. They include such things
as filling out forms, attending meetings, answering most e-mails and
so on. Pareto estimated that these activities will use up about 80%
of your time. The time that you have left, about 20%, is the time you
can devote to the WRAs. These are the things that will decide whether
you or your company will be a leader and whether you will be promoted
or get a bonus. They include such things as taking care of customers,
developing team members and completing a do-or-die priority.
What makes this so powerful is that if you are able to allocate more
time to the WRAs you will realize massive productivity increases. For
example, by allocating just 1% more of your time to the WRAs, you will
realize an increase of 4% in the WRAs. That represents a 400% return
on your time investment, which is the kind of result that most of us
dream about. Since 1% is not very much, figure out what would happen
to your performance and career if you could devote 4% more time to the
WRAs! Your accomplishments would certainly achieve hyper-speed.
Step 5: Allocate your Tasks
Now let's go back to your time record to figure out how you can allocate
more of your time to the WRAs. Tasks you currently complete that are
of short duration and simple are likely IMs. Find a volunteer to delegate
them to. If you can't delegate them, do them fast and efficiently because,
no matter how well you do them, they will only bring you 20% of the
WRAs.
Tasks that are of short duration but are important and/or complex are
probably WRAs. Consider delegating these to team members who will get
the job done, or who need the experience to maximize their potential.
If you have no one like that, do them yourself. Be sure to group a number
of these together, so that you can do more than one while in this thinking
mode.
Tasks that you are currently doing that take a long time and are complex
are probably WRAs--the ones that may have the 400% payoff. Delegate
these only to those who have a track record of being able to accomplish
them effectively. If you have no one like that, do them yourself. Allocate
as much time as possible to these and if you have more than you can
handle do those with the highest potential payoff, first. To increase
your effectiveness, you will need a large chunk of time and as quiet
a location as you can find. In other words, you will need to create
a time island--a time and place where you will not be disturbed except
for true emergencies. Be sure to work on these during a time of the
day when you are at your best. Subdivide the project into smaller self-contained
components, and work on one component at a time until it is done so
that you have a sense of accomplishment each time you finish a component.
In the next issue of this eNewsletter (11-1) I'll provide you with specific
steps to "eat an elephant" and acquaint you with the "three
minute rule." After that I will provide you with powerful action
steps to squeeze the most out of every 24 hours.
SOURCE: Based in part on Chapter 19 of my book "Don't Oil the Squeaky
Wheel and 19 Other Contrarian Ways to Improve Your Leadership Effectiveness,"
McGraw-Hill. (Get it at www.WolfRinke.com)
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4. HEAR WOLF HOWL--I MEAN SPEAK
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12/11/07 Hartford, CT. "Don't Oil the Squeaky Wheel: Innovative
Strategies to Improve Leadership Effectiveness," full day Institute
of Management Studies (IMS) seminar. Contact: Art Muldowney, Connecticut@ims-online.com
3/14.08 San Diego, CA. "Positive Attitude: The Key to Peak Performance,"
AM keynote, and "Don't Oil the Squeaky Wheel and Other Contrarian
Ways to Improve Your Leadership Effectiveness," PM seminar; Good
to Best Conference. For details: http://www.chefdon.com/conference/conference2008.html.
11/9/08 Philadelphia, PA. "Achieve Peak Performance by Increasing
Personal Effectiveness," full day Institute of Management Studies
(IMS) seminar. Contact: Joe Paesani, Philadelphia@ims-online.com
NOTE: I have other "in-house" presentations scheduled in
the U.S.A., Canada and Europe. Please let me know if you are interested
to preview me or bring me into your organization at reduced expenses
when I'm scheduled to be in your area. That way we can let you know
when I'm coming your way!
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5. HUMOR BREAK
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Since my daughter Jeselle has become a mommy (see her baby at www.EasyCPEcredits.com)
she has been working in our office.
One morning a call came in for her. I said Jeselle wasn't in yet and
offered to take a message. The caller said she'd rather phone back later.
At noon the caller tried again, and I told her that Jeselle had gone
to lunch.
The caller tried yet one more time at 4:30 p.m. "I'm sorry,"
I said, "she's left for the day. May I take a message or help you
in any way?"
"Yes," the caller replied, "please tell me how can I
get a job with you?"
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6. ABOUT THE EDITOR
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Dr. Wolf J. Rinke, CSP is a highly effective management consultant and
executive coach who specializes in building peak performance organizations,
teams and individuals. He is the author of 14 books including "Don't
Oil the Squeaky Wheel and 19 Other Contrarian Ways to Improve Your Leadership
Effectiveness" and "Winning Management: 6 Fail-Safe Strategies
for Building High-Performance Organizations" available at www.WolfRinke.com.
Wolf is also an internationally recognized management/leadership keynote
speaker and seminar leader who delivers customized presentations that
combine story telling, humor and motivation with specific "how
to" action strategies that participants can apply immediately to
improve their management and leadership effectiveness. You can preview
a live demo at www.WolfRinke.com.
To take advantage of Dr. Rinke's services contact us at 800-828-9653
or WolfRinke@aol.com
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7. PRIVACY STATEMENT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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