Leadership First: Time-saver tips: Set priorities, take action

Dear D.D.: Some say e-mail is a necessity; I think necessary evil is a better description.

First, some of the benefits: It is a great way to stay informed, and it can help maintain company or interpersonal communications. The “evil” sides of e-mail: Risk of misinterpretation is heightened, which can increase conflict or incite tension; the virtue of brevity can increase assumptive actions and poor decision making; and it is often a huge time-waster.

Here are 10 tips to maximize its usefulness as an organizational tool:

1. Don’t check your e-mail box every few minutes. Set specific times of the day to check it. 2. If you are getting inundated from fellow co-workers who copy you on everything, give them better instruction. Give them a “Don’t Copy Me Please” list and ask for a phone conference or a quick update instead. 3. Never send an e-mail on sensitive or easily misinterpreted messages. Pick up the phone or call a meeting. 4. Consider a word or length limit. 5. Avoid composing e-mails until they are perfect. This wastes time. 6. Don’t send an e-mail when you could walk to the person’s office in less than a minute. 7. Master the art of brief messages. 8. If you need the recipient to acknowledge receipt, ask them; otherwise don’t expect it. 9. Avoid the never-ending “thank you” and “you’re welcome” replies. 10. Occasionally turn off your e-mail and free up blocks of time to focus on big priorities.

Dear Mark: How do you know when to stop one project and move on to the next when you have a perfectionist mindset and always strive to do your best? —R.N.

Dear R.N.: Being a perfectionist can waste a lot of productive time. Keep in mind that striving to do your best and being a perfectionist are two different expectations.

Perfectionism is wanting to do your best but being out-of-balance about it.

Perfectionists, for example, will rewrite a memo or an e-mail until they feel it is flawless. Or they will keep working on a presentation until they can consider it near-perfect.

A former perfectionist myself, I now refrain from the temptation to “wordsmith” an article to death. Instead I try to get writing or speaking projects about 90 percent of the way there, the point at which reworking wouldn’t produce any perceptible difference.

Try getting your project in its final stages, say above 80 percent, set it aside for a few days, then come back to it. If something really sticks out as unclear or incomplete – fix only that.

Dear Mark: Why do employees often hesitate to ask their managers for more clarity of goals or tasks? —E.O.

Dear E.O.: There are three common reasons for this. First, fear that it will make the employee look bad to the boss. Second, maybe the boss has reacted irritatingly or negatively in the past to such inquiries, creating an unapproachable persona. Third, employees will hesitate if they think this will prompt the boss to assign more work or move the deadline closer.

The fix to this is for both the employee and the managers to do a better job of willful or proactive communications. My advice to employees is to go ask and have those discussions with your boss about priorities and expectations and goals on a regular basis.

My advice to managers is to do a better job of communicating clearly about goals, expectations or deadlines before employees have to work presumptively.

Communications are neither 100 percent the responsibility of the manager nor 50/50 with the employee and manager sharing equally.

The healthiest mix in my experience is when a manager is 51 percent responsible and the employee 49 percent. That extra 1 percent responsibility should cause the manager to instigate communications.

Dear Mark: How do I stop procrastination? —J.V.H.

Dear J.V.H.: I recommend the following advice and that you incorporate all eight tips because they will work synergistically.

1. Have a clear list of your priorities. You should work on what represents your top three or four biggest personal contributions to your organization. Then delegate, eliminate or subordinate the rest. 2. Create deadlines for every significant action, project or task. Working without a deadline encourages procrastination. 3. Delegate the work. Maybe it would get done at a level you could live with if you were more willing to spread the responsibility. 4. Break the task down into more manageable steps instead of being discouraged by its enormity. 5. Set incremental goals for the work. Set four goals and four deadlines on a task to achieve the work in 25 percent increments. 6. Ask yourself questions that can prompt action: How will this feel when I am finished? What will getting this done free me to do? 7. Get started now. Taking action creates motion, and motion creates momentum. 8. Be honest: Why are you really avoiding this work? Stop making excuses for lack of action, and tackle it without delay. You will feel better when it’s off your list.

Workplace Solutions

These questions were generated during the Feb. 1 Leadership First Friday on the book, “Eat That Frog!”

Join in on workplace conversations with Mark Holmes during his Leadership First Friday lunch discussion covering workplace topics and business books.

The next Leadership First Friday – 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. March 7 at Great Southern Bank’s Operations Center, 218 S. Glenstone Ave. – covers Mike Robbins’ “Focus on the Good Stuff.”

Send your workplace questions to sbj@sbj.net, and purchase luncheon tickets at sbj.net or call (417) 831-3238.

As owner of Springfield-based Consultant Board Inc., Mark Holmes consults and speaks nationally on increasing employee and customer retention and improving employee performance. His ideas have been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on Fox Business Network. He can be reached at mholmes@thepeoplekeeper.com.[[In-content Ad]]