Time Management for Your Employees
Once we hire an employees, it's important that we get what we want and need out of our employee. We want to be run a success business so we hire people to help us but when their roles aren't being fulfilled, we suffer and our business suffers. Time management skills help you and help your employees increase productivity. You started your business to fulfill your purpose and add value to the world. Managing your time is being accountable for what you do with your day, files, calendar, employees, and ultimately your life.
Time management is about managing tasks in a set amount of time, yes, but more than that it's about keeping your commitments to yourself and others. Your employees are looking for you to take charge, they want you to feel confident and then they will be sure they're doing worthy work and that they'll be paid for their time. Employees look for your leadership, not your anxieties or overwhelm. They don't want your concern that something may not work, that they may not be paid, or that projects won't succeed.
Be Friendly Not Friends
Are you a confident leader or are you too busy and concerned about the bottom line to lead confidently? You could be creating your employee problems by passing your poor morale onto your team. Once you as the leader fail to hold your place you may find your employees begin to walk over you, tell you what to do, or fail to produce. You set the culture of the business or use the currency of friendship in your profession relationship with your employees. Employees want to be seen as individuals, not as objects hired to solve your stress and anxieties.
Shared To-Do Lists
Have shared access with your employees online where you can both schedule and see weekly or monthly meetings. These meeting will reduce the amount of 'hallway hijackings' of your time that can become daily disruptions to your day. Having a calendar you both can see trains them to save their questions and/or concerns for meeting times.
During your meetings, use the lists you've both kept as the meeting agenda. Answer questions they may have, brainstorm, and pose questions about projects they're working on. Use the meeting to support their mindset of independence. Give them the space to run their project and give yourself the space to run and work on your business instead of always having your time wrapped up in your business.
During your employee meetings, meaningfully praise their work because you know that getting their work done was difficult. Express appreciation for them taking ownership and doing their job well. You inspire them and hearing praise about the work they've spent time doing helps pull their mindset and confidence up. Not only do they leave their meeting with new work, but they leave inspired to continue to produce.
When Things Break Down
When things break down for me it's usually because I fail to hold to my meetings on my calendar. My assistant will tell you that she sometimes has to come to me and say that she's confused about the priorities. Her overwhelm and confusion means that a breakdown between she and I and her and her work is in process. Know the language of your employees so when they're voicing their concerns or frustrations, you know that what's beneath their words is a break down of process or time management.
Take advantage of project tracking software such as Evernote, Google tasks, Microsoft projects, or check out the blog at http://www.capterra.com/ for their project software recommendations.
Be Accountable to Yourself
Once a week, set aside 2-3 hours for yourself because like I said, time management is about managing tasks in the time you have and keeping your commitments. Use that time to empty all your inboxes, reply to text messages, clear your voicemail, and update your to-do lists and project lists. Use the time to only get things done that take 2 seconds or less.
When you've spent the time on tasks, if you have a few minutes left, use that time to reflect and maybe write how you're feeling, how your business is going, and what you want to work on next.
If you're stuck you're going to be stressed and if you feel the need for help, don't hesitate to get in touch with me. I help small business owners task and project manage and improve employee time management on a daily basis.