Implementing a Time Management System Pt. 2B
Shared Systems
My editor and I work on creating and marketing my FIBI (For Investor By Investor) meetings--that's a shared system. She and I have committed to assigned tasks and dates of completion. The shared system is an agreement-- you create it, you send it to them for approval or clarity, they send it back for your final approval and you put it where you can both see it.
Project Management/Delegation
People care about the projects you hand over to them if you give them the opportunity to. There are people who behave as if they don't care and that can be caused by you not following up with them. You hand a project off to someone and they want to do a good job but you aren't in communication with them throughout the time of the project and you don't follow-up with them, so their self-motivation dwindles. Most people you hire are eager to do well. You slow down their eagerness when you treat them as if they don't exist or that you unintentionally resent them. Money isn't enough to keep people motivated. What keeps people motivated is the exchange, the assurance, and feeling that they've done something that is recognized.
Delegation Steps:
1. Before you hand a project off to anyone, be clear on what the successful outcome you're looking for is. Don't micromanage by focusing on how it gets done. When you do this, people sign on for the vision and not just the task and they can engage with the vision.
2. Discuss the project, its content, and due date.
3. Have them to agree with the tasks involved and the due date. This gives them the opportunity to speak up and tell you whether they can meet the deadlines. If you give them no voice to say when they can't get something done you'll have a resentful employee who feels like all you do is load their plate without thinking about them as a human being or their flow or work week.
4. Plan on following up at least twice-- one follow-up a few days after it was assigned and a few days before it's due. Ask how the project is going and whether they're in need of anything to help get it done. This serves as a reminder that the project exists, that you care about the project and supporting them with it. Count on them needing more information and be prepared to offer feedback or answers.
5. When the project is delivered to you, send out an email saying at least three things you liked about the project and their work. The three things you highlight tells them the things you want to see again and gives them the positive reinforcement on their work. If you have some negative feedback or things you'd like done differently next time, limit that feedback to 1 or 2 things. And if the project needs to be revisited or redirected, sit down and have a conversation where you both take another look at the vision of the project.
These steps will give you a working system between you and your employee and you can use this system with the next project. This system will tell the employee they can count on you, they'll be clear about their job and what the requirements are, and what a win is and what will garner them praise.
The primary thing time management speaks to is your sense of overload.
Time management is not about you actually managing time since you can't make time expand or contract, and it's not a renewable resource. It's about whether you're focused or not. Time is an account given to you at the beginning of each day and you spend it every day. What do you want to do with that time and who do you want to be? Are you choosing to be a brave leader who uses their time management system to make sure they function well? Or are you going to be an anxious and overwhelmed leader praying someone is going to save you from the anxiety, overwhelm, and chaos you feel because you can't keep track of things? When you've committed to too many things and you don't know how to delegate, you get stuck. The only person who can save you from that... is you. Commit to fewer things, develop the habit of mind dumping, and follow the above-listed project delegation routines.