“What disturbs me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think they are.”
~ Epictetus
Many managers work long, long, hard hours. They arrive before the first employee is even out of bed and stay until the janitor is done for the night. Hours and time vs. energy and effectiveness – which do you bring to the table? The reasons many managers feel the need to put in this time is due to:
Poor organization skills.
Poor planning.
An unrealistic estimate of how much they can do in a given time period.
Ego.
Too much on their plate.
Inability to say no.
Inability to effectively delegate tasks/assignments.
Need to please.
Insecurity.
Low self-esteem.
Life is out of balance.
Any sound familiar to you regarding your style or the issues facing other managers in your organization?
The key is to understand the difference between being effective and being efficient.
Efficient is getting things – lots of things – done. Effective is getting the RIGHT things done. Getting to the end of a long busy day exhausted and burned out because you were so busy you had little time to relax, think and plan, but got a lot off your plate is no way to spend your time as a manager. The key is to end the day with the RIGHT things done in the right way.
Your health is most likely sending you signals that being busy is not the answer – being effective is. Only you know how you should be spending your time. Here are a few quick ways to determine if you are NOT spending your time wisely.
- You deal with the same redundant problems – over and over again.
- Your stress level is causing you health/sleep issues.
- You lack time during the day necessary to effectively plan.
- No matter how many hours you work in a day, you still don’t get everything done you feel you need to.
- Lots of stuff falls through the cracks during the day.
- Your bottom-up and top-down communication from and to employees lacks integrity.
- You don’t have enough time to consistently train or coach your employees.
- You spend TOO much time in meetings.
Why not add some of your own…