There Is Too Much To Do

In today’s business environment, managing employees is one of the many responsibilities a manager needs to handle during the day. Though deciding to do your best in developing and supporting your employees will make a big difference in their productivity as well as your own. How you manage your employees affects your overall performance. So how do you give your best when there is too much to do?

Here are some ideas to help you decide what is important.

Are you clear on what you and your team are required to accomplish? If not, take the time to rectify that.
You need to know what still needs to be done? Part of our stress is not knowing all the moving parts. Gather a list of what is completed and what still needs to be done.
You now have a list of what needs to be done. This is the time to ask “why” something is important. Systems develop and not everything is still important to do.
Since you and your employees can each only do one thing at a time, there will always be too much to do. This is what management is all about…to prioritize and decide what is most important.
You influence your employees more by communicating face-to-face rather than email. For virtual employees, call them. Email is so impersonal and your goal is to build a relationship with your team members. If you have hundreds of employees under you, train the supervisors to build relationships with their direct reports. Limit your email use with employees.
If you can’t meet regularly with each member of your team, have senior members become mentors or “buddies” to junior staff. Encourage everyone to get up and speak to others rather than emailing.
You have to be ruthless about your time. Track your time – where are you spending it…in lengthy meetings or email. These are your time robbers and you need to figure out a way to diminish those activities. If email is your time robber, get someone else to pre-read and handle most of your email, have your email automatically filed in it’s appropriate category so you can read when you are ready, or have a separate email address for customers and employees and address what’s important first.
Delegate…Delegate…Delegate! Bring in an intern or two to handle the routine functions of your job or your department. Your team can also be freed up to handle their “to do” list. Have someone attend a meeting for you and report back. Take the time to brainstorm on all the activities that you can hand over to others and then find solutions to do just that.
Not all companies recognize that a manager needs to develop their management skills on a regular basis. Schedule some learning time for yourself.

Final Thought

There is usually one overall focus for any company…to provide a service or a product and build strong and lasting relationships with the customers. Your employees service those customers. Since it’s known already that a key component of an employee’s success is their relationship with the manager, it’s important to focus your attention on them.

Start today…start with something small such as sending one less email to an employee and instead speaking directly to them.

Next Topic
Create a “Learning” Plan

Pat

Other Topics:
What To Look For In a Coach
Have Your Considered Management Coaching…For You?
Are You a ‘Burned Out’ Manager?

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