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happened to those big reports we used to get from your department each
month?”
The Vice President of Finance said, “We stopped sending them out.”
The division head said, “Well, we never read them anyway.” That was the
only comment he ever received from anyone in the company on the
discontinued reports.
It is amazing how many activities go on in business and private life that
could be quite easily discontinued completely, with no loss or inconvenience
to anyone. Rooting out these opportunities for increased efficiency can
dramatically improve the productivity and profitability of an organization or
department.
Six Steps to Effective Delegation
To delegate effectively in your work with others, there are six steps that you
can take. If you neglect any one of these steps, you run the risk of
miscommunication, misunderstandings, demoralization and poor
performance.
1. Match the Person to the Job
Match the person to the job. One of the great time wasters in the world of
work is delegating the task to the wrong person. Often the task is delegated
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to a person who is not capable of doing it properly or getting it done on
schedule.
The only accurate predictor of future performance is past performance. The
rule is that you never delegate an important task to a person who has not
performed that task satisfactorily in the past. It is unfair to expect a person
who has not done a job before to perform at a sufficient level of quality
when they are given the job for the first time.
2. Agree on what is to be Done
Once you have selected the right person for the job, take the time discuss the
job with that person and agree upon what must be done. The more time you
take to discuss and agree upon the end result or objective, and achieve
absolute clarity, the faster the job will be done once the person starts on it.
3. Explain How the Job Should Be Done
Explain to the person your preferred approach or method of working.
Explain how you would like to see the job done, and how you or someone
else has done it successfully in the past.
4. Have Him Feed It Back
Ask the person to feed your instructions back to you in his or her own
words. Have him or her explain to you what you have just explained and
agreed upon. This is the only way that you can be sure that the other person
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actually understands the job or assignment that they have been delegated to
accomplish.
5. Set a Deadline
Set a deadline and a schedule for completion of the task. At the same time,
arrange for regular reporting and for periodic inspection. Invite feedback and
questions if there are any delays or problems.
6. Manage By Exception
Manage by exception whenever possible. Managing by exception is a
powerful time management tool that you can use to work more efficiently
with other people.
If the job is on track, and on schedule, managing by exception means that
the person does not have to report back to you. If you don’t hear from him,
you can assume that everything is going well. The individual only has to
report back to you when an exception occurs and there is a problem with
getting the job done on time, to the agreed upon level of quality.
Seven Ways to Get More Done Each Day
There are seven methods you can use to get more done each day. These are
simple, direct and cost no money.
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1. Work Harder
Work harder than you are working today. You can concentrate with greater
intensity on your work. You can focus single-mindedly and discipline
yourself to work without interruption, diversion or distraction. You can work
harder than anyone else, which is a secret to great success.
2. Work Faster
You can work faster than you are today. You can pick up the pace. You can
develop a faster tempo. You can move more quickly from place to place, and
from job to job. When you combine working harder and working faster, you
can get more done in a single day than most people get done in a week.
3. Batch Your Tasks
You can batch your tasks. You can do a series of similar jobs together,
taking advantage of the learning curve.
4. Do More Important Things
You can do more important things. You can work on higher value tasks. You
can work on tasks that have a higher potential payoff rather than those
activities that have a lower payoff.
5. Do Things You’re Better At
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Do things at which you excel. The better you are in a key skill area, the more
that you can get done and at a higher level of quality. Because you are better
at these tasks, they will be easier for you so you will get them done with less
effort and you will have more energy as a result.
6. Make Fewer Mistakes
To get more done, you can make fewer mistakes. You can take the time to
do it right the first time. You’ve heard it said, “There is never enough time to
do it right, but there is always enough time to do it over.” One of the best
time management techniques is to do it right the first time, even if it takes a
little more effort and concentration.
7. Simplify the Work
You can simplify the work by reducing the number of steps necessary to
complete the task. This makes the job simpler and easier to get done.
Pay Attention
“Life is the study of attention.” You always pay attention to that which you
most value. If you value another person, you listen to them intensely when
they are speaking. If you value the result of a job, you pay close attention to
the details that determine whether or not that job is completed successfully.
Effective managers pay close attention to everything that is going on around
them because they value it and because it is important to them.
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Assuring Success at Work
The very best times you will ever have at any job or company is when you
are getting wonderfully well with your boss. On the other hand, the very
worst times you will ever have at any job is when you are not getting along
well with your boss. And the major reason why employees have problems
with their bosses is because of a lack of clarity of what exactly is to be done,
and to what standard, and in what order of priority.
Here is an excellent exercise for you. Make a list of all of the answers to the
question, “Why am I on the payroll?” Write down everything that you feel
that you have been hired to accomplish in your work. Focus on results rather
than activities. Imagine that your work consists of a series of “deliverables.”
Define your job in terms of the deliverables for which your company pays
you a wage or salary.
Now, take this list to your boss and ask your boss to organize this list by
priority, based on what is most important to him or her. This may take a few
minutes. Be patient. As you discuss this list with your boss, ask questions so
that you are perfectly clear about what he or she wants or needs.
Focus on Your Boss’s Top Priorities
From that day forward, focus and concentrate on doing those jobs that your
boss considers to be the most important before you do anything else.
Whenever your boss asks you to do something else, take out your list and
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ask him or her what order of priority the new task has relative to the tasks
currently on your job list.
If you are working at your full capacity, to do something new, you will have
to stop doing something old. Many bosses do not realize that your plate is
full already. When your boss asks you to do something new, you should ask
him what he would like you to stop doing so that you can work on the new
task that he has just given you. This is a wonderful way to minimize
misunderstandings and improve communications.
It is only when you are working on those tasks that are most important to
your boss that you can possibly have any chance of satisfying or pleasing
him, or being paid more or promoted more often. If you make the mistake of
doing things on your list in an excellent fashion but you work on tasks that
are not important to your boss, you will actually sabotage your career. The
more time you spend doing an excellent job on unimportant tasks, the further
behind you will fall.
Three Types of Decisions
There are three types of decisions in any organization, or family. When
decisions involve other people, it is important that everyone is clear about
what kind of a decision is under consideration.
1. Command Decisions
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The first types of decisions are command decisions. This is a decision that
has to be made by the boss, or by the person in charge. This decision is so
important that one person is solely responsible for making up his or her mind
about what is to be done.
Hiring a key staff member, firing a poor performer, making an important
investment decision, finalizing a sale or transaction, or even negotiating a
new loan with the bank are all command decisions. They must be made by
the person in charge.
2. Consultative Decisions
The second type is a consultative decision. This is a decision where you or
the boss asks for advice and takes input from other people. You combine the
opinions, ideas and inputs of others together with your own and make a
decision. A consultative decision, even though it invites the advice and
participation of others, is not made based on that advice.
You may be thinking of hiring a new person, assigning someone to a
particular task, spending a certain amount of money on a business activity or
embarking on a new sales or marketing campaign. If you are the boss, you
can ask for advice from everyone before you finally close the door and make
your final decision.
When General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the supreme commander of allied
forces in Britain, he took the advice and input of hundreds of military
experts, planners and specialists in his preparation for the D-Day invasion.
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This process took several months. But on the final day, June 5, 1944, with a
single day of calm weather predicted for the English Channel, General
Eisenhower made the fateful decision that launched the invasion of June 6,
1944 and brought World War II to an end ten months later.
3. Consensus Decisions
The third type of decision is one that is made on the basis of consensus. This
is a democratic decision where everyone gets involved, discusses the pros
and cons, and then agrees on what is to be done. Sometimes everyone is in
agreement and sometimes the decision is made by a democratic vote, where
the majority rules. Once the decision has been made, everyone commits to
making the decision successful; however they may have felt or voted during
the discussion phase.
Clarify the Type of Decision
One of the problems in communications, and working with others, is
confusion over which kind of a decision is being made at that moment.
Sometimes, the boss asks for input and ideas. The staff members
automatically conclude that this is a consensus decision while the boss may
be viewing it as a consultative decision. When the boss makes a decision
that is contrary to the expressed wishes or opinions of the others, it can lead
to hard feelings and misunderstandings.
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People’s feelings will be hurt and time will be wasted going back and
explaining that their input was invited and welcome, but not necessarily
followed in the final decision.
When a boss makes it clear that this is a democratic or consensus decision,
he is saying that the staff can decide what is to be done in this case, and
whatever the group decides, we will all go along with it. When everyone is
clear about the kind of decision under consideration, everything proceeds
more smoothly, with less friction and time wastage.
Your Job Description
Often in my seminars, to make a point, I will say, “I know the job
description of every single person in this audience.” This immediately gets
their attention. In an audience of 1000 people, there will be participants from
hundreds of companies. They then smile and wait to hear what I am about to
say.
“You can take your business card and cross out whatever title is below your
name and replace it with the words Problem Solver. Everyone here is a
problem solver. This is what you do all day long.”
Focus on the Solution
One of the characteristics of top people is that they are intensely solution-
oriented. They do not continually think and talk about the problem, and who
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is to blame, and how much has been lost, and why did this happen to me?
Instead, they focus on the solution, and what can be done.
Your job, in whatever position, is to solve problems. Your income, your rate
of promotion, the respect and esteem of your peers, and all of your success
in life will be determined by how effectively you solve the problems and
difficulties that you have to face every hour of every day in the achievement
of your goals.
Leadership is the ability to solve problems. Success is the ability to solve
problems. Personal effectiveness is the ability to solve the inevitable and
unavoidable problems of daily life. The only question is, “How good are you
at solving problems?”
Here is a wonderful discovery. The more you think and talk about possible
solutions, the smarter you get. The more you think and talk about what can
be done to solve the problem, the more ideas you will have. You will
become more creative. Your mind will function faster. The more solutions
that you come up with, the more solutions there are that will occur to you.
Eventually you will become like the Pac Man of the video game, gobbling
up problems as fast as you encounter them.
One of the biggest time savers in life and work is your ability to solve the
right problem in the right way. It is your ability to deal effectively and
efficiently with problems, to overcome them, and to keep moving forward
toward the result or goal that you desire.
