HOW TO BE THE WORLDS WORST MANAGER: A STEP BY STEP GUIDE ON HOW TO RUN YOUR DEPARTMENT AS INEFFICIENTLY AS POSSIBLE

♦ June 18, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

PART 2
Last time we met you made the bold choice to join me in my goal to create the World’s Worst Manager. So today let us move one step closer to that end point by looking at the most effective way possible in which our favorite manager can further mismanage his / her department through the creation of an environment of zero accountability.

Ever notice how even so called hard working employees manage to find a way to give you grief? I mean what is with this idea that good managers should identify hard working employees and reward them with added responsibility, and by consequence increased accountability? While this might seem like a great idea from the employee’s point of view any manager knows that this is an exercise which becomes extremely time consuming and energy draining, as the manager is forced to not only keep tabs on these employees, but also to discipline / counsel them if they are not performing to standard.

At the end of the day employees should simply report for duty and do what they are instructed to do. The employee who is constantly trying to revamp / improve the processes they are involved in, and who is always trying to give their input on various issues, is simply one more annoyance that the busy manager does not have time to attend to, after all they undoubtedly have a meeting to get to.

In order to streamline the whole management process it is best if all decisions simply get made by the management team. This notion that management should design a decision making framework, which makes provision for employees to provide their input, is absolute nonsense. Generally speaking employees are unable to understand or appreciate the complex variables which we, as management, need to take into account when making decisions, and as such why bother going through the pretense of actually giving them a forum to air their opinions?

Employees would like to have you believe that they want to be involved in the strategic growth and development of the company. In my experience that is simply untrue. Employees do not care what the overall vision of the company is, nor do they want to be involved in actively working towards the achievement of that vision. Employees by nature are negative, and in fact prefer working for a company that is perceived as unpleasant, unproductive and dictatorial, as it gives them yet another thing that they can complain about.

The premise behind including employees in the decision making processes and providing them with additional responsibility and accountability, is that this fosters an environment of team work and togetherness. In my opinion the notion of team work within a company is highly overrated, and a virtually unattainable goal. People are generally speaking self-serving and only interested in promoting their own interests. Why take the risk of giving them significant input in the company’s operations and learning the hard way that employee loyalty is virtually a myth? I say keep employees focused on the completion of the duties for which they have been hired, and beyond that only release information on a need to know basis – running a company should be approached like a highly covert operation and not like a teambuilding adventure camp!

The reality is that by delegating responsibility and accountability to your employees you place your own reputation in jeopardy. After all if they make a bad decision, it’s ultimately you that will need to face the music with upper management – who needs that additional stress? Should you find yourself in such a position though there is a way to diffuse the negative fall-out for yourself. Firstly you will need to publicly humiliate the employee in question in front of their co-workers. Places like the kitchen, tea room or in an open plan office is ideal, in order to ensure maximum humiliation. This will allow you to re-assert your dominance and will also remind all employees of the power you wield. The second step is then to schedule a meeting with your own superior and call in the employee in question. Preferably give the employee no idea of what the meeting is about, and when they arrive come down on them brutally and without mercy. This will show your superior that you were not responsible for the error and that you are managing your employees effectively, despite indications to the contrary. Employees should receive no mercy, after all managers are practically perfect and rarely make errors.

To further ensure that you maintain control of your employees, employ the following tactics:

  • Do not put policies and procedures in place (or if these already exist do not up date them on a regular basis). Employees do not need to have rules and guidelines in place, this encourages them to think independently, which any manager will tell you is a dangerous state of affairs. If employees want to know anything, they can come and ask you.
  • Under no circumstances are you to rationalize or explain your decision making to your employees. First of all you’re the boss and it is their job to do what you instruct them to do, not to debate the process by which a decision is derived. Secondly, they are more than likely incapable of understanding the thought processes involved, so why waste everyone’s time?
  • Do not spend time trying to coach and develop your employees’ decision making abilities. In general most employees will remain in their same low level jobs until they resign, retire, are fired or die. Why waste time on developing abilities which they in all probability won’t even use?
  • The key to managing employees is to treat everyone the same and manage everyone according to the same style. After all there’s only one of you and many of them – they should adapt to your management style and not the other way around.

Well that’s it for today. I really feel that we are making good progress towards our goal of becoming the World’s Worst Manager. Join me again next time when we continue down the road of effective mismanagement!

SERVANT LEADERSHIP: A PATH TO HIGH PERFORMANCE

♦ May 30, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

SERVANT LEADERSHIP: A PATH TO HIGH PERFORMANCE

Yes, another article on leadership, and this time, I’m “borrowing” from Edward D Hess, a  professor of Business Administration at the University of Florida and Batten Executive-in-Residence at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, USA, who recently (April 2013) published an article called: Servant Leadership: a path to high performance. 

He has published a number of books and written numerous articles on business and business growth.  The aforementioned article I found speaking to my heart and what I believe a leader should be, without any of the “show biz” qualities that people often associate with great leaders.    

One of the leadership myths is that to be a great leader you have to be charismatic, have a commanding presence, must be visionary, etc.  Almost all of the leaders of the high-performing companies that Prof Hess studied had none of these traits.

During his study of these high performance organisations, such as Best Buy, UPS, Ritz Carlton, Room & Board, Whole Foods, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Levy Restaurants, the San Antonio Spurs and TSYS, Prof Hess found that the leaders share common characteristics, and these are as follows:  

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

These leaders were servants in the best sense of the word. They were people-centric, valued service to others and believed they had a duty of stewardship. Nearly all were humble and passionate operators who were deeply involved in the details of the business. Most had long tenures in their organizations. They had not forgotten what it was like to be a line employee.(Reminds me a little of the “Undercover Boss” series).

They believed that every employee should be treated with respect and have the opportunity to do meaningful work. They led by example, lived the “Golden Rule,” namely that that good intentions are not enough — behaviours count. These leaders serve the organization and its multiple stakeholders. They are servant leaders.

A LEADERSHIP MYTH

Many people think that you cannot be people-centric and maintain high standards, because employees will take advantage. That’s another a leadership myth.

These high-performance organizations show that people-centric environments and high performance are not mutually exclusive. Employees in these companies have high emotional engagement, loyalty and productivity, and outperform the competition on a daily basis over long periods of time. In fact, the relationship between high performance, high employee engagement and how you treat employees is compelling. His research clearly demonstrates that employee satisfaction drives customer satisfaction and loyalty.

HUMBLE WINS

Most people seek a leadership position because they want more pay, more prestige, more perks and more power. They seek and fall for the intoxicating powers of leadership.

Servant leaders side step that failing. They are paid more, but very few ever make the highest-paid CEOs list. Instead, they fight elitism in themselves and their organizations. Many of these organizations avoid corporate jets, executive dining rooms, big decorated executive offices and other trappings of elitism. Some of these leaders had small windowless offices. Some shared administrative staff with other executives.

BEHAVING WELL

How servant leaders behave is a key to their successful leadership. Behaviours are means of communicating. For example, treating people with dignity, being in the moment and not multitasking, not interrupting others, listening intensely, smiling, saying please and thank you, acknowledging the contributions of others, admitting mistakes, apologizing, not having to be the smartest person in the room all the time and spending time on the front lines with employees and customers.

Servant leaders do not abuse, humiliate or devalue people. They understand that behaviours either build trust or destroy it, and without trust one cannot generally achieve consistent high employee engagement and high performance.

VIGILANT LEADERS

Like behaviours, a servant leader’s attitudes and beliefs underpin successful leadership.

Attitudes and beliefs are fundamental because what you think and feel drives behaviours. Servant leaders do not think they are better than the people they lead. Servant leaders do not think that unless employees are watched like hawks, they won’t work hard. They believe that if you create the right values and culture normal people will do extraordinary things.

The behaviour of leaders, coupled with attitudes and beliefs, either enables or inhibits high performance. Good intentions and words are not enough. The best leaders understand that daily behaviours count.

In conclusion: leadership is hard work because it takes discipline. Servant leaders are vigilant in fighting elitism, arrogance, complacency and pride daily.

HOW TO BE THE WORLDS WORST MANAGER

♦ May 15, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

A STEP BY STEP GUIDE ON HOW TO RUN YOUR DEPARTMENT AS INEFFICIENTLY AS POSSIBLE

 

PART 1

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to constantly come up against the same problems day in and day out? Ask me I know – why you may ask – the answer is simple, I work in Human Resources.

But today I have experienced a true moment of enlightenment! Light bulbs have been going off all over the place (Eskom’s attempts at load shedding not withstanding).  I have been going about things in entirely the wrong way. The days of trying to show people the correct way of going about personnel matters ends as of now.

My new aim is to create the World’s Worst Manager.  A lofty goal to be sure but I feel I’m up to the challenge.

If you’re truly brave please join me over the next several articles as we move step by step through the process of creating the Manager from Hell!

First things first, if you wish to be a truly bad manager you need to embrace the premise that drafting job descriptions, conducting grading exercises, carrying out performance appraisals and implementing succession plans is truly a waste of your valuable time.

Let’s take each of these so called essential tasks and debunk the rhetoric which often surrounds these “HR buzzwords”.

Job Descriptions:

Human Resources consultants are quick to point out that job descriptions are put in place to protect the employer as well as the employee….I think not!

As the manager of my department it is my right to tell my staff what they will and will not do during the course of their working day – if that means having them play a round of pin the tail on the donkey or representing the department at a management meeting, that is my prerogative.  Employees who refuse my requests can be charged with insubordination and disciplined accordingly by the Human Resources department.

This organizational psychology nonsense that says that employees need to know what their roles and boundaries are in order for them to perform well is simply psychological claptrap. My employees should be intelligent enough to be able to work this out for themselves.  As for the employees who claim to be overloaded with work as a result of underperforming co-workers – surely this should provide them with the motivation they need to confront their non-performing co-workers and sort it out amongst themselves? If this leads to ill feelings between team members, so what, my name isn’t Dr Phil or Oprah, it’s not my job to make my employees feel valued and appreciated!

The so called benefits of implementing job descriptions i.e.:

  •  Creating a balanced workload
  • Identifying gaps that exist within operational processes
  • Clearly delineating authority structures
  • Providing a comprehensive overview of the company’s structure and where employee’s fit into the organogram

does not change the fact that employees, like children, should adhere to the age old adage of “you’ll do it because I said so”.

Grading Exercises:

The Manager from Hell is wise enough to know that grading exercises cannot be conducted if job descriptions or job profiles are not in place. As we have already clearly illustrated that job descriptions serve no purpose, we therefore must follow the logical thought process that grading cannot be done effectively and should therefore not be done at all.

The purpose of grading positions within the company, which is to ensure that employees are paid consistently and fairly within the organization, is something that can be achieved without having to waste time and the expense of such an exercise.

Employee’s who feel they are underpaid can leave and take their chances in the job market. The sheer numbers of unemployed workers in South Africa means that the Company can easily replace workers and pay them at any rate they deem to be fair.

The grading methodologies and systems utilized have been vastly overcomplicated as a means of allowing these so called experts to line their pockets and buy that new Mercedes convertible that their mid-life crises have been demanding.  An employee’s job title and a few phone calls is all that is needed for me to determine the market value of a particular position.

Performance Appraisals:

It is my firm belief that performance appraisals are put in place solely for the benefit of the employee and that this is simply done because the current working environment has suddenly become the place for sharing feelings and doling out hugs for overly sensitive employees.

My employees know quickly enough when I’m displeased with their performance (I’m proud to say that I have a vocal range that would put Mariah Carey to shame!). Why come once a year must I suddenly sit down with each and every one of my employees and hold their hand while spelling out for them everything that they have been doing wrong? It’s uncomfortable to sit down face to face and hash things like this out, and let’s face it I don’t have enough time and certainly don’t get paid enough to shadow my employees while taking notes on their performance!

While some might argue that fair performance bonuses can only be determined as a consequence of the results of a performance appraisal I say nonsense! I am a fair person (ask any of my subordinates) and I am more than capable of determining fair bonuses for my staff. Again if Shop Stewards or employee representatives want to jump up and down about bonus inconsistencies, that’s a headache for Human Resources.

Succession Planning:

If ever there was a phrase that strikes terror into the heart of even the mightiest manager it is that of multi-skilling. When exactly did the work place become an occupational training institution? Employees who want to learn and develop new skills should follow the same route that we all had to i.e. stick their hands into their pockets and find the money to go and study part-time at a formal training institution. 

Skills development has no place within a profit generating organization – that remains the domain of non-profit charitable organizations. In the event that an employee resigns or sets up camp in a newly dug burial plot, everyone knows there is a long line of qualified and unemployed people just waiting to step in and take over from where they left off.  As for the delays that will ultimately occur as a result of time lost during the recruitment and initial training phases of new recruits – that’s what overtime is there for!

Training employees and putting things like formal succession plans into effect simply creates an unfair expectation of promotion amongst employees, or even worse simply skills our employees so that they can be poached by our competitors.

So ultimately today’s lesson on how to become the World’s Worst Manager is simple:

  • Do not develop and update job descriptions for your staff regularly – leave them to figure their jobs out on their own.
  • Do not grade the positions within your department to identify any potential remuneration inconsistencies – what employees don’t know won’t hurt them.
  • Do not under any circumstances conduct regular performance appraisals (you’ll simply make performing staff become complacent and create unnecessary confrontations with non-performing employees).
  • And finally leave your staff to worry about their own development – your only concern is on the immediate day-to-day problems of your department.

Join me again same time next month when we continue down the road of effective mismanagement!

What are my responsibilities as Small Business Owner with Regard to Health & Safety?

♦ April 30, 2013 ♦ 2 Comments

What are my responsibilities as Small Business Owner with regard to Health & Safety?

If a fire breaks out in your office or building, would your employees know what to do or how to use the fire extinguishers? If someone is hurt or collapses, is there someone at your office who can provide basic first aid?

Recently, a customer at a shopping centre in Port Elizabeth collapsed, and there was no-one available on the premises that could assist with first aid.  The person passed away. 

The Occupational Health & Safety Act, No 85 of 1993 applies as general rule in all employment activities, irrespective of the size of the business, and especially where machinery is being used. It stipulates in Sections 8.1 & 9.1 that the employer is required to implement a Health and Safety Management System (HSMS) to deal with possible health and safety concerns, i.e.

8.1: every employer shall provide and maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of his employees.

9.1: Every employer shall conduct his undertaking in such a manner as to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, that persons other than those in his employment who may be directly affected by his activities are not thereby exposed to hazards to their health and safety.

The bottom line is as follows:

  • Firstly, you need a Health & Safety Policy, with guidelines, if needed, that describes how you will ensure the protection of the health and safety of your employees at work, including a description of your organization and the arrangements for carrying out and reviewing that policy.
  • Secondly, train a Safety Officer (NQF Level 2) or Health & Safety Representative (NQF Level 3) to ensure someone in your organisation is adequately skilled and knowledgeable as far as health and safety issues in the workplace is concerned.  Should you have an incident at your place of work that requires investigation by SAPS or the Department of Labour, you would not want to be found negligent in your responsibilities as employer.   It may also save you from a R100 000 fine, two years in jail or both, if you prove to be non-compliant.
    • The benefits of having a trained person (Safety Officer or H & S Rep) on your premises are as follows: This person can –
      • do a proper risk assessment to identify hazards and potential hazards or incidents 
      • review the effectiveness of health and safety measures;
      • assist in examining the causes of incidents at the workplace and visit the incident site
      • assist in investigating complaints by any employee relating to that employee’s health or safety at work;
      • make representations on general matters affecting the health or safety of the employees at the workplace;
      • inspect the workplace and health and safety equipment at that workplace
      • cooperate with the DOL inspector should they visit
      • serve on the Health and Safety Committee, if a Committee is required

Questions to you, the small business owner:

  • Does this include the safety and health of your customers who visit your premises?
  • Does it mean that you need someone on your premises who is a certified First Aider and someone on your premises who has knowledge and skill when it comes to fire fighting?

Yes, it sure does, because that would be “reasonably practicable” of you as employer to safeguard the health and safety of your employees and customers visiting your premises.  

Furthermore, who better to demonstrate e.g. the use of fire extinguishers to the rest of the staff (which is a must) or a basic staff development session on assisting someone with e.g. common injuries or conditions such as an allergic reaction, than someone who is properly trained? The emphasis is on providing valid and verifiable proof that you have adequately trained your employees.

Our recommendations to all small business owners, are therefore as follows:

Business Size

First Aider

Fire Fighter

Safety Officer

(NQF Level 2)

H & S Rep

(NQF Level 3 and above)

Safety Committee

Business size of 5 and more

You need a First Aider for at least every shift. 

If you work office hours only, one is sufficient per day, though if that person is on holiday / sick, you’ll need someone else to stand in.

Exactly the same would apply as for the First Aider.

Train and appoint a safety officer who will be able to guide you in terms of the OHS Act minimum requirements.

The Safety officer can be a first aider and fire fighter.

This position is reserved for larger companies (20 and more) and responsibilities and abilities are more advanced.  This person must undergo all lower level training to complete the Level 3 training.

For a business size 10 or more, though the Act states “irrespective of size of company. Safety Officer, first aiders and fire fighters form part of this committee.  You need proof that monthly meetings are held and that safety and health related issues were discussed based on the monthly check.

 

 

The table below gives you an idea of the differences between the knowledge and skills of the Safety Officer and the H & S Representative.

Safety Officer (Recommended for small businesses)

Health & Safety Representative (Recommended for larger businesses (20 employees and more)

Recommended for any small / micro business with 5 or more employees.

Recommended for any additional 20 employees, add another H & S Representative.

This person can:

Identify basic hazards, make recommendations to reduce or remove these, is able to draw up a safety plan and assist in compiling a safety policy, knows how to identify and use fire extinguishers, can do a basic incident report, and knows basic legislative requirements and who the authorities are to report to, and knows the basics of injury on duty related procedures.

This person is normally a supervisor or team leader i.e. working with the rest of the employees.

The Safety Officer reports to the Safety Rep.

This person:

Has undergone Safety Officer training, so already has the background, and now has more advanced knowledge of relevant legislation, incident investigation techniques, company specific practices, environmental protection issues, can apply sector and workplace standards, knows who all other role players are their responsibilities.

This person’s main responsibilities are daily safety and incident reporting i.e. they are employed in the position of Safety Rep. This applies especially to large companies.  In a smaller company, the safety responsibilities may be in addition to a particular position.

The Safety Rep reports to HR Management.

Choose wisely before you send someone on training; if you are unionized, ensure that the Union is given opportunity for input in terms of who is trained. Make sure that you have duly appointed your Safety Officer / H & S Rep, first aider and fire fighter for these duties and that you include these in the individual’s job description.

What does it mean to be a leader?

♦ April 15, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

Google the topic and you’ll be confronted with no less than 468,000,000 hits.

This is a topic which has been thoroughly researched, models developed and millions of people trained in. Despite this if one had to run a global survey to determine how many true leaders exist worldwide (if such a survey was even possible) the results I fear would be shockingly low.

Furthermore I’m willing to bet a year’s salary (and no I’m not telling you what I earn!) that we would be hugely surprised at who the people are who would emerge as true leaders – not necessarily the Presidents, CEO’s and business owners of the world.

Being a leader does not come from situational authority – it’s not bestowed on you by an external authority or by being given a title with the word manager or supervisor in it. Leadership is earned – plain and simple. From the informal trader on the street corner, to the stay at home mother, to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company anyone can become a visionary leader if they practice good leadership principles.

John Maxwell, a leading expert in the field of leadership has the following to say:

Maxwell says the five levels of leadership include the following:

1. Position
On Level 1, people follow you because they have to. They think: “You’re a Level 1 leader, you’re the boss; I follow you. That’s how I get my pay cheque, and if I don’t do that, I’m fired”.

This is the entry level of leadership and you have designated authority based on your position = you are the “boss” in your domain.

2. Permission
Maxwell says leaders reach Level 2 — the permission level — by building relationships. People now give you permission to lead them because they relate well with you. On level number two, people follow you because they want to. Primarily because you display / do the following:

• Genuineness (genuine love for people)
• Make those who work with you more successful
• See through other’s eyes
• Love people more than procedures
• Do “win-win” or don’t do it
• Include others in your journey

3. Production
Solid relationships lead to results, and Level 3, the production level — when people follow you because of what you’ve done for the organization.

Now people follow you because you’ve got credibility, and with that comes momentum.

That momentum can propel you to Level 4 as a leader — the people development level — a place where your investment in others compounds, reproducing strong leadership skills in those who follow you.

To master this level requires the following:

• Initiate and accept responsibility for growth
• Develop and follow a statement of purpose
• Develop accountability for results – begin with yourself
• Communicate strategy and vision to all stakeholders
• Become a change agent; understand timing
• Make the difficult decisions

4. People Development
On Level 4, people follow you because of what you’ve done for them. This is where there’s great passion for their leader, and this is where there’s a great amount of loyalty that is built in.

To reach Level 4, you have to SLAY DOWN YOUR EGO. If you have an egocentric boss, they’re not going to want other leaders underneath them because they may feel threatened that those people will take their positions.

Level 4 is where you empower people, and an insecure person will not empower anybody. They’re threatened by people. Leaders who are insecure or egocentric, they basically sabotage themselves.

5. Pinnacle / Personhood
For those who “slay the ego”, Maxwell believes Level 5, or the pinnacle level of leadership, awaits them. That’s when people follow you because of who you are and what you represent.

“We know them; we remember them, and they reached it because they earned it. They started off with everybody else on Level 1,” Maxwell said.

Ultimately however becoming a leader is a process – there’s no skipping steps, no shortcuts – no simple training course that will magically turn you into the perfect leader. This requires a lifetime commitment – it has to become a way of living which permeates every aspect of your life i.e. at home, at work in the organisations that you are a member of etc. To do it any other way will lessen the validity of your perceived leadership as it will come across as less than authentic.

Leading a team is similar in many respects to raising children – you need to serve as the ultimate example, your employees will look to you for guidance and behavioural cues and this will ultimately create the company culture. This doesn’t mean to say that a leader needs to be perfect and can never make mistakes – the leader is after all above all human (and it’s this very humanness that will make it possible for you to connect with your people) – the leader does however have to be willing to admit to their mistakes and display a willingness to take action to correct those mistakes. This again serves as an example for your people as to how they should handle mistakes that they may make.

A true leader’s ultimate goal should be to grow the people around him/her to be the best they can be – with the knowledge that this might mean that that person may develop on a path that diverges from your own goals. Keeping staff down simply because you are afraid of losing them and their expertise is not the mark of a true leader – retaining staff in a position that does not allow them to fulfil their true purpose and potential will ultimately lead to unhappiness, reduced productivity and a toxic work environment.

Let me leave you with this thought, Robert Greenleaf, who coined the term servant leadership had the following to say:

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead – The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”

So the decision is yours, do you want to be a leader and if so what type of leader do you want to be? Enjoy the journey!

For further information on Maxwell’s leadership model please feel free to contact us.

Check back with us on 30th April 2013 for our next article – looking forward to your comments!

SETTING PRIORITIES: It’s not how hard your work; it’s how smart you work

♦ March 20, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

You can work day in and day out and exhaust yourself, but if you are not working on the things that are important, you will only get a stiff neck and suffer from sleep deprivation and exhaustion.

What this says is that one has to work towards some achievement, and one has to know what, among all the different possibilities of keeping busy, one should be focusing on.  In other words, prioritize. 

  Steven Covey taught us that we should divide tasks into four types:

  1. High importance and high urgency – do these first.  Typically, these are tasks that are directly linked to achieving what you are aiming for and may be things that only you can do, and they need to be done now. 
  2. High importance and low urgency – set deadlines and work on them, bit by bit, daily.
  3. Low importance and high urgency – if possible, delegate these to someone else or find quick and efficient ways to get this done.
  4. Low importance and low urgency – stack these up (e.g. filing or repetitious work) and do them in half-hour segments once a week or get someone else to do it.  Alternatively, just don’t do it at all or postpone it indefinitely.

 Questions you should ask yourself:

  • What is required of me? (Requirements) Important tasks are tasks that no one but you can do, and failure to do these may eventually put you among the unemployed. Identify what these are and do them.
  • What gives me the greatest return? (Return)  In other words, do I spend hours on tasks that have very little return (does not improve my product or service, does not market my product / service, does not contribute to building my credibility and so forth) or am I doing what I do best and receiving a good return for my business or the organisation?
  • What is most rewarding? (Reward)  Truthfully, life is too short spending hours doing what you don’t enjoy.  Your best work takes place when you enjoy it. If you’re not so good at it, then learn to do it really well and enjoy it even more!

If you can align the three R’s (requirement / return / reward), success is just around the corner!

 And just when you have everything nicely aligned, priorities shift. What was important last month may be less important this month.  That’s why you should –

  • Review the 3R’s every month (evaluate)
  • Ask yourself: what am I doing that can be done by someone else? (eliminate)
  • Ask yourself: what are the top projects this month and how long will they take? (estimate)
  • Ask yourself: what can I overlook? (planned neglect) In other words, what can I ignore or leave for now to give me more time to focus on what is important? (When a deadline is coming up, honestly, cleaning desk drawers is NOT a priority!).

It’s easy to prioritize if the choice is between what is right and what is wrong. What if you have to choose between two really good options i.e. both choices are high in terms of requirement, return and reward?

  • First, speak to a coworker or manager and ask their preference; then think on it.
  • Ask yourself: can one of these options be handled by someone else, and pass it on.
  • Ask yourself: which option will benefit the client most?
  • Ask yourself: which option will benefit your business or the organisation most?

 Now everything is sorted, right? Wrong!  What if there are so many priorities and the “to do” list is so long, you feel like you’re drowning?

  • On a monthly basis, list all the projects, prioritise them, or ask your manager (or your mentor) to assist you in re-prioritizing for the month. 
  • When emergencies arise, we are forced to prioritize.  But, we don’t want to be in a state of emergency all the time. Look at time deadlines – and put these on the top of the list. 

Major goals are not achieved because too much time is spent doing second things first (Robert, J. McKain).  As (another) wise man said once: learn to say No to the good in order to say Yes to the best.

 Lastly, don’t put yourself in a position where regrets are all you have, because you failed to identify what is really important. In short, you may not have the time to do everything you want to do, therefore, decide what you should do in the time you have.

(Sources: Readings from Steven Covey & John Maxwell)