A typical day In our business… Replace “Boss” with “Client.”

What is your favorite Dilbert strip?

To view Dilbert Cartoons, go to http://www.dilbert.com.

      

Audio File for Effective Time Management
(2 minutes 19 seconds)

As some of you know, I’ve been going to law school at UALR for the past year. It’s a part-time program which fits nicely into my work schedule but has cut deeply into my time availability.

During the Semester
During the semester, a typical day starts around 8am and as soon as I get off of work, I’m in class by 5:30pm. I sit in a class room until 9pm. I then get home, reply to emails, return urgent calls, prepare for the next day’s work, and then start reading for the next day of classes.

When I sit in class, I think about all of the thing that I COULD accomplish if I were not in school.

Needless to say, when I got out of school for the summer, I couldn’t wait to get out and see how much I could accomplish. As the summer began, I thought that I needed to work long hours to “get caught up.”

Now, in mid-August, I’m still working late hours and probably getting just as much done as I did while I was in class.

I’ve come to the realization that I lack time management skills. Actually, I don’t lack time management skills… they just go away if they’re not required. My formula looks something like this:

The more stuff I have to do and the less time I have to do those tasks… the better my time management skills. This follows my theory of:

“If you push yourself to accomplish more than you think you can handle… you’ll surprise yourself with how much you can actually accomplish.”

So, a few things that I’ve learned while trying to fix my time management skills.

1. Do not work with outlook open. Set time aside to respond to emails.
2. You do not have to answer every phone call. Set time aside to respond to phone calls.
3. Prioritize your task list. Not every task is equally important. Hone in on tasks that are important.
4. Log Your time. To measure your time management, you must know where you are spending your time.
5. One task at a time. I’m the worst at trying to do three things at once. But time and time again, I’m reminded that making a list is a better solution.

I leave you with a book that was given to me by an ex-girlfriend that told me long ago that I had time management problems. Admission is the first step to solving the problem.

      

Employee Empowerment
When people ask me about my management style, I usually respond with something corny like “employee empowerment.” The idea is that the people I work with are smart enough that they don’t have to be managed. They know the company goals and they know how to take care of a customer. Let the employee manage themselves. They’ll hold themselves to a higher standard, make their own deadlines based on reality and work load, and they’ll put the customer first because of their own inner drive. Overall, I think this management style has worked for me. It might be the lazy man’s way, but I think if you have good people, you’ll see great results. It’s less time consuming than other management style’s and I think the employees get a lot more, long term gain out of this style of management.

When Employee Empowerment Doesn’t Work
But, “employee empowerment” doesn’t always work. You don’t want to use this style when you’re working with people that don’t care about quality, their customer, or future. These people live for today, not the long term. They over promise and under deliver. They say they’ll be there and never show up. They promise you’ll love the work and you end up hating it. They swear they didn’t see the errors you point out. They make excuse after excuse. They make errors without any excuse at all. They promise to change and they don’t. You don’t want to work with these people but sometimes you have no choice.

When It Doesn’t Work
When I notice that empowerment isn’t working, I switch to what I call “Reward Management.” This is typical in some industries such as the construction industry. This is also typical when you’re working with sub-contractors. The basis is, you only get paid when the job is done and when the job is done right. This is the last leg for me. I’ll call it quits if they can’t get the job done, maintain a great quality, pickup the phone when I call, or they can’t get it done when they say they’re going to get it done.

That’s it. Those two things are my only management options. Sometimes, I get handcuffed to a bad worker. Sometimes, I get a guy who starts a project and they’re so deep in the project, its hard to get them off of it. From experience, its always worth getting them off of the project as soon as possible. Don’t give them a third and forth shot, just get rid of them.

Conclusion
Good people are the hardest things to come by. When you find them, treat them as good as you can and be prepared to treat them better than you treat yourself. Don’t double cross them because you’ll need them in the future. And get them on your team as soon as you can.

Bad people are a dime-a-dozen. Dump them as soon as you can. Don’t give them a third chance and don’t think they’ll change.