Are You Scheduled to Death?
Reality Check
People used to work 10 hour days. Now many of them are working a minimum of 12 - 14 hour days when you take into consideration the hours they put in at home, weekdays and weekends. Add in all this wonderful technology (which was supposed to make our lives easier, right?) such as cell phones, handhelds, i.e. the BlackBerry (CrackBerry) , and even when they are off, they’re ‘on’. They are scheduled to death and when they aren’t scheduled for a meeting, they are interrupted more times than one can count.
Many feel they have absolutely no control of their days, are scheduled beyond what’s humanly possible to sustain, and the powers that be expect them to maintain that lifestyle (or lack of) indefinitely. What’s the answer?
Saying ‘no’ comes to mind. Still, as that’s not acceptable in many organizations, learning how to communicate unsustainable pressures is a must. Asking your manager “What can I drop in order to get this to you when you need it?” is one way of communicating these pressures. One client literally slotted in every responsibility, job, task and meeting into a table and showed the powers that be how the man hours needed didn’t match the manpower they had, so what were they going to drop? These conversations must happen. If staff goes off on stress leave you’re even more up a creek without a paddle, and are paddling up-current.
Reality check. Are you killing your staff one extra task at a time? With all the meetings that happen in a week, is this topic ever raised? As leaders, it’s paramount the question be asked. Are you being killed one task, one deadline at a time, and if so, how can we fix this?
First Things First
Have you set your personal boundaries? Have you defined what’s acceptable and what isn’t? If you don’t, someone else will do it for you. No time like the present!
As a leader, are you paying attention to the hours your staff is working? Are you paying a ton of overtime? Do you have a slew of people running out the door and going off on stress leave? What other wake up calls are needed for leadership to change the status quo?
Is it OK for your staff to say no?
Next:
Start saying no to some things so you can say yes to the right things. If you’re not the person for the job, the right one to attend a meeting, partner with someone or delegate it to someone who is. De-commit, de-schedule and focus on the top 3 priorities, not 10, not 5, but 3. Everything else is gravy and if you can’t figure out what those are, then ask. Have a dialogue about this and perhaps you’ll help everyone else along the way!
And All The Rest:
Click here to contact us for availability for Lightening Round and Laser Coaching Sessions as well as for Shadow Coaching™
We’d still love your insights for our time mastery program that will look at ‘you’ in relation to time. Let us know your time challenges. We want to tailor this program to solve time issues…your issues! Anything you share will remain confidential, so fire away and send them to ideas@IfICouldSaveTimeInABottle.com
Last But Not Least:
Please feel free to share your comments, insights and perhaps a subject or two you’d like to open for discussion and we’ll look at it for future a future newsletter or blog post. Our blog can be found at http://betterperspective.blogspot.com
To sign up for our Self-Coaching program It’s All About You…and Others, visit here:
http://www.itsallaboutyouandothers.com/intro.htm
Time to run with life, and not schedule it to death!
With deepest respect,
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com
ISSN 1913-6307
You Do What You Are
“You do what you are…You’re born with a gift. If not that, then you get good at something along the way. And what you’re good at you don’t take for granted.” - Morgan Freeman
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Who Are You?
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Most people equate themselves with what they do for a living. How many times have you asked someone “Tell me about yourself” only to hear volumes about their work and nothing else? And in the scheme of things, how many are living their passions and doing what they are? Living and working in alignment with their talents? How many have unique talents and never get a chance to use them? Is that you?
That is taking your gifts for granted. True leaders who are living their dreams, lead through their passions and have limitless energy in doing so. They can’t wait to jump into the deep end of every day and see what unfolds. I tell many clients “If at first you don’t succeed, try something you’ve already been successful at and build on it”. Have you been paying attention to your successes and not only celebrating them but doing something to build on them? That is the road to Mastery.
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Who Do You Want to Be?
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Are you happy with your life? Are you inventing your future or living a life of someone else’s or circumstance’s design? A key point is, if you’re going to be working most of your waking hours, why in the world isn’t it at something you love doing?
What’s stopping you? Or, a better question might be, when is the right time to be doing it? I’m constantly hearing “It’s not a good time” or “It’s not the right time.” Are you waiting for ‘the perfect time’ to make changes? And how do you define ‘perfect time’?
A leader lights a fire in people. Can you truly do that if you have little enthusiasm for what you yourself are doing or living? How can you light a fire in yourself? What aren’t you thinking of and if you can’t come up with that answer, that’s where a coach comes in.
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Tech Stuff to Play With:
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I love to write. But it’s not always easy to get the thoughts down in such a way that I can park them and do something with them afterwards. I discovered the Tinkertoy of all software programs that works for me, called The Personal Brain (http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?9cdu5XsVxpHD.ENZ2o1Aig).
Finally a computer program that thinks like a person! Well at least one that thinks like I do. I can park all sorts of ideas on there and tie them in later. It’s a great way to write a book.
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And All The Rest:
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If you want to book in your Lightening Round or Laser Coaching Sessions, there is still some time open on September 7th, 11th and 17th in this two week newsletter period. Contact us at info@abetterperspective.com for openings as well as for Shadow Coaching™ (http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?.6isturkqoPLVvRt3ccWnA) availability within this calendar year.
We’re in the midst of creating a time mastery program that will look at ‘you’ in relation to time. We’d love to hear your time challenges. We want to make sure that once this program is up and running it will meet your needs and then some. Anything you share will remain confidential, so fire away and send them to ideas@IfICouldSaveTimeInABottle.com
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Last But Not Least:
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As always this newsletter will be posted on http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?Ms04htAvvbQpq.iOnS8JGg Please feel free to share your comments, insights and perhaps a subject or two you’d like to open for discussion and we’ll look at it for future a future newsletter or blog post. Our blog can be found at http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?nHl3lR0SZkbf1N0LnacHEg
To sign up for our Self-Coaching program It’s All About You…and Others, visit here:
http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?.b1rwqxfUHfBpM.ev54XHg
Time to run with life, invent it and not run away from it.
With deepest respect,
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?d6gb_67PplTLjzD1l9aWXA
ISSN 1913-6307
