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