Oak Forest Managing Tip

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” Albert Schweitzer

1.You set the standard: Work as hard, or harder, than your employees. Be a role model when managing people. Strive to know more than your best employee (or best sales rep) about your product line, industry, and their jobs. This doesn’t mean you have to know everything. Still, educate yourself. I frequently hear in my seminars, “My boss has no idea what I really do in my job. The challenges, the pressures I face, and the time constraints.”

2. Be an effective communicator: Communicate the good, the bad, and the ugly at least weekly. In study after study, employees and business leaders overwhelmingly want a leader who is “straightforward.” I hear this over and over in my leadership seminars and workshops worldwide. Good interpersonal skills are crucial in managing people.

3. Be authentic, be real: The #1 trait people want to see, to willingly follow their leader is honesty. How can you expect them to look up to you if they don’t trust you? Leadership is all about honesty and integrity.

4. The top 5 things: Ask your people point blank, “What are the top 5 things I can do to help you succeed?” For example, if they are salespeople, what can you do to motivate them to be out in the field instead of in the office?

5. MBWA: Management by walking around. Be accessible to them. Get in the trenches with your team. Nothing will gain respect for you more than that. This is another trait I consistently hear from my participants that they want to see in their leaders, and from their management team.

6. Be willing to fight for them: But before that, set the standard so they know how far they can push something before they ask for it. And when is enoughenough.

7. Get the facts first, listen: Never question their integrity without first gathering all the data. Have an open mind. Let them tell their side of the story. Just because you acknowledge what they say doesn’t mean you have to agree.

This leadership article on managing people represents the opinions of a large cross section of employees, most of whom are managers themselves. In presenting approximately 100 leadership programs a year worldwide for the past ten years, these are the top 7 “common-sense” traits I hear employees most want from their managers. I refer to them as common-sense as it seems most leaders would know how important these people skills are to possess. Yet, many in management have risen in the ranks due only to their “hard skills” or technical skills. Many managers are promoted to management positions without any formal training in the area of communication and managing people. As a result, they can be too overbearing, or just the opposite, non-confrontational.

If nothing else, develop your communication and conflict-resolution skills. It’ll save you money in the long run. As a manager, it’s imperative to know how to manage people. The courts are filled with hotheads, people who said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Or worse, said nothing at all, and enabled the behavior of a difficult employee until it reached a crisis point.

“Sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” G.D. Boardman

Copyright 2006 Colleen Kettenhofen

Colleen Kettenhofen is a motivational speaker, workplace expert, & co-author of “The Masters of Success,” as featured on the Today Show, along with Ken Blanchard and Jack Canfield. She has spoken in 47 states & 6 countries. Popular topics: difficult people, success, presentation skills, leadership, life balance. To order the book online, or for more free articles visit http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com Colleen is available for keynotes, breakout sessions and seminars.
http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com colleen@colleenspeaks.com

E-mail, a wonderful communication tool is also the greatest
challenge to manage. Hundreds of mails pouring in from friends,
forums, business associates, customers and subscribed newsletters
and spam mail with enticing subject headers.

Just imagine reading even 50 mails a day. It would take two
and half hours even if you just spend 3 minutes on an average
per mail. Replying to five to six important mails a day would
take another hour at 10 minutes a mail.

Spending up to 4 hours a day on mails may leave you with little
time to do more important work. So how do you manage the
clutter of mails?

Creating mail folders

The first thing on setting up a new mail account is to create
folders for storing important mails. You can create folders
such as personal mails, business mails, priority response,
newsletters etc. This will help you sort the important, urgent
and casual mails and prioritize your email activities.

Spam and bulk mails

Most mail programs have very strong spam filters and they are
improving by the day. This automatically filters your mail to
bulk folders based on key words and whether the mail address is
in your address book among various other criteria. As a rule
never read any bulk mail however enticing the subject heading
may be. Just scan the headings to check whether any recognizable
mail has been sent to the bulk mail folder and delete the rest
ruthlessly. If you get into even opening a few mails your
mail time management takes a toss for the worst.

Set up temporary mail boxes

Many users have temporary needs for receiving huge amount of
mails. This could be due to inviting applications for a
position, submitting to search engines and running a promo,
ad campaign or site submissions to search engines etc. Set up
a temporary mail address and delete the mailbox once the purpose
is achieved. Most mail services now offer this service as
regular feature.

Passwords

Forgetting the login and passwords are a major time waster for
all mail users. Keep a separate folder for passwords and site
sign ups so that you need not request the passwords every time
you need to login to a site.

Email Access

Don’t open your emails too frequently or use it as a time filler. There is phenomenon called entrainment, which to explain in simple terms is a feeling of speed and fast paced action provided by emails and net surfing and is a major source of addiction. This also gives you a feeling of having done a lot of work. Have a predefined time schedule for checking and replying to mails.

Unsubscribe

When you feel a service or newsletter is no longer required simply
unsubscribe. You may subscribe again when the need is felt.

Finally, email is a very valuable tool. Not managed well you could have thousands of mails sitting in your mail box creating huge confusion and loss of valuable time. How well you manage it will decide how effective you will be in your communication and productivity.

R.G. Srinivasan is is a certified trainer and a management consultant. Check out his webpages at http://www.home-businessresources.blogspot.com

Does your schedule leave you feeling frazzled? Do you find yourself spinning your wheels, running form work to soccer practice to dance class to your parent-teacher conference to the grocery store, then back home to cook dinner? Maybe then you spend a few quality minutes with your husband and children, and possibly squeeze in a little laundry? By the time you fall (fully clothed) into bed, are you out before your head hits the pillow? Between taking care of our families, our homes, and our jobs, many of us don’t know whether we’re coming or going. But we all know someone who seems to be able to do everything without breaking a sweat. You know the one. She’s Ms. Perfect, the mom who makes the rest of us look bad. She works full time, has 2.5 perfect children, and a loving (handsome AND successful) husband. She heads all the committees and bakes cookies (from scratch) for the whole neighborhood every time anything resembling a holiday pops up on the calendar. Oh, and somehow she has time to volunteer at the local soup kitchen every Saturday. And, on top of this, she always manages to look amazing! You despise her, right? Of course, who wouldn’t? But, wait. Let’s hold back the green-eyed monster for a moment and ask ourselves a question. How does she do it?

No matter what you may think, she’s not superhuman. She just manages to stay organized and focused on her goals. She schedules her time wisely and sticks to it.

So, how does an average Jane learn to do this? Don’t worry; it’s not as difficult as you might think. You, too, can have it all! All it takes is a little practice and perseverance. It might be hard to believe, but there is hope for the proverbial chicken running around with her head cut off!

Anne Morrow Lindbergh once said, “Lost time is like a run in a stocking. It always gets worse.”

The simple steps outlined below present a basic blueprint of time management that will help you to stop losing time and start shunning that stress. Give it a shot and you will be amazed at the results.

1. Where is your time going? You probably have no idea. The first step to organizing your day is to get a clear idea of exactly what you’re doing. How do you do this? In a small notebook, sketch a timetable. Divide it into three segments: morning, afternoon, and evening. For five days, carry the notebook with you. At the end of each time segment, record your activities and the amount of time spent on each. You may find it’s more accurate if you record after each activity. For example, a morning segment might begin like this: Sleeping in, 30 minutes. Shower, 15 minutes. Getting ready (clothes, hair makeup), 45 minutes. Getting kids ready, 30 minutes. Breakfast, 10 minutes. Commuting, 45 minutesand so on. At the end of five days, take a serious look at how your time is spent. Could you be doing more, or are you doing too much? You might be surprised to find that you spend more time procrastinating and preparing to get things done than actually doing them.

2. What are your priorities? The next step is to determine exactly what you need (and want) to accomplish. Take a few minutes to list your day to day responsibilities and goals. Give each a rating from one to three, three being most significant. Use this rating to determine what’s worth your time and what may not be. You may find that some of the things you thought were priorities actually aren’t that important. Don’t be afraid to say “no” once in awhile. You’re not the only one who can organize that committee or host that party. When it comes to your home and family, you are allowed to ask for help. Delegate chores to your children or spouse, or even hire outside help if necessary.

3. Be a list maker. According to J. Robin Powell, PH.D., author of The Working Woman’s Guide to Managing Stress, list making alone can reduce stress levels. Each night before you go to bed, make a simple list of what you plan to accomplish the next day. Don’t go overboard. It’s important that it is actually possible to accomplish your goals. You will be able to sleep easily knowing that you are already organized for the next day. You can also keep a working list of more time-consuming projects, such as organizing closets or painting the bathroom. Make a point of completing one project from this list each week, and be sure to update it often.

4. Plan, plan, plan. Get an appointment book small enough to fit in your purse and carry it with you wherever you go. Use it to plan daily, weekly, and monthly activities. For your day to day matters, plan like activities together. For example, plan to run all of your errands in one afternoon. This will help you to avoid running in circles. But, remember to be flexible. Expect unplanned interruptions or events, and be willing to change your schedule on occasion to focus on what’s important. And speaking of focus, try to avoid skipping around. You may end up with a lot of unfinished projects. Staying focused will help you to stay on track and take care of business, giving you a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.

5. Get organized! Adopt that old motto, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” Be sure your home, your car, and your office are as orderly as possible. Organization promotes a sense of well being and helps you to feel more in control. Bear in mind, it takes time to make time. Time spent organizing is an investment in you. If you find that things are already out of control, schedule several evenings or a weekend to do a good once-over to put everything in order. Throw out or give away what you don’t want or need, then organize the rest. After that, do a little each day to keep it together. You’ll thank yourself.

6. Last, but not least, keep that positive attitude! Don’t allow yourself to dwell on how little time you have; instead, focus on what you’ve got to do. Shun the stress! You don’t have to be on a strict schedule without time for leisure. A big part of effective time management is to remain flexible and set aside more time for you.

Just think, in a few short weeks, you can change your life by making a few simple changes. Furthermore, the next time you see Ms. Perfect, you won’t feel defective. You can just smile and nod, knowing that you’ve learned her little secret.

Angela Atkinson lives in St. Louis, Missouri and has two beautiful sons. She has been writing for 25 years and recently became a stay at home mom, which allows her full time access to both of her passions, her family and her writing. You can contact her at angieeigna@charter.net.