DO WE SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE?
It seems a trite subject to bring up and suggest that it’s important, but communication is at the heart of every successful relationship, either personal or business. When communication breaks down, so does the relationship. If communication is not properly established, the relationship is doomed from the beginning.
I speak from experience. I have worked for and consulted for a wide variety of organizations over the last four decades. When I have been successful, it was because the work I was being asked to do was plainly laid out and the lines of communication were clearly established.
About ten years ago a friend asked if I could meet with him and several other principals in their ministry in a private meeting. These were old friends that my wife and I had known for many years. The leaders knew that I was just completing a several-year project for a ministry and asked me to begin to consult for them. Out of sense of friendship and without the normal discussion, I made a mistake based on emotion and said I would accept the work. What I didn’t really take time to do was clearly define what they wanted me to work on and who I would be responsible to. Too much of the limited discussion was in generalities. They didn’t take time to define the need nor did they take the time to properly explain to their staff what my role would be. Foolishly I let friendship cloud my thinking and I didn’t take the time to ask the questions I should have. The relationship was doomed before it began and the consulting arrangement only lasted a few months.
One of the clearest examples of the need for clear communication is in the maritime world. A helmsman is the person who steers a ship, a sailboat or other type of maritime vessel. Clear and exact communication between the helmsman and the officer on the bridge is essential to safe navigation and ship handling. There are standard steering commands, responses by the helmsman, and acknowledgement by the officer on the bridge that are widely recognized in the maritime community. This “language” is practiced in training and in calm waters so that in stormy weather everyone knows instantly what is being said. In stormy weather, unclear or misunderstood communication can lead to disaster.
Another example of the need for very clear communication is in the airline industry. The default language of air traffic controllers is English. In every nation of the world, pilots know that they can talk with air traffic controllers in English regardless of the local language.
In the Christian organizations and churches that so many of us serve in, the responsibility for “speaking the same language” lies first with two groups of people, the leadership and the staff. Those in leadership have a two-sided responsibility: they are responsible to be understood (to speak clearly) and to understand (to answer questions). Likewise, the staff has a two-sided responsibility: to understand (to ask questions when in doubt) and to be understood (to learn to speak the language of the culture). This understanding can happen only if everyone is speaking the same language—and I don’t mean English or Spanish.
What do I mean when I say they must speak the same language? Within every organization or group there is a language, a jargon, a vocabulary that is meaningful to the group and to perhaps no one else. Yesterday in church a guest speaker used the term “incarnational” which probably sailed over the head of the majority of the crowd. Driving home later I mentioned to my wife that the word “incarnation” in its various forms is one of the current buzz words, a part of the jargon of those that are really cool and with it (or some very deep and dry theologians).
As a leader, you must take the time to make sure that everyone on your staff is well versed in the language of your organization. This begins with the mission statement of the organization which (hopefully) lays out very clearly why the organization exists. Communication then follows, along with a Corporate or Accountability Flow Chart that pinpoints each staff member’s position, who is responsible to whom, and fundamentally how communication should flow. Additionally, every position should have a job description. New staff members need to go through an orientation that includes the language of the company. New languages take time to learn, so don’t expect staff to be fluent right away. Don’t assume that because the new employee has worked for a similar organization, they will automatically understand the language. Each organization has its own personality and, therefore, it nuances language accordingly.
Not long ago I spent several days with the staff of a moderate-sized organization. The leader asked me to spend time with each staff member to get to know them and perhaps make some recommendations to help them improve their performance. During the interview process, I asked each one if they had a job description and how long it had been since they had gone over it with one of the leaders or their immediate superior. Just about half of the staff said they had a job description; the others said they didn’t have one and had never had one. Not one of them could put their hands on the job description. Most of them had not had a review for at least a couple of years. I call this a communication breakdown. This is a staff and leadership on the verge of not speaking the same language.
I have been married for 43 years. Carol and I have a good marriage; no, strike that, we have a great marriage. One of the primary reasons is because we have worked at our communication. Good communication is hard work but worth the results. If your organization or church or mission is going to succeed, clear communication among the staff is essential but you are going to have to work at it. Not everyone is a quick learner when it comes to a new language, so be patient and be thorough.
If clarity is not articulated from leadership, remember that the confusion that follows is not coming from the hand of God!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
THE ART OF FINE-TUNING
Fine-tuning our lives both spiritually and vocationally is not a one-time event but a life-time process. My first car was a 1949 Ford coupe with a big V-8 engine, for which I paid the whopping price of $175. When I got my Ford in 1961, gas cost about 20 cents a gallon and three or four dollars for gas was usually more than enough for a week. The carburetors on those engines could be adjusted by hand, as this was pre-electronic ignition days. So we would spend hours playing with the adjustment on the carbs, trying to get the engine to run just a little more smoothly, a little better.
What I have just described is very much like the fine-tuning process of both our devotional and vocational lives. I know I want to be the best that I can be and I am willing to learn how to make adjustments that bring improvement! I believe you are reading this because you want to improve, too!
The definition of fine-tuning is “to make small adjustments for optimal performance or effectiveness, to improve by pruning or polishing.”
· In order to run his best race, every runner must fine-tune not only what he wears and how he runs (his stride, his breathing), but also try to bring his body and his mind to a state of preparation. Why? So that he can run the best possible race.
· Every instrument in the orchestra must be “fine-tuned” so that when the conductor raises his hand for the first note to be played, every instrument is in harmony. It is to be a symphony not a cacophony.
· A rifle has to be “sighted in” (fine-tuned) so that when it is called into use, it sends its bullet to the intended target. The rifle is not much good if it cannot hit the target while in the hands of a skilled marksman.
Fine-tuning is a combination of God’s involvement in the development of our lives and our personal attention to issues that the Holy Spirit brings to our awareness.
If I have been called to be an associate then I want to be the best associate I can be. If I have been called to be the leader then I want to be the best leader I can be and develop the best and most effective leadership skills that I can.
This is what the whole focus of my teaching is meant to do. It is not to put you under guilt or condemnation of any kind. It is designed to help you, to open up new possibilities, to assist you in polishing and refining your gifts and talents, so that at the end of the day you will have that profound sense of satisfaction that comes from knowing, “I have done the very best I could. It may not be perfect, but I believe the Lord is pleased, my boss is pleased and, therefore, I am pleased.”
Jesus says, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Jesus is talking to fishermen, Peter and his brother Andrew, as He called them into His service. Jesus is speaking of the part He would play in assisting them to develop their potential as His followers. The word “make” is very rich and loaded with meaning. It is the word that describes an author as he takes disconnected words and works with them again and again until he completes a masterpiece. It is the picture of a master craftsman who takes a pile of rough wood and works with it until he has a beautiful piece of furniture.
The heart of every piano is the soundboard, the part that enables the piano “to speak” with rich and full tones. It is the soundboard that gives the piano its personality, its quality. A good soundboard cannot be made in a few minutes or even a few hours. For some concert pianos, the time needed to build a soundboard can be a year or longer.
The soundboard is made of separate pieces of wood that are carefully selected and glued together. After the gluing, the soundboard is allowed to dry and “season.” All along, the process is carefully monitored so that the moisture content of the wood that is to become the tonal heart of the piano is just right.
After the wood of the soundboard has dried and is seasoned just right, it has to be stretched. This stretching is what brings out the rich tones and quality. Stretching is achieved by bending or “crowning” the soundboard. Stretching is a result of pressure being carefully and consistently applied. If the wood is too dry, it will break and crack; too wet, and the wood fibers won’t have the necessary quality. When the soundboard is crafted properly, you have the possibility of a Steinway or a Yamaha. If it is done incorrectly…well, hello, honky-tonk!
Our Lord, His Father, and the Holy Spirit are “master craftsmen.” It is the meticulous attention of the Master Craftsmen that brings His work of art to as near to perfection as He can get it and that is the Lord’s goal for each of us. He will mold us, He will stretch us and season us so that we are brought to the place of maturity, and then our lives will “speak” with the richness and fullness of God.
When I conduct one of my “Tune-Up Seminars,” I try very hard to get a point of understanding across to all who are present and the point is this: Fine-tuning is accomplished by making small adjustments and is often a slow process of bringing the instrument/person as near to perfection as possible. It is really frustrating for anyone involved to try and make all the adjustments at one time. To try and accomplish it all at once usually ends in feelings of frustration and guilt and that is counterproductive.
Let me illustrate what I mean with the following story. In the 1972 Olympics, Mark Spitz won seven gold medals, a record that stood for 36 years until Michael Phelps surpassed it in Beijing. In preparing for the Olympics, Spitz’ coach told him that if he was going to win the gold and set a world record in one event, he had to improve on his best time by cutting off one second. That doesn’t sound like a lot but to a highly-conditioned and trained athlete who is already giving 100 percent-plus, that one second could seem like an impossibility. Mark Spitz said that the idea of improving by a second was simply beyond him, so he set a daily goal. He looked at the calendar and saw that it was approximately 100 days to the Olympics. He knew he needed to be at his peak performance level at the Games so he began to practice with a new daily goal in mind. Every day Spitz tried to improve by 1/100th of a second over the previous day. In doing so, he made the daily incremental improvements and won the gold at the Olympics, setting a new world record. He set that record by improving just a tiny bit each day.
When you study leadership and have scores of ideas poured into you in a short span of time, don’t try and implement them all at once. Just take a few of the ideas, ones that make sense to you, and work to improve in those areas. If you will take an incremental approach as Mark Spitz did and improve by a little bit here and a little bit there, you will be a better leader and a better person. And then down the road a bit you can do it again and again and in so doing, you will continue to grow and improve and do it without stress and guilt.
Fine-tuning is not about putting you under stress and making you feel less than successful. Fine-tuning is all about making small adjustments that move you toward being fully the person God intended you to be.
What I have just described is very much like the fine-tuning process of both our devotional and vocational lives. I know I want to be the best that I can be and I am willing to learn how to make adjustments that bring improvement! I believe you are reading this because you want to improve, too!
The definition of fine-tuning is “to make small adjustments for optimal performance or effectiveness, to improve by pruning or polishing.”
· In order to run his best race, every runner must fine-tune not only what he wears and how he runs (his stride, his breathing), but also try to bring his body and his mind to a state of preparation. Why? So that he can run the best possible race.
· Every instrument in the orchestra must be “fine-tuned” so that when the conductor raises his hand for the first note to be played, every instrument is in harmony. It is to be a symphony not a cacophony.
· A rifle has to be “sighted in” (fine-tuned) so that when it is called into use, it sends its bullet to the intended target. The rifle is not much good if it cannot hit the target while in the hands of a skilled marksman.
Fine-tuning is a combination of God’s involvement in the development of our lives and our personal attention to issues that the Holy Spirit brings to our awareness.
If I have been called to be an associate then I want to be the best associate I can be. If I have been called to be the leader then I want to be the best leader I can be and develop the best and most effective leadership skills that I can.
This is what the whole focus of my teaching is meant to do. It is not to put you under guilt or condemnation of any kind. It is designed to help you, to open up new possibilities, to assist you in polishing and refining your gifts and talents, so that at the end of the day you will have that profound sense of satisfaction that comes from knowing, “I have done the very best I could. It may not be perfect, but I believe the Lord is pleased, my boss is pleased and, therefore, I am pleased.”
Jesus says, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Jesus is talking to fishermen, Peter and his brother Andrew, as He called them into His service. Jesus is speaking of the part He would play in assisting them to develop their potential as His followers. The word “make” is very rich and loaded with meaning. It is the word that describes an author as he takes disconnected words and works with them again and again until he completes a masterpiece. It is the picture of a master craftsman who takes a pile of rough wood and works with it until he has a beautiful piece of furniture.
The heart of every piano is the soundboard, the part that enables the piano “to speak” with rich and full tones. It is the soundboard that gives the piano its personality, its quality. A good soundboard cannot be made in a few minutes or even a few hours. For some concert pianos, the time needed to build a soundboard can be a year or longer.
The soundboard is made of separate pieces of wood that are carefully selected and glued together. After the gluing, the soundboard is allowed to dry and “season.” All along, the process is carefully monitored so that the moisture content of the wood that is to become the tonal heart of the piano is just right.
After the wood of the soundboard has dried and is seasoned just right, it has to be stretched. This stretching is what brings out the rich tones and quality. Stretching is achieved by bending or “crowning” the soundboard. Stretching is a result of pressure being carefully and consistently applied. If the wood is too dry, it will break and crack; too wet, and the wood fibers won’t have the necessary quality. When the soundboard is crafted properly, you have the possibility of a Steinway or a Yamaha. If it is done incorrectly…well, hello, honky-tonk!
Our Lord, His Father, and the Holy Spirit are “master craftsmen.” It is the meticulous attention of the Master Craftsmen that brings His work of art to as near to perfection as He can get it and that is the Lord’s goal for each of us. He will mold us, He will stretch us and season us so that we are brought to the place of maturity, and then our lives will “speak” with the richness and fullness of God.
When I conduct one of my “Tune-Up Seminars,” I try very hard to get a point of understanding across to all who are present and the point is this: Fine-tuning is accomplished by making small adjustments and is often a slow process of bringing the instrument/person as near to perfection as possible. It is really frustrating for anyone involved to try and make all the adjustments at one time. To try and accomplish it all at once usually ends in feelings of frustration and guilt and that is counterproductive.
Let me illustrate what I mean with the following story. In the 1972 Olympics, Mark Spitz won seven gold medals, a record that stood for 36 years until Michael Phelps surpassed it in Beijing. In preparing for the Olympics, Spitz’ coach told him that if he was going to win the gold and set a world record in one event, he had to improve on his best time by cutting off one second. That doesn’t sound like a lot but to a highly-conditioned and trained athlete who is already giving 100 percent-plus, that one second could seem like an impossibility. Mark Spitz said that the idea of improving by a second was simply beyond him, so he set a daily goal. He looked at the calendar and saw that it was approximately 100 days to the Olympics. He knew he needed to be at his peak performance level at the Games so he began to practice with a new daily goal in mind. Every day Spitz tried to improve by 1/100th of a second over the previous day. In doing so, he made the daily incremental improvements and won the gold at the Olympics, setting a new world record. He set that record by improving just a tiny bit each day.
When you study leadership and have scores of ideas poured into you in a short span of time, don’t try and implement them all at once. Just take a few of the ideas, ones that make sense to you, and work to improve in those areas. If you will take an incremental approach as Mark Spitz did and improve by a little bit here and a little bit there, you will be a better leader and a better person. And then down the road a bit you can do it again and again and in so doing, you will continue to grow and improve and do it without stress and guilt.
Fine-tuning is not about putting you under stress and making you feel less than successful. Fine-tuning is all about making small adjustments that move you toward being fully the person God intended you to be.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
MANAGING TIME - PART THREE
ONE THING AT A TIME
One of the great moments for any leader is to be able to get to the end of a day and know that you were able to get everything done that you wanted to. It’s not going to happen every day but with the right approach and the right tools, you can enjoy that sense of accomplishment—often.
So what is the right approach and what are the right tools?
This is the third installment in our musing about Managing Time or How to Get All My Necessary Work Done So I Have Time to Do Some Things I Enjoy Outside of Work!
Step One — Use some kind of daily planner. This is your primary Managing Time tool.
There are so many different ways to make your list of priority items for the day. You simply need to choose one and try it and if you don’t like it, then try another. For years I have kept a daily planning diary on my desk that is small enough that I can easily put it into my briefcase when I travel. I like a daily planner that allows me to list at least a dozen items and/or appointments. Most P.C.’s have a calendar or a planner; laptops have daily calendars; BlackBerry’s have daily calendars; your cell phone has some kind of daily calendar; or you can go to a Palm Pilot. You may make your list on a piece of notepaper and that’s OK, too. Whatever you use will work if you will work it.
I usually make my list for the next day at the end of the day or the very first thing in the morning. I try to prioritize my list so that the top of the list shows items that I must get done; then I work down from there. I list any meetings and appointments that I have and then the list becomes my marching orders for the day. I keep my planner open on my desk or available throughout the day. Keeping it in my line of vision helps!
If I don’t get everything done on my list, but I tried, then I have no feelings of guilt. Mentally I just tell the undone items, “You’ll be first in line tomorrow!”
Step Two — Do one thing at a time. This is having the right approach.
Yes, I know there will be interruptions, but when you are finished with the interruption, go back to what you were working on from your list. You need to stay with that task until you get it done and then go on to the next task. Most of the current talk about multi-tasking is not realistic, so I wouldn’t put too much faith in many of these theories. The idea of driving, talking on the cell phone, eating and fixing your hair or your makeup is not multi-tasking. It is sheer lunacy waiting for the right moment to turn into a disaster.
It is a very human tendency to think that as leaders and gifted people, we can juggle many tasks at the same time. Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but NO, NO, you can’t, not when it comes to the tasks you need to get done that day. Our ego will tell us, “YES! You can do that,” but it is not so. You may handle a variety of responsibilities for your company or your organization but when it comes to getting your tasks done for the day, you need to handle them one at a time.
In all of music history, the major composers (Bach, Handel, Haydn) all worked on just one composition at a time. These were all highly talented, highly gifted men who produced major musical compositions—one at a time. They would work with the musical score until it was finished and then they would go on to something else. And then there was Mozart. Mozart was the only composer we know of who was capable of working on thee or four major symphonies at one time. Mozart had the ability to keep all the music in his head, keep the pieces separated, and have all of them turn out to be masterpieces. Mozart is an anomaly because he doesn’t fit the normal mold of creativity at all.
I love leadership and I love the challenge of leading in tough situations. I am not afraid to step into chaotic situations and try to help find a semblance of order for them. I am also a realist and I know that I am no Mozart and if you are honest, neither are you. Stick with the task until you are finished and then move on.
Many leaders find it very helpful to schedule time out of the office so they can work at home or in a quiet place with fewer interruptions. Two or three uninterrupted hours can often produce a lot of work and if creativity is required, a quiet atmosphere is a must. I know one well-known leader who will move out of his personal office and go to the corporate boardroom and work when he needs to do creative work. His secretary knows where he is, as do a few key associates, but they will interrupt him only if it’s urgent.
As a leader, you will need creative time and you will probably have to work at finding it. One thing to recognize about yourself is whether you are a morning person or a night person. I am a morning person and I try to do most of my creative work early in the day because that is when I am most alert. Later in the day I try to do more mundane things like talking to you (just kidding). I have worked for a lot of public speakers, most of whom did their speaking in the evenings (for the uninitiated, they are called evangelists). All of the evangelists I have ever worked for and most that I have known are night people. Why? Because evangelists need to be at the peak of their mental powers in the evening when they are normally speaking. Whether they realized it or not, they had trained themselves to be alert and creative late in the day.
Most administrators and ministry leaders are morning people. We rise early and often start our day around dawn. Whichever you are, a morning person or a night person, I know you will find it helpful to schedule your work with your own body clock in mind. You will get more done and do it better if you heed this simple advice.
One of the great moments for any leader is to be able to get to the end of a day and know that you were able to get everything done that you wanted to. It’s not going to happen every day but with the right approach and the right tools, you can enjoy that sense of accomplishment—often.
So what is the right approach and what are the right tools?
This is the third installment in our musing about Managing Time or How to Get All My Necessary Work Done So I Have Time to Do Some Things I Enjoy Outside of Work!
Step One — Use some kind of daily planner. This is your primary Managing Time tool.
There are so many different ways to make your list of priority items for the day. You simply need to choose one and try it and if you don’t like it, then try another. For years I have kept a daily planning diary on my desk that is small enough that I can easily put it into my briefcase when I travel. I like a daily planner that allows me to list at least a dozen items and/or appointments. Most P.C.’s have a calendar or a planner; laptops have daily calendars; BlackBerry’s have daily calendars; your cell phone has some kind of daily calendar; or you can go to a Palm Pilot. You may make your list on a piece of notepaper and that’s OK, too. Whatever you use will work if you will work it.
I usually make my list for the next day at the end of the day or the very first thing in the morning. I try to prioritize my list so that the top of the list shows items that I must get done; then I work down from there. I list any meetings and appointments that I have and then the list becomes my marching orders for the day. I keep my planner open on my desk or available throughout the day. Keeping it in my line of vision helps!
If I don’t get everything done on my list, but I tried, then I have no feelings of guilt. Mentally I just tell the undone items, “You’ll be first in line tomorrow!”
Step Two — Do one thing at a time. This is having the right approach.
Yes, I know there will be interruptions, but when you are finished with the interruption, go back to what you were working on from your list. You need to stay with that task until you get it done and then go on to the next task. Most of the current talk about multi-tasking is not realistic, so I wouldn’t put too much faith in many of these theories. The idea of driving, talking on the cell phone, eating and fixing your hair or your makeup is not multi-tasking. It is sheer lunacy waiting for the right moment to turn into a disaster.
It is a very human tendency to think that as leaders and gifted people, we can juggle many tasks at the same time. Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but NO, NO, you can’t, not when it comes to the tasks you need to get done that day. Our ego will tell us, “YES! You can do that,” but it is not so. You may handle a variety of responsibilities for your company or your organization but when it comes to getting your tasks done for the day, you need to handle them one at a time.
In all of music history, the major composers (Bach, Handel, Haydn) all worked on just one composition at a time. These were all highly talented, highly gifted men who produced major musical compositions—one at a time. They would work with the musical score until it was finished and then they would go on to something else. And then there was Mozart. Mozart was the only composer we know of who was capable of working on thee or four major symphonies at one time. Mozart had the ability to keep all the music in his head, keep the pieces separated, and have all of them turn out to be masterpieces. Mozart is an anomaly because he doesn’t fit the normal mold of creativity at all.
I love leadership and I love the challenge of leading in tough situations. I am not afraid to step into chaotic situations and try to help find a semblance of order for them. I am also a realist and I know that I am no Mozart and if you are honest, neither are you. Stick with the task until you are finished and then move on.
Many leaders find it very helpful to schedule time out of the office so they can work at home or in a quiet place with fewer interruptions. Two or three uninterrupted hours can often produce a lot of work and if creativity is required, a quiet atmosphere is a must. I know one well-known leader who will move out of his personal office and go to the corporate boardroom and work when he needs to do creative work. His secretary knows where he is, as do a few key associates, but they will interrupt him only if it’s urgent.
As a leader, you will need creative time and you will probably have to work at finding it. One thing to recognize about yourself is whether you are a morning person or a night person. I am a morning person and I try to do most of my creative work early in the day because that is when I am most alert. Later in the day I try to do more mundane things like talking to you (just kidding). I have worked for a lot of public speakers, most of whom did their speaking in the evenings (for the uninitiated, they are called evangelists). All of the evangelists I have ever worked for and most that I have known are night people. Why? Because evangelists need to be at the peak of their mental powers in the evening when they are normally speaking. Whether they realized it or not, they had trained themselves to be alert and creative late in the day.
Most administrators and ministry leaders are morning people. We rise early and often start our day around dawn. Whichever you are, a morning person or a night person, I know you will find it helpful to schedule your work with your own body clock in mind. You will get more done and do it better if you heed this simple advice.
Friday, August 1, 2008
MANAGING TIME - PART TWO
In Managing Time, Part One, I encouraged you to begin a one- or two-week experiment of recording how you spend your workday. Before you can manage your time, you must understand where time is going and how it is being used up; only then can you begin to appropriately manage your time. The purpose of managing time is not to put you under an increased load but, instead, to free you up to do the things that you are good at and that you enjoy.
I find a lot of satisfaction in being able to get my work tasks done for the day and then begin doing things that I enjoy. I like to read and to write creatively. I find both to be stimulating and relaxing because they are very different from most of the work I do. So I work to manage my time so that when my work day is done, I can do what I enjoy and am relaxed at.
If you did not read Managing Time, Part One, this would be a good time to do so. Part one is stored in the Archives over to the right.
If you have kept a daily journal for a week or two, look over those notes now. You are looking for items that repeat themselves several times in a day, or many times in a week. You are also looking for time wasters.
A key part of time management is getting rid of “time wasters.” All of us struggle with non-productive, time-wasting items. Here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself about the repetitive items on your list:
1. What would happen if this were not done at all?
If the answer is ‘nothing,’ then stop doing it! Is it possible that this repetitive item has just become a habit? It gets done because it’s always gotten done and the purpose of it stopped being meaningful a long time ago? Go ahead and stop, see if anyone complains, and then tell them you stopped because a consultant told you to—but you now realize he was wrong!
2. Could somebody else do this better than I do it?
Is this repetitive item something that one of my assistants or a secretary should be doing? If this is so, then hand it off and let them handle it.
3. Is this a repetitive issue that I could easily teach someone else to do?
Training an assistant to take over a task for you will take more time in the short run but will save you lots of time in the future and that’s what this exercise is all about.
4. What do I do that wastes the time of others?
I will talk more about this in a moment.
This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all possible time wasters but I wish to stir your creativity to think about the conservation of time. A huge time waster is time people spend on the telephone and the Internet. Much of this is redeemable time if only we would impose limits on ourselves regarding the duration of phone calls or surfing the net. Do you need to take that call right now? Could you finish that project first and then return those calls? (Thank you to the inventor of caller I.D.)
Number four on the list is a question that very few people ask themselves. We tend to get so preoccupied with what other people do to us, and to the time wasters that we have to contend with. It is important that we ask ourselves, “Are there things that I do that waste the time of others?”
I was asked to provide some assistance to a thriving church in the western part of the nation. The Senior Pastor was concerned that his staff was not getting things done in a timely manner; reports were coming in late, phone calls and visits never seemed to get done on time, if at all. The pastor was growing discouraged and was concerned that perhaps he needed to make some changes, perhaps remove some staff and add some new.
I spent time talking with the staff and was able to identify a number of issues that individual staff members could work on and easily correct. There was, however, one rather touchy issue that had to be addressed and that fell to me as the outside consultant. The pastor had to answer the question, “What do I do that wastes the time of my staff?” and no one on staff was willing to address that with him. Because I had built an amicable relationship with the pastor (and because he couldn’t actually fire me), I was able to talk with him about this and show him what was happening.
The pastor loved sports and especially football. On Mondays during football season he would often call several of his associates to his office, or he would visit theirs, and he would want to “talk football.” Sometimes the conversations would last for an hour or longer and staffers were reluctant to say anything. The pastor had never considered the question, “Am I a part of the problem? Do I do things that hinder my staff from getting their work done?”
To the pastor’s credit, after the question was posed to him, he changed. He still loves football and he still talks about it, but he is aware and sensitive to “the time of others.”
No staff lost their jobs! Now addressing this one question was not the complete answer to all the time issues among that staff, of course, but it was major. Correcting and removing time wasters will take time and work; it is a process and something that we have to work at. But like all good habits, we can learn and do until we get the good habit into place and it becomes natural for us.
In our next article we’ll talk about consolidating time—or learning to do one thing at a time.
I find a lot of satisfaction in being able to get my work tasks done for the day and then begin doing things that I enjoy. I like to read and to write creatively. I find both to be stimulating and relaxing because they are very different from most of the work I do. So I work to manage my time so that when my work day is done, I can do what I enjoy and am relaxed at.
If you did not read Managing Time, Part One, this would be a good time to do so. Part one is stored in the Archives over to the right.
If you have kept a daily journal for a week or two, look over those notes now. You are looking for items that repeat themselves several times in a day, or many times in a week. You are also looking for time wasters.
A key part of time management is getting rid of “time wasters.” All of us struggle with non-productive, time-wasting items. Here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself about the repetitive items on your list:
1. What would happen if this were not done at all?
If the answer is ‘nothing,’ then stop doing it! Is it possible that this repetitive item has just become a habit? It gets done because it’s always gotten done and the purpose of it stopped being meaningful a long time ago? Go ahead and stop, see if anyone complains, and then tell them you stopped because a consultant told you to—but you now realize he was wrong!
2. Could somebody else do this better than I do it?
Is this repetitive item something that one of my assistants or a secretary should be doing? If this is so, then hand it off and let them handle it.
3. Is this a repetitive issue that I could easily teach someone else to do?
Training an assistant to take over a task for you will take more time in the short run but will save you lots of time in the future and that’s what this exercise is all about.
4. What do I do that wastes the time of others?
I will talk more about this in a moment.
This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all possible time wasters but I wish to stir your creativity to think about the conservation of time. A huge time waster is time people spend on the telephone and the Internet. Much of this is redeemable time if only we would impose limits on ourselves regarding the duration of phone calls or surfing the net. Do you need to take that call right now? Could you finish that project first and then return those calls? (Thank you to the inventor of caller I.D.)
Number four on the list is a question that very few people ask themselves. We tend to get so preoccupied with what other people do to us, and to the time wasters that we have to contend with. It is important that we ask ourselves, “Are there things that I do that waste the time of others?”
I was asked to provide some assistance to a thriving church in the western part of the nation. The Senior Pastor was concerned that his staff was not getting things done in a timely manner; reports were coming in late, phone calls and visits never seemed to get done on time, if at all. The pastor was growing discouraged and was concerned that perhaps he needed to make some changes, perhaps remove some staff and add some new.
I spent time talking with the staff and was able to identify a number of issues that individual staff members could work on and easily correct. There was, however, one rather touchy issue that had to be addressed and that fell to me as the outside consultant. The pastor had to answer the question, “What do I do that wastes the time of my staff?” and no one on staff was willing to address that with him. Because I had built an amicable relationship with the pastor (and because he couldn’t actually fire me), I was able to talk with him about this and show him what was happening.
The pastor loved sports and especially football. On Mondays during football season he would often call several of his associates to his office, or he would visit theirs, and he would want to “talk football.” Sometimes the conversations would last for an hour or longer and staffers were reluctant to say anything. The pastor had never considered the question, “Am I a part of the problem? Do I do things that hinder my staff from getting their work done?”
To the pastor’s credit, after the question was posed to him, he changed. He still loves football and he still talks about it, but he is aware and sensitive to “the time of others.”
No staff lost their jobs! Now addressing this one question was not the complete answer to all the time issues among that staff, of course, but it was major. Correcting and removing time wasters will take time and work; it is a process and something that we have to work at. But like all good habits, we can learn and do until we get the good habit into place and it becomes natural for us.
In our next article we’ll talk about consolidating time—or learning to do one thing at a time.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
MANAGING TIME - PART ONE
“Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and acceptably, not as the unwise and witless, but as sensible, intelligent people make the very most of the time—buying up each opportunity-because the days are evil “(Ephesians 5:15-16—Amplified Bible).
Why would the Apostle Paul speak so forcibly, so clearly, about how we use our time? I think the answer is very straightforward and really quite simple.
Time is something all of us get in equal measure. No one gets anything more or less than a 60-second minute and a 60-minute hour. Try as hard as we can to change it, every day still has 24 hours in it; not a minute less and not a minute more.
The supply of time is inelastic and everyone gets the same amount, not in the length of years but with the given minutes and hours. The difference is that some learn to use time more efficiently than others and so it seems like they do get a longer day because they are able to get so much more done. But they don't get any more time than any of the rest of us; they have just learned how to use what time they have with efficiency.
I sometimes find that when I teach on time management, there is a negative reaction among some who feel that it brings them into bondage and they do not want to be in bondage to time. However, nothing could be further from the truth in the way I approach time management. I want to be efficient in the use of my time so that I can get my work done quickly and completely. Then I have time to do the things that are fun for me…like spending time with my children or my granddaughter, enjoying a hobby, visiting with friends, or sometimes just doing nothing. Over the next couple of months we will look at some practical suggestions to help you manage your time in a more efficient manner. This is not designed to make you a slave to time but so enable you to get done everything so you can have plenty of time for yourself, to do the things you want to do.
Before we can go to managing time we need to understand where the time we have now is going by a process I call "recording time." There are several ways that you can accomplish this and I'll share one that works well for me. Take a blank sheet of 8 ½ x 11 paper (lined paper is even better). Across the top put tomorrow's date and down the left side, starting with the time your workday begins, put in the time (e.g. 9:00am) and then in a straight line down the left side, in 15-minute increments, line out your work day.
The next morning, beginning at 9:15, record in just one or two words how you spent the previous 15 minutes (made phone calls, read mail, wrote letters, worked on report, etc.). At 9:30 do the same, and so on throughout the day. At the end of the day, put the completed sheet in a folder and prepare a new sheet for the next day.
Do the above for at least five days and preferably for ten. At the end of the five- or ten-day period, take an hour and look to see where your time has been going. I think you will be surprised at some things on your list.
In the next article we will get into the practices of managing time. To do that effectively we must have the above information in hand, so let's not waste any time. Let's get started on this now!
Why would the Apostle Paul speak so forcibly, so clearly, about how we use our time? I think the answer is very straightforward and really quite simple.
Time is something all of us get in equal measure. No one gets anything more or less than a 60-second minute and a 60-minute hour. Try as hard as we can to change it, every day still has 24 hours in it; not a minute less and not a minute more.
The supply of time is inelastic and everyone gets the same amount, not in the length of years but with the given minutes and hours. The difference is that some learn to use time more efficiently than others and so it seems like they do get a longer day because they are able to get so much more done. But they don't get any more time than any of the rest of us; they have just learned how to use what time they have with efficiency.
I sometimes find that when I teach on time management, there is a negative reaction among some who feel that it brings them into bondage and they do not want to be in bondage to time. However, nothing could be further from the truth in the way I approach time management. I want to be efficient in the use of my time so that I can get my work done quickly and completely. Then I have time to do the things that are fun for me…like spending time with my children or my granddaughter, enjoying a hobby, visiting with friends, or sometimes just doing nothing. Over the next couple of months we will look at some practical suggestions to help you manage your time in a more efficient manner. This is not designed to make you a slave to time but so enable you to get done everything so you can have plenty of time for yourself, to do the things you want to do.
Before we can go to managing time we need to understand where the time we have now is going by a process I call "recording time." There are several ways that you can accomplish this and I'll share one that works well for me. Take a blank sheet of 8 ½ x 11 paper (lined paper is even better). Across the top put tomorrow's date and down the left side, starting with the time your workday begins, put in the time (e.g. 9:00am) and then in a straight line down the left side, in 15-minute increments, line out your work day.
The next morning, beginning at 9:15, record in just one or two words how you spent the previous 15 minutes (made phone calls, read mail, wrote letters, worked on report, etc.). At 9:30 do the same, and so on throughout the day. At the end of the day, put the completed sheet in a folder and prepare a new sheet for the next day.
Do the above for at least five days and preferably for ten. At the end of the five- or ten-day period, take an hour and look to see where your time has been going. I think you will be surprised at some things on your list.
In the next article we will get into the practices of managing time. To do that effectively we must have the above information in hand, so let's not waste any time. Let's get started on this now!
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