“I kept six honest serving men. They taught me all I knew. Their names are What and Why and When, and How and Where and Who.” (Rudyard Kipling)
Action Exercises:
1. Resolve today to dedicate yourself to lifelong learning; decide to pay any price, invest any amount of time required, to be the best at what you do.
2. Build your own personal library of books that can help you to be even more effective at what you do; take time each day to learn something new.
3. Listen to audio programs in your car from now on; this alone can make you one of the best educated and highest paid people in your field.
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4. Take a course in public speaking and learn how to be both effective and persuasive on your feet. This skill can open countless doors for you.
5. Learn to both speed read and also to read more efficiently. These are both basic skills that you can acquire and use for the rest of your life.
6. Join the business groups and associations that contain members of your profession or business; get involved and offer to help.
7. Arise at least one hour earlier than you need to and invest the “Golden Hour” in yourself; read something uplifting or educational that prepares you for the day.
Chapter Ten
Saving Time with Others
“Nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature. What compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action? If you know these things about a person, you can touch him at the core of his being.” (William Bernbach)
Your interactions with others consume as much, if not more time, than any other part of your day. Even technical workers spend up to 75% of their time 267
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communicating with coworkers. You can greatly increase the efficiency of your interactions by improving the quality of your communications.
Some of the biggest time wasters in life are people. These people problems can be broken down into a few critical categories.
1. Common Misunderstandings
A major waste of time is caused by misunderstandings between people about roles, goals, and responsibilities. People do not know what they are expected to do, and how, and by what time. Misunderstandings lead to inefficiencies, anger, frustration and unhappiness. They often require an enormous amount of time to clear up in order to get back to normal.
Most of your problems in life talk back. They come with hair on top.
Perhaps 85% of your happiness or unhappiness in life involves other people in some way. Miscommunications with other people are a major source of time wastage.
2. Unclear Priorities
Misunderstandings with regard to priorities often lead to your working at the wrong job, at the wrong time, for the wrong reason, and perhaps aiming at the wrong level of quality, and for the wrong person.
Some of the most stressful times of your life are caused by misunderstandings at work, especially miscommunications with your boss.
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The most important single cause of positive feelings and high levels of motivation in work is defined as “knowing exactly what is expected.” On the other hand, the number one complaint, or demotivator of employees, is “not knowing what’s expected.”
In order to perform at your best, you need absolute clarity about your job, and what you are expected to do. You need clarity with regard to results required and standards of performance. You need clarity with regard to schedules and deadlines. You need clarity with regard to the rewards and consequences of doing a good job, or not. Clarity is everything.
3. Poor Delegation
Poor delegation to others, or from others, leads to mistakes and frustration on the part of both the boss and the employee. It is a major time waster.
One of the rules for success in life and work is to “assume the best intentions of everyone.” You can generally assume that each person does the very best he can at the job he thinks he is supposed to do. But poor delegation causes even the most sincere and talented people to do poor work, or to do the wrong jobs and therefore to end up feeling frustrated and unhappy.
4. Unclear Lines of Authority
Unclear lines of authority and responsibility lead to time wastage. People do not know who is supposed to do what job, and when is it to be done, and to 269
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what standard of quality? And especially, who is supposed to report to whom? Who’s in charge? Who’s the boss?
A Management Game
In my management seminars, I often invite the managers to play a game with me. The game is called “Keep Your Job.” I explain that the rules are quite simple.
First, each manager in the room will write down the names of the people who report to them. They will then write next to those names the most important job that each of those people is expected to accomplish, in what order of priority, and why they are on the payroll.
Then I tell the managers that they will wait here in this room while we go and interview each of their staff members. Each staff member will be asked to answer the question, “What exactly have you been hired to do, and in what order of priority?”
If the answers given by each staff member are identical to the answers given by the managers, then the managers will be allowed to “Keep Your Job.” I then ask, “Does anyone here want to play ‘Keep Your Job?’” No one ever wants to play. In years of conducting this exercise, I have never found a manager who is willing to stake their job on the sure knowledge that each of their employees is clear about what they are on the payroll to accomplish.
The Manager Is Responsible
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The fact is that each manager is responsible for making absolutely sure that each employee knows exactly what he or she is supposed to be doing. One of the very fastest ways to increase efficiency, clear up misunderstandings and improve communications is to take the time to sit with each person and discuss exactly what they are supposed to do, and in what order, and to what standard of excellence.
5. Incomplete Information
Another major time waster in business is poor or incomplete information, which leads to erroneous assumptions and conclusions. It is amazing how often people jump to conclusions or make false assumptions on the basis of wrong information.
The very best managers take the time to ask questions and listen carefully to the answers before they make a decision. If there is a key piece of information that suggests a problem or difficulty, they double check on this piece of information to make sure that it is accurate.
Always ask, “What proof do you have for this statement or fact?” Never assume that something important is true without taking the time to corroborate it for yourself.
6. Aimless or Too Frequent Meetings
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Too many meetings, or aimless meetings that proceed without an agenda, without direction or without closure, are an enormous waste of time at work.
These are meetings that start and stop without any particular resolution. No problems are solved, no decisions are made and no responsibilities are assigned. No deadlines are agreed upon for action.
Since 25% to 50% of working time is spent on meetings of all kinds, your taking the time to improve the quality of your meetings, by preparing agendas in advance, and by bringing each question to closure, can dramatically increase your effectiveness and your productivity.
7. Lack of Clarity Concerning One’s Job
Lack of information, or unclear communications, on important matters affecting a person’s work, causes a lot of wasted time. In a recent survey on employee motivation, the very best companies were defined as places where each person felt that he was an insider, and that he or she was “in the know”
about what was going on in the company.
The worst places to work were described as those where no one was sure about what was really going on. In this type of situation, people were unclear about their responsibilities, unsure about their jobs, and cautious about taking any risks. When people don’t know what is going on, it leads to demotivation, poor performance and playing it safe.
People need to know everything that is happening in the company that affects their particular jobs. The very best companies are those that are open 272
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and honest with all employees concerning those matters that affect the health of the company. Everyone knows what is going on, and how their job fits into the big picture. When they are unclear or unsure, an enormous amount of time is lost as the result of conversations, discussions and gossip, which leads to ineffective work behaviors and poor productivity.
Take Time to Communicate Clearly