He said, “Come here and I’ll show you.” He took him down the hall and into a storage room where the monthly reports, each of them about three inches thick, were neatly stacked on a set of bookshelves. “We never have time to read them, but we keep them here just in case.”
The new VP of Finance went back to his offices, called in the specialists who produced the report and told them to discontinue their activities. They would be reassigned to other jobs where the company needed their expertise more than this department.
They argued vigorously against this decision. They insisted that the company was dependent upon their monthly reports. But the new VP was adamant. He discontinued the reports and didn’t tell anyone.
Nothing happened. Fully nine months later, the VP was at an executive meeting and one of the division heads asked him in passing, “Whatever 279
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happened to those big reports we used to get from your department each month?”
The Vice President of Finance said, “We stopped sending them out.”
The division head said, “Well, we never read them anyway.” That was the only comment he ever received from anyone in the company on the discontinued reports.
It is amazing how many activities go on in business and private life that could be quite easily discontinued completely, with no loss or inconvenience to anyone. Rooting out these opportunities for increased efficiency can dramatically improve the productivity and profitability of an organization or department.
Six Steps to Effective Delegation
To delegate effectively in your work with others, there are six steps that you can take. If you neglect any one of these steps, you run the risk of miscommunication, misunderstandings, demoralization and poor performance.
1. Match the Person to the Job
Match the person to the job. One of the great time wasters in the world of work is delegating the task to the wrong person. Often the task is delegated 280
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to a person who is not capable of doing it properly or getting it done on schedule.
The only accurate predictor of future performance is past performance. The rule is that you never delegate an important task to a person who has not performed that task satisfactorily in the past. It is unfair to expect a person who has not done a job before to perform at a sufficient level of quality when they are given the job for the first time.
2. Agree on what is to be Done
Once you have selected the right person for the job, take the time discuss the job with that person and agree upon what must be done. The more time you take to discuss and agree upon the end result or objective, and achieve absolute clarity, the faster the job will be done once the person starts on it.
3. Explain How the Job Should Be Done
Explain to the person your preferred approach or method of working.
Explain how you would like to see the job done, and how you or someone else has done it successfully in the past.
4. Have Him Feed It Back
Ask the person to feed your instructions back to you in his or her own words. Have him or her explain to you what you have just explained and agreed upon. This is the only way that you can be sure that the other person 281
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actually understands the job or assignment that they have been delegated to accomplish.
5. Set a Deadline
Set a deadline and a schedule for completion of the task. At the same time, arrange for regular reporting and for periodic inspection. Invite feedback and questions if there are any delays or problems.
6. Manage By Exception
Manage by exception whenever possible. Managing by exception is a powerful time management tool that you can use to work more efficiently with other people.
If the job is on track, and on schedule, managing by exception means that the person does not have to report back to you. If you don’t hear from him, you can assume that everything is going well. The individual only has to report back to you when an exception occurs and there is a problem with getting the job done on time, to the agreed upon level of quality.
Seven Ways to Get More Done Each Day
There are seven methods you can use to get more done each day. These are simple, direct and cost no money.
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1. Work Harder
Work harder than you are working today. You can concentrate with greater intensity on your work. You can focus single-mindedly and discipline yourself to work without interruption, diversion or distraction. You can work harder than anyone else, which is a secret to great success.
2. Work Faster
You can work faster than you are today. You can pick up the pace. You can develop a faster tempo. You can move more quickly from place to place, and from job to job. When you combine working harder and working faster, you can get more done in a single day than most people get done in a week.
3. Batch Your Tasks
You can batch your tasks. You can do a series of similar jobs together, taking advantage of the learning curve.
4. Do More Important Things
You can do more important things. You can work on higher value tasks. You can work on tasks that have a higher potential payoff rather than those activities that have a lower payoff.
5. Do Things You’re Better At
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Do things at which you excel. The better you are in a key skill area, the more that you can get done and at a higher level of quality. Because you are better at these tasks, they will be easier for you so you will get them done with less effort and you will have more energy as a result.
6. Make Fewer Mistakes
To get more done, you can make fewer mistakes. You can take the time to do it right the first time. You’ve heard it said, “There is never enough time to do it right, but there is always enough time to do it over.” One of the best time management techniques is to do it right the first time, even if it takes a little more effort and concentration.
7. Simplify the Work
You can simplify the work by reducing the number of steps necessary to complete the task. This makes the job simpler and easier to get done.
Pay Attention
“Life is the study of attention.” You always pay attention to that which you most value. If you value another person, you listen to them intensely when they are speaking. If you value the result of a job, you pay close attention to the details that determine whether or not that job is completed successfully.
Effective managers pay close attention to everything that is going on around them because they value it and because it is important to them.
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Assuring Success at Work
The very best times you will ever have at any job or company is when you are getting wonderfully well with your boss. On the other hand, the very worst times you will ever have at any job is when you are not getting along well with your boss. And the major reason why employees have problems with their bosses is because of a lack of clarity of what exactly is to be done, and to what standard, and in what order of priority.
Here is an excellent exercise for you. Make a list of all of the answers to the question, “Why am I on the payroll?” Write down everything that you feel that you have been hired to accomplish in your work. Focus on results rather than activities. Imagine that your work consists of a series of “deliverables.”
Define your job in terms of the deliverables for which your company pays you a wage or salary.
Now, take this list to your boss and ask your boss to organize this list by priority, based on what is most important to him or her. This may take a few minutes. Be patient. As you discuss this list with your boss, ask questions so that you are perfectly clear about what he or she wants or needs.
Focus on Your Boss’s Top Priorities
From that day forward, focus and concentrate on doing those jobs that your boss considers to be the most important before you do anything else.
Whenever your boss asks you to do something else, take out your list and 285
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ask him or her what order of priority the new task has relative to the tasks currently on your job list.
If you are working at your full capacity, to do something new, you will have to stop doing something old. Many bosses do not realize that your plate is full already. When your boss asks you to do something new, you should ask him what he would like you to stop doing so that you can work on the new task that he has just given you. This is a wonderful way to minimize misunderstandings and improve communications.