This place is a mess! - and I'm the leader, where do I start to clean up?
First things First
Ever felt this? In our every day lives we run out of time, there are so many things to do and so little time. I found when I started leading a group not only did I get more things to do, I had less time to do them in. The group was a mess and as the leader it was my job to fix it!
Where do I start?
Covey talks about first things first by looking at tasks based on their urgency and their importance.
Lets look at quadrant IV first as it is the easy one. Low importance and Low urgency. Even if we assume you are not time poor, there must be something else you can do! At least delegate the task if there is absolutely nothing else to do.
Quadrant III is a place we often see others, but never ourselves. This maybe because you don't fully understand the importance of a certain task. More probable though is the person doing the task does not see the unimportance. The point is often people think they are in quadrant I when in fact they are only in III and again, wasting time there.
With both III and IV, the issue is what ever they are doing is not important and should probably not be done. As the leader the onus is on you to impress up on people what is important and especially, what is not.
We have all seen people who are locked into quadrant III. They may have been in the same role for a long time and the job has grown to fill the day. They have a large number of intricate tasks all interrelated and apparently interdependent. What do you do? Option 1: First find something else that needs to be done and sell this to the QIII resident as needing their 'specialised' attention. Next somehow direct them to discover the tasks they are doing are unimportant. This will result in the employee retaining their drive. Option 2: The other approach is simply to direct them to something else and let them feel the shock of "I've been wasting my time". If you are lucky they will learn and provide good value going forward. The risk of option 1, and still possible under option 2, is they don't get it and they simply 'fill their time' in the next job you give them. In the end the answer is probably they are the wrong people for your bus and need to get off at the next stop.
Let's say you have a good grip on what's important. You have a clear mission and know what needs to be done to get there. You may still be caught in quadrant 1. Crisis management, you are running from one to the next to the next.
Let's jump to quadrant II. Important but not urgent. Things like mission planning, relationship management, maintenance, personal exercise. Do these sound like the sort of things leaders should be doing? They do to me. As a leader you need to do the things that mean down the track there aren't so many urgent tasks or at least you are not the one doing them. Covey spends a lot of time confirming why we as people should be in QII and not QI. As leaders it's a bit of a no brainer.
So how do you move to QII. Firstly you can't ignore QI tasks. As you do more QII there will be less QI. Where do you find the time for QII? Start saying NO to QIII and QIV, at a personal as well as group level. It's most important for you as the leader but works equally well for the team you are leading. If I think about it, finding someone else to do the QI work is a QII task. First move yourself to QI, be aggressive by saying NO and delegating. Then start work on your team and what they do, a much harder job and you guessed it - a true QII task.
Cheers
Steve.
PS: I strongly advise getting your hands on a copy of this. Here are some links to Amazon.com:
Every copy others have shown me have clearly been heavily used!!
Ever felt this? In our every day lives we run out of time, there are so many things to do and so little time. I found when I started leading a group not only did I get more things to do, I had less time to do them in. The group was a mess and as the leader it was my job to fix it!
Where do I start?
Covey talks about first things first by looking at tasks based on their urgency and their importance.
| HIGH URGENCY LOW | ||
|
HIGH I M P O R T A N C E LOW |
I Crisis management Deadline driven Time stress |
II |
|
III Wasting time, but probably under the impression it is important. |
IV Simply wasting time, and knowing it! |
|
Quadrant III is a place we often see others, but never ourselves. This maybe because you don't fully understand the importance of a certain task. More probable though is the person doing the task does not see the unimportance. The point is often people think they are in quadrant I when in fact they are only in III and again, wasting time there.
With both III and IV, the issue is what ever they are doing is not important and should probably not be done. As the leader the onus is on you to impress up on people what is important and especially, what is not.
We have all seen people who are locked into quadrant III. They may have been in the same role for a long time and the job has grown to fill the day. They have a large number of intricate tasks all interrelated and apparently interdependent. What do you do? Option 1: First find something else that needs to be done and sell this to the QIII resident as needing their 'specialised' attention. Next somehow direct them to discover the tasks they are doing are unimportant. This will result in the employee retaining their drive. Option 2: The other approach is simply to direct them to something else and let them feel the shock of "I've been wasting my time". If you are lucky they will learn and provide good value going forward. The risk of option 1, and still possible under option 2, is they don't get it and they simply 'fill their time' in the next job you give them. In the end the answer is probably they are the wrong people for your bus and need to get off at the next stop.
Let's say you have a good grip on what's important. You have a clear mission and know what needs to be done to get there. You may still be caught in quadrant 1. Crisis management, you are running from one to the next to the next.
Let's jump to quadrant II. Important but not urgent. Things like mission planning, relationship management, maintenance, personal exercise. Do these sound like the sort of things leaders should be doing? They do to me. As a leader you need to do the things that mean down the track there aren't so many urgent tasks or at least you are not the one doing them. Covey spends a lot of time confirming why we as people should be in QII and not QI. As leaders it's a bit of a no brainer.
So how do you move to QII. Firstly you can't ignore QI tasks. As you do more QII there will be less QI. Where do you find the time for QII? Start saying NO to QIII and QIV, at a personal as well as group level. It's most important for you as the leader but works equally well for the team you are leading. If I think about it, finding someone else to do the QI work is a QII task. First move yourself to QI, be aggressive by saying NO and delegating. Then start work on your team and what they do, a much harder job and you guessed it - a true QII task.
Cheers
Steve.
PS: I strongly advise getting your hands on a copy of this. Here are some links to Amazon.com:
| The book: | The CD: |
 
Available from Amazon US Available from Amazon UK 
|
 Available from Amazon US
Available from Amazon UK
|
Every copy others have shown me have clearly been heavily used!!
