Managing Time - Effectiveness & Efficiency

 Managing Time - Effectiveness & Efficiency 

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)

 

Under the topic, "how we organize time for ourselves, we discussed the rationale behind "being on time" or "being punctual".The other aspects of "managing time for ourselves" are prioritizing the task and execution.
 
Most of us experienced that despite being busy with many activities throughout the day, we do not feel a sense of satisfaction. Time Management conflict on active and impact!
 
Time management is not how we engage in some activities and are busy.

Time management is purely inward motivation than externally monitoring time or counting activities. It is all about being effective and efficient.

Efficiency is how we do things right, and effectiveness is all about how we choose the right things to do.

Efficiency is related to skill, and effectiveness is related to awareness and mindset to choose the right activities.

If we want to excel in time management, in my opinion, we need to be more concerned about EFFECTIVENESS, i.e., awareness and mindset to choose the RIGHT activities.

Once we get into EFFECTIVE ACTIVITIES, efficiency is a matter of skill development.
 
If we choose the wrong task and whatever we do with high efficiency, it is not going to deliver desirable results and impact. There is no sense of satisfaction.

For example, choosing the right path to travel is EFFECTIVENESS. How we travel in the path quickly by walking fast or running or using the vehicle is all about EFFICIENCY. If we choose the wrong path and wildly run fast, we end up with the wrong destination.

Hence, the purpose or result gives satisfaction.
 
In a professional environment, choosing the right task is very important than doing the task faster.

How will you choose the right task?

It is defined by your role and the delivery expected from you from your organization. That is a priority.
 
You are effective when you know your priority as defined for your role or what you're expected to do and engage in that activity.

You become efficient when you execute the priority with speed by upskilling, delegating, and using the tools and techniques.

You need to feel good for having completed priority tasks with efficiency. It is all about time management. It is purely inward motivation and fulfillment.

First, we need to ask ourselves whether we are aware of our priorities; if so, are we doing it with efficiency?

Organizing self-managing Time

 Organizing self-managing Time  

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)

 

We have discussed the importance of personal leadership or organizing self to improve the execution capability.
 
Let us discuss one of the essential elements of self-organizing, which is "Time Management."
 
We have discussed many aspects of time management in the earlier discussion; let us understand how managing time will impact getting things done at the workplace.
 
Managing Time should be looked at from two angles.

1) How do we organize our Time for ourselves;
2) How do we organize our Time for others

 How we organize our Time for ourselves 

It consists of planning our priorities/activities, making a To-do list, being on time for any events or meetings, and being aware of our Time wasters.

 How we organize our Time for others 

It consists of how we respect others' Time, keep our commitments up without follow-up or reminders from others and be available for others when needed.

Let us discuss all aspects, and the critical, fundamental conduct for any professional is "Being on Time" or "being punctual."
 
In childhood, we used to be punctual in school as an act of obedience or control from teachers and parents, and somehow we have not learned the basics behind it.

Fortunately, i  learned the science behind "being on time" from the beginning of my career. As most of us are aware that TVS as an organization is very specific about being on Time (punctual). They differentiated themselves from others in their bus service business by punctuality when they started the company in the 1910s in the southern part of Tamil Nādu.

When i was working as a trainee in TVS, one day, i went for a learning session late by a minute or less. All my colleagues were inside the room, and then the Vice president sarcastically greeted me as welcome mappillai! (meaning bridegroom). I felt embarrassed and shamed. After the session, i asked him why he was so concerned about being less than 1 minute late. What he said was real learning. He said, "It is not a matter of one minute late, it shows how you look at your work, event, and other people's time. It reflects your attitude".

Very profound learning for me. Since then, i have never been late to any event by plan, and i will keep informing people when unforeseen circumstances beyond my control pull me to be late.

While growing up, i observed that many people who keep up on Time are cool, handle situations calmly, consistently grow, and lead a quality life. Quality of life starts with the right attitude toward managing Time.

In my consulting experience,i have seen a typical pattern that the leaders who arrive at the organization on Time and start the meeting on time relatively manage the business well in any circumstances. Because they set the tone of their attitude towards Time to others, the organization follows them. The first step towards execution!

When you organize well, obviously, you will get things done efficiently.

Let us discuss some more aspects of time management next week.

Personal Leadership

                                             

 As we discussed, Execution capability comprises three elements, viz. 

1. Personal Leadership or how we organize ourselves
2. Inspiring and Influencing  others to get things done
3. In-depth knowledge about our work or business
 
Let's talk about Personal Leadership or self-organizing. 
 
What is self-organizing or personal leadership?
 
Self-organizing or personal leadership is about proactively preparing ourselves for the position/ title or the job or task we do."

It is all about how we conduct ourselves, shape our character, attitude, enrich our knowledge and skill for the position.

It is all about personal effectiveness.

It is the foundation for getting things done.

For example,

Suppose you are a functional or business head. In that case, this position demands certain behaviors, knowledge, and skills like being a role model for others on respecting time, and people, expertise in functional or business knowledge, and specific skills to demonstrate. How you prepare yourself for those requirements is about self-organizing or personal leadership.
 
Why do we need to self-organize from the "Execution Capability" perspective?
 
1) When you have not organized yourselves, you can not lead others effectively. You can not improve your team's capability without improving your effectiveness
 
As per the law of organized performance, the ratio of a leader's performance to their team remains constant.

For example, if you measure your performance on a scale of 1~10 and your score is 8, your team score would also be eight or less. Hence ratio is 1:1

You can not change your team's performance score to 10 unless you also improve your score to 10; therefore, the ratio remains constant as per law.

The point is your team's execution capability, or effectiveness depends on your execution capability only.

To get things done, you need to enhance your effectiveness first.

2) You will derail any time during the growth stage if you are not organized.

As said, self-organized is more about disciplining yourself. You will get derailed when you do not maintain the discipline as the job demands.

We might have come across many talented people who derailed their careers not just due to performance alone but lack of personal leadership.

Some of the examples could be ICICI bank Ex women CEO or  Satyam computer founder's fall mainly due to governance issues from a business perspective or integrity issues from a personal point of view.
 
The point is self-organizing is very fundamental for enhancing execution capability. Without that, we cannot inspire or influence others. When you grow up, people look up to you for everything.

Let's talk more about personal leadership next week.

Developing Execution Capabilities

Thank you for your feedback last week on my request. When i analyze the input, most revolves around "how can one be effective in a professional life and how we achieve result in work or business." Some concerns about bringing ownership to the young generations to achieve organizational goals.Something related to the family business, conflict management, and delegation in general.

I observe a gap between what we intend or plan to do and what we achieve. That gap is due to execution capabilities. We want to get things done but struggle to get them for various reasons.

                                  

 
Hence, we initiate a new series on "Developing the Execution Capabilities" in a professional environment as an individual and an organization.
 
Why do we need to develop the execution capabilities?

1. One of the studies says that only 8 % of the leaders are good at planning and delivering results. The remaining 92 % of the leaders are either good only at planning but lacks execution skill or struggle with both effective planning and execution.

We may relate these findings with our experience as well.
 
For example, we might have experienced many times that we plan to follow some good habits but give up soon. That is an execution discipline problem at an individual level.
 
Similarly, we may plan to achieve some level of business growth every year at an organizational level. Still, for many years, we may be stagnant at the same level of growth performance. That is due to execution problems at the organizational level.
 
 Execution problems may be a common phenomenon for any professional and organization. Unless we understand the execution process and develop the capabilities, there will not be much progress in professional life.
 

2. Success and Growth come from implementing actions and delivering results, not just from planning or strategy or simply ideas. Execution is the critical differentiator between performers and nonperformers. The world admires performers only.

 
However, developing the execution capability is not as easy as learning concepts, tools, and techniques. It is a mix-up of managerial process and art.

Execution capability encompasses the following.

1. Personal Leadership or how we organize ourselves
2. Inspiring and Influencing others to get things done
3. In-depth knowledge about our work or business environment
 
Let us discuss developing the capabilities, the set of behaviors in each aspect, and some insights from effective personalities in this Series.
 

Summarising- Developing decision making skill

 

For the last 40 weeks, we have discussed the topic "Developing Decision-Making Skills" in the workplace. Let us summarise some key points before moving on to the next topic, as this will help you to recall.

 

1. One of the primary responsibilities of a manager/ leader is to make decisions on any workplace challenges at the right time, given the facts and assumptions. Whether the decision is right or wrong, time will decide. It is better to make decisions rather than be indecisive.
2. When we make a series of decisions that yield results, it eventually improves our self-confidence.
3. As emotions overdrive logic, we need to be aware of emotions vs. reasoning in decision-making situations.
4. Everyone will go through a decision dilemma, and one of the approaches to overcome it is to go through the " Decision Vs. Consequence" matrix, as it will give clarity to move forward.
5. Understanding the problem and defining it RIGHTLY will be the first step in problem-solving
6. As a manager/leader, which problem do we solve most of the time, " Adhoc or Chronic"? The answer will tell our managerial time spending and effectiveness.
7. All chronic problem needs structured problem-solving methodologies, and everyone should learn the process of the structured problem-solving process.
8. Prioritizing the problem itself is an art as there are numerous problems one has to solve. One approach we discussed was using the " Complexity Vs. Impact" matrix.
9. Developing the "Data Skill" is a must for professional development. This skill includes the ability to collect the suitable data set, analyze and remove noises, see some patterns, converge on root causes, and sell the ideas to others and implementation.
10. Most technical and managerial problems result from a lack of people and processes. Please be sure to look for the root causes from this perspective as it helps you to reach the solutions quickly.
11. Selling ideas to others is essential apart from data analysis. We discussed some of the hurdles like self-doubt, fear of rejection, and fear of failure. We also discussed the solution approach to overcome the limitations.
12. Developing Action Plan is a managerial art; developing the skill will improve communication.
13. We discussed the checklist for decision-making, and one profound list is putting the highest stakeholders as a focal point to make the right decision.
14. We also discussed the leadership patterns in creating a conducive decision-making environment in the organization where people love to work for the manager/leader.
15. Ultimately, a senior professional is paid for deciding at the right time for the challenges. It calls for probelm solving and decision-making skill development. It can be acquired by awareness and practice.

You can read all the articles in the below link.

https://lifeexcellenceinsights.blogspot.com/


 

Book Introduction

 

I had read the book " What Got you here won't get you there" some years back and did not get many insights from the book. When i recently browsed the same book, i could quickly relate much of the ideas. The reason could be that i was not ready then to absorb the insights or lack of experience.

This book is meant for working professionals with experience and business heads who would like to know themselves better and how their behavior affects self-growth and relationships with others in the professional environment. Each chapter represents some of the challenges/dilemmas one face in the workplace, and the author recommends his perspectives to overcome them.

The Author, Marshall, is a famous executive  & CEO coaching coach worldwide; he clarifies each concept with his personal experience while dealing with them rather than explaining behavioral psychology from a theoretical point of view.

This book is not meant for a one-time read to absorb the contents but requires in-depth assimilation to get insights on behaviors in the workplace, as i realized. This book needs to be in our library; you will get different insights whenever you read it with your experience.

Recommend to the professionals who would like to prepare themselves for next-level development and to be aware of themselves much more.

https://amzn.to/3Tnlsz2

Happy learning, and have a great week ahead.

Leadership patterns for a positive decision-making environment (contd..)

 

Last week we discussed some of the leadership patterns effective managers/ leaders display to create a positive environment for problem-solving and decision-making in the organization.
 
Some of the patterns listed as i observed from many outstanding managers/leaders. 
 

• Clarity on the problem & delegation level
• Communication & expectation setting on solving the problem
• Switching between micro & macro management of detailing 
• Space for risk-taking & learning attitude to deal with failure 

 
 Having discussed the three patterns, let us understand how leaders create space for risk-taking and failure. 
 
Space for risk-taking & learning attitude to deal with failure :
 
Some managers and leaders, as i  observed, insist people take new initiatives apart from routine activities even though any new initiatives have the probability of 50 % success.
 
My first manager in my career always engaged himself in new initiatives, and half of it turned into failure only. Despite he did experiments and also encouraged others to do something new. More than that, when the initiatives failed and cost the organization, he always defended the team's intent and effort than the results. Hence, he was among the outstanding managers regarded by peers, and people loved working with him.
 
Also, some leaders encourage the team to learn from the failure and perceive it as experience. My friend, an entrepreneur, always uses the phrase " it is part of learning" whenever his effort fails in any new initiatives, and he moves on to the next.

When the leader always insists on learning and encourages the people to experiment, the people would show interest in solving the problem and dare to make decisions without fear.
 
Nowadays, large-size organizations encourage innovation projects by rewarding people for daring to do new experiments. A classic example is the TATA Group's initiative promoting innovations through the "Tata Innovista " program. Through this program, teams are recognized and rewarded every year for success and failure in innovative projects. The Management believes in experimentation and risk-taking.

To sum up,

• It is the leaders/managers who create a conducive environment through their behavior, communication, and process for the people to take the lead on the problem-solving and decision-making enhancement.
• Creating such a conducive environment is what leadership is all about and expected from managers and leaders.

Let us analyze ourselves and become a better version of ourselves as managers/leaders in the organization.
 
Have a great week ahead.

Leadership patterns for a positive decision-making environment (contd..)

 

Last week we discussed some of the leadership patterns effective managers/ leaders display to create a positive environment for problem-solving and decision-making in the organization.
 
Some of the patterns listed as i observed from many outstanding managers/leaders. 
 

• Clarity on the problem & delegation level
• Communication & expectation setting on solving the problem
• Switching between micro & macro management of detailing 
• Space for risk-taking & learning attitude to deal with risk and failure 

 
 Having discussed the first two patterns, let us understand the ability to switch in and out on the management of details. 
 
Switching between micro & macro management :
 
Influential managers/ leaders are aware of the management process and can converge and diverge on the problem-solving process.

                     
 
Some people take an extreme stand on macro management and leave the execution of tasks to others, assuming they empower others. Some people try to get into all the nitty-gritty of the job, thinking they help others get things done. Each stand affects the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of people reporting to them.
 
Consider the case, as i  observed,

One of the business heads is balancing the micro and macro level of management. His style of leadership makes his team get things done with little effort.
 
For example, when he wants to conduct an event, he calls his team, explains his end objective, and leaves it to the team on execution details (Macro management). He is disciplined enough to review the progress. When the team raises some concerns, say cross-functional conflict, he gets into detailing (micromanagement) and clears the path (macro). It looks like he is nowhere connected to the team, and at the same time, he is available for guidance when required. His style is a standard management process, but there is a subtle difference between being in and out of the task and empowering the people. It is an art.

Because of his switching between macro and micro-management styles, the team feels comfortable working with him and problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities are enhanced among the group, as i witnessed.
 
Balancing macro and micro-management calls for introspection of our thought process towards work and people. However, the ability can be learned.
 
 Have a great week ahead.
 

Leadership patterns for a positive decision-making environment

 

Last week we discussed some of the leadership patterns effective managers/ leaders display to create a positive environment for problem-solving and decision-making in the organization.

 
Some of the patterns listed as i observed from many outstanding managers/leaders. 
 

• Clarity on the problem & delegation level
• Communication & expectation setting on solving the problem
• Switching between micro & macro management of detailing 
• Space for risk-taking  & learning attitude to deal with risk and failure 

 
 Having discussed the "clarity and delegation level" last week, let us understand more about communication 
 
Communication and expectation setting on solving problems:
 
Effective managers are good at setting their expectations from others on solving problems and decision-making through their communication process.
 
One of my colleagues always asks his team members "what can be done "and "what else can be done" when someone approaches him with a problem. He is good at his functional domain and intends to solve the problem; however, instead of giving brief instructions, he prompts others with his communication style and encourages people to think and generate alternative options for solving the problem.
 
No surprise that everyone regards him as one of the best managers as everyone is comfortable working with him, and most of the time, the problems are getting resolved quickly.
 
My observation of his communication style and the impact are as follows  

• The team  is aware of  approaching him with options than merely elevating the problem
• When the team thinks and generates the options, they conclude the suitable options most of the time, and issues are not elevated to his level
• Since the team approaches him with multiple options and when he endorses some options, that behavior reinforces the team's confidence in solving the problem and decision-making capability

This way of expectation setting is far better than taking an extreme stand of solving problems self or expecting the team to come out with the solutions.

The effective manager creates a "positive  and  inclusive problem-solving and decision-making environment through this communication process."
 
Let us discuss other patterns of "Micro vs. Macro detailing" next week.
 
Have a great week ahead!

Leadership patterns in a decision-making environment

 Leadership patterns in a decision-making environment

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)
 

In continuation of last week's discussion on how different types of managerial styles affect the people's capability in problem-solving and decision-making in the organization, let us understand some leadership patterns in creating a positive environment for problem-solving and decision-making.
 
Managers/Leaders create an environment by their functioning and style, which determines the organization's decision-making capability.
 
Let me summarise some of the patterns i have observed in many outstanding managers/leaders.
 

• Clarity on the problem and delegation level
• Communication and expectation setting on solving the problem
• Switching between micro  &  macro management of detailing 
• Space for risk-taking and  learning attitude to deal with risk and failure 

 
Clarity on the problem and delegation level :
 
Effective manager/ leader is good at developing clarity on what needs to be delegated and what must be solved by themselves. They create clarity based on the intensity of the problem and its impact, timeline pressure, and the team's competency level.

                                                            

 

 For example,
 
In a good case, in one of the organizations, a manager makes the decision every day on what needs to be produced and how much needs to be produced and just delegates the team to comply. He is not delegating the production planning. Since he is only aware of the big picture of change in customer preference, internal capacity, team's influence on each other, and the impact of the delayed decision on business deliverables, he makes decisions himself.No more complexity in the system on decision making.
 
Whereas in another case, one organization always runs with a crisis on the working capital issues, and the business head expects the production head and finance head to take decisions on priority. Since the impact of the decisions would affect the deliveries, the functional heads either delays the decision or are indecisive most of the time. The environment becomes chaotic as each one points out others for their problem-solving and decision-making speed and quality. The cause of the problem is over delegation of critical issues to inappropriate people and expecting fast decision-making and problem-solving.
 
In both cases, the underlying factor is getting clarity on which problem we need to delegate and setting the expectation on problem-solving and decision-making at the team's level. 

 
When we do not have the clarity to distinguish, as a manager/leader we create an environment with unrealistic expectations.
 
Some effective managers/ leaders are good at differentiating the problem, the impact of the problem, and the level of delegation by which they set the right environment for timely decision-making and problem-solving.
 
Let us discuss other leadership patterns next week. 
 

Have a great week ahead.