Time Management - The knock on effects
- Mar 3, 2016
- 2 min read
Organisations often support their staff's professional development by sending their staff on courses or providing in-house training. A skills gap that affects individual performance is often overlooked, that is, the ability to effectively manage one’s time, 'Time management'. The effect of ‘bad time management’ and in particular the knock on effect when not addressed affects all of us. More importantly that behaviour seems to entrench itself in the culture of the business.
How does time management impact the entire organisation?
Being late for customer meetings may create the impression that you are not reliable.
You may not have time to write an agenda and send to attendees before the meeting.
You can turn up at the meeting flustered and not prepared.
Attendees are not prepared for your meeting or may attend not knowing what the meeting is about.
May cause your customer to lose trust in you when you set an expectation only to let them down by missing the deadline.
When running a tender, bad time management may result in multiple departments being on standby waiting for your direction, effect? Other projects and obligations are delayed.
The above are just a few examples of bad time management scenarios, all affecting the organisations bottom line.
How do we resolve this?
Training your staff to understand how to manage their time better, how to understand their organisational processes, understanding the effects on breaking process links, understanding the knock on effects holding up colleagues or customers, behavioural change in using timelines on projects and a strategy in influencing cultural behavioural change.
Six steps to better manage your time:
Create a task list and prioritise your tasks.
Review your tasks and your progress religiously.
Delegate tasks that are better completed by others.
Create a project timeline listing activity owners, responsibility and completion dates. Release this timeline early to allow others to plan their schedule efficiently.
When setting customer expectations include a time buffer to take into account possible delays.
When inviting people to a meeting provide an agenda in advance to help attendees with specific requirements and input participation.
If you need help in training your staff call Productive Sales and Marketing today for an obligation free discussion. www.productivesm.com.au
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