Management Matters

Each edition Jackie Astbury, our Training Manager, will look at the ‘managerial side of life’ and focus on management development, providing guidance, tips, techniques and practical advice on an assortment of topics including performance management, conflict management, time management and many more.

We start a new series this month and look at how you manage your time. Over the series we will look at delegation, effective meetings and other aspects of making the most out of your time. In this edition we introduce the topic with goal setting in ‘Time flies but you are the pilot’.

I start with something that you may think on the surface is a rather harsh statement:

You cannot manage time!

Don’t worry dear reader, I’m not having a go at you, merely stating that you are not God nor a time lord (did that come as a shock? My sincere apologies if it did.)

All you can do is manage yourself in an allotted time frame.

Now I am probably the worst person when it comes to managing my time and have used every system known to man, beast and some distant aliens on Planet Zarg. It does not come naturally to me as I get easily distracted by something shiny and if I don’t use a system then, as Douglas Adams once said, I would hear the whooshing sound of deadlines fly by.

The thing that I have learnt in my long and blood sweat and tears battle with ‘getting stuff done’ is what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another. I have searched for the magic system that will answer all my prayers (no, not a mass producing Maltesers system) and I came to the conclusion that I had to create my own which in reality would only work for me. How I did it however, can be easily translated from person-to-person.

I compare it to a buffet (but then I would, as I love food) where you have all this choice and you select what you like (okay maybe that is a bad analogy for me as I usually like everything on a buffet table, unless it’s brussel sprouts or coconut, which don’t seem to appear on most buffet tables thankfully).

Anyway this is what I did.

I went on training courses, I spoke to people, I read numerous books, read articles, researched online and watched what other people do.

And then…

I took the bits that worked for me.

A little meerkat may come up and tell me it is ‘simples’ (other comparison sites are available) but sometimes the obvious doesn’t just slap you in the face straightaway.

So this is what I will present over the next few editions… a buffet.

I will present systems, ideas, tips and suggestions.

If you like an idea, pick up a plate, if not, keep walking. (I will restrain the meerkat from speaking at this point.)

Alice came to a fork in the road. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.

‘Where do you want to go?’ responded the Cheshire Cat.

‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered.

‘Then,’ said the Cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.”

Alice in Wonderland

I love this quote, love the book in fact as it seems to celebrate the random. As much as we love the random, we still need to actually accomplish things. With this in mind whatever your route you need a destination and this is where your goals come in. Quite simply ‘what do you want to achieve?’

Now it may take you some time to decide what your goals actually are but it is certainly a worthwhile exercise, as then decisions about what to do become easier. Each decision will be a yes/no to, ‘Will this help me to achieve my goal?’

Some goals are small, ‘I will get this article written by the end of the day.’

Others may be much bigger, so to make it easier break it down into the requisite tasks and organise it into a plan.

Goals will give you a structure and by working towards your goals it stops you from deviating from the desired destination, be that a completed article or world domination.

Some people do not know what their goals are (insert joke about local football team here) and I have sympathy here as it took me a long time to figure out what mine are. They change as you, circumstances and people change and the thing is they almost always change with time.  What I wanted in my 20’s is very different to what I want now in my…well more than 20’s.

The trick is to re-evaluate, amend and assess what it is you really want. If it is as simple as that chocolate biscuit over there, then fine, but if your goal is to lose some weight then this decision forms part of a bigger picture and hence the decision becomes potentially more complex (again perhaps a bad analogy for me, the decision about chocolate biscuits is never complex in my eyes!)

In the past I have had brief flirtations with other professions (I know how dare I cheat on training and development) only to be sent back to where my skills lay, what motivates me and where my inherent talents lie. I use the word ‘talents’ here as those intrinsic parts of you that just come naturally, not someone suggesting you’d be good at one thing because you are good at something vaguely similar. What motivates you? What are your talents? Again I ask, what do you want to achieve? (it’s okay, you don’t need to answer)

That’s the point of goals I think, they need to come from within (oh gosh ‘Zen alert’) I tried other goals and they just didn’t fit, mainly because they were other people’s goals and not mine.

Once you know what you want then there is no time like the present. Make a plan, set deadlines, list the actions or as a shoe manufacturer’s tagline suggests ‘Just do it’ (other sports shoe manufacturers with taglines are available. Also as a disclaimer I am not suggesting that said shoe manufacturer is talking about managing your time. Just in case someone is waiting in the wings with a lawsuit or a baseball bat – gosh you can tell I work for a law firm and am half Italian!)

This though dear reader is just the start.

From here we will travel together along the system buffet, through the treacherous tornado of time wasters, onwards to delegation avenue and we will take in ‘saying no’ street and the mountains of meetings.

Until then..

Next month we will look at what options you have for an effective system in ‘Digestive system’ (see because you’ll get options…that you’ll digest…as in absorb mentally…okay fair enough maybe I’m just hungry!).

For more information about management training for your business or for a friendly chat on guidance on training and development of staff contact Jackie Astbury on jackieastbury@chadlaw.co.uk or telephone 0113 2523452.