Time Management – An Oxymoron?

George called me last week.  He was completely stressed out about the lack of time in his business and life.

George had just stepped back into his office from a day of sales appointments, client meetings and a board retreat.  “This is the story of my life” he shared with me.  “Running from one place to the next to the next.  And the worst part is projects keep getting pushed back further and further.  I’d be okay with the craziness if at least it produced the results I wanted.”

“Preston, how can I make all this work?  You’re a coach… you must have a time management tactic or strategy for me to use to make this better.”

Sorry George.  I don’t have the magic pill you’re seeking.

Does this story sound familiar?  Too much to do and not enough time?  Strategizing, negotiating and manipulating time until we realize we’ve spent what turns into (if we actually measured it) an inordinate amount of time stressing out and looking to find the time management “magic pill” that will forever end the misery.

It’s as if we actually believe there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; the time management rainbow. Consider thought, that there’s no such thing as time management let alone a “pot of gold” solution. At least not in the context with which we’re most familiar.

So, why would I say that and what is it that has so many of us suffering around time? There are two primary issues:

First, although we all deal with time, it’s a rare bird that actually distinguishes his or her relationship with time. That’s right… relationship with time. We all have 24 hours 7 days a week (considering you’re from this planet). Yet most Americans schedule their calendars as if more time were to magically appear.

One of the biggest drivers of this behavior I’ve seen is that people measure their self-worth by how much they do. Have you ever heard someone lament about how busy they are? Consider they’re just flexing their “I’m important” muscles as in “I’m so busy ’cause I’m so important.” It’s a tough decision for me too… be important and suffer or just be important.

Second, we live in a “fix it” culture. When there’s a time crunch we frequently look for solutions to that problem without looking at the true driver of the challenge. For example, I just met with a coaching prospect, Steve, who shared all the time management strategies he’s employed over the past two years. When I asked how it was going with time now, he said, “I still can’t find enough time.”

When we looked at the driver, we discovered an unconscious game he’s playing is to be “the smartest guy in the room”. He spends huge amounts of time researching data, analyzing results and listening to media resources. This driver (or context) will for ever force him to spend loads of time satiating the need to be “the smartest guy in the room”, but may not serve him ultimately. Until he begins making a shift in that context, no time management system will ever be effective.

So now what?

• Stop using the language “time management”.  Management is the oversight of processes and keeping them accountable.  Management is what you do when a framework has already been established.  In other words, management is making the best of an existing context.  In our example above, our prospect Steve would keep seeking better ways to cram all the research and analyzing into less time.  Good luck with that.
• Instead, start using the language, “time leadership”.  Consider the following quote from Alan Keith of Genentech who said “Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen.”  The solution for our prospect Steve isn’t managing within his existing context around time.  It’s about creating something entirely new, or extraordinary.  Perhaps he stops researching and begins taking action immediately.  Perhaps he stops trying to “fix” his time issue and starts delegating everything that isn’t completely essential to his professional role.

No matter what it is that Steve takes on, as long as it’s inside a new and empowering context, he’ll likely solve his time issues overnight.

Leadership Practices:

1. Make a list of everything you do in life and business – I mean everything.  Then categorize them into three categories of commitment: a) 100% committed to it, b) 50% committed to it, and c) 0% committed to it  Find a way to delegate, demote or delete anything that you’re less than 100% committed to.  WARNING: This is a confronting exercise.  Don’t try it alone. “-)
2. Plan Tomorrow Today.  Every evening, create a list of the six most important items that need to be handled the next day.  Do not cheat by making the list longer than six items.  Make a commitment to take action ONLY on the top six that day.  List phone calls, tasks, and errands as secondary.  Spend your day working on your top six list and when you get stuck, go to your phone calls, tasks and errands list temporarily.  Then get back to the top six list in short order.
3. Distinguish your current relationship to time.  One way to uncover it is to ask someone close to you the following question: “What do you notice I do with time?”  That will likely spur some terrific conversation.  Be prepared to get confronted by the answers as well.  “-)
4. Declare that you’ll operate from Time Leadership rather than Time Management.  Sometimes just making the declaration creates the extraordinary.

Lastly, have fun with this.  One of the consequences of “time management” is that we make time really significant.  Let that go and open yourself up to a brand new relationship with time.

Tick-tock,

-Coach Preston

The Terminator or the Declare-o-rator?

On October 7, 2008, US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke reminded attendees at a financial meeting that the economy had been showing signs of “deceleration” even before the more obvious disruptions with the financial and credit markets that soon followed.

While noting that housing has been a primary focus, he said the concern has spread far beyond that sector.  He went on to offer messages of little hope that concluded with “…the heightened financial turmoil that we have experienced of late may well lengthen the period of weak economic performance and further increase the risks to growth.” (HR Magazine’s 2009 HR Trend Book, page 5)

Thanks for the motivation Mr. Bernanke.  And by the way, what the heck was that comment intended to create???

It ceases to amaze me how many truly brilliant people suffer from this “size 10 in mouth” disease.  A more technical (and perhaps less judgmental) term I have for this is “describe and manage”.

Here’s a sample scenario: 

You’ve just hired a new technical manager, Bob, to oversee three brand new accounts you’ve landed.  Each Monday morning at your client update meeting, Bob outlines what’s currently going on with these three new accounts.  He says that Jeff and Sally, his production team, are doing great at moving things along and the projects are on schedule.

After three months, Bob begins to share more about how Jeff is coming in late and that Sally is taking on more of the work and that he is getting frustrated with current production processes.  Bob assures you that Sally is okay taking on more work and that he’ll create a few work-a-rounds on processes.  There will only be a 45-day delay in the projects and the clients seem okay with that.

At six months, its clear things are not headed in the right direction.  Jeff left the company, Sally’s overwhelmed and Bob’s spending the majority of his time training Jeff’s replacement.  100% of Bob’s comments during the Monday morning meetings now consist of describing how he’s managing all the breakdowns with staff and resources.  The three projects are now four months behind schedule. 

Soon you get a phone call from two of the three new accounts letting you know they’re taking their business elsewhere.

What’s the problem?  Both Bob and Ben Bernanke are making one of the biggest mistakes you can make in business and life – describing your circumstances; then managing around them.

There is one sure-fire result to this process = guaranteed failure.

The moment you begin doing this, you allow your circumstances to drive the project, relationship, conversation or result.  You have now said, “My circumstances are more powerful than I.”

So what’s the alternative?  It’s really quite simple, although don’t be surprised if it scares you a bit.  We’re not trained to operate this way. 

It’s called “declaring and fulfilling”.

Let’s use Bob, the manager’s example.  Imagine that instead of him coming to meetings telling you what his circumstances are then outlining how he’ll manage them, he said the following:

“Here’s where things are with the three new account projects.  Jeff’s been showing up late to work and I had a conversation with him last week.  Although I acknowledged him for the quality of his work, he does understand I will replace him if he doesn’t handle his time issue.  He worked out the issue and he’s recreated his commitment to his work.  Sally and I talked about her tendency to take on too much and she requested I look into hiring a part-time technician.  I’ve interviewed three people and I’m making a proposal to one of them today.  We are one week ahead of schedule on two projects, on time with the third, and we will be ready to complete all three projects on time.”

Notice the difference?

In this example, Bob is not willing to look, spend time with or manage any of the circumstances.  His only objective is declaring the projects will be complete when he said they’d be complete.  His actions are reliable and forward-focused and based only on his declaration.

Imagine if just 10% more of your staff, family, community or government took on “declaring and fulfilling” rather than “describing and managing” ?  What would be possible then?

Imagine if Ben Bernanke had instead said something like:  “We are facing some challenging times right now.  And what’s next is to create a credit oversight committee within the next three months, establish a short-term credit plan for small businesses that will allow them payment flexibility for six months and inject $XXX into the economy that will be repaid by a percentage of the loan repayments from small businesses.”

Regardless of how ridiculous the above example may be, you can be assured that Mr. Bernanke would have CREATED something.  Perhaps it would be hope.  Perhaps it would be a vision of a better future.

Instead, he crippled a potential future by describing current circumstances.  The worst part… he didn’t even make an attempt at outling how we’d “manage”.  In other words, he successfully terminated possibility.

Don’t be Ben Bernanke.

Leadership Practices:

1. Catch yourself telling stories of why things are the way they are.
2. Ask yourself, “How does my story contribute to my bottom line?”
3. Practice “declaring and fulfilling” incrementally – start small.  Consider things like “I’m going to bed every night this week by 10pm” then actually going to bed at 10pm each night.  Ratchet up the gradient each week.

Go Declare,

-Coach Preston

A Story about Men

This past weekend, I had an amazing experience.  I spent the entire weekend with 11 other men on a retreat about an hour north of Detroit.

Amidst the cheeseburgers, chips, 18 pots of coffee and proverbial “how YOU doin’?”, was authenticity and transparency like I’ve never seen in a group of men before.  I’m more accustomed to rank humor and bravado.  There’s nothing wrong with those things… but I’ve learned those really don’t serve me anymore.

The intent of the weekend was to help us distinguish the “stories” we have about ourselves.  About where we are in comparison to where we want to be.  About what’s running our lives in comparison to what we’d like to run our lives.  About how we live in the context (or framework) of someone elses’ story in comparison to our own OR the story that best prepares us to really be men.

You see as a man, I’ve come to learn some behaviors that, historically, seem to have served me.  Self-protection, arrogance and competition have won many battles for me.  I’ve covered up plenty of mistakes, let folks know that I’m okay even when I’m not (“Don’t need your help thanks.”), and made sure I came in first place regardless of the consequences.

What I see now is that a life led that way is a life of pure exhaustion.

This past weekend actually got me to ask the question, “If that’s not the story I truly want, then whose story AM I living?”  “What story do I want to live?”  “What if I were to take on being transparent, humble and open-hearted?”  “What if I took on not having ALL the answers?”

Some of you reading this (perhaps especially if you’re in business) may feel I’ve gone off a deep end.  That’s okay… you’re entitled to believe that and it’s likely you’re not to the point of exhaustion upon which I’ve arrived.

Except, coming back to work on Monday morning has been really refreshing this week.  Although the email in-box is overloaded, there’s a breakdown with one of my teams and a client who’s suffering through some big challenges, there’s something different about today.

As a business owner, leader and man, I now see my ability to create the life and business I want doesn’t depend on my ability to protect, control or “win”.  It depends on my willingness to practice always being of service, sharing 100% of me (the good, bad and ugly), and getting connected by creating relationships from heart rather than ego.

Leadership Practices for you to consider:

1. Notice where you’re inclined to hide, ignore or avoid issues and conversations.  Be curious about what you want to hide from others.  Take on sharing just one of those things this week.
2. Count how many really close friends you have… the type of friends you could share ANYTHING with.  If the number you come up with is disappointing, ask yourself “How much longer can I do my life entirely on my own?”
3. Notice where you dominate conversations, relationships and situations.  Ask yourself “What chaos am I trying to dominate”.  Consider the things we call “chaotic” have some of the greatest lessons inside.  Take on just being with a conversation, relationship or situation rather than trying to fix it or figure it out.

Regardless of gender, consider that a life (and business) operating from protection, control and competition is short-lived at best.  On the best day, you’ll get ONLY what those things offer (fear, running, resisting and avoiding).

Perhaps there’s a different story for you.

Happy Editing,

-Coach Preston