I would be interested in receiving any information on activities/exercises that would bring my Time Management course to life.
The course will cover the normal prioritising, planning and organising, scheduling, time stealers and delegation.
A particular area of concern is to how to Manage Your Boss who has a 'Just Do It' attitude. Any information, hints/tips on this area would be very welcome.
Dave Nicholls
4 Responses
Verbal assertions…
Hi Dave,
Regarding the ‘boss’ problem, have you considered interoducing some of the verbal assertions?
When delivered well, the discrepancy assertion can be especially effective, however you do need to emphasise the facts and refrain from being sarcastic!
Kind regards,
Colin Hamilton
email: colin@bis-improve.co.uk
web: http://www.bis-improve.co.uk
Urgency/Importance grid
Hi Dave
I’ve used the urgency/importance grid in the past which has worked well personally, and as a tool on courses.
It allows people to prioritise their workload and can be used to demonstrate their workload to their manager. Confirming that they’re more than happy to take on the additional work; but asking which areas the manager would then like them to drop into the lower importance box, in order to accomodate this extra task.
Happy to provide more information if necessary on 0121 424 1640.
Good luck!
Kirsten
risk-assessing
As well as the good suggestions made already, I’ve found it useful to get people to look quite deeply at their reasons for complying with one request or another. What do they see as the risk in not complying, and what is the realistic analysis of that risk? (Will they in fact get the sack if they don’t respond instantly to their boss, for example?)
It’s a cognitive, rational-emotive approach, and can often be helpful in getting grounded and making good decisions about time-management
Managing decision making strategies
Have you thought about some work on how to read/manage other people’s decision making strategies?
This is especially useful if you are having difficulty delivering what ‘the boss’ wants. You may be missing what they are telling you they really want (as opposed to what you think they are telling you they really want).
What is their decision making strategy? Ask “what is it that is important to the decision maker in deciding which creative ideas to take forward”. Listen to their exact words. What are their needs, likes, wants? Are they motivated towards pleasurable things or away from uncomfortable things? Which sensory perceptions mean the most to them (do they like visual words, sounds, feelings)
You then need to relate to these identified issues and criteria.
This takes a lot of listening skills and the ability to adapt your own mode of communication but it can be done.
A very good person to learn from in this area is Michael Beale, of PPI Business NLP, who does a lot of training on precisely these issues. He can be contacted at michealbeale@ppimk.com.
Regards