Archives For Management

Don’t Manage Your Time – Invest it

June 3, 2013

Good Monday morning to you! Hope you had a great weekend, we did other than learning our daughter’s car needs the timing belt railroad tracks - Keely 2013changed and there might be some other problems associated with that issue. But otherwise a good weekend.

Question for you – how many articles, books, and blog posts have you read about time management? Have you been to any seminars on the subject? How about time-management training at the office?

Now the next question – do you feel that you are any more effective at how you use your time? Not efficient, but effective? Do you feel that you are accomplishing what is really important? My answer has been too often – No. Now why is that? Why is it that we have spent so much money and time on learning to manage our time and yet we still aren’t accomplishing the important things in our lives?

Maybe, it is time to look at our time in another way. Maybe we need to reframe the issue. Time is a resource, many say your most important resource. Maybe you need to think about investing your time in order to produce the future returns in your life that you most value instead of simply “managing” your time in order to accomplish more tasks. What are your priorities? For me it is God, Angela (my wife), Lauren & Keely (my daughters), my family, my country, and then my vocation. There are “returns” I desire for each of those priorities (or areas) of my life. I desire to honor God and to have an intimate relationship with Him, I desire to love and honor my wife and to have a rich and long marriage, I desire that my daughters be healthy individuals that are a positive force for good, and so on.

So, what is important to you? Your time (attention) is the most important resource you have to invest into the priorities of your life. Are you truly investing your time in to your priorities? Does the manner of your investing reflect your stated priorities? Ask the same question about your vocation. How do you allocate your time at your work / ministry? Is it focused on your priorities or on how many tasks you can accomplish that day?

Try these simple steps:

1. Identify your priorities in life, including your work or ministry. (You will need to probably set aside a half day or full day away somewhere where you can really think without being disturbed)

2. Compare how you really spend your time against your stated priorities.

3. Determine why the gaps exist between your stated priorities and how you use your time.

4. Develop a strategy to close the gaps and to start investing your time according to your true priorities.

Remember, it is not about how many tasks you accomplish, it is about how effective you are in accomplishing the truly important goals in your life.

Quit managing your time and start investing it!!!

Have a great week!
BG

In Management, Personal Management, Productivity, Tools , , , ,
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Business Model You

May 10, 2013

Good Friday morning to you! I hope you have a great end to your week.

In the past I have posted about the Business Model Canvas which is a one-page tool for developing your business model. That tool has also been adapted into the Business Model You which is a great tool for drawing your own personal business model and helping people adapt to the changing market place. The book is excellent and is also a great help for a young person trying to figure out their career path.

Watch this video:

Business Model You from Square Tomato on Vimeo.

Have a great weekend!
BG

In Personal Management, Planning, Tools , , , , ,
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Great Leaders are Simplfiers

May 7, 2013

Quote for the day:

Simple Book

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.“

- General Colin Powell

In Leadership, Management , , ,
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Empowering People

March 8, 2013

It is Friday! Hope you have great plans for your weekend. We are excited because it is supposed to get in the high 40′s here which will be nice for us.Keely - snow in March

How do you empower people? There are many ways, but one of the most effective is effective delegation. Here at Ambassador Enterprises delegation has been broken down into four phases:

1. DEFINE: This phase is all about quality up front and it is critical you get this phase right. Here you want to clearly communicate the  desired Results (goals and milestones), the Rules (parameters), the Roles (personnel and authority), the Resources (money, and support), and the Rewards.

2. ASSIGN: This is where you clearly communicate the task and ensure the individual not only understands, but concurs with the assigned task. Then you clearly hand over the task to the individual.

3. PROVIDE: Phase three is simply follow through. You are providing your delegate the authority, money, training, materials, facilities, support, and tools they need to accomplish the delegated task.

4. MONITOR: Then, you set up an appropriate system for checking on the progress and results. How you do this will vary with the experience and competence of the delegate and with the complexity of the task. It is a balancing act of you getting the information you need without unnecessary micro-management of the delegate.

Effective delegation is a great way to empower the members of your team, however, so many of us do it so poorly that we actually demotivate members of our team. Effective delegation is a skill that can and should be learned by leaders.

What have you learned about how best to delegate to others?

Blessings on your weekend!
BG

In Leadership, Management, Tools , , ,
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Words Leaders Use – Or At Least They Should!

March 1, 2013

Good morning to you!Flowers by Keely

Over the years I have come to better appreciate the power of words. Time and again, when I have worked with organizations, the employees often tell me “I only hear from them (their managers) when I make a mistake, I wish they would say something when I do a good job” or “I wish I knew how I was doing, no one ever says anything about my work” or “I worked extra hours this week trying to ship product on time and no one said thank you” and so on.

One mark of a leader is a good vocabulary that they use well and often. This particular vocabulary uses words and phrases such as the following:

Thank you!

Great job, I particularly appreciate how you did ________.

I’m sorry, I failed to ________.

I was wrong. You were right.

Great insight! Excellent idea!

Would you help me to ________? We need your input on ____.

I am glad you are a part of XYZ Organization, you make a difference!

I appreciate your hard work and dedication – you are a great example to the others.

You have worked long enough for the day – go home and be with your family.

You have earned your vacation and you need to take it – XYZ won’t fall apart while you are gone.

Stay off email at night! 

Here, let me help you.

You know, you did not do so well on ____, but I know you want to do well and I want to help you.

And finally one big addition to your vocabulary – laughter. Learn to laugh and to let your staff know that it is good to laugh!

You can change lives with your words – literally. So speak words of truth, grace, and peace to those you lead and see how it causes them to flourish.

“A gentle tongue is a tree of life, . . .” Proverbs 15:4

“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” Proverbs 16:24

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” Proverbs 25:11

BG

In Leadership, Management , , , , ,
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The Importance of Appreciation

February 25, 2013

Good morning from Louisiana. I am here working with one of the plants of a company recently purchased by Ambassador and enjoying my time back in the South!

How do you like to be shown appreciation? Is it important to you to know that others appreciate your work? Especially your supervisor?

Do you show others your appreciation for their work the way you would like to be shown appreciation? What about your assistant or others’ assistants? These are the people that make our organizations go, yet we so often overlook them as they serve in the background.

Checkout this article on appreciating assistants -How to Give a Meaningful “Thank You” from the Harvard Business Review blog about how best to show your appreciation to those assistants in your organization that keep the wheels turning!

Say Thank You to someone today and do it in a special way,
BG

In Culture, Leadership, Management , , ,
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Top 10 Good Tech Habits Everyone Should Have

January 26, 2013

Top 10 Good Tech Habits Everyone Should Have.

In Tools
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Which Hat To Wear?

November 5, 2012

Good Monday morning to you! Hope you had a great weekend.

Do you ever had that nagging feeling that there is some aspect of an issue that you have not addressed? Or maybe in one of your meetings everyone seems to be saying the same thing? Or maybe the strongest personality in the room is overly pessimistic or optimistic so everyone else adopts the same approach? Regardless, you know that you are missing something.

Well there is a way of parallel thinking that will help you and your team fully think about and discuss issues. It is called The Six Thinking Hats. In this approach you learn how to separate thinking into six distinct functions and roles that help you to have a more robust analysis of the issue.

First is the White Hat – this aspect just deals with the information that you have or need. Just the facts.

The Green Hat deals with all the possibilities, alternatives, new concepts, and so on.

The Yellow Hat is when you explore the positives and look for value and benefit.

The Black Hat is where you look for the difficulties and dangers and explore why something might not work.

The Red Hat deals with emotions, hunches, and intuition. Here is where yo express your fears as well as hopes.

The Blue Hat is the managing of the thinking process ensuring that all of the “hats” are used in the process.

So, if you want a more robust examination of an issue, try wearing the Thinking Hats.

Have a blessed week serving our Lord!
BG

In Creativity / Innovation, Learning, Productivity, Teams, Tools , , , ,
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Regarding Busyness

August 7, 2012

Good morning,

Are you responsible for keeping other people busy? Then this article on the Harvard Business Review website might interest you:

Is Busyness Bad for Business? by Susan David

Following are some “bottom lines” from the article:

If you are responsible for keeping others “busy”, consider the following:

  1. People have a fundamental need to feel competent. It’s your job to give them stimulating, meaningful work.
  2. Rather than waiting out a lull, encourage employees to be creative and proactive.
  3. Give them the time they need to complete key assignments. Don’t let meetings or inefficient work practices hijack their workdays.
  4. Help employees stay connected to the meaning in the work they do. Tie tasks to how they benefit the person, the team, the client, the organization.
  5. Consider what makes life, and not just work, meaningful. Make sure your team members have time for it.

Have a good day!
BG

In Culture, Leadership, Management , ,
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A Critical But Underutilized Management Skill

July 30, 2012

Good Monday morning! Over the last few weeks I have mentioned about how dry it was here and about how I did not have to mow. Well, we have had some rain and my yard has gone from a desert to a jungle. Amazing how fast it recovers!

There is one thing that we could be doing better that would motivate our staff, empower our staff, develop our staff, allow us to focus, reduce overwork, and maintain priorities. However, we avoid that thing and we don’t cultivate the skill – all to our detriment and to the detriment of those we lead. I wonder why.

This most critical of skills is simply delegating. For whatever reason we fail to learn the skill of delegation and we and others suffer as a result. Amy Gallo in her Harvard Business Review article “Why Aren’t You Delegating?” has some thoughts. Check out her article. I have some theories as well. But ask yourself – why aren’t you delegating? What is it that you fear will happen if you delegate?

Also – check out my post on “Delegating – the 5 Levels” for some practical guidelines on how to delegate.

So – just try it today – delegate something!

Blessings on your day & week!
BG

In Management, Productivity, Recommended Blogs, Tools ,
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