Coaching – The Truth About Time Management Issues
“I didn’t have time to get it done.” Any leader who has coached employees or parent who raised teenagers has heard this excuse and been frustrated.
Let’s not fool ourselves anymore, when someone tells us “I didn’t have enough time.” What they are truly saying is “I had bigger priorities.”
Is it about time management?
Now, don’t get insulted. When we hear people actually have bigger priorities than us, we must evaluate why they believe something else was a bigger priority. There are four possibilities.
1. My Poor Communication
If I am leading someone who tells me she didn’t have enough time, instead of getting angry or sending her to a time management class, I need to evaluate my role.
- Was I clear in my direction and expectations?
- Did I give her an opportunity to ask questions about competing priorities?
- Did I verify her understanding by asking her to repeat back my expectations?
If I can look in the mirror and know I communicated clearly, then something else is happening.
2. Her Poor Decision Making
Before I get offended or angry when she claims a lack of time, I need to evaluate her ability to make good decisions. Most time management issues are indeed priority management issues.
When I know my directions were clearly communicated and understood, I have a critical opportunity to coach her ability to prioritize. Does she know how to differentiate between what is good to do and what is best to do? How did she make those distinctions in this case?
- What else was competing for your time?
- Help me understand what else you were involved in?
- Walk me through how you typically organize your work each day?
I go into more details on the issue of priority management in the following blog: (Click on the title below)
It is critical for every leader to develop the decision-making skills of those we lead. Whether it is my daughter or it is a woman who works for me, if I help her prioritize better she will be more successful, and I will be less frustrated.
3. Her Lack of Respect
A lack or respect for my leadership is a possibility as well. Often, my pride will jump right to this diagnosis, “If my stuff isn’t a priority, then she is disrespecting me!”
I need to be careful jumping to this conclusion without evaluating my own role in the situation. (See #1)
But, if this is a respect issue, then she has an attitude problem that I must address head on. One person with a bad attitude can destroy the morale of an entire team. As the leader, I have to confront her.
Her attitude is a choice. She needs to make a different choice. If her attitude does not improve, then it is time to fire her.
If this is my daughter (or son), then I am dealing with a heart issue. I can not ignore this either. My advice: Find parents who have great adult kids and get their perspective.
Read more blogs about bad attitudes by clicking on the following titles:
Your Attitude is a Choice – Make a Different Choice
The Cornerstone of a A Bad Attitude – Self
4. She Is Right
Before I jump to conclusions, I should ask what else is competing for her time. Believe it or not, I have found that some people made a wise choice when they prioritized other things before me!
Whether it is an employee, a child, or a spouse there are times when they SHOULD choose something before me. If someone makes that wise choice, we should praise them for that.
P. S. You will be surprised how trust grows when you praise someone in this case.
The Bottom Line:
We may think we are dealing with a time management issue, but the truth is we are dealing with priority management. As a leader, my job is to coach and develop people. One area we must coach is priority management.
“I didn’t have time.” Actually means “I had bigger priorities.”
Sometimes those bigger priorities are legitimate and sometimes they are bogus. It is my job as a coach or a parent to develop good decision-making skills in the people I lead.
Until I focus on that, I will continue to hear excuses and be frustrated.
Question:
What other questions would you use to help diagnose a priority management issue?
Another thought….if a leader seems to continually have problems with employees managing time, then it is probably the leader who has the real issue. The old phrase: “The speed of the leader determine the rate of the pack”. Many leaders and many employees just don’t know how to decide between a “high payoff activity” and a “low payoff activity”. All must learn to say “No” to certain items…this is a more difficult task than saying “yes”. I think it is more critical for the leader to tell employees what they should say “No” to.
Great points Clay! In the diagnosis of the issue, the leader must be self-reflective and pay attention to his/her own role in the problems.
2 thoughts: As a leader, having a good understanding of people’s strengths. Some people need more time to think through things…not an excuse for missing a deadline or poor time management, but if we as leaders know our people it may help us with assigning tasks and priorities.
Thought # 2- ” If you slept last night, you had time”. Quote from an unknown USMC Colonel.
Thanks Dave…good article
True! Some people need more time to process. Either give them the time (advanced warning) or give the assignment to someone else.
I think that it always helps us to have a checklist of some sort whenever there is an issue. Instead of making an uninformed decision, we are able to gather information in some sort of way.
Thanks David, great article!
You have made a good point here that leader must be self-reflective and pay attention to his/her own role in the problem. In this case whether the leader didn’t give clear direction or the employee needed more time to complete the task. Having understand the circumstance before jumping on to conclusion is the best way to react.
Bingo! We have to start with ourselves or we will miss a lot of our own opportunities to improve.
Very good, as usual. As leaders, sometimes our expectations are unrealistic. How many times have we heard from a leader “When I had your job I could have got that done in this amount of time.” or have we said in our own mind about one of our subordinates “This would go so much smoother if I just did it.” Leaders, myself included, sometimes forget that, more often than not, were promoted because we demonstrated skills that our subordinate is still developing. When those skills are developed, we should promote them into leadership. We all want our subordinates to have the time management, prioritization, communication, planning and motivational skills of a CEO but we forget that if that were the case, that subordinate would be the CEO.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks Eric! You added great perspective.