How many times are you in the middle of something important and you get interrupted by a person, an email, a phone call, or some other request for information?

It breaks our momentum and mental focus. It causes us frustration. And it tests our resolve when it comes to sticking to something more important.

Here are some solutions to this never-ending concern that you face every day.

Interruptions from others:

• Explain you’re busy and set a time to meet later
• Accept the interruption and state the time you have available now. At the end of that time period, tell them you really do have to get on
• Don’t have chairs right next to your desk. If you have room, put two or three chairs in another area of your office. This means people can’t just drop in. They have to interrupt your flow and get you to move away physically form your desk. If it really isn’t that important now, people will wait until it is convenient for you
• Set open and closed-door times, and make them known
• Meet in someone else’s office, so you can control your exit time
• If it’s really important for you to work without interruptions, consider working from home, a conference room or a spare office where it’s obvious you are there for a specific purpose and can’t be interrupted.

Email or instant messaging:

• Don’t keep compulsively checking email. Turn off the audio signal that tells you an email has come through. Allocate times in the day where you deal with email, timed so YOU control it.
• Go offline if you have to. If you’re uninterruptable, prove it.

Information Requests:

• Give people who work for you enough authority and information to deal with these matters for you. Don’t be a hoarder of information so that people have to come to you and only you
• Let your team know you are incommunicado for a time period
• If you make promises, keep them. Then people won’t have to chase you up when you don’t want them to

Phone:

• If you’re in the middle of something, don’t take unscheduled calls. Have set times when people can reach you
• Make a list of calls you are going to make and bunch them together, so you control the time it takes
• Call people at lunch time or before closing time, so conversations are short and to the point
• Ask people who call you what specifically you can do for them, and say ‘I only have ten minutes. Can we get this done in that time?’
• Leave your phone off in the evenings. Interruptions while you’re away from work should be seen as interfering with the rest of your life with people who deserve better. If it’s that important, they will leave a message and you can get back to them when you are free. That way, you control your time

Interruptions are a natural part of your working day, but using these ideas should minimise the effects and help build your productivity.

Thanks again

Sean

You may think that structural re-alignment is a really long, time-consuming thing to have to get involved in.

Take a look at this short video to see that it doesn’t really take that much to change the structure of your team…

Press the play button in the bottom left of the video, and make sure your speakers are on.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

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Have you been affected by downsizing in your organisation during the economic downturn?

The after-effects of downsizing in a company can last for years, as you try to encourage the people who stay to commit their loyalty to the future benefit of the business.

But we’ve found in our research that many companies spend a disproportionate time on helping the people laid off and less real-time on the people who will be left, and that may store up difficulties for the future.

When you manage downsizing ineffectively, there’s a danger that a downward spiral will be set up, which can be damaging to the morale and performance of the whole company.

So you need to take action when downsizing occurs, rather than leave it until problems arise. How can you proactively take action with renewal strategies that will help you look forward rather than back when this situation arises?

1. You must be proactive in your management stance, especially in the time period just after the change has occurred. Your action or otherwise at this point will create either an atmosphere of hope or one of despair. This should be a time when you offer your skills and communication to the long-term future of the business, by clarifying expectations, supporting team members and rebuilding trust. You need to communicate direction, vision, mission, strategies, priorities, commitment, objectives and goals for the future. Without these, the people who stay with you after the downsizing will still be fearful of the risks ahead.

2. Your prime attention should be on supporting the people who stay. If you are using outside help to assist in the downsizing operation, most attention, quite rightly, will be on the staff whose jobs have disappeared. However, enlist the help of the agencies you are using to create firm foundations for growth in the people who will be staying with you.

3. Think of the future now with a long-term perspective. One-off meetings to reassure staff, or one-hit training courses, will not offer the necessary support that people need for long-term safety and security. Put yourself in your staff’s shoes…what reassurance would you need to confirm that your future job is safe and that your role is more important than ever to the company’s successful future?

Remember that the business may have been on a downward trend for some time, and it may take a long time to get confidence back after a cut-back. Positive, proactive action on your part will play an important role in re-establishing trust in the company and its future. You may need, with your management team, to re-assess the strategies that your business uses to go to market in the future.

Ideally, the time taken to reassess your future operational needs should be as short as possible, so you have the continued support of your team members and colleagues to take the company forward during the difficult rebuilding time.

By spending time thinking about the needs of the people working with you in the future, and how to manage performance, you give yourself a good chance of rebuilding towards a successful outcome.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

When you are training new employees it is important to keep your organisations specialisation (or division) of labour in mind. Specialisation of labour refers to the way organisational jobs are divided and subdivided to ensure that they are properly completed. As a manager you may be responsible for breaking a task down into parts and then assigning each part to a different individual.

Specialisation of labour has its benefits and drawbacks. On the one hand you will have a highly specialised workforce in which each person, responsible for only one task, can contribute his very best work. Because employees are allowed to specialise they are more likely to work efficiently and get more done.

On the other hand, you can’t overuse the idea of specialisation. If an employee is only allowed to do one repeatedly he will easily become tired – both physically and mentally. When fatigue sets in he will suddenly become more likely to make mistakes. He’ll also become bored with his job and will begin to start calling out more frequently.

If you want to ensure that individuals have specialised tasks than you need to build those tasks into a complete job description. In order to remain productive and safe you’ll need to stay away from specialising simple tasks alone!

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Manager Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

Now that we’ve established how important it is to recognize organizational control, let’s take a closer look at the types of control that occur within the workplace.

To start, there are four main categories that control falls into:

• Physical control – the amount of inventory you have on hand, your quality control guidelines, and how well your equipment and facilities are maintained;
• Human control – including human resource functions such as placement, training, benefits, and appraisals;
• Information control – considers how well you can analyze sales trends, your ability to track the economy, and public relations; and
• Financial resource control – which involves avoiding debt, managing cash reserves, and paying bills,

These categories aren’t presented in any specific order, but perhaps it’s important to note that without proper financial control you won’t be able to organise any of the other areas on the list. Financial control is the foundation for any successful business.

Some organisations break their levels of control down a little bit differently, but they still cover the main categories. In some cases you may see them listed as operations control, financial control, structural control, and strategic control. In short, we’re attempting to achieve the same high level of functionality.

As a manager you will have responsibilities that reach into each category, but you likely won’t be responsible for any in their entirety. For example, as a team leader you’ll have to hire and manage your employees (human control); balance your department’s individual budget (financial control); make sure your equipment is in working order and that projects are completed on time (physical control); and communicate your results to other people within the organisation, your clients, or to the public (information control).

Juggling these responsibilities will take advanced communication skills on your part, but I think that once you understand how your tasks fit into the overall picture you’ll have an easier time accepting how important your role is to your organisation!

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”