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A Time Management Success!
Monday 07/26/2010
I had coffee last week with Tamara, a 26-year dynamo! We met a year ago in a networking group and I soon shared with her Covey’s Time Management tool – the 4 quadrants for prioritizing activities, are you familiar with it? This was new information to Tamara and in this past year she has learned to use it with purpose as well as teach it to her associates. Tamara is a woman who knows what she wants and is going after it. She recently joined a new company in the VP track, is relocating to a new city, parents her children and runs a MLM business on the side. That’s a schedule that requires active time management!
I offer this quick review of the 4 quadrants and encourage you to think about where you spend most of your time.
Quadrant 1: Urgent and Important – crises, pressing problems, deadline driven projects and meetings
Quadrant 2: Important, Not Urgent – preparation, prevention, values clarification, planning, relationship building, empowerment
Quadrant 3: Urgent, Not Important – interruptions, some phone calls, some mail or reports, some meetings
Quadrant 4: Not Important, Not Urgent – trivia, busywork, junk mail, some phone calls, time wasters, “escape” activities
In which quadrant do you find yourself most of the time? Where would you like to be?
No Comments »Frustrated With Group Meetings?
Monday 07/26/2010
Have you ever found yourself in a group meeting feeling a high level of frustration about the process? Perhaps you were just feeling the angst, but not sure of its source. You were possibly in a group that just wasn’t working very well. It happens to the best of us. Church groups, business groups, maybe even an accountability group of some sort. Many of us have found ourselves in work groups commissioned around a specific set of tasks, and sensed that the assigned work wasn’t getting done even though there were plenty of good participants with good ideas.
How did that group experience make you feel? Frustrated? Confused? Wondering why you were there? Maybe the agenda was unclear. Perhaps the facilitation was weak. Perhaps there were no processes defined for communication, input and feedback. Experiencing this type of group is very frustrating and can easily turn off your desire to be a part of any group in the future.
As someone who has done process consulting, I too have had bad group experiences. If a group gone wrong isn’t fixed, people will quickly fall away from attending or attend without participating. But this can all be easily fixed with up-front planning.
All groups need defined meeting processes, purposeful charters, clear membership/participant expectations, and the appropriate level of facilitation. All groups function better when these elements are in place. And in this day when all of our time is so dear, group participants should expect these elements to be in place.
So, the next time you commission a group be sure to provide clarity on purpose, operating rules and membership interaction, and provide a skilled facilitator. Work these elements out in your first meeting and I guarantee future meetings will be more focused and fulfilling for participants.
No Comments »Are you an Entrepreneur?
Monday 07/20/2009
I love checklists! Here’s one from a recent issue of Inc. Magazine on whether you have the right stuff to start your own company. They recommend you ask yourself these 6 questions:
1. Do you believe you have what it takes? Skills, energy, money, people, knowledge?
2. Are you able to let other people down? Think investors, employees, their families, etc.
3. How do you handle setbacks? Black moods and depression may impact your company in a negative way.
4. Are you really an inventor, rather than an entrepreneur? Product/service development is a team sport.
5. Can you accept that your company may outgrow you? And need a different type of leadership than you are ready or able to provide?
6. When you look in the mirror, does an entrepreneur look back? Hmm. Is it really a matter of the right circumstances, economic times, industry changes that will lead to your success?
Good questions to ponder. Or talk through with your business coach or mentor!
No Comments » Back to my blog.