Are We Someone Else’s Problem?
I work with a variety
of clients in different industries and at different levels. Some come across as either more or less
“organised”. What all have in common,
however, is their sense of priorities.
Everyone has different priorities based on their job,
seniority, experience, personality, education and any number of other factors
which vary from person to person. What I’ve
seen over many years’ experience is that we need to work out what:
- Our priorities
are;
- Our colleagues’
priorities are;
- Our boss’
priorities are;
- Our customers’ priorities
are.
From here, we then need to work out where (if anywhere) they
overlap or coincide. These are the areas
in which we know we’re pulling in the same direction.
At times, we seem to have diametrically opposed priorities
(although often they’re the same, just stated differently).
At others, it may be the case that our priorities are getting
in the way of others’. I’ve encountered cases
where a disorganised (for whatever reason) team member is the main cause of
their team’s low performance and the key is how to “fix” this whilst preserving
that team member’s self-respect. This is
all the more important if they are, after all, good at what they do.
I’ve found that the way forward in such circumstances is to:
- Appreciate (our
differences): they’re good at what they do, but may not appreciate that others
find their way of doing things difficult.
- Anticipate (where
problems may arise): if we know that person’s always forgetting meeting dates and times, remind them in advance
(several times if necessary). If they
tend to arrive late, pick them up from their desk well before the meeting (to give them time to gather their stuff,
finish the phone call. They may gradually
come to “anticipate” us doing this!
- Engage them: at
the right time; find out what drives them and whether they’re aware that they
may be preventing others from functioning efficiently.
- Examine ourselves
(the most difficult): could your way
of doing things be the problem in that environment?
In the end, more than one person may need to adjust the way
they do things.
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running different
operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide
solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An
international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of
services. For strategic questions that
you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.Labels: Career, Leadership, Productivity, Social, Teamwork
"Urgent" vs "Important"
We’re all busy
people. Whether we’re “productive” is
something I’ve discussed in a previous
article, but this follows along the same lines. Here I look at priorities and how to manage
them.
The first time I encountered this concept was when I heard
Hyrum Smith (CEO of what was then known as The Franklin Institute) talking
about the “tyranny of the urgent vs the important”).
I recently learned that this was known as
“The Eisenhower Box” or the “
Eisenhower Matrix”.
His point was that things are:
- Urgent and important
- Not urgent but
important
- Not important but
urgent
- Not important and
not urgent.
Our perception of which is which improves with
experience.
“Busy” activities usually
fall into the “Not important
and not
urgent” category.
If you find yourself
doing too much of these, you’re not moving your business forward (as I’ve found
out).
If you imagine the above descriptions as a grid with
“Urgent” and “Not “Urgent” across the top and “Important” and “Not Important”
down the left side, you can then start to “plug things into” the appropriate
“box” described below:
1. “Urgent and
Important”:
These are the things that must get done NOW or there’s going to be a problem (lost business,
fines, etc). When your phone rings, even
if you're talking to someone at your desk, it’s “urgent and important” until you find out what it’s about.
2. “Not Urgent but Important”:
These are longer-term tasks that require more time spent on
quality thought. They’re what will drive
the business in the medium to long-term and need attention - but when you have
the time. They include business-building,
relationship-building or planning, going through the finances, staff
counselling, meeting regulatory requirements, perhaps dealing with the press. These are what should take most of your time
and need undivided attention. Yes, they
may not interest us, but they’re still important…
3. Not Important but Urgent:
The key here is “not important” - to you. These are tasks that
others can do, that you can delegate
(if you have the staff). If not, you
then have to decide if they’re important enough to go to Box 1 or whether they
can “wait a bit” and go to Box 2.
4. “Not Important and Not Urgent”:
These you don't do.
Here’s a way to decide how “urgent” something is. First ask yourself, “What would happen if I didn't
deal with this right now?” If the answer is “Nothing/very little/nothing
I can’t handle later”, it isn't urgent. Any
other answer means it’s urgent and needs your attention (or someone else’s) –
fast.
To decide if it’s important ask, “Does it require my attention or can someone else do
it?” If the answer to the first part is
“Yes”, go back to the first question to determine if you need to drop
everything or if you can/must do it later (this afternoon, say) when you have
an uninterrupted hour and can concentrate.
If “No”, decide whether to “delegate or delete”.
Take the example of the phone call during the meeting at
your desk, it could be your partner asking you to pick up a loaf of bread on
your way home, or the police calling to tell you that your child has been in an
accident and is being rushed to Intensive Care.
Until you answer, you don't know.
It’s Urgent and Important until
you get this information.
In the case of the loaf of bread, it isn’t important or
urgent right now (but if you forget
on the way home…) and you carry on with the meeting. If your child’s been in an accident, your view
would be very different.
Another example: you receive a letter of complaint from a
customer. You decide that if this matter
isn’t handled now, it may result in
bad publicity and lost business. Urgent and Important. Customer complaints must be investigated and
resolved quickly. You investigate, respond personally and the
customer tells their friends about the brilliant service they received and that
they’ll always be loyal to your business.
You may have delegated the
investigation to one of your staff and dictated the response to your PA to be
printed for your signature, but the result is the same.
There are different ways of prioritising and handling
things. The key is to select the most
effective one for the situation. If in doubt, remember
Dwight Eisenhower’s words: “What is important is seldom urgent and what
is urgent is seldom important.”
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running
different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide
solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An
international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email
. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be
asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.Labels: Leadership, Productivity, Strategy
Reasons vs Excuses
Things
go wrong – that happens when we deal with other humans or with systems or
processes designed by humans. Anyone
expecting to go through life with no problems will be disappointed.
My own view is that what counts is how
we react to the problem and how quickly we put things right. After all, if an unhappy customer gives free
feedback about what we can put right, we should welcome it.
I’ve seen two reactions to a complaint:
to give an excuse or to give a reason for why things went wrong.
O’Dell
Consulting provide this excellent explanation of the difference between an
excuse and a reason:
A “reason” is an explanation
for why something is the way it is, with everyone involved taking
accountability for their part in a situation. An excuse is an explanation for
why something is the way it is, that always involves the blame being put on
someone or something that isn’t involved in the conversation, and not able to
share their side of the story. What’s the difference? The accountability.
… some examples. Common excuses
for why restaurants, or other businesses, fail include:
- Our
employees were stealing from us
- Our
purveyors were cheating us
- Our
concept was too progressive for the market
- The
market didn’t appreciate good food
- Our
landlord was unreasonable
The list is endless. There are as
many excuses for failure as there are failed businesses. If a person were to
take accountability for their decisions and their actions, those excuses could
be seen as the real reasons for failure, and they would look more like this:
- We
didn’t have a reliable system for evaluating good help, and we
didn’t supervise our employees as effectively as we could have, so we lost
a lot of money from theft;
- We
didn’t know anything about negotiating purchasing, and ended up paying prices
we couldn’t afford to pay;
- We
didn’t research our market well enough to find out what the market wanted, so
we ended up giving them what OUR idea of good food was, not theirs;
- We
failed to communicate what made us special compared to the competition, and the
market didn’t respond – or – We didn’t realise that our market doesn’t
have the same ability to notice quality that we have, and we were really
banking on them realizing our food was better;
- We
didn’t negotiate a good lease.
You probably notice a trend
here. For every excuse that an owner can give for a business failing, there is
a real reason that points back to something THEY did or didn’t do.
Basically, a reason takes accountability for the
results (even if it means the speaker looks “bad”).
An excuse is usually
defensive and tries to exculpate the speaker from any accountability for the
incident in question.
When we give an excuse
for something, we attempt to give the customer a reason to relieve us of accountability
for what happened. If the listener then
excuses us, we’ve dodged any penalty or consequences (e.g. loss of business,
etc) that might have been due.
A reason is the logical path we took that resulted in the complaint
occurring, along with an explanation of the causal relationship of our actions
relevant to it. It doesn’t assume we’ll
be excused, and should be complete.
Excuses are usually more common than reasons, especially as
they make us look better. The problem
is, they’re easy to see through and only irritate the customer more.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in
different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With
more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending
businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving
performance, productivity and risk management.
I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies
and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer,
author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email
. My website
provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be
asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.Labels: Crisis Management, Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Selling, Strategy, Teamwork
