Task Management For Busy Managers
By
Looking after staff.
Attending meetings.
Doing all your business as usual activities.
Relationship management, ad hoc requests, and dealing with unexpected issues.
Any team manager has a wealth of activities to undertake every day, that can make the simple task of actually doing your ‘real’ defined job seem almost impossible.
When we sit down each year and develop our list of objectives for the next twelve months, it’s rare for these peripheral activities to be even mentioned, let alone set out as criteria which your progress can be measured against.
Have you ever sat down in an appraisal, and commented on the fact that you attended every team meeting which you needed to go to?
Or stated with pride that you got back to every single customer who contacted you within two hours of their initial query?
No?
It’s a sad fact that these niggling tasks take up most of our day, and yet as team managers we will never gain recognition for doing them to a great standard.
The main point is that every team manager is expected to undertake a series of jobs every day which are taken for granted. These include looking after your team, looking after stakeholders and ensuring the smooth running of all the processes which make up your day to day responsibilities.
Each role has a set of objectives attached to it, and yours will be based upon the specific requirements of your job title.
Unfortunately, it’s only the big objectives which will get you noticed – the projects which stand out as being tough to have delivered, or gain wide attention for improving and enhancing an element of the company which you have responsibility for.
Getting these large milestones landed can seem impossible at times, however, and it takes a savvy manager to juggle the everyday ‘bread and butter’ tasks well enough to free up resource for landing the big, visible achievements.
One of the tricks which you can use, if you’re feeling overwhelmed with your business as usual activities, is to break up your day in to sections.
Let’s say, for example, you work an average eight hour day. You could draw up a structure which compartmentalizes each activity, listing your tasks and how long should be allocated to each. Consider all of the peripheral tasks which you undertake almost without thinking, including:
- Responding to e-mails
- Team meetings
- Writing up outputs
- One to ones with your team
- Relationship management
- Doing your BAU job
- Administration
When you’ve allocated a time for each, you can free up space for the killer activities that will get you noticed and promoted, such as introducing new ideas, streamlining processes or delivering a new solution to an existing issue.
The administrative and pastoral activities should take no more than twenty percent of your every day role, and your everyday objectives should formulate approximately another fifty percent of your time. After this, you have at least one hour each day to implement the outstanding solutions and deliveries which will get you noticed.
It may sound obvious, but splitting your day keeps you focused, supports you to establish your priorities, and goes a long way to getting a successful and strategic task management schedule in place to keep you on track for getting the recognition which you deserve.
How do you deal with all the activities needed to be a great manager?
Please share your views in the comments below.
______________________________________________________________________________
I have truly enjoyed all the positive messages. They are a wonderful resource of tools and information that often inspire me to create and develop additional workshops in my own business.
Hi, Andrew Rondeau here. I have over 25 years of hands-on management experience within a diverse range of different industries including retail, manufacturing, finance and IT. I’ve managed teams of up to 1000 individuals, managing numerous $multi-million projects, mergers, acquisitions and company sales.
