CMI Workbook 3001

Supplied under licence by the Chartered Management Institute Licence Number: 3005 / Expiry Date: students registered up to 31/07/2011

Pathways to Management and Leadership Level 3: First Line Management

Unit 3001

Personal Development as a First Line Manager


Pathways to Management and Leadership

Unit 3001: Personal Development as First Line Manager

Copyright Chartered Management Institute, Management House, Cottingham Road, Corby, Northants, NN17 1TT.

First edition 2005

Author: Ian Favell

Series consultants: Roger Merritt Associates

Consultants: Philip Cullen Graham Hitchcock Reginald Snell

Project Manager: Sid Verber

Editor: Lyn Ward

Page layout: Decent Typesetting

Second edition 2008

Revision author: Ian Favell

Revised edition 2010

Author: John Lambert

Consultant: Ray Rowlings

Series consultants: Roger Merritt Associates

Project manager: Trevor Weston

Editor: Suzanne Pattinson

Page layout: Decent Typesetting

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 0-85946-329-X

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Applications for the copyright holders written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Chartered Management Institute in Corby, UK. Phone Publications on (+44) (0) 1536 207344, or e-mail [email protected] for further information.

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Further information on the licence is available from Chartered Management Institute. Phone (+44) (0) 1536 207344, or email [email protected].


Personal Development as a First Line Manager


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Contents

About this workbook .................................................. 7The unit .................................................................................. 7

The aims of this workbook ............................................................ 7

Syllabus coverage ....................................................................... 8

Getting started ......................................................................... 9

How to use the workbook ............................................................. 9

Section 1 Goals and priorities ..................................... 13A sense of perspective ................................................................ 13

Checking your focus ................................................................... 14

Setting priorities ....................................................................... 17

Summary ................................................................................ 22

Section 2 Personal development.................................. 23What drives personal development? ................................................ 23

Whats your focus? .................................................................... 24

Your personal development plan .................................................... 25

Learning styles ......................................................................... 29

Summary ................................................................................ 34

Section 3 Time management ...................................... 35Too much to do, too little time ..................................................... 35

Managing your resources ............................................................. 37

Time and key result areas ............................................................ 38

Where are you now? ................................................................... 40

Planning your approach............................................................... 45

Routine activities ...................................................................... 47

Avoiding overload before it starts .................................................. 48

Summary ................................................................................ 56

Section 4 Supporting others ....................................... 57Supporting and motivating ........................................................... 57

Your role as a team leader ........................................................... 59

Encouraging motivation .............................................................. 65


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Summary ................................................................................ 69

Section 5 Team welfare ............................................ 71Team welfare .......................................................................... 71

The legal background................................................................. 79

The Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974 ......................................... 84

Your organisations health and safety culture ................................... 89

Risk assessment ....................................................................... 93

Recording findings ................................................................... 100

Summary ............................................................................... 102

Before you move on ................................................ 103Preparing for assessment ........................................................... 103

Reflecting on progress .............................................................. 105

Planning your next steps ............................................................ 105

The Management and Leadership Standards ..................................... 106

Bibliography.......................................................... 107


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About this workbook

The unit The main purpose of this workbook is to support you as you study for the Chartered Management Institute Level 3 First Line Management, so it specifically focuses on the content of the syllabus for Unit 3001, Personal Development as a First Line Manager. This is about the way in which you lead and motivate your team to achieve organisational goals.

This workbook provides underpinning knowledge and develops understanding to improve your skills as well as to prepare for future assessment. If you are studying towards the Level 3, then you will be assessed by your approved centre on your knowledge and understanding of the following learning outcomes:

1. understand how to develop and use a personal development plan

2. know how to plan and manage work

3. understand how to develop and maintain working relationships to achieve objectives

4. be able to safeguard the welfare of the team in the working environment.

The aims of this workbook This workbook aims to help you learn how to:

manage your own development and time set and meet personal and work-related objectives build effective work relationships based on mutual support

and respect.

maintain a safe and healthy working environment for yourself and your team.

This workbook then is about how you can continually develop your skills to improve performance through planning and managing your time effectively, and the skills that you need to develop effective and safe working practices and relationships to meet objectives.


About this workbook Personal Development as First Line Manager

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Syllabus coverage The table below shows which sections of the workbook address the assessment criteria of the qualification syllabus.

Unit 3001: Personal Development as a First Line Manager Syllabus coverage

Addressed within section

1.1 Identify the links between organisational objectives and personal development objectives 1

1.2 Prepare a personal development plan which meets agreed objectives 2

1.3 Identify a range of learning and development opportunities to support the achievement of the personal development plan

2

1.4 Review the progress of the plan 2

2.1 Describe the methods or processes available to determine work plan priorities 1

2.2 Explain how to manage time to achieve work plan objectives 1, 3

2.3 Describe the reasons for incorporating flexibility into a work plan 3

3.1 Explain the styles and approaches to leadership which would be used in different situations to encourage productive working relationships

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3.2 Explain how to develop and maintain good working relationships with managers, colleagues and team members

3, 4

3.3 Describe how to work with team members to maintain standards of work and behaviour that achieves objectives

2, 4

4.1 Identify the responsibilities of a first line manager for safeguarding team welfare 5

4.2 Explain how risks that can affect team welfare are identified and monitored 5

4.3 Describe the actions to be undertaken after identifying a risk to team welfare 5


Personal Development as First Line Manager About this workbook

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Getting started A large part of a managers job is to get things done through other people. That means managing them, their performance and their work. It means developing their skills and talents, delegating effectively and making sure they stay motivated. It means enabling them to enhance the quality of their work, and to safely achieve their goals and targets that equal success. And there are lots more, as you know.

Getting it all done needs a cool head and enough time and time is a major concern for most managers. There is never enough, so its essential to use what there is wisely. It means avoiding unplanned disruption wherever possible and standing back from the day-to-day rush, so you get a clear picture of where your time ought to be going, and can plan accordingly.

This means careful planning, and scheduling activities to make effective use of what time you have available. Obviously, you will be looking out for tips and techniques there are lots in here for you to use and try out.

A potential source of pressure can arise from differences between managers and non-managers in the way that they might take decisions and solve problems. There is always the chance that a decision could have been better, but all you can really do is to take a structured approach to get the best possible outcome at the time. Underlying all this is the need to set yourself goals and targets, so you know where you are heading and how to get there. So, there is a lot to do in managing yourself. By the end of this workbook, you should feel more in control of your work and your own performance.

How to use the workbook The workbooks provide ideas from writers and thinkers in the management and leadership field. They offer opportunities for you to investigate and apply these ideas within your working environment and job-role.

Structure

Each workbook is divided into sections that together cover the knowledge and understanding required for that unit of the Level 3 in First Line Management. Each section starts with a clear set of objectives that identify the background knowledge to be covered, and the management skills in the workplace that enable you to demonstrate this knowledge. You do not have to complete the sections in the order they appear in the workbook, but you should try to cover them all to make sure that your work on the unit is complete. There are self-assessment questions at the end of each section that allow you to check your progress. You may want to discuss your answers to the self-assessment questions with your line manager or a colleague.



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Activities

Throughout the workbooks there are activities for you to complete. These activities are designed to help you to develop yourself as a manager. Space is provided within the activities for you to enter your own thoughts or findings. Feedback is then provided to confirm your input or to offer more ideas for you to consider.

To get the best from the workbooks, you should try to complete each activity fully before moving on. However, if the answer is obvious to you because the issue is one you have encountered previously, then you might just note some bullet points that you can then compare quickly against the feedback. You may sometimes find it difficult to write your complete response to an activity in the space provided. Dont worry about this just keep a separate notebook handy, which you can use and refer to as needed.

Try not to look at the feedback section before completing an activity. You might like to try covering up the feedback with a postcard or piece of paper while you are working through an activity.

Timings

Timings are suggested for each section and activity, although it is important that you decide how much time to spend on an activity. Some activities may occupy only a few moments thought, while others may be of particular interest and so you might decide to spend half an hour or more exploring the issues. This is fine the purpose of the activities is to help you reflect on what you are doing, and to help you identify ways of enhancing your effectiveness. It is always worth writing something though, even if its brief the act of writing will reinforce your learning much more effectively than just referring to the feedback.

Scenarios

There are scenarios and examples throughout each workbook to illustrate key points in real workplace settings. The scenarios cover a wide range of employment sectors. As you work through, you might like to think of similar examples from your own experience.

Planning your work

The reading and reflection, scenarios and activities in each section of the workbooks are designed to take around two hours to complete (although some may take longer). This is a useful indicator of the minimum length of time that you should aim to set aside for a study session. Try to find a quiet place where you will not be interrupted and where you can keep your workbooks, notes and papers reasonably tidy. You may also like to think about the time of day when you work best are you a morning person who likes to get things done at the start of the day, or do


Personal Development as First Line Manager About this workbook

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you work better in the evening when there may be fewer disturbances?

Preparing for assessment

Further information on assessment is available in the Student Guide produced as part of the Pathways to Management and Leadership series. If you have any further questions about assessment procedures, it is important that you resolve these with your tutor or centre co-ordinator as soon as possible.

Further reading

Suggestions for further reading and links to management information are available on the Study Resource Centre section of the Institute website at www.managers.org.uk/practical-support/study-support. Alternatively, email [email protected] or telephone 01536 207400. You will also find titles for further reading in the Bibliography at the end of this workbook.



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Section 1 Goals and priorities

Learning outcomes (about 2 hours)

By the end of this and the next section you will understand how to develop and use a personal development plan and know how to plan and manage work. In this section you will be able to:

1.1 identify the links between organisational objectives and personal development objectives

2.1 describe the methods or processes available to determine work plan priorities

2.2 explain how to manage time to achieve work plan objectives.

A sense of perspective The starting point is that without goals and priorities there is no framework for you to hang on to, nothing to let you know whether the way you are managing in work, and in life generally, is appropriate.

It is important that you as a person and as a manager have some life goals. They provide an essential sense of purpose that helps structure what you do, and helps you focus your time and energy appropriately. This does not mean that effective performance at work is not essential. It simply means that being busy is not the same as being effective.

Take a look at the two scenarios that follow.

Scenario Your call

Two sales representatives had similar areas to cover. One was always dashing about seeing people, and looking under pressure. The results were excellent.

The other one was achieving very similar results, but seemed to be far more laid-back. This rep even took the odd day off to play golf and spent time on the phone, while the first seemed to spend time hurtling from A to B and then back to B via C before one last trip to call on D. The appointment with E would have to wait until tomorrow.

The one who got promoted was the rep with the laid-back approach.

As the senior manager said: If you make it look that easy then you can help other people do the same. If you make it look hard its going to rub off and be catching theyll all begin to think that it cant be done.


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Scenario Receptionist heal thyself

The senior receptionist at a large surgery had 12 members of staff to oversee and was always helping them sort out their problems.

Because her colleagues including some of the doctors found her style so approachable, they began to contact her on her mobile, even at home, so for about eight months she was never away from work problems. I have to do it, she would say, because if I didnt no one would get the support they need.

Having no one to talk to herself, she eventually became totally burnt out. A period of long-term sickness meant she recovered fully, but for the four months she was away there was nobody to handle other peoples problems. Perhaps she thought later, I would have been more help if Id limited my involvement early on and spread it more evenly across the whole year. I certainly would have felt better myself.

In these cases, as with hundreds of others, the people concerned were swept along on a tide of enthusiasm and energy. The actions they took were not geared to meeting any long-term goals, but limited to dealing with the here and now. Planning your use of time and energy could keep a healthy work/life balance, and also help you focus on what is really important.

Checking your focus So, what is important for you? Start by thinking about your goals, both inside and outside work. What do you intend to achieve?

Activity Activity 1.1 (about 15 minutes)

In two years time I intend to have achieved the following

at work

outside work


Personal Development as First Line Manager Section 1 Goals and priorities

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In five years time I intend to have achieved the following

1. at work

2. outside work

In ten years time I intend to have achieved the following

3. at work

4. outside work

Feedback You may have some clear personal goals. For example:

tour the world write a book achieve at a sport become a volunteer learn to fly a helicopter. Personal goals matter they help drive what keeps us going. They can also have an enormous influence on our success at work.

You may have found it easier to answer the questions about the work goals, as at work there are more structured elements like job titles and qualifications that can help you set clear targets. For example, in x amount of time, I want to:

have worked my way up to senior manager level have acquired specific qualifications in management be in charge of my own department be a director run my own business.

In their book Time Management in a Week, Declan Treacy and Polly Bird (2002) suggest we should address these sorts of questions:

What would I like to have achieved by the time I retire?



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What salary would I like to earn? Would I like to run my own business or become a senior

manager in a large organisation?

Should I remain in this country or work abroad? Would I benefit from further education? What business skills do I need to develop? What industry would I really like to work in? What is my ideal job? What professional organisations should I join? In the same way that you have personal goals, so does the organisation you work in. It probably plans to achieve certain milestones by some clearly defined times. The organisations goals and objectives will usually have clear and direct links with those at departmental, section and individual level. This means that your own work goals need to be in tune with those of the organisation.


Think again about your work goals. What are the really key ones? List them here:

Feedback Now you are drawing out what is really important for you to achieve at work.


Now take it all a stage further. In the table below, list some specific, realistic and achievable work objectives. Set a deadline for yourself. Then in the last column, indicate how you will be able to tell when you have achieved them your success criteria.

Action To be completed by Success criteria



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Feedback Whatever your objectives are, they should be SMART:

Specific and Strategic

Measurable and Meaningful

Achievable and Acceptable

Realistic and Resourced

Time bound and Timely

A SMART objective needs to be along these lines:

I intend to (have achieved something specific, that is realistic and achievable given the circumstances) by (a time limit) and will know Ive made it when (I can measure the results and can prove Ive done it).

So, you might say:

I intend to complete the first draft of my assignment by Tuesday lunchtime, and take it to my colleague at 3pm for her to comment upon. Then Ill update it from her comments, and get my final draft ready for submission by 5pm on Friday, to catch the post at 6.30pm that day.

Goals and objectives like these can be a real boost to achieving success in your role, and as a means of positive encouragement. If what you are aiming for is within your grasp then the buzz you get from achieving it is enormous. As they say: Nothing succeeds like success.

One point that emerges from this is that you cant do everything at once. Day-to-day pressures mean you may have to put some things on hold while you concentrate on the top priorities and this raises an important issue: how to set those priorities.

Setting priorities Prioritising your goals and your day-to-day work is important if you are to stay in control and get where you want to be.

How you prioritise doesnt matter, as long as you do it. Here are some ways:

You pick the easiest first, to ensure you get a good and positive start.

You need to put them in sequence, because achieving success in one is only possible if another one is achieved first. For example, you dont normally become a director until youve made it as a senior manager.

You sort them out into their importance or their urgency an issue you will look at in depth when you explore time management issues later on, in Section 3.



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As a leader and manager, one of the most difficult things to say is: Im sorry I havent got time to do that at the moment. Here is a three-stage model to help you prioritise work:

1. Acknowledge the importance of each persons problem.

2. Prioritise the demands on your time so that you devote the most time to the most important issues.

3. Schedule your time by separating out those things you must attend to now, from those that you can tackle later.

Avoiding the issue

One of the effects of poor priority setting is that it puts pressure on you, and potentially on others. This can cause high stress levels and perhaps even conflict. Here are some common strategies that people use to avoid the issue.

Distancing

Its someone elses fault they did it, or they are the reason.

I could get it all done if it werent for the boss.

They dont understand this new system that they want us to implement will never work.

This approach can set up the conditions for poor relationships and outright conflict.

Displacing

This just shifts the balance so the stressful areas get more and more attention, at the expense of the rest of ones life.

Sorry, I cant come to the cinema with the kids Ive got to work on this report.

I had to miss the meeting I need to get in early and do some planning.

Displacement is very common. The stressful activity displaces other activity (often the very activity that could help you relax).

Withdrawing

This is where we put our heads in the sand, say it will go away and then start to believe it.

Yes, I know we havent got enough in the budget but itll be all right itll have to be.

Its just not possible that well lose the order, so lets not even talk about it.

Unfortunately, it doesnt go away it keeps on coming and then you really do have to deal with it.



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Be honest with yourself have you used any of the above strategies? Briefly describe a situation and what happened as a result of adopting this approach. (If you havent, choose one that you might see yourself being tempted to use, and what might happen.)

Feedback Basically, they dont work, do they? OK, they might get us through today, but the problems continue to build and then tomorrow we have an even bigger problem to face.

Most of us have used one or more of these strategies at some point. If you have found it hard to confront these sorts of issues, you are not unique (and certainly not a failure). What you need are approaches that can help you break the mould and make a positive difference.

There are strategies you can use to limit, control and reduce pressure, by taking control.

Scenario Taking control

One manager has the following saying framed on the wall opposite her desk, as a reminder:

Please give me:

the spirit to change what I should change the inner peace to accept the things I cannot change and the wisdom to know the difference. In other words, trying to change something that is either fixed in stone, or beyond your scope to change, is a waste of nervous energy.

You may feel that the organisations policy on a specific issue is misplaced. Fine thats your right. You may be able to change it, and if you can, you should do so. On the other hand, you may only be able to influence it by making your feelings and views known in a logical and persuasive way.

But if you cant influence or change it, and it really does matter to you, you have two options:

Learn to live with it, accept it, and stop complaining and worrying about it.

Leave and work somewhere else. It may sound harsh, but thats the reality, and if you get wound up over things you cant change, the first person to suffer will be



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you closely followed by your family and other people around you.

So, coming to terms with reality is important. It helps avoid denial, distancing, displacement and withdrawal. It links back to the comments you saw earlier, too, about making sure your goals and objectives are achievable and realistic.


Think about whether there are any issues that you pursue unrealistically, when you know really they cannot happen. Make any notes you want to here.

Feedback There may not have been any issues like this for you. But for most people there are some that need reviewing from time to time. Dreams are very important everybody needs them.

The problem is that if the dream is completely unrealistic, the only possible outcome is that you wont make it and that is negative and destructive. The same is true for work objectives both those set for you, and those you set yourself.

Earlier in this section, you looked at your work goals for the future. In the next activity you should look at what is currently expected of you.


What are your current work objectives?

How on track are you to achieve these?

Feedback You should know how you are doing but if you dont, go and discuss this with your manager. After all, if you do not know how well you are doing, how can you hope to meet the requirements?



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Now follow this up with an outline action plan, clearly stating:

exactly what you will do what you hope to achieve by doing that when you will start it, or when you will have it finished by what resources you might need how you will know when you have succeeded. For each of your objectives especially those that are not fully on track, what actions will you set yourself to progress things further?

Feedback Again, this will be personal to you and your situation, and again, a discussion with your manager might help you here.

Do check that your intentions are SMART though, to ensure that they really do have a focus on action.

In general, if you find an objective has slipped beyond reach, leave it and find a replacement, one that you have a real chance of turning into reality. In a working situation you may not be able to change objectives independently. You may need to negotiate, sometimes very carefully, with your manager.

If an objective is genuinely not achievable, then theres no point in worrying about it. Its better to sort the matter out straight away and modify it, or replace it with something that you can focus on and achieve.

However, dont settle for second best if the objective is a possibility. The crucial point is that at some stage you have to take action to make it come true, and reviewing your objectives and your progress towards them is a key step in this process.



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Summary Now that you have reached the end of this section, you should be able to:

1.1 identify the links between organisational objectives and personal development objectives

2.1 describe the methods or processes available to determine work plan priorities

2.2 explain how to manage time to achieve work plan objectives.

If you can do this, and if you can answer the self-assessment questions, then you are ready to move on.

Self-assessment questions

Use these questions to check whether you have understood the key issues in this section. If you are not sure, or really dont know the answers, this suggests you might need to work through parts of this section a second time.

1. To what extent are all of your current workplace objectives achievable?

2. What are some of the effects of poor prioritisation?

3. What is the importance of confirming your objectives with your manager?

4. Why is it important to review progress towards your objectives?

5. Why is it important to review the objectives themselves?

6. Can you state your short, medium and longer-term goals?

7. To what extent do your personal work objectives contribute to the overall departmental objectives?

The next section looks at personal development you will pick up some of the ideas you have covered in this section, and build on them in applying ideas to yourself.


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Section 2 Personal development


By the end of this section you will understand how to develop and use a personal development plan and how to develop and maintain working relationships to achieve objectives. You will be able to:

1.2 prepare a personal development plan which meets agreed objectives

1.3 identify a range of learning and development opportunities to support the achievement of the personal development plan

1.4 review the progress of the plan

3.3 describe how to work with team members to maintain standards of work and behaviour that achieves objectives

What drives personal development? What are personal development, continuing professional development (CPD) and self-development?

They certainly seem to be buzzwords and high on the agendas of organisations and professional Institutes.

The Chartered Management Institute, alongside many other professional institutions and organisations, has a requirement that its members should undertake CPD.

Essentially, CPD plans are about each of us individually reviewing our personal and work goals and the way in which we are equipped to meet them and move beyond them. In the past, this was done informally and casually the results were useful, but did not always progress peoples learning and abilities as quickly as possible. For each of us to be fully effective, and to position ourselves in readiness for the challenges that work and life throw at us, we should regularly and formally review where we are, and what we might need to learn to be even more effective. If we dont do this, then while we might be good at what we do, we are probably not making the best of ourselves. People who are actively engaged in personal development are likely to overtake us, and eventually our skills are likely to fall short of what we need.


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Whats your focus? Ian Favell (2004) uses the ASK-ABE model to help to focus on areas of life that might be worth reviewing and developing:

Actions

Skills

Knowledge

Attitudes

Behaviour

Emotions

You can see that the ASK component is focused on relatively known measurable (hard skills) areas, whilst the ABE component is focused around the more personal (soft-skills) areas.

Most people and organisations seem naturally drawn to either the hard or to the soft areas, largely depending upon organisational culture and area of professional interest. It is relatively unusual to find individuals or organisations regularly reviewing and attending to both types of issues. This seems to be true not only for personal development, but also for team and even organisational development.


Are you focused on an ASK or an ABE approach?

What about your organisation?

What does this say about a) you and b) your organisation?

Feedback What seems to happen is that organisations probably do one of two things:

(a) They focus on the hard skills areas of getting the task done, and develop people and organisational processes to ensure improvement to the task itself, and the mechanics of task achievement.

(b) They focus on the soft skills areas the behavioural and more personal human issues working on the principle that if you look after the people, the people will look after the work.


Personal Development as First Line Manager Section 2 Personal development

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Organisations, and individuals, are much less practised at monitoring and focusing on both of these areas. This has implications.

Those who ignore the hard skills the ASK issues may well find that what people actually do, the skills that they are using and their underpinning knowledge is below what is needed to be truly effective.

Those who ignore the softer ABE skills areas may find that although the task is completed, peoples attitudes and behaviours are not very good, motivation may be poor and there may be higher levels of disputes.

To be really effective, you should develop the skills within yourself, and in others, of monitoring and developing all these areas just ASK ABE!

Your personal development plan


Now use the ASK ABE model to see how it might help with your own personal review. For each point in the model, list the strengths and weaknesses that you perceive in yourself.

Review areas: I am good at: I am not so good at:

Actions

Skills

Knowledge

Attitudes

Behaviour



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Emotions

Feedback Look at your two lists. Were they the same sort of length? If so, that is unusual. The chances are, the negative side is much longer than the positive because most people undervalue the things in which they excel, and overstate the ones they find hard. One problem is that the things you are expert at are the ones that probably come easiest to you you may think that everyone can do them but they cant.

Go back to the table and try to add some more positive items. Talk it over with a friend or your partner if it helps and if they say you are really good at something take the feedback, dont brush it aside.

Its always good to take external viewpoints on an exercise like this why not ask a member of your team, your boss, and perhaps a customer or supplier, as well as someone at home, for their opinion of the way you currently operate, using this activity as a basis?

You have probably heard of 360o appraisal. This is a shorthand way of describing just that gaining feedback from all around you, so you know how well you are doing from others perspectives.

Once you have identified some areas where it would be good to add, enhance or develop something, then set yourself a SMART objective of what you would like to achieve. These objectives are key to your development, and form the basis of your personal development plan a formal way of recording your precise intentions (or as CMI calls them in the context of this qualification: the learning outcomes).

Take care not to set unrealistic goals. Dont say youll complete an MBA by the end of the year, because if this is not realistic, then you are bound to fail.

Set your sights slightly lower, so you know that the objective will be achievable and youll succeed with steady effort.

The next step is to decide which specific activities you might undertake to help you learn or develop to be able to meet the objectives. Again, pick activities that are realistic, and that you could reasonably undertake. Remember to set a date to start or to finish by. Try this by using the next activity to start an outline plan.



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Area for attention Objective Activity

Completion date

Feedback What you have put will be personal to you and your needs and wishes.

Enhancements to your plan

The basic development plan can be enhanced. For example, you could indicate how you will know when you have succeeded often called critical success factors (CSFs).

If an objective is the key measure of what has to be achieved, then it might be specified well enough to give the CSF for that development item. However, sometimes the objective may not have numbers associated with it, or may be a broad objective, with a number of mini-objectives needed to complete the major one. So CSFs can be very important to helping you focus.

For example: the objective have completed my Level 3 in Line Management by Christmas 2008 is quite specific and measurable you will have either met it, or not.

However, the objective update my knowledge of management good practice and theory by Christmas 2008 is clear, but how will you know when you have done it?

This is where the CSFs come in. You might have a number of CSFs, such as be able to call upon and use theories when approaching problems (you will know and be able to demonstrate whether you can do this or not), or be able to explain to my manager how our working practice differs from current good practice, by citing examples of good practice in other organisations.

Another enhancement to the plan would be to indicate for each item what help and support you might need in working towards the development objective. For example:

personal support mentoring, coaching time off to undertake the activity money to help pay for an activity a meeting to review progress a temporary transfer to another section to learn what they do



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being put in touch with those who have the information or skills.

Another thing that an effective personal development plan should include is some indication of when the plan and its achievements will be reviewed, who by, and who with. Without a review component, the plan would not be monitored, and is likely to become nothing more than a wish list. As with all management activity, the monitoring and review of plans is essential to ensure successful outcomes.


Find a copy of your organisations PDP form.

To what extent does it focus upon the points in this section of the workbook?

How might this change the effectiveness of the development plan?

How might this affect peoples development?

Feedback You should be able to say whether the plan will provide everything that is needed and if not, how to improve it. You may be lucky and have a forward-thinking organisation that has effective systems, but usually, an organisations PDPs can be improved on in one way or another.

Two things come out of this:

Just because your organisation has a system or process, it does not automatically follow that it is as effective as it could be (and a key point for the Level 3 First Line Management as a whole is to question and examine everything, taking nothing for granted).

If the organisations PDP has areas where it can be improved, then for your own development you might consider creating one of your own that uses good practice, to use alongside the one used in your organisation. This would be much more likely to move you forwards quickly.



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Setting work objectives

Although you have now looked at setting objectives from a personal development point of view, exactly the same principles should be used for setting work objectives both for yourself and for others in your team.


Set an objective for a member of your team:

Feedback The objective you have chosen for your team member should be checked. Does it clearly state:

exactly who ? should do exactly what? when? with what implications? and how success will be measured? If it doesnt, go back and see how you can focus it further.

Learning styles Lets now return to focus on the activities that you might have set for yourself to meet your development objectives.

What do you notice about them? Are they mainly around attending a course, having a go at something, reading about it, watching others, discussing it, making sure it provides an easy way to be better at your job?

Its likely that there are some trends in the types of activities you have selected, and these trends may well give clues as to your preferred learning style.

Honey and Mumfords learning styles

Peter Honey and Alan Mumford describe four main styles of learning in their Manual of Learning Styles (1982). Their investigations show that individuals tend to have a preference for one or two of the four styles. Here is an outline of the styles they identified:

Activists like to do things. They learn by activity, excitement, crisis, and to get involved in real tasks and actual problems. They want to have a go.

Reflectors like to think. They learn by watching, thinking, discussing, considering and reflecting before taking any



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action. They probably consider a wide range of options. They want a demonstration, or to be left to think about it.

Theorists like to understand the theory. They learn best by reading, looking at systems, models and concepts and really try to get to the bottom of the principles of exactly whats involved. They want to digest and to go back to basics.

Pragmatists need relevance. They learn by spotting a link between the background information and the actual situation, and then concentrate on the practical issues and action plans to fix the current and immediate problem as quickly and efficiently as possible. They need to know what the problem is so they know why they need to learn something.

Honey and Mumford suggest that we tend to have one or two styles that work well for us they help us learn easily and we use them often. Because we like the other styles less and practice them less, they are not as useful to us. They also suggest that people who have developed so that they can learn well in all four styles tend to learn best of all.


List the four styles in the order in which you think you learn best:

1.

2.

3.

4.

Now indicate how well you think you learn in each, (say 1 to 10, where 10 = excellently and easily, 1 = cannot learn this way at all).

What might you need to do to improve the way that you learn so that you can learn well in all four styles, and therefore call on any of them when you need to? Note your thoughts here.



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Feedback If you are a strong activist, you may find you have to hold yourself back from jumping in with an instant solution or decision. You may need to pay more attention to understanding, listening, and thinking and applying options before you act. You might even need to read this workbook more slowly, going over some of the pages again to be sure you have grasped the learning points (but I bet you love the activities that say go and do ).

If you are a weaker activist, and need to develop this style, then try doing things more spontaneously, with less consideration of options and understanding. For example, try being the first to volunteer for a task. (However, make sure that you experiment in a safe environment.)

If you are a strong reflector, you might need to prod yourself into action more often and avoid the paralysis by analysis trap. Yes, there are many options and things to think about, but if you do not take some action, then nothing happens. For a change, try starting by doing, not thinking.

If you are a weaker reflector, you might like to develop your reflective skills by counting to 10 before taking action, or by finding two alternative options before allowing yourself to move forwards. You might also try watching a demonstration in silence, thinking about what you have seen, and then seeing if you could get it right first time.

If you are a strong theorist, you may need to learn to live with the fact that situations are not all clear-cut and subject to mathematical formulae living with incomplete data and uncertainty is a fact of life. Why not try changing some small things in your life just for the sake of it to learn how to deal more spontaneously with uncertainty?

If you are a weaker theorist, you could strengthen this learning style by getting a textbook on something you know little about and reading it carefully, making notes of the key points as you go. Then summarise your notes and group them into similar topic areas with a title to each topic area. Regroup your topic titles into bigger blocks, and keep going until you have distilled the book into a few short sentences that really capture the essence of the topic.

If you are a strong pragmatist, it may be that you cannot learn something unless you know why you need to know it, but later on find that you regret not paying attention you need the knowledge or skills now! You may have to suspend judgement on decisions concerning something outside your experience, and start drawing up action plans only after someone has forced you to reflect or to look at the theory.

If you are a weaker pragmatist, then to increase your pragmatist learning style, focus on why, and the relevance of things. Put things into context wherever possible, so you are clear what they have to do with the matter in hand.



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Kolbs Learning Cycle

In his book, Organizational Psychology, (1971), David Kolb suggests that learning takes place in a cycle:

Experience

Experimentation Reflection

Conceptualisation

Fig. 1 The Learning Cycle, (adapted from Kolb et al (1971) Organizational Psychology.

Experience: This, could be planned or accidental experience. (Similar to Honey and Mumfords Activist.)

Reflection: Where we think about our experience, take note of what happens and so on. (Similar to Honey and Mumfords Reflector.)

Conceptualisation: Here we generalise and construct theories. We develop ideas on why things happen the way they do. (Similar to Honey and Mumfords Theorist.)

Experimentation: This is where we test our ideas in new situations. (Similar to Honey and Mumfords Pragmatist.)

In other words, if we start with the experience and follow the cycle round, we:

do something think about what happened work out why the good bits went well and the bad bits didnt then construct an approach for trying to do better next time

keeping in the good bits and adapting what went less well.

This is probably how you learned to ride a bicycle, or do a hill-start in a car.

For well-developed and balanced learning, all four styles are needed and, wherever we start on the learning cycle, we should go round and complete it.



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Revisit Sections 1 and 2 of this workbook and reflect on the key points made. List the theories and ideas given and check your understanding of them, then ask yourself pragmatically, So what does this all mean for me? How can I use these ideas?

Feedback Travelling around the learning cycle regularly will be a very useful way of gaining the most from your study programme.



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Summary Now that you have reached the end of this section you should be able to:

1.2 prepare a personal development plan which meets agreed objectives

1.3 identify a range of learning and development opportunities to support the achievement of the personal development plan

1.4 review the progress of the plan

3.3 describe how to work with team members to maintain standards of work and behaviour that achieves objectives.

If you can do this, and if you can answer the self-assessment questions, then you are ready to move on.

Self-assessment questions

Use these questions to check whether you have understood the key issues in this section. If you are not sure, or really dont know the answers, this suggests you might need to work through parts of this section a second time.

1. What does SMART stand for?

2. Why is continuing self development essential?

3. What is the purpose of a self-development plan?

4. How often should a self-development plan be updated?

5. What are Honey and Mumfords four learning styles?

6. What are the advantages of being able to call upon each of the four styles?

The next section looks at a skill which will have a direct influence on your personal development plans, as well as on your overall effectiveness time management.


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Section 3 Time management


By the end of this and the next section you will know how to plan and manage work and understand how to develop and maintain working relationships to achieve objectives. In this section you will be able to:

2.2 explain how to manage time to achieve work plan objectives

2.3 describe the reasons for incorporating flexibility into a work plan

3.2 explain how to develop and maintain good working relationships with managers, colleagues and team members.

Time required

One activity involves keeping a log over at least one working week.

Dont skimp on the longer workplace activity (Activity 3.4), which is essential to check and improve your personal management of time.

Before you start the section, you might like to turn now to Activity 3.4 to see what is involved, so that you can begin logging your weeks work straight away, in parallel with your progress through this section of the workbook. However, if it doesnt suit you to do it now, pick it up later on at the appropriate place in your reading.

Too much to do, too little time There is never enough time for all the things that need to be done at least if they are going to be done properly. But its not your fault. Phones ring, people drop in unexpectedly, a crisis pops up, someone in your team needs you to solve a problem, and you are off doing jobs that need your urgent attention. After all, thats what managers do, isnt it?

Well, it may be what managers usually do, but it isnt necessarily what they should be doing.

Managing time the fundamental truth

The difficulty with managing your time effectively is that only one person can really help you. All the mentors, techniques and systems in the world wont make a difference, unless you are really prepared to give it a go and to work at it.


Section 3 Time management Personal Development as First Line Manager

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Make a list of the ten most common things that get in the way of you managing your time effectively.

Feedback There are probably two sorts of issues here the ones caused by other people and the ones you cause yourself.

In Time Management in a Week (2002), Declan Treacy and Polly Bird list the following (not in any specific order):

emails surfing the internet junk mail meetings telephone interruptions distractions losing things procrastination crisis reverse delegation perfectionism. Your list may have all the items above it will certainly have quite a few of them. If you are like most of us, you may put most of the blame on other people:

People drop in and interrupt you. The telephone keeps ringing and stops you getting on with

important tasks.

Staff need you to solve their problem or help them with their work now.

Others send you piles of paper or emails that you have to sort through, read and respond to,

Meetings seem to have no purpose and go on for twice as long as they need to.

You may have said that you find it hard to keep a clear picture of what your priorities are, you sometimes neglect to put important things in your diary, or you cant find that file you know you had last week.


Personal Development as First Line Manager Section 3 Time management

37

Allowing yourself to get side-tracked from the task in hand distractions is another problem. So too is putting off something because you dont like doing it, or you just dont feel like starting (usually referred to in books on the subject as procrastination).

And some people just cant seem to finish the job they want to keep polishing it until it gleams, rather than stopping when it really is good enough, and getting on with something else.

However, the crisis item in the list is an especially important one. It indicates that many managers are more ready to deal with immediate problems than settle down to other commitments fighting the fires instead of planning how to stop them flaring up in the first place.

Planning is essential, and we turn to that now.

Managing your resources As a manager, you probably supervise a range of resources and need to keep them at the right level so that everyone in your team can do their job.


What are the main resources you have at your disposal? Make a list here and, alongside each one, make some notes about what you would need to do in order to get more of these resources allocated to you.

Feedback The main resources you identified probably included:

money people equipment, machines, computers facilities buildings, rooms, light and heat information suppliers and services time. You may have added more detail for example, the number of people, the skills they have and their attitudes and commitment.

(Note: The subject of resource planning is picked up in Unit 3002 in much more detail).

Though it is sometimes hard, it is possible to make a case for more of each of these resources. However, if you put down time



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as a resource (which it is), then you can see it is quite different to other types of resource. The laws of physics apply here. There are 168 hours in a week thats fixed. During those 168 hours you have to sleep, have a personal life, take time off, do all the other things in life and work. However good the case you make to the boss, they cant increase the amount of time available. The bottom line then, is that you have to take control of your time and make the most effective use of this, your most important and limited resource. No one else can do it for you.

The only way forward is to:

work out where you should be in terms of time management identify where you are now what your problems are plan and carry out some techniques for getting you from

where you are, to where you should be.

So where should you be? Whoever you are and whatever your job, there is a common starting point. It is that you should be spending your time on the things that really matter in your job, the activities and the issues that make a definite and positive difference.

If you have difficulty in distinguishing the things that matter most in your role, one way of identifying what these are is to do some very simple research. Start by reading your job description and discussing it with your line manager.

Time and key result areas Ask yourself what are you employed to do? Not, what do you do, what actions do you take every day, but what are you there to achieve for the organisation? Look at it this way and one thing that becomes clear is that you have a range of key result areas: the parts of your role that are most important to the success of the team and the organisation. It could be that they are separate responsibilities in the job description, or it might be that two or more fit together to make a more general role.

For example, if your job description happens to say that your responsibilities include:

1. developing, training and supporting those reporting to you

2. agreeing individuals performance targets, and monitoring their progress

3. producing the weekly production report for the board

4. maintaining accurate records of all work completed

you could group 1 and 2 together into a key role of managing people, and 3 and 4 together into information management.

You can think of your job title as being the title of a book. The key result areas then become the chapter headings of your book, with the storylines within each chapter being the detailed tasks in that topic that you carry out in your work.



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Another point in the example job description above, it might be that items 3 and 4 have a very high priority, because the senior management team uses at least part of the information each week for its planning process. However, it does not always follow that the most important issues require the most time.


Make a list here of the key result areas of your job responsibilities or clusters of responsibilities that you and your manager agree are the ones that matter the most. Put them in some sort of order of importance, with the most important first.

Now give some rough thought to how much time each one ought to be allocated in your working week, if it is to be completed effectively. Note down your thoughts alongside the items.

Feedback This can produce some quite interesting results. Often, the crucial areas need little time, and some of the less important ones take ages. It could be that you and your boss agree that management is far and away more important than hands-on work, yet it might need less time than something less important.

The point is that you should be spending an appropriate amount of time on the things that matter your key result areas. Even if the most important are not the most time-consuming, you have to know what the pattern ought to look like, so you have a picture in mind of what the shape of your role ought to be. Only if you know that can you plan action to concentrate on the things that matter.

If you spend a lot of time on someone elses work checking details or doing tasks that someone reporting to you is paid to do, you need to ask yourself if it really is what you would want the boss to see you doing.

Scenario Doing the last job

A finance manager used to spend almost half a day a month sitting with the finance clerk going over the petty cash figures that the clerk had already done, to make sure they were right. Each week there were some mistakes found, ranging between 1.22 and 14.94.



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This half-day cost the firm half a day of the managers salary, and half a day of the clerks salary significantly more than the total of the mistakes identified so this whole activity was clearly a waste of money and time. Both people involved could have been getting on with other important work.

This doesnt mean that petty cash doesnt matter it just means that it shouldnt necessarily be high on a managers list of priorities. Maybe someone else could check it, without the clerk having to sit there waiting?

Being proactive

Many of your key result areas do not come from reacting to problems, or checking back over past results to find small detailed mistakes. They need you to take an active approach to getting something done things like putting together the staff work schedule for the next quarter, or the resource needs for the next year, or identifying areas where improvements could be made in operational activity.

Fire-fighting reacting to crisis and almost welcoming it as something that only you can tackle is one sure way of ensuring you dont have enough time for the things you need to do. You end up taking jobs home or doing them in a rush. But thats not why your organisation employs you.

In Activity 3.3 you drew up an outline of the time you ought to allocate to your key result areas. The next consideration is what you are doing now, so you can compare the two.

Where are you now? Before you can start to work out ways of improving the way you spend time and even the most effective manager can always make improvements you have to know where you are now, and what the situation is that you are trying to put right. You started to look at this earlier in Activity 3.1, where you listed what you thought were the principal time problems you live with.

The following activity gets you to keep a log of everything you do over at least a week. It can be hard to do, but it is absolutely essential to any planning you do later.

Dont think about skipping it to save time it is important and will save you time in the long run.



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Activity Activity 3.4 (about an hour, over the course of one week)

Copy or make your own version of the following grid, to cover the times you are at work. Do as many sheets as you need for at least one working week.

On each one, note down in detail each activity you were involved in during the day. Dont miss anything out include telephone calls, thinking time, travelling about, meetings and so on, and note down how long each one took.

Then assess the extent to which each one helped you achieve important results did it have a high, medium or low pay-off?

In the last column, put a P by anything you had planned, and N if it was not planned but something that just happened.

What I did: Minutes it took: Pay-off: H, M, or L?

Planned or Not?

Keep it going for at least a week and then add up:

how much time went on planned activity and how much was spent reacting (non-planned)

the proportion of your time which had a high pay-off, in terms of real results

how much time was spent on each type of activity answering the phone, travelling, going to meetings whatever appears repeatedly on your log.



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Feedback This can be quite an eye-opener. Depending on your results you may need to ask yourself questions like:

How can I increase the proportion of planned activity, compared to the amount I spend on unplanned activity just reacting to others?

Have I just been busy or have I really been effective? What are the main low pay-off activities that take up my

time that I need to get rid of somehow?

From an analysis like this one as long as you do it honestly you can start to work out where you are now. Most people find they are spending too much time on unplanned and unproductive activities.

However, dont fall into the trap of thinking you can plan everything. Its just not possible. Nor is it wise any manager needs to handle problems that arise and be available to keep things running, just as long as the time spent doing so is productive.

One positive outcome from this sort of log is that you can identify how much time you need to deal with issues that are medium or high pay-off, but that cannot be planned. So, if you end up with a feeling that you will always have to spend up to a third of your time dealing with the unexpected, you may have to accept the fact and plan one third of your time for the unexpected.

In other words, making resolutions to plan everything is unrealistic. You may be able to reduce the unplanned and reactive stuff by quite an amount, but you wont get rid of it altogether.

So, what should you be planning?

If you look at all the activities you are involved in that come from other people, you may find that a lot of their requests and demands are urgent. However, urgency is not the only thing to consider. Deciding whether something is important is another major element in planning what to tackle.

You can categorise most of the things you do as either:

1. urgent and important

2. important but not urgent

3. urgent but not important

4. neither urgent nor important.

The problem is that most people get swept away on a tide of urgency, without considering whether the issue is important.



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It may be better to link important issues to your key result areas, so that they:

are issues you need to initiate rather than waiting for them to happen

are activities with a high pay-off factor need to be planned. On the other hand, urgent things:

are often initiated by other people give a low pay-off factor tend to be unplanned.


Look back at what you wrote down in Activity 3.4, and pick about ten items from the weeks list of what you did. Write them here, and alongside each one say whether you think it was:

urgent and important important but not urgent urgent but not important neither urgent nor important.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.



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Feedback There are four main categories that you will meet when you are prioritising. In general, high importance items should take priority over the urgent items (just because something is urgent does not automatically make it important). Lets look at each of the four categories in turn:

1. URGENT AND IMPORTANT Do first

These need to be done quickly and given enough attention, because they really matter, and need to be done now. You might like to check though, whether the urgency has been caused by your own lack of planning previously. If this is the case, you could make life much easier for yourself by planning better, then some of the items that currently fall in this category might become category 2 items (and therefore more manageable).

2. IMPORTANT BUT NOT URGENT Plan for these

These are essential to the key result areas but do not necessarily need doing now. However, dont neglect them to do less important things, or they wont get done at all! Often, activities that are predictable take a long time and deserve your full attention. The way to tackle these is to plan your diary in advance, so that you schedule blocks of time to deal with significant blocks of these items.

3. URGENT BUT NOT IMPORTANT Do selectively

You may need to be doing these quickly but they should not take up a lot of time, because after all, they are not important (to you).

Could include reading and responding to emails or memos, returning telephone calls, and so on. However, you should ask yourself what would happen if you did not do these things how many of your key result areas would suffer? OK, so try not doing them (However, do consider your colleagues it might be essential for other people to receive some output from you to meet their own key result areas.)

4. NEITHER URGENT NOR IMPORTANT Dont do

These dont matter to the key result areas and dont really need a fast response. In fact, why do them at all? If something is truly unimportant and non-urgent it shouldnt be there. You have to ask yourself why youre spending any time on these at all. Like junk mail, this is junk activity being busy for the sake of it!



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Planning your approach If you look back over the points you have covered so far you can see that you have:

identified roughly how much of your time is needed to cope with the unexpected

worked out which are your key result areas sorted out broadly which activities are urgent or important

or both.

This is starting to put you in control because you are nearly ready to now turn to your diary and start to block out periods of time that you know are needed for something specific.

First though, its time to do something really important make a list!

Making lists

Spending five minutes at the start of each day making a list can save you hours each week:

A lumberjack was making hard work of toiling away with a blunt axe when someone asked why he didnt sharpen it. I havent got time Im too busy cutting down trees, he said.

Taking a few minutes to sharpen your approach will help you avoid wasting effort and losing control.


Make a list in no particular order of all the things you know you have to do, however major or minor, urgent or important, routine or unusual they are. If you are like most people, the space below will not be big enough, so why not start a section in your diary?

Now decide for each one whether it has to be done today or not, and mark it accordingly.

Feedback As soon as you make a list you increase the amount of control you have over your time. There should be nothing left that could jump up and frighten you because you have forgotten it in the heat of the moment. It pays to include an item called the unexpected you have to allow an appropriate amount of time for the work that you know will crop up (your log proved it), which means you cannot plan every minute of the day in advance.



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You have just looked at whether things need to be done today or not. However, a more sophisticated and useful approach is to make an assessment, using any prioritising approach you like, and rate each item on the list as either:

must do today should do today could do today. You might also indicate which day you think youll do the things that are not for today.

Youre already halfway there. Some of the must items will be things you do not want to do things you might be tempted to procrastinate over. However, if they are a must, they are a must. You know it and you have to deal with them.

The other end of the temptation scale is to start some of the could items, because theyre fun and you like doing them. Hard luck as a manager you have to deal with the priorities first and if something has a deadline it is essential to get it completed.

Part of this assessment is linked to the urgent/important mix as well, as it shows up what needs to be done quickly and what can wait.

Three benefits of lists

One immediate benefit of making your list is that the world does not seem quite so hectic after all that report can be scheduled into next week, investigating the range of new equipment is not urgent, so it can wait for a while. Schedule it into tomorrows diary page, now. Just reviewing what has to be done, and when, often means that you find there is less pressure on you today, and makes you feel more in control of your time.

The next benefit is that at the end of the day you can check the list to see what has been completed, and what remains to be carried over to tomorrow. Even making the decision to put outstanding items on tomorrows list means you can go home in the knowledge that there is nothing forgotten, lurking in the shadows waiting to pounce. You have taken a decision about every single item you are due to handle.

The third benefit is that tomorrows list has a head start. What was carried over from today already has a context and is known to you. The process rolls forward, rather than starts again.

Using the list

You have a list of all the things you need to do and you have worked out their urgency and importance. You can now start to plan your time.



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Look at your list and decide what to do about each item. Schedule the appropriate activities in your diary and plan out what you will spend time on, and how much time you are going to allow.

Feedback You are really taking control now, as long as you remembered some basic principles. You should have made sure you allowed enough time for the unexpected you can always use the time on something else if nothing unexpected happens.

You should have binned any unimportant and non-urgent items straightaway, then you should have looked at your list to identify all the urgent and important items, which are the key musts for today.

You may need to set aside one hour to get rid of a lot of small activities and cross them off the list such as the urgent but less important. It feels good to cross off several things quickly, because you get a real sense of making a lot of progress, so it pays to keep the list going through the day. With these urgent items it is often best to group them together and blitz them to do all the phone calls in one block for instance, or deal with all the incoming post and either respond to it, bin it or pass it on to the appropriate person. This is a simple but effective trick because you get into a telephone mode or a post mode when you group them together. It avoids you having to stop this and start that which in itself takes time.

Some of the important but non-urgent items may need to be scheduled for another day maybe even for another week. You may have allocated half a day next week to the budget, another half-day the week after to short-listing those candidates and put a line through the whole day when you will be interviewing. However, take care to progress them slowly but surely, or they will eventually become not only important, but urgent too and if they are big jobs then you might find you suddenly have a crisis to complete them.

Routine activities Now that you have a list and a schedule, you need to run it and see how it works. You will need to review it and make some changes, depending on your own style and your own circumstances.

One of the main topics to review is the activities that get taken for granted. Attending meetings is a good example.



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List the meetings that you go to regularly. For each one, decide whether it is a meeting that:

you need to go to every time, because it is of real value to you in your job

you could send someone else to nobody from your team needs to go to you go to and so does your boss, or someone else from your

team, when it really only needs one of you.

Then note here what you are going to do about these meetings.

Feedback Naturally, you will need to go to those that are worthwhile and important. If you regularly make a contribution to a meeting, for instance, it may be a forum you need to be in. But if you sit there saying nothing, getting nothing from it and waiting for lunchtime to come round, how effective a use of your time is it? If you and someone else attend, couldnt they tell you what happened or you take it in turns? Why do you need to be there at all?

The point is that some of the most time-consuming and least productive work activities meetings and reports to name but two do not get challenged simply because they are part of the furniture and it is what weve always done. The reason for having the Tuesday afternoon meeting should not be because its Tuesday afternoon it should be to achieve something.

Avoiding overload before it starts If there are any regular activities that take up significant amounts of your time, ask yourself whether they are essential or whether there is a way of cutting out, or down, on the level of the commitment.

Thats all very well you say, But it means I have to tell the boss I dont want to go, and they wont like it. Anyway, most of my overload comes from the boss and from the rest of the team who need my help.

The only way to avoid overload is to stop it before it becomes a real problem and that can be hard, especially when it means saying no to people.

Overload from above

Your line manager pops in and says: Can you do this just put me something together on that will you please just

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