Get Rid Of Those Time Vampires

In my time management seminar, "How To Manage Your Time When You Wear Too Many Hats" I talk about your biggest time wasters and those time vampires--people or things that suck the productivity out of you. Try running a contest to get rid of them. Make it a short contest, over just a few days, so the contest in itself does not become a time waster. Ask your employees for suggestions on which are the worst time vampires, such as wasted meetings, useless training, senseless time wasting reports, stupid needless systems, dumb processes, etc. Ask them specifically why and how it wastes time, and how the policy, process, or system needs to be changed to make people more productive, and in effect, happier. Then have people vote on which was the best suggestion. Pay a reward for the best suggestion, and then make the specific changes. Let everyone know the change came as a result of their input. You not only have helped people to be more productive, you have also shown them their opinion is important and that their opinion counts.

You Never Told Me

Did you ever stop to think of how many times you have had informal conversations with employees where you gave them quick, corrective feedback? How many of these situations do you document? You observe an employee doing something that you must correct on-the-spot, you tell them, and move on. You need to rethink those situations. Documentation can be crucial in a lawsuit, even if it is a very brief encounter. Simply create a quick memo and give it to the employee, keeping a copy for their file. Of course, you can do it by e-mail, but they can say they never got it. Cover yourself! You will never have to worry about an employee saying that it was just informal conversation of no consequence, or just a chat between friends.