We’ve spent some time over the past few days talking about how to deal with the multitude of tasks that present themselves to us every day. We considered the too-often overlooked first step in prioritizing: the decision as to whether or not to take the task on in the first place.
The argument is that you should not so much prioritize your tasks as triage them: This one needs work right away, that one can wait - the other one is a goner; leave it in the hallway. Don’t waste time on it that can be spent meaningfully on those that have a future.
But which ones have a future? In a comment to Friday’s piece, Steve Roesler, author of All Things Workplace, expresses the issue with illuminating succinctness: “Time management is a subset of clarity.”
Clarity. Now, there’s a formidable weapon. Few can lift, much lest wield, it. Nevertheless, mastery of it is within the reach of all. But like any skill of great value, it requires an investment of time. And the time you give to an examination of your individual purpose is, as Steve emphasizes, time well spent indeed.
As a manager, this examination can actually be quite prosaic. You needn’t ponder the issue on the nearest mountaintop, or retire into your freshly-raked rock garden to contemplate the deep mysteries of your ever-swelling to-do list.
Just be sure of at least two things: 1) your organization’s purpose, and, 2) your role in furthering it. Even if a tasking presented to you fits your nominal job description, consider whether it also furthers the organization’s movement toward its goals. If it doesn’t seem to, ask for an explanation as to why and how it does.
If a good one isn’t forthcoming, you may want to leave it in the hallway. Remember that people who waste time on lost causes wind up in the hallway themselves, and not uncommonly, their organizations wind up there with them.
You cannot simply accept every task handed to you on faith, hesitating to question the judgment of those presenting them to you. That hesitation will overwhelm you individually, gravely reducing your ability to contribute. As such behavior propagates, it will paralyze the entire organization, bringing it essentially to a crawl, if not to an outright standstill.
The ultimate decision must be yours. Take the time to understand the basis upon which you will make it. Then lift your newly won clarity, and wield it ruthlessly: spend your valuable, limited time on those tasks that promise to brighten the future of your organization. That’s your real job description, and your real priority.
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You may wish to see all the posts in this series:
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Today’s tips: For some excellent commentary on succession planning and manager development, please see this piece by Michelle Malay Carter, author of Mission Minded Management, and this one by Wally Bock at Three Star Leadership. A careful reading of both of them will be helpful to anyone concerned with these issues.
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Technorati Tags: task, prioritizing, decision, triage, Steve Roesler, Time management, clarity, purpose, manager, to-do list, organization, job description, goal, judgment, contribute, Michelle Malay Carter, Wally Bock
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6 Comments
Hi, Jim,
As a more banal aside, I’m in the office for some much-needed straightening up. What goes, what stays, and “what the heck is that doing here!”
The idea of taking few minutes to just sit here and get crystal clear about ‘why the office exists’ and ‘what is supposed to be done here’ is time well-spent. Clarity, indeed.
I realize that I took advantage of the large space and, looking across my desk, see all of my music, instruments, and recording equipment. For our purposes, here’s what I actually did: I set up a space to accommodate two important things in my life. However, the visual cues cause a Siren effect: The Lorellei constantly beckon me to “do the other thing.”
My lesson: Even though I’m clear about a task and purpose, it’s easy to have an environment that subverts my intent.
So now the cleanup has turned into a re-modeling!
Clarity is a powerful thing, indeed.
Wonderful post, Jim. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and Steve’s penetrating insight.
I often need help with clarity. My mind goes running off down the side roads of possibility when it should be marching along the main road.
I get help with clarity from some of the blogs I read every day. This is one. Steve Roesler’s is another. David Master’s is a third. There are others, but I’ll not attempt an exhaustive list.
I also have a Clarity Mentor in my life. I don’t call him that. I call him “Jim.” He’s my father-in-law. What made Jim successful was his ability to swiftly and surely sort out the diamonds from the dung of life.
When I have a question, a problem or a situation I can’t make sense of, I ask Jim what he thinks. I don’t always like what he has to say. He questions often make me squirm. But he sure does help me see what needs seeing.
Recommendation: find a Clarity Mentor. One neat thing about mine is that he loves being thanked with wine.
Hello Steve,
It’s great to straighten up - and even redesign - your office now and then. I know you have a view of a garden outside - so there’s no need to use some of your large office space to build a Japanese zen rock garden - right?
My music-related stuff is in my office, also. It’s behind me, where I don’t see it. But after finishing something I can just spin around and play a bit, then spin back around, usually with fresh ideas, and go to work on the next bit.
You have an interesting point about how we may inadvertantly, or unconsciously, insert subversive elements into our environment that work to frustrate our overtly expressed goals. That’s a thinker, that one.
That’s probably an area where Wally’s Clarity Mentor idea comes in.
Thanks, Steve, for stopping by, and for your inspiration for this post - take a break: play some music for a while.
Hi Jim,
Oh NO! If this post gets out, you’ll shut down Franklin Covey and countless other ‘time management’ seminars, authors, etc. I know this info is something I’ll direct people to for clarity!
I’m in network mode right now, looking for my next gig. Your post guides me quickly in how to maximize my time, informational interviews, and quality contacts.
We’re back to that gray space between manager and employee again. If managers did their jobs in setting goals and tasks, they wouldn’t have to pay for time management courses and would see a significant positive jump in their team engagement scores.
Wally, great idea! A reasonably objective sounding board for key decisions. By chance is Jim short for Jeremiah?
Cheers, Joe
Hi Wally,
I suspect your mind is using those side roads like outriders, scouting the terrain for goals and routes to direct the main road toward.
I appreciate very much your generous comments. I must say, though, that it is your ideas about where to find answers - or, even, better questions - that offer the crucial clues to most of us. It’s not in contemplating our inner souls, but in finding people who will turn our questions back on us so frankly as to make us squirm, as though we’re being forced to slough off a false persona that we had perhaps affected, even if innocently and unawares, so that we can more honestly and clearly “see what needs seeing.”
The need for a Clarity Mentor - that’s something I can definitely empathize with you about. That’s the hardest part - seeing what needs seeing - and we usually can’t rely on our own ability to puzzle the missing evidence out of the background - or even to appreciate that there is missing evidence.
It sometimes doesn’t matter how many angles you examine a problem from. If you’re doing the examining, it may be the lens, not the angle, that’s the problem. You hope the new angle will cause a detail to stand out from the background, like a predator tacking to pick out motionless prey. But if your perspective is faulty, you just carry it with you. You can’t pick out new details from a background you keep brushing into the picture yourself.
A Clarity Mentor, to help us “see what needs seeing.”
Thanks, Wally, for all of it.
Hi Joe,
You’re prescient! Tomorrow’s piece, which is in the site and waiting to be published, will focus a little more on the manager’s side of this issue.
Good luck on locating a great contract - although I’m sure you’ll need less of that than many of us!
Great post today on theory and application - everyone reading these should click on Joe’s name in his comment window to see his presentation of that really very vital topic. Wally has a post that points to the disappointing problems with superficial academic attention to the world of management also, so click on his name also.
Joe, thanks as always for your visit, your straight shooting, and your work.
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[...] Yesterday we mentioned that you should examine every task you receive to see if it is appropriate for you given your role in the organization, and also if it meaningfully advances the organization’s purpose. If it doesn’t seem to, it is possible that you simply are unaware of or unable to see the reasons why it actually does so. So, ask what those reasons might be. [...]
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