Over Committed?

Are your executives over committed? Do they have any of these symptoms:

· Chronically late to meetings?
· Drop in work quality?
· Work many hours of overtime?
· Feel tired and stressed?

In the fast pace of today’s business climate many executives suffer from these symptoms. They get caught in the whirlwind of meetings, problems, e-mails, and phone calls, and lose an awareness of how they are investing their precious time. Have you heard any of your employees say, “I did a lot today but I didn’t get anything done.”

If executives intentionally choose how to spend their time the results are greater productivity and lower stress. Unplanned events will always arise but a plan of action will ensure the unplanned events are the exception not the rule.

Here’s a simple scheduling and debriefing practice to share with an over committed executive.

1. Each day before leaving work, make a “To Do” list for the next day inclusive of a time schedule. Include all meetings, preparation, and travel time.

2. The ask the following questions:
· Is this scheduled really possible, given how often I’ll be interrupted?
· If not, what action can I take now?
· Can one of my staff take on this responsibility? Do I really need to do it myself?

3. Debrief at the end of the day with the following questions:
· What did I accomplish today that’s important for my goals?
· How can I correct tomorrow’s scheduling by what I learned today?

This practice may seem too simple to alleviate the symptoms of over commitment yet I challenge you to have your executive try it for 2 weeks. The small investment will yield a great return.

Coaching in the Moment

Coaching in the Moment

A significant issue is elevated to your level and after evaluating the information you understand the problem developed because one of your employees made a series of bad decisions. What do you do? Take care of the issue yourself? Blow up at the employee? While many executives often choose one of these two options, a third possibility does exist.

Coaching in the moment is a very powerful means of guiding an employee to a successful outcome, and is also quite effective in "de-briefing" after something hasn't gone quite as well as you would have liked. Here's a brief process to help you effectively coach your employees:

Start by uncovering what lead the employee to their decisions. Come from a place of curiosity and ask a few simple questions.
What did you intend to accomplish?
How did you analyze the situation?
How did you decide what to do?

Beware ..... of asking, "Why did you do that? as the question often triggers justification and defensiveness.

Second, invite the individual to see the issue from a different point of view. The wisdom gained through your experience will open up an opportunity for your employee to see the situation in a new way.

Beware ..... of shifting into a problem solving approach and sending the employee off with a directive.

Third, coach your employee to develop his or her own action plan. Questions to guide this process include:
What actions will you take?
How will you monitor progress?
In what ways can I support you?

I encourage you to try using this tool. While it may initially feel uncomfortable practice will bring proficiency.