Swamped by Your Workload? 5 Ways to Get Out of The Mess!

This week I met up with a client who had over 150 emails in their inbox waiting for their attention. Just the thought made me squirm with discomfort!  How can you possibly respond, action, remember or even read that many emails? How can you honestly be productive with that much content staring you in the face?

This situation reminded me of a common problem I would witness with consulting staff time and time again.  A month would not go by without someone in the team getting themselves in a flat spin about the pile of work in front of them. When my Consultants found themselves in this tough situation, stressed, overwhelmed and really not knowing where to start I would do ‘desktime’.  If any old staff member is reading this now, they will probably be having a cold shudder just at the thought. They honestly dreaded it at the time, but loved it afterwards because they came out clear, focused and organised.

In any job, there are often so many tasks to do and all of them can appear urgent.  It is very easy to get lost in the detail of emails, phone calls and ‘stuff’ that distracts you from the bigger picture goals that you are trying to achieve.

Let me start by saying I am not a micro manager.  I am not interested in looking over someone’s shoulder, critiquing and controlling their every move.  Who has time for a start? I learnt that lesson early in my leadership career that carrying everyone else’s problems and being a control freak is a complete waste of time and effort as well as being incredibly ineffective.

However, there have been countless occasions where a senior staff member, and often a top performer, can get inundated with work and can become quite upset in not knowing where to start or how to tackle what seems to be the impossible.

1. Clear the inbox

If you’re like this client and have an overload of emails, start by getting rid of them. Clear the inbox! Being flooded with emails is usually the downward spiral on a slippery slope to disorganisation and feeling out of control.  As a rule, my inbox will only have enough emails to take it to the preview line, let’s say 10 – 12.  This will usually consist of new emails ready to be actioned, or something I need to refer to that day in terms of reference information.  That’s it.  Everything else has either been actioned or deleted.  My motto has been do it, delegate it, delete it, but don’t delay it!

2. Re-prioritise & Re-organise

One afternoon in early 2002, one of my consultants was in tears in a complete panic unsure of where to start.  I spent two hours with her at her desk going through papers, trays, resumes, client files, emails and filing systems to see where it was going wrong.  It was a painful exercise.  She was completely disorganised.  I had to bite my tongue and avoid the lecture of how did things get like this in the first place? That wasn’t going to help.  For her, it was difficult as she felt being exposed like this made her incompetent.  We agreed that the purpose of the exercise was to help, with good intent, find a solution to avoid getting herself in this situation again and to re-prioritise.

3. Clean Your Space

I have always maintained a clean work-desk policy in all my roles.  At the end of every day, I would insist that all Consultants clean their desk.  This included empty inbox, files away, work in trays etc. Apart from just liking things neat and tidy, there is method in my madness.  A clean and organised workspace has the benefit of feeling like you’re on top of things, being clear in what needs to be done and not being distracted by mess.  There are of course obvious benefits like being able to find things, the cleaners could actually do their job and clean as well as the confidentiality of not having candidate’s personal details lying around.

4. Central List

Through these situations, I learnt that sometimes people just need to go back to basics. I strongly recommend one list – a daily to do list (see are you busy or just ineffective?) where every task or action is recorded (avoiding sticky notes and electronic reminders).  This way there is a central point and you don’t need to rely on your memory (which rarely works).  The inbox can be cleared when there is a central list, your in-tray should match the list with anything that needs to be actioned and the rest should be filed and out of sight creating a clear and organised workspace.

5. Time Out & Clear Your Thoughts

When things just seem all too much, I am a big believer in getting up from your desk, taking a deep breath and getting some fresh air.  A walk around the block, a trip to the mall or grabbing a coffee can seem a bit trivial, but honestly it can work wonders.  Physically removing yourself from a situation that is causing stress or where you can’t think straight is an easy remedy to get some immediate time out.  I would often take a notebook and pen with me, to be away from the chaos to refresh and rewrite my priorities to re-focus on what I wanted to achieve.

These tactics were consistently successful with Consultants over the years as they found it helpful (and painful at times!) to have someone external to sit with, to talk to and get some clarity around “ok, what are the priorities again”. It got to the point where ‘desktime’ was even requested!

The client with the 150 emails argued with me, telling me that you should keep everything.  It is a record and you never know when you may need to refer back to it.  I don’t disagree completely ….. but hording hundreds of emails in an inbox is a sure fire way to miss something important or a quality service standard.

Instead of feeling swamped by workload and looming deadlines…clear your head, desk and inbox, reorganise and reprioritise so you can take control.

Nicole Underwood understands what it takes to create, build and grow a successful business. The essential ingredient is recruiting, engaging and retaining people. Great people. Top talent. High performers. As a previous finalist in the prestigious Telstra Business Women Awards, a regular blogger and entrepreneur, Nicole works with organisations to improve through results through hiring and keeping the right people.

www.nicoleunderwood.com.au

Getting Staff More Excited About Learning

It seems that the perpetual enemy of the trainer is the neutral or negative attitude that many people have towards training. The negative attitude takes a few common forms. The most prevalent is the idea that the individual needs to just go through the motions and tick the box. This attitude is the opposite of engagement, it is a compliant attitude that doesn’t yield results. The other common negative view is the “seen it all before” approach. 

These two prevailing negative approaches to training tell us that many people see training as a chore, and as something that isn’t particularly useful to them. So how do you create a shift in the people you work with and train? Here are a few pointers:

Start with a one-on-one conversation:

As we want to be treated as individuals with most things in life, it holds true with training. Have a discussion with the members of your team about what they see as their weaknesses or areas of improvement. If the training comes from a basis of you helping the individual address needs that they’ve identified the level of engagement is already infinitely higher than prescribed training. Find out more about their long-term career goals; draw links between the proposed training and their goals. What is in it for them? Maybe find a way for them share the knowledge they gain with others, and always show interest in how the new skills will be used and provide those opportunities.

Change the focus:

Training is about improving oneself, or being provided with skills and knowledge that are essential to the job. You need to frequently reinforce the message that the training will make people better at their jobs. People will sigh at the idea of interrupting their time with training sessions as the work piles up, so the focus on the long term benefit is really important.

 Make it interactive:

If you give a poorly engaged audience a chance to sit there without participating then you’re inviting trouble! Challenge the members of the audience to take part, to provide examples of where the training could be applied. You may even ask them to challenge you with tricky scenarios and how you would handle them. Training needs to be treated like a series of conversations. Lecture style training will only engage those who are already highly motivated.

Create a system of ongoing improvement:

Those that are not particularly interested in workplace training have a tendency to view it as an infrequent event. We all know what regular reinforcement is the best way to produce lasting change, so create systems that will encourage people to follow up. You could create an online learning community, implement an email based reminder to reinforce key points or provide ongoing email support.

The bottom line is that training and skill building is an important part of the workplace. With the common aversion to it being such a huge problem is it up to trainers and managers to work hard at creating an attitude shift – this means giving individuals a reason to look forward to training, ways to enjoy and follow ups that reinforce the messages.

This blog was written by Eve Ash, Eve is a dynamic speaker and regular keynote presenter on creating a winning mindset. Eve understands the business of communication, relationships and success.

She is a renowned international expert on creating a powerful culture at work where people are switched on and engaged.
View Eve Ash's full range of Training Videos here. 

Are You Busy? Or Just Ineffective!

5 Ways to Create More Hours in Your Week

“I need more time with no extra hours,” a friend recently told me. She consistently feels anxious going to work, gets to the end of the day and feels like she hasn’t stopped to take a breath. Her regular rants include “I don’t have enough time”! She feels scattered, unfocussed and disorganised.  The stress is building as she runs around reacting to what is happening around her.

I think at some stage in our careers, we all have experienced moments like this when we feel like a headless chook and seem unable to get in front and on top of our workload and this often spills into other aspects of our lives.  For me, it was in early 2003 – a couple of years after establishing a new business and giving it my everything to get it off the ground.  The passion, excitement and determination to create something successful was a driving force that also pushed me closer to the burnout zone.   

I learnt that feeling like I had a lack of time, meant that I had to prioritise to gain control over my day.  Several things needed to change, some were relatively small in concept and simple in application, but they made a significant difference immediately. 


Role definition – get a blank piece of paper and write at the top what is my job? What are the 5 major tasks to achieve this? What 5 things am I doing that I can delegate? And finally what steps can I take to delegate them?  For me, such a simple exercise clearly showed me that I was spending nearly half my time on tasks that I could easily get someone else to do and I was too “hands-on” in the business managing rather than leading.

Urgent vs important – any time management guru or text will explain that we spend too much of our day reacting to what appears urgent rather than on those activities that have a direct impact on outcomes.  This became very clear to me as I proof read documents, approved invoices, accepted interruptions from other internal departments and got distracted by administrative processes.

The “to do list” – a non-negotiable, essential tool that I have used every day for the past 15 years. It has become legendary with every person who has worked for me and they will tell you that I live and die by it.  It numbers and lists every task specifically that needs to be completed for the day.  It has to be specific eg: call Tony Jones re: ad approval or complete reference check on Mandy Smith.  Grouping tasks or being generic such as do reference checking or ring clients doesn’t get done because it isn’t exact or measureable.  Once completed, ticked off, it becomes a single document that lists all tasks – not using different systems such as outlook, sticky notes and a notebook – one system, one list.

     “Big rocks” – becoming clear on the “big rocks” - that is typically between 3 – 5 of the most important priorities that you do that deliver the outcomes you want to achieve.  Figure out what they are and spend at least 70% of your week doing them. For me these highest payoff activities were performance management, business development, coaching and sales training. 

Empowering others to take responsibility – when it’s your own business or where you have direct accountability for specific outcomes for a division, it can be hard to let go.  The moment I delegated authority, allowed people to make decisions and learn for themselves, the confidence and trust grew.  The result for me was more time and less stress, as I wasn’t holding sole responsibility for everything that happened. A weight was lifted off my shoulders.

      The secret to gaining more time is through priortisation and focusing on those things that actually make a difference to what you are trying to achieve.  In the words of productivity guru Timothy Ferriss, “being busy is used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions”.  I couldn’t agree more.  

     It is so easy to fill our days with unimportant, seemingly urgent but irrelevant ‘busyness’.  To my friend I say, “stop, revisit your purpose, get clear on what tasks actually contribute to achieving your results and don’t procrastinate by being ‘busy’”. You will never get more hours in the day, but you can certainly control what you put into the hours that you have.   

      

     So does my friend need more time? No! If that were a possibility, she would just fill it doing more of the same unproductive stuff she is doing now and in essence be no more effective.  Having more time doesn’t equate to greater effectiveness…but being effective will create you more time.

   

   Nicole Underwood understands what it takes to create, build and grow a successful business. The essential ingredient is recruiting, engaging and retaining people. Great people. Top talent. High performers. As a previous finalist in the prestigious Telstra Business Women Awards, a regular blogger and entrepreneur, Nicole works with organisations to improve through results through hiring and keeping the right people.

www.nicoleunderwood.com.au

Motivating Employees in Workplace Training

What do most people think when they receive news they have to take part in a workplace training program?

Unfortunately it is a string of negatives that typically answer this question, and this negativity is a major barrier for running effective training.
Some people take time off or do anything to avoid what they expect to be a slow, boring, repetitive, pedantic or didactic training session.

The biggest challenge for any trainer, manager or facilitator of learning, is to create engagement. In other words, break the apathy and make people pay attention! The best approach is to make training an interactive experience. The lecture style workshop is something most professionals grew tired of at university, and certainly don’t want to spend their precious time on.

What is interactive training?

Pre –Training
The interactive experience can start before the training session has even started. Asking the group members (not just their manager) what their aims and expectations of the learning event are, is a great way to get people thinking. It gives them an opportunity to take part before they have even walked in the door. Making sure the material you present is relevant to their needs is essential. It could also be helpful to prescribe some prior reading or video learning so the session time is spent on the more pivotal aspects of learning rather than the basics. It’s also a great way to ensure people are at a consistent start point.

During the Training
Within the training session it’s important to create an environment where people are motivated to participate. Ask questions, break up the sessions with video content and create activities for large and small groups, applicable to the group’s workplace. Use relevant games, and create some fun. The more you can do to get people to actas contributors to the session rather than passive recipients of information (of which only a small portion will be retained) the better your training will be. And make it succinct and well-paced.

There is no formula to a perfect training session. It is important to read the group and find which activities are being well received and which are causing the participants to close off. Look for negative body language such as wandering eyes, yawning and crossed arms. This is your cue to change. Having a contingency plan for a training disaster (also known as “the silent treatment” from the audience) will give you the versatility to recover and still provide value to your client.
You are not on a railroad you cannot get off so be creative!


This blog comes from Eve Ash, Psychologist, author, filmmaker, public speaker and entrepreneur

Eve is a dynamic speaker and regular keynote presenter on creating a winning mindset. Eve understands the business of communication, relationships and success.
She is a renowned international expert on creating a powerful culture at work where people are switched on and engaged.

View our full range of Eve Ash Training Videos here. 

Not Trained to Train? Here are 10 Top Tips on Running a Flawless Training Session

Be patient. Understand that your participants are there to learn from you as the facilitator and each individual has their own learning style. They don’t know what you, as the facilitator, already know.

Have a sense of humour. A great sense of humour is a fantastic asset in training. People like to see that you are human and not a robot. This will help you build trust and gain credibility.

Tune in your listening ears. One of the best ways to establish what the learning styles of each individuals is, is to listen to those you are working with. The questions they ask will help you distinguish any learning gaps they have. It will also provide you with opportunities to establish if they actually understand what you are teaching.

Understand what a facilitator’s role is. It is important to remember that your role no matter what you are teaching on. You want to come across as someone with a solid understanding of the subject matter, but not as someone who is an expert on the matter. For example: If you are training accountants on a new concept, you do not need to pretend you are an accountant because chances are your audience will know more about being an accountant than you do!

Be prepared. Think about when and where you are going to have the training session and what barriers there might be. This includes the physical environment, e.g. How should I set up the room to encourage interaction between the audience? Where are the toilets located? Is there somewhere to eat nearby?

Know your audience. A few quick warm up activities at the start of the session are a great way to find out the differing learning styles of the audience, and will help you understand the best way to deliver your training.

Look for defensive body signs. Arms crossed. Legs crossed. Slouching. Looking in the other direction. Short, sharp answers. If members of your audience are exhibiting these body language signs, chances are they are not engaged in the learning, and may even be distracting other learners.

Encourage questions. Questions are a great way to ensure that people are engaged and understanding what you are teaching. It is a way of individuals identifying and making known to the facilitator potential gaps in the training and allows them to gain greater confidence

Consider ethical issues. An effective facilitator is able to build a level of trust and rapport with their audience. It is important to ensure You do not discriminate and that no one is left out. A good facilitator will be able to create a positive atmosphere within the classroom to encourage an effective learning environment.

Pick the correct evaluation tool. Whether you use written/verbal feedback, testing for proficiency, or tick sheets to ensure all areas of training are completed, the correct evaluation tool will tell you if you have been successful in training and if a change of behaviour will occur.

Team Climate: Are You Running Hot or Cold?

The only way to know how employees see the organisation is to look at it through their eyes.

When you first start a job, you have an expectation of how the organisation will treat you. Too often a gap begins to develop between the expectations an employee has of the organisation and the reality of what the organisation can provide. This often leads to the creation of an emotional virus. An employee becomes dissatisfied with their job, and has negative feelings towards the organisation. Staff around them pick up on their emotional dissatisfaction and it becomes infectious, spreading through the organisation and creating a general feeling of dissatisfaction.

So what can you as a manager do to combat the spreading of this lethal demotivator within the company?  The most important thing is to understand what the people are going through.

Managers need to have a clear understanding of the expectations of their staff, and how to manage them.

The climate of a team or organisation has everything to do with its output, so understanding how your teams climate changes and can be influenced by individual expectations can be incredibly important, and an invaluable tool for managing and motivating. A large motivator is job satisfaction. Are our needs being met?

Here are 5 factors that, when addressed properly, will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of any team and promote a positive team climate.

Contribution – is what I am putting into the team being valued?

Recognition – self expression and positive feedback. Employees need to know that even though a contributed idea may not be used, it is being recognised.

Challenge – people want to be pushed, but they do not want to be pushed if they feel there will be no recognition, no chance for self expression and no chance for contribution.

Sincere appreciation – Positive feedback is a valuable tool, but when over used and not timely or relevant it can do more damage than good. Make your feedback and appreciation specific.

Individual responsibility – Improves individual confidence

What can employees do to improve team climate?

While it is largely the responsibility of the organisation and manager to promote a healthy team climate, there are still a variety of ways that individuals can assist in ensure the team climate stays positive. Self responsibility and self motivation – this is often a challenge for many people. This involves taking proactive steps, and getting yourself out of victimisation mode. While it is often natural for many of us to revert to this, staying in victimisation mode will actually only harm ourselves. The key to making this change? Transmute your negative experiences and begin to learn from them.

So what sort of team culture does your organisation have? 

This blog is based upon Training Point's 'Improving Team Climate' training video produced by Ash Quarry Productions. Watch the full training video online here.