By Ted Pollock, Management Consultant
Tested Ways to Reduce Your Workload
- Dispose of the things that can be handled promptly. The few projects that remain won’t be so hard to cope with if the pile of work is no longer hopeless.
- Stop wrestling with a problem that (momentarily) has you stumped. Put it aside and come back to it when your mood and mind toward it have improved. Be careful, of course, not to postpone the task indefinitely.
- Keep work on top of your desk. It haunts you, and thereby stands a better chance of getting done. Burying work in desk drawers keeps it out of sight and away from completion.
- Learn to say no to some of the requests made of you. It’s flattering to be asked to speak or to serve on a committee where you can share your talents. But these invitations are also cruel demands on your time and energy, neither of which is unlimited.
- Take time to communicate with others. A few minutes spent at the start to explain something can save endless hours later by clarifying instructions and preventing misunderstandings.
When In Doubt–Gallop!
Back in the days when the cavalry consisted of soldiers on horseback, there was a popular saying among French cavalrymen: “When in doubt-gallop!”
To this day, a lot of people subscribe to that sentiment. Having lost sight of their objective, they redouble their efforts, as if activity were the same as accomplishment.
It isn’t, of course. In fact, activity can be the antithesis of achievement. For example, if we form the habit of remaining in the office an additional two or three hours each day, we encourage ourselves to take it easy during the regular work day because we can always catch up in the evening.
By extending our working hours, however, we dispel the natural tension of the eight-hour workday that helps us get things done. We tell ourselves: No need to concentrate on the job during regular hours; we’ll catch up later, when everyone else is gone. But that approach produces tedium and neglect of family which, in turn, can eventually lower job performance.
Hard work is sometimes necessary. There are unexpected developments and deadlines and unanticipated needs. But a steady rhythm of accomplishment during regular hours is far preferable to habitual late hours and self-inflicted crises. A little planning can go a long way toward preserving your health and sanity.
Organize For Efficiency
Good organization is simply another name for group efficiency. Since an essential part of your management responsibilities is to make sure that your people are working at peak effectiveness, consider these questions:
- Do you have too many people reporting to you? Some experts maintain that the optimum number of employees per manager is between five and nine. Rules of thumb are extremely handy, but broader spans of control are being used in today’s organizations. For example, trainees or inexperienced employees obviously require more supervision than the same number of experienced and capable employees.
- Do you delegate authority along with responsibility? When you give an employee an assignment, make sure your instructions are clear. Explain exactly what he or she is to do and how much authority goes with the assignment. This is particularly true when you are giving assignments to a group. The group leader must understand his responsibilities, and other persons in the unit should know that he is in charge.
- Do you check on overlap? Two people trying to do the same job is a certain sign of poor organization.
- Do you study specific activities? The bigger the operation, the more complex it becomes. That’s why the alert manager makes it clear to employees exactly who is responsible for what. This prevents gaps in operations-the kind where nobody has been assigned a particular job and consequently it doesn’t get done.
- Do you avoid overload? There is a tendency to overuse a capable worker. A wise manager knows that if you give even the best subordinate responsibility for too many jobs and too many details, efficiency is bound to suffer.
- Do you review job assignments with employees? Good managers take nothing for granted. Nor do they assume that employees understand their assignments simply because they ask no questions. The effective manager periodically reviews the work of all employees to make sure that employee and manager have the same understanding of each job.
- Have you defined lines of authority? Too many chiefs are worse than too few Indians. The employee who is not certain to whom he reports is never sure of what is expected of him.
- Do you observe patterns of organization? The manager who countermands orders, or issues new assignments without informing employees, destroys efficiency. In emergencies it may be necessary to step in and take charge. However, the experienced manager does not ignore lines of authority in his rush to get the job done.
- Are employee responsibilities properly related? If you give an employee a hodgepodge of unrelated assignments, you probably will not get optimum performance. Coordination is a function of management. In general, it refers to the job of ensuring that the work of one employee contributes to, rather than conflicts or overlaps with, another individual. The essence of homogeneous assignments is that functions required for a particular task should be grouped according to their relation to one another.
- Do you periodically analyze the organization? Jobs change. The abilities of people improve or decline. An effective organization today may be totally inadequate to meet tomorrow’s needs. The forward looking manager constantly studies the functioning of his organization so that he can apply quick remedies when he detects weaknesses.
