The 7 key attributes of effective Time Managers

Meetings! The scourge of engineering and construction tenders and projects!

All tenders and projects need some management and coordination to enable a timely and effective result, but why does such a negative reaction show up every time your Progress Review meeting is called?

From what I’ve widely observed, people these days are struggling to deal with the multiple distractions that constantly assault them from all angles. It takes willpower to stay on task for any length of time, particularly when there are so many more pleasurable (and time wasting) activities so close at hand. The willpower muscle eventually gets tired and another day gets frittered away. Pretty soon another deadline is approaching with “panic stations” behaviour needed to get to the line. So when the troops hear “Progress Review” their immediate reaction is (a) we’re about to lose more time in a meeting to go with all the time that’s somehow already disappeared and (b) I’m about to be put on the spot to justify why things are running late again……

So apart from standing firm with regular Progress Reviews (a very necessary evil) what can you as an effective owner of an Engineering and Construction business do to make a difference?

It’s often said that what shows up for us is a direct reflection of how we show up in the world. If you show up like most business owners, 20% of what you do every day in your business is directly contributing to 80% of your business results. That also means that 80% of your daily activities produce only 20% of your results. A great place to start in figuring out whether this is also true for your business team, is to turn the lens on yourself and consider exactly where all of your personal time goes in your typical day.

You too might discover that you’re spending most of your time responding to emails and texts, answering the phone, invoicing, keeping the books, surfing the internet...you know these aren’t high income-producing activities.

So how does a highly effective business owner manage their precious time? Try this for starters:

The 7 Key Attributes of Effective Time Managers:

1. They leverage their time by utilising others with better skills than they have to deliver much more than they can achieve by themselves
2. They DO NOT have a 35-item Daily To-Do List!
3. They plan their most important activities before launching into each day
4. They recognise that s$%t happens and budget time every day to deal with this
5. They understand their own energy cycles and have mastered the scourge of procrastination
6. They are clear on the Why (Vision) and the What (Strategy) as well as the How (Tactics) in relation to their business
7. In even the toughest and busiest of circumstances, they still carve out at least 5% of their time to work on their business and themselves

It's obvious I'm sure the relevance of these principles for your business employees. Results and activity in most organisations I work with are not transparent - in some cases staff actively keep this information hidden. Fair warning though - your people will start to realise that this process is not just about improved communication. A well-managed process leads to reduced confusion and a sense of greater alignment as well as increased accountability within your business. Badly handled however and you have a recipe for a great deal of business disruption!