Talent Management - September 2008 - (Page 40)

recruitment & retention assessment & evaluation compensation & beneﬁts performance management learning & development succession planning [learning & development] by Kellye Whitney Stop-the-Clock Time Management Without the ability to prioritize, organize and focus, even the most talented employee can be a liability. Fortunately, with the right tools, development and a little self-discipline, talent managers can help employees learn to manage their time effectively. S ome people are just naturally on time. These employees log in before the webinar starts to ensure their equipment works. They work incrementally, never rush and meet deadlines on time, every time. Then there’s the polar opposite, the chronically late, harried, “prone to need a project extension” type of employee that talent managers frequently rotate out of an organization. Most employees are neither chronically late nor perfect. They are productive workers who occasionally fall down on the job and require support to stay on track. It often falls on the talent manager to develop an employee’s time management skills. Leveraging the right tools, building foundational time management principles, such as planning and list making, and placing value on the employees’ time can help. Time management is about getting things done, optimizing time and automating repetitive tasks said, E.R. Haas, CEO, ThinkTQ, an on-demand assessment and training provider. It’s also about focusing on what’s important and not wasting time on distractions, interruptions and other things that don’t help move a job or a company forward. “My grandfather caught me standing around when I was 11 years old. I was a ﬂoor sweeper after school in his cement factory. He said, ‘Why are you standing there?’ I said, ‘I don’t have anything to do.’ He said, ‘You’re wasting my time, my money and your life. Think winwin, Eric. What’s important now, and what’s important next?’ That win-win thinking is something that people really fail at. Always have something next you can do that produces a positive result,” Haas said. Assisting employees in formulating a plan, prioritizing goals and identifying the steps needed to meet those goals for the day, week or even year can build that focus on critical tasks. Haas said when talent managers do this, they put a value on time and negate the importance of “critical” interruptions that are rarely as urgent as they appear. “If it’s life-threatening, obviously you’ve got to stop everything and ﬁx it. If it’s not, just keep on moving. Learn to say no,” he said. “‘My time is valuable, not that yours isn’t, but let’s schedule this for later.’ That time management skill is probably the easiest for people to learn: a judicious, ‘No, not now.’ It’s simple, but hard, especially for someone that doesn’t have a lot of self-conﬁdence.” Karla Brandau, president of Karla Brandau & Associates, a management consulting and training company, said talent managers have to plan and be an example of effective time management themselves. This requires taking a long-range, strategic view of work and making employees accountable for ﬁlling in the details. 40 September 2008 “Having plans for the future drives productivity,” Brandau said. “Let’s say the day starts to shut down talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com http://www.talentmgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - September 2008

Talent Management - September 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance: Stop Wasting Money on Training Leading Edge: No Whining, No Excuses Learning Connections: Do You Get It? The Untapped Resource Reinventing HR Doing Compensation Right: The Winning Spread Managing Performance in the Knowledge and Innovation Worker Age Stop-The-Clock Time Management Preparing for the Future in the Public Sector SAS: Connecting People, Process and Products Talent Transformation at Textron The Price of Finding the Right Gen Y Candidate Advertiser's Index Editorial Resources Full Potential: Do What You Love, Love What You Do

Talent Management - September 2008

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