To do lists

So where were we before Labor Day and 09-09-09?

Ah yes: Numerology for Managers, which included a bit about our striving for common sense solutions.

What we managers are supposed to do, is get work to make sense.

We are the people who bring sensibility to worthwhile work.

Well, wouldn’t it be fantastic, if going to your manager, and talking to them about the stuff which concerned you was common sense?

Seems we’ve a way to go in getting there. Just read this at Get Me Jamie Notter and it made me cringe in that truth hurts sort of way:

[The deep thinking we value] uses real data from real life within YOUR organization (not a case study), but we don’t end up with that data because (a) both managers and employees are too busy and (b) employees won’t tell the managers the truth anyway.

We need to make some shifts. Getting more truth spoken is one of them…

That statement challenged my own thinking about the shifts we can make, and I want to offer you some help. In keeping with our effort this month to develop a useful Numerology for Managers, how about we start with the number 1. I offer you a reprint of one of my older postings today, originally called The 1 List Every Manager Must Work With, when written for Managing with Aloha Coaching.

I agree that we need to get “more truth spoken,” however I want to jump ahead a bit: When the truth IS spoken, then what? Does it just glare at everyone like a big elephant in the room we pretend not to see, or does someone deal with it?

Guess who the buck stops with: The manager.

A reputation is something you earn by doing something else

To earn a good reputation as a manager, that “something else” you must do is no big secret: You must follow-up.

Come to think of it, if you have kids, you get a good rep as a parent that way too. If you have friends, you get a good rep as their best bud by following up as well.

So why don’t we all follow up better than we do?

I believe that most of us do start with good intentions. We just need a better system, and this is where The 1 List can help. If you are a manager seeking a better reputation for the work you do, replace whatever “To Do” List you might be using with this one instead.

The 1 List Every Manager Must Work With

This is the very first tool I teach new supervisors (and any struggling manager) to use;
It works no matter the industry they are in.
And it works no matter the country they are in.

It works whether they are new to their positions, or are seasoned pros.
And it works whether they have just one employee or thousands.

It works whenever it is calm, and they are caught up, with time to spare for strategic thinking.
It works whenever it is frenetic and crazy, and they can’t see that light at the end of the tunnel.

It works pretty much no matter what the circumstances are.
And get this ”“ it works in magnificent partnership with my beloved Daily 5 Minutes ®.

What every manager must work with, and work with daily, is this:
A simple list kept easily and best with pencil or pen, and an 8×10 sheet of paper folded into three columns.

This list will endear every manager to every employee, every boss, every supplier or vendor partner, and every customer.
When used, it will single-handedly reinvent a manager’s reputation, as it simultaneously functions as that manager’s best training and coaching architect.

At the top of this list is its marching order, and right beneath that, as the headings of its three columns, are all the instructions managers will need.

The marching order, and what this magic manager’s list is called?

THE FOLLOW-UP I NEED TO COMPLETE.

What, Who, When and Why

The headings of the three columns on this single-page list are,

1. What I must Do to Honor my Word
2. Who I need to Follow-up with, and By When
3. Why it is so Important to Them, and thus, to Me.

When management is a calling (as it should only be) managers work more for other people than they do for themselves. The work they do for others IS the work they do for themselves, for when they elevate the human condition, improving it as it aches to be improved, they are most fulfilled in the work they are most needed for, discovering that being a manager can be the most satisfying and rewarding work in existence.

When employees cry out to me that their managers “don’t know what they are doing,”
or “are never around when we need them”
or “are too poorly trained; it’s like we have a revolving door of management trainees here”
or “don’t really care about us”
or “always seem to be working on the wrong things at the wrong times”
or “said they’d take care of it, but we all know what that means”
” the complaining and whining goes on and on” nine times out of ten I will discover that the manager they are referring to has lost all credibility due to a horrible lack of follow-through. They may start with the best of intentions in very sincere conversations, but they have no reliable system for finishing well, and they are not held accountable.

On the other hand, the managers with exceptional follow-through are referred to as “the great ones.”

A key point is that great managers don’t necessarily do all the work and tasks involved; what they do is orchestrate them well, and they keep work flowing, moving all road-blocks out of the way, human and otherwise. They work to remove any obstacles or adversity (or excuses and yeah-buts) and they communicate to everyone involved about status and progress consistently and reliably.

If you are a manager, is that what you do?

Let’s talk a bit more about those three columns

1. What I must Do to Honor my Word

This column is described this way because a conversation with someone is likely to be what will trigger the entry you are making. What did you agree to follow-up on? This column will teach managers to “eat an elephant one bite at a time.” A common reason good intentions will fall apart is because we’ll make promises that are way, way too big for us to keep. Using this list over time, managers learn to work from conversation to next conversation and tear issues, problems, and projects into doable baby steps. Then the following column becomes a simple status-check conversation of “Here’s where we are now, what should we work on as our next steps, and how much time will that need?”

2. Who I need to Follow-up with, and By When

This may seem obvious, but in my investigations of trip-ups that have occurred, I am amazed at how many times a manager did follow up, but never reported back to the person they’d made their commitment to. Their reputation and credibility has gotten marred by a bad assumption that “the results will speak for themselves.” Well, not really, and not always. In fact, the norm is that they seldom do. This column also helps cure avoidance behavior; if you didn’t get something done yet, just honestly say so and make a new agreement. Don’t just hope the other person will forget about it; trust me, they probably won’t, and the next column helps you understand why.

3. Why it is so Important to Them, and thus, to Me

This column is a teacher called “Empathy Practice,” one whom all managers need to spend more time with. For us to help people best, we need to see a problem or issue in the way that they see it, and since we can’t usually “walk a day in [their] shoes” the best way to understand their point of view is to key in on why an issue is important to them. I coach managers to work with people without robbing others of the engagement, satisfaction, and growth of doing their work for them ”“ the mantra we speak of is “Do with, not for.” There is a balance to be achieved, that this column helps us understand one person at a time.

Management is a situational art. Coaches like me try to help with certain things, and we can provide tools and tips that shorten the learning curve, however a manager’s best teachers, bar none, are their employees and the other people they work with and are committed to. This is the same reason The Daily Five Minutes ® works so well: All you need to know about you can find out from the people you work with side by side, day in and day out.

Managers get trained on the job in the flow of the work they are responsible for. When they follow-through consistently, they excel because they deliver well; they exceed expectations. Their word is believed and trusted.

So take this from me; the 1 best list that every manager must work with says THE FOLLOW-UP I NEED TO COMPLETE at the top, and has those three columns to break it down to task in the most achievable, common sense way. What they write on it, and how consistently they work through it day by day will determine that manager’s success. Just ask their employees.

Alaka‘i connections

Are those What, Who, When and Why words vaguely familiar? Hope so! From the archives:

For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story links embedded in this posting:

Labor Day Aloha
Just Once in Our Lifetimes! 09-09-09
Numerology for Managers
Two Gifts: Values and Conversation (About The Daily 5 Minutes ®)
What the heck do you mean by ‘Achievable?’
What’s your Calling? Has it become your Ho‘ohana?

Article originally published on Say “Alaka‘i” September 2009
Managers: Improve your Reputation with 1 List

Photo credit: Drilled by cayusa on Flickr

Last night, I read something on Tim Milburn’s blog which really appealed to me, and I’m giving it to myself as a gift.

These days, I look for gifts-to-self which are not material things, for I have far too much space-taking stuff as it is, and I’m always trying to de-clutter my life. “Streamline!” is one of my favorite self-talking mantras. It gets louder each day, and a good thing it does, for it’s the mantra I seem to need the most right now.

There is information clutter too, a non-material form of stuff that is still substantial in the clutter category. You read blogs; think about how quickly new ones collect in your feed reader. When you get interested in people and their ideas, you unfortunately inherit the clutter they themselves wade through publicly with you. There are tons of lifehack blogs in our blogrolls which aim to help us focus, and cut to the chase with the best tips, however ironically these are the ones which are hardest to keep up with —have you noticed how productivity bloggers tend to be the most prolific ones, screaming for your attention several times a day? The phrase “ignorance is bliss” has never been more accurate.

What Tim wrote up, is a different sort of To Do listing that to me, is a wonderfully practical application of ‘Imi ola, the Hawaiian value of vision. It’s a To Do listing which helps you create your best possible life (the meaning of ‘Imi ola) day by day. He wrote,

“Last night, when I laid my head down on my pillow to go to sleep, I remember thinking” ‘This has been a successful day.’ ” This got me thinking: What is it that makes a day FEEL successful? I want to be able to capture that sensation so that I can lay my head down each night and experience that feeling of success.”

Boy, did he do a great job in getting me to visualize this for myself!

Tim continued with a list for him ”“ for his ‘Imi ola, and then he suggested we do the same things for our own lives, for we each have personal definition of success. We each have a ho‘ohana which is unique to us (you knew that was coming). I’m big on self-motivation and self-discipline, and Tim tied his ribbon on my gift-to-self when he added this tidbit,

“I think this is a beneficial exercise for anyone. I am more motivated and disciplined when I sense that what I’m doing has a high return ”“ that I’m being successful.”

And what I’d add, is that I’m being successful within ‘Imi ola form and function. Quite sweet.

Wow Tim, such inspiration! I know I’ll be tweaking this, but at first draft here’s mine. Tim listed 10 items, but I’m stopping at these 7 to increase my chances of accomplishing them all!

My ‘Imi ola Daily To Do List:

Learn, teach, and coach as a whole process, even if with self. In my ho‘ohana, this is quite a big win when this gets shared with someone else (as a process they can use too). Not only do I sleep well, I dream well! I wake up eager to start a new day again.
Give the Daily Five Minutes, for it keeps my MWA laboratory concocting more goodness. It also keeps me in the real-time workplace Aloha coaching I do across a cross-section of different industry, not just mine.
Read and Write. This one-two punch and tactile pleasure delights me as my absolute best creative process.
Complete something I’ve procrastinated about or have not been able to get to for good reason. Checking a task off and completing projects is pure heaven. Sweet closure.
Get some exercise, preferably outdoors. I am truly keiki o ka ‘āina; child of the land, thriving on sense of place. Nature nourishes me, and fills me with the wonder which keeps me youthful in my curiosity, and humble as I witness God’s majesty.
Serve. Be there for someone; keep a promise or fulfill a commitment. I freely admit to you that I’m great at taking care of myself, whereas this one takes more deliberate effort, thus it’s a must for this list!
‘ÅŒpala ‘ole; banish the clutter in my life so I can enlarge my capacities and live with more meaningful abundance. So I can give more.

Now in my case, I know I need something to balance and fortify this. I get distracted too easily, and the freedom I do have in my life has obliterated the boundaries that serve as better structure for most people. Therefore, I’m taking this further.

My ‘Imi ola Stop Doing List:

(For sanity sake, this one is more of a daily-or-weekly mix to start. I sense I will need to develop a good rhythm with stopping!)

No un-timed, un-planned web surfing. Computer time is just as bad if not worse than couch-potato time… just another screen. [In my case the computer IS the culprit; I don’t watch much tv at all.]
No email inbox filing. That means I’m missing the boat with numbers 4. 6. and 7. in my To DO list above. If I don’t get to that empty inbox nirvana at the end of each day, I have GOT to do so in my Weekly Review. Which brings me to the next thing.
No skipping of my Weekly Review. Without it, I lose trust in “my system” and my breakdowns and glitches start multiplying like rabbits. Hmmm” is that where the phrase ‘rabbit trails’ comes from? Makes perfect sense.
No impulsive decisions. Decisiveness is natural to me, and as a strange bedfellow to the closure thing, I do take action quickly, sometimes too quickly. In particular, I’m learning to reshape my habits with this in regard to the business planning process I’m going through now. Finding this balance is hard for me, but I am making progress and this list will serve as a constant reminder.
Stop interrupting people. I get pretty excited once I start engaging in conversations with others, and I need to calm down, listen more, and continually practice being more patient. Auwe… patience has never, ever been one of my virtues.
Never start a day without a feasible, pragmatic plan that will better enable the best honoring of the hard and soft landscape on my calendar. If you know GTD or my MWA3P you know exactly what I mean. I’m a planner; there’s no denying how it works for me.
No solitary days. I can very, very easily slip into this one with the solo entrepreneur’s life I lead, and I feel so much better with the human touch of interaction ”“ not only do I feel better, I AM a better person; more whole.

This is what I’m going to do next:

Print up this long version, and stick it in the journal I write in daily, so I can do the writer’s live-with-it-and-edit-it thing I do.
Print up a short version in two columns, one column per list, with both on a single page. I’ll print it, put it in a page protector. Three copies. One for the briefcase I take everywhere with me, one for my home office, and one for my O‘ahu office.
Read ‘em and do ‘em daily, until I BE ‘em.

New habit creation, here I come. Quite a gift Tim, mahalo nui! Looks like you have given me my best birthday gift this year!

Your turn Ho‘ohana Community, what will be on your lists?

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion.
He hardly knows which is which.
He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.
To him he is always doing both.

— James Michener