Encouraging Better Time Management - Link Behaviors to Personal Work Goals


by Barbara Brown, PhD - Date: 2008-08-04 - Word Count: 337 Share This!

You have decided that your employees could benefit from better time management. Specifically, you want them to do better at managing interruptions, prioritizing tasks, planning activities, and meeting deadlines. 

You did all the right things.  You sent everyone to time management class, showed videos on time management, and bought the latest TIPS books on managing time.  You even emailed your employees several websites that contained some great ideas.  Still, you have seen very few changes. Or if changes do occur, they are temporary.

So how do you encourage improvements, especially the long lasting kind? Try linking the time management improvements you want to your employees' personal work goals. For example, suppose you wanted employees to do better at prioritizing tasks.  You might explain how prioritizing tasks could lead to achievement of the following personal work goals:

- Increased personal productivity

- Increased personal quality

- Less need to work overtime

- Less personal frustration and stress

- More time available to take a full lunch

- Less time spent on the telephone explaining delays to customers

Don't fret if you don't see your employees' personal work goals on this list.  You will have an endless list of personal work goals to choose from if your employees are not doing a good job of managing their time.  That's because if they are not managing their time well, they are probably complaining. Use these complaints (or goals) to explain the personal benefits of better time management.

What makes this approach more effective than classes and videos?

This approach is more effective because you create a heightened sense of the value and urgency around better time management.  You also approach improvements with a focus on personal benefits to employees.  Finally, and most importantly, this is not a one time strategy for improving time management.  This is something you can use whenever you talk to employees.  So the next time your employees wistfully talk about how they would love to take a longer lunch, improve their quality, or have less stress, link these goals to a specific time management behavior you want.

 


Related Tags: motivation, time management, results, goals, performance management, performance improvement, performance discussion

Barbara Brown, PhD shows managers how to improve employee performance by linking performance to results. She publishes handbooks that contain phrases for discussing performance. Handbook topics include Linking Time Management To Results, Linking Customer Service To Results, and others. Dr. Brown also offers E-Courses and E-Consulting as well as onsite training and consulting.

Website: http://www.LinkToResults.net
Email: Barbara@LinkToResults.net Blog: http://www.LinkToResults.net/blog

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