Modern Times

Making a Decision by Weighing Up Different Factors

Grid Analysis  - Also known as Decision Matrix Analysis, Pugh Matrix Analysis, and Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT)

Imagine that your boss has put you in charge of taking on a new outsourced IT supplier. You've already identified several different suppliers, and you now need to decide which one to use.

You could decide to go with the low-cost option. But you don't want to make your decision on cost alone - factors such as contract length, underlying technology, and service levels need to be taken into consideration. So how can you make sure you make the best decision, while taking all of these different factors into account?

Grid Analysis is a useful technique to use for making a decision. It's particularly powerful where you have a number of good alternatives to choose from, and many different factors to take into account. This makes it a great technique to use in almost any important decision where there isn't a clear and obvious preferred option.

Being able to use Grid Analysis means that you can take decisions confidently and rationally, at a time when other people might be struggling to make a decision.

How to Use the Tool
Grid Analysis works by getting you to list your options as rows on a table, and the factors you need consider as columns. You then score each option/factor combination, weight this score by the relative importance of the factor, and add these scores up to give an overall score for each option.
While this sounds complex, this technique is actually quite easy to use. Here's a step-by-step guide with an example. Start by downloading our free worksheet. Then work through these steps:

1. List all of your options as the row labels on the table, and list the factors that you need to consider as the column headings. For example, if you were buying a new laptop computer, factors to consider might be cost, dimensions, and hard disk size.
2. Next, work your way down the columns of your table, scoring each option for each of the factors in your decision. Score each option from 0 (poor) to 5 (very good). Note that you do not have to have a different score for each option - if none of them are good for a particular factor in your decision, then all options should score 0.
3. The next step is to work out the relative importance of the factors in your decision. Show these as numbers from, say, 0 to 5, where 0 means that the factor is absolutely unimportant in the final decision, and 5 means that it is very important. (It's perfectly acceptable to have factors with the same importance.)

Tip:
These values may be obvious. If they are not, then use a technique such as Paired Comparison Analysis to estimate them.

1. Now multiply each of your scores from step 2 by the values for relative importance of the factor that you calculated in step 3. This will give you weighted scores for each option/factor combination.
2. Finally, add up these weighted scores for each of your options. The option that scores the highest wins!

Example:
A windsurfing enthusiast is about to replace his car. He needs one that not only carries a board and sails, but also one that will be good for business travel. He has always loved open-topped sports cars, but no car he can find is good for all three things.

His options are:

• An SUV/4x4, hard topped vehicle.
• A comfortable "'family car."
• A station wagon/estate car.
• A convertible sports car.

Factors that he wants to consider are:

• Cost.
• Ability to carry a sail board safely.
• Ability to store sails and equipment securely.
• Comfort over long distances.
• Fun!
• Look, and build quality.

Firstly he draws up the table shown in Figure 1, and scores each option by how well it satisfies each factor:

Figure 1: Example Grid Analysis Showing Unweighted Assessment of How Each Type of Car Satisfies Each Factor

Factors:	Cost	Board	Storage	Comfort	Fun	Look	Total
Weights:
Sports Car	1	0	0	1	3	3
SUV/4x4	0	3	2	2	1	1
Family Car	2	2	1	3	0	0
Station Wagon	2	3	3	3	0	1

Next he decides the relative weights for each of the factors. He multiplies these by the scores already entered, and totals them. This is shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2: Example Grid Analysis Showing Weighted Assessment of How Each Type of Car Satisfies Each Factor

Factors:	Cost	Board	Storage	Comfort	Fun	Look	Total
Weights:	4	5	1	2	3	4
Sports Car	4	0	0	2	9	12	27
SUV/4x4	0	15	2	4	3	4	28
Family Car	8	10	1	6	0	0	25
Station Wagon	8	15	3	6	0	4	36

This gives an interesting result: Despite its lack of fun, a station wagon is the best choice. Windsurfing really matters to him!

Key Points
Grid Analysis helps you to decide between several options, where you need to take many different factors into account.

To use the tool, lay out your options as rows on a table. Set up the columns to show the factors you need to consider. Score each choice for each factor using numbers from 0 (poor) to 5 (very good), and then allocate weights to show the importance of each of these factors. Multiply each score by the weight of the factor, to show its contribution to the overall selection. Finally add up the total scores for each option. The highest scoring option will be the best option.

Note:
Grid Analysis is the simplest form of Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), also known as Multiple Criteria Decision Aid or Multiple Criteria Decision Management (MCDM). Sophisticated MCDA can involve highly complex modelling of different potential scenarios, using advanced mathematics. A lot of business decision making, however, is based on approximate or subjective data. Where this is the case, Grid Analysis may be all that's needed.

ModernManagers is an affiliate of MindTools See our site for more.   www.modernmanagers.com

Modern Managers offers a turnkey supervisor training course that we have created so you can customize your leadership training needs to help the new supervisor gain a deeper understanding of leadership training elements that can be applied in everyday situations.

Our New Supervisor Training Program, an effective Leadership Development Course, and our Employee Handbook were designed especially for small businesses that do not have the time, resources or expertise to develop their own.

Our TurnKey New Supervisor Training Program product can be made specific to your company’s needs and helps new managers develop successful skills to effectively communicate, delegate and manage priorities to increase employee productivity, morale, work quality and accelerate their ability to focus their time and efforts on tasks that achieves results that are most important to the organization’s success.

Why write your own New Supervisor Training Program or an Employee Handbook when it's done for you? Pre-written course ware saves you time and money and helps you better prepare for classroom training with well-researched and proven course materials.  (ModernManagers.com HR in a Box)

A  turnkey handbook  that covers employee-related policies and benefits.  Make it your own merely by inserting key words, selecting alternative phrases, deleting segments that are not required or adding topics unique to your operation. Included is a power-point presentation that you can use to introduce your employees to your company products, customers, and community!

Learning Management Skills

Measuring "Hidden" Traits

Psychometric Testing

Measuring attributes like height, weight, and strength is reasonably simple. These are all physical and observable traits that you can assess objectively. But what about factors that aren't so easy to measure?

Traits such as personality, intelligence, attitude, and beliefs are important characteristics to measure and assess. Whether you're hiring people, helping team members understand themselves and their relationships with others, or trying to figure out what you want to do with your life, it's useful to assess these types of "hidden" attributes

One way to gather this information is through psychometric testing. This article looks at what psychometric tests are, what they measure, and how they can help you in both recruiting staff and developing your own career.

What Are Psychometric Tests?
Psychometric tests include personality profiles, reasoning tests, motivation questionnaires, and ability assessments. These tests try to provide objective data for otherwise subjective measurements.

For example, if you want to determine someone's attitude, you can ask the person directly, observe the person in action, or even gather observations about the person from other people. However, all of these methods take time, and can be affected by personal bias and perspective. By using a psychometric test, you make best use of interviewers' time, as well as making a more objective and impartial judgment.

Since objectivity is key to using these assessments, a good psychometric test provides fair and accurate results each time it's given. To ensure this, the test must meet these three key criteria:

• Standardization The test must be based on results from a sample population that's truly representative of the people who'll be taking the test. You can't realistically test every working person in a country. But you can test a representative sample of that group, and then apply the results to the specific people whom you test.
  Also, a standardized test is administered the same way every time to help reduce any test bias. By using a standardized test, you can compare the results with anyone whose characteristics are similar to those of the sample group.
• Reliability The test must produce consistent results, and not be significantly influenced by outside factors. For instance, if you're feeling stressed when you take the test, the test results shouldn't be overly different from times when you were excited or relaxed.
• Validity This is perhaps the most important quality of a test. A valid test has to measure what it's intended to measure. If a test is supposed to measure a person's interests, then it must clearly demonstrate that it does actually measure interests, and not something else that's just related to interests.

Note:
Psychometrics is the study of educational and psychological measurements. The adjective "psychometric" is used to describe psychological tests (typically those used in educational and occupational settings) that are standardized as well as proven to be reliable and valid measures of areas such as personality, ability, aptitude, and interest.

Beyond these criteria, effective psychometric tests must be relevant to the modern workplace. Before using one of these tests, make sure the test has been validated and updated recently.

What Do Psychometric Tests Measure?
Psychometric tests can measure interests, personality, and aptitude.

• Interest tests measure how people differ in their motivation, values, and opinions in relation to their interests.
• Personality tests measure how people differ in their style or manner of doing things, and in the way they interact with their environment and other people.
• Aptitude tests measure how people differ in their ability to perform or carry out different tasks.

Advantages of Psychometric Tests
Psychometric tests can help to make personnel and career-related assessments more objective.

These tests also save a great deal of time. They're typically very easy to administer, and they can be given to a group of people easily. (Some other types of assessments must be given individually.) Psychometric tests are also easily scored, so results come back quickly and reliably.

Many of these tests are completed using software programs, and some can even be completed online. This, again, provides a time advantage, and it can reduce costs significantly compared to other methods. People can take the tests from anywhere, and the results are accurately scored each time.

Using Psychometric Tests
Psychometric tests can be used for a variety of purposes. Some of the most common uses are as follows:

• Selection of personnel - Here, tests can help recruiters and hiring managers determine candidates who best fit a position. Personality, aptitude, and knowledge tests are all very common in this type of testing situation. For a detailed discussion of these types of tests and how to use them for hiring, see our article on Using Recruitment Tests (members only).
• Individual development and training - Psychometric tests can help you determine how best to improve current skills and performance. For example, if your department is going to introduce a new type of technology, it might be helpful to assess people on their interests and motivations related to new technology. The Business Attitude Inventory and the California Measure of Mental Motivation are psychometric tests available for training and development purposes. You could also use aptitude and skills tests to determine a person's ability to perform certain tasks.
• Team building and development - This area can provide many uses for psychometric tests. The better people understand themselves and others, the better they can build and maintain positive workplace relationships. Tests like FIRO-B, DiSC, and the Hogan Development Survey are designed specifically to uncover potential sources of relationship tension (members' articles). General personality assessments, including the Myers-Briggs Typology Indicator (MBTI) and the California Personality Inventory (CPI), are also very helpful for team building and strengthening (members' articles). The Values in Action test can help you gain insights into group behaviors and dynamics that relate to people's values.
• Career development and progression - Psychometric tests can help you uncover values and interests that are fundamental to overall career satisfaction. For those starting out in their careers and those who are looking for the right career path, interest surveys like the Holland Code Assessment and Schein's Career Anchors Questionnaire (members) are also useful psychometric tests to consider.

Note:
There are costs involved in purchasing tests as well as in hiring or training someone to administer and evaluate them. It's important to consider these costs against the advantages that the tests may bring.

Key Points
Assessing and appraising people is a highly complex and subjective process, and psychometric tests are a good way of objectively assessing people's "hidden" traits.

From recruitment to long-term career development, these tests provide a great deal of reliable information to make important personnel decisions. If you use the tests, ensure that they are appropriate for you needs, and that they've been rigorously evaluated.

ModernManagers is an affiliate of MindTools See our site for more.   www.modernmanagers.com

Modern Managers offers a turnkey supervisor training course that we have created so you can customize your leadership training needs to help the new supervisor gain a deeper understanding of leadership training elements that can be applied in everyday situations.

Our New Supervisor Training Program, an effective Leadership Development Course, and our Employee Handbook were designed especially for small businesses that do not have the time, resources or expertise to develop their own.

Our TurnKey New Supervisor Training Program product can be made specific to your company’s needs and helps new managers develop successful skills to effectively communicate, delegate and manage priorities to increase employee productivity, morale, work quality and accelerate their ability to focus their time and efforts on tasks that achieves results that are most important to the organization’s success.

Why write your own New Supervisor Training Program or an Employee Handbook when it's done for you? Pre-written course ware saves you time and money and helps you better prepare for classroom training with well-researched and proven course materials.  (ModernManagers.com HR in a Box)

A  turnkey handbook  that covers employee-related policies and benefits.  Make it your own merely by inserting key words, selecting alternative phrases, deleting segments that are not required or adding topics unique to your operation. Included is a power-point presentation that you can use to introduce your employees to your company products, customers, and community!

Motivating Yourself

Do you get excited about everything you need to do? Or do you sometimes need a bit of help to get started, never mind getting the task done?

Maybe you're continuing to ignore those overflowing filing cabinets, instead of taking some time out to reorganize them. Or, you're avoiding that difficult conversation with a person who is always late, choosing instead to tolerate the tardiness.

Perhaps you keep rearranging your priorities, so that the tasks you hate stay at the bottom of the list. The longer you delay doing something, the more stress and pressure you're likely to feel. After a while, you may even start to lose confidence in your ability to complete the task at all.

Many of us sometimes need help getting motivated. And it can be very frustrating when we know we have to do something, but we just can't get around to making a start.

So how can we motivate ourselves to do these things?

Motivation Basics
There are essentially two types of motivation:

• Intrinsic motivation - This is when you are motivated by internal factors to meet your own personal needs. Most hobbies and leisure activities are based on intrinsic motivation. We do them because we enjoy them, not because we have to.
• Extrinsic motivation - This is when you are motivated by external factors that are given or controlled by others, for example, by salary or by praise. Our jobs are usually based on extrinsic motivation, although there will be some intrinsic motivation involved if you enjoy aspects of what you do.

Most situations at work involve both types of motivation. If we do a job we enjoy, some of the work we do will be intrinsically motivating. Realistically though, we probably wouldn't go to work if we weren't being paid! Enjoying your job is intrinsically motivating, while being paid a good salary to do it is extrinsically motivating.

Even if we do a job we enjoy, problems can crop up where we need to do something that we don't inherently like - such as filing, speaking with staff about performance issues, completing reports, and so on. We have to do undesirable tasks as part of our job, so we have to find a way to motivate ourselves to complete them. That's where self-motivation is necessary.

To motivate yourself, you must examine and understand your needs, so that you know what you find valuable and rewarding. Then, by changing your environment and perspective, you can find the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to complete those undesirable tasks. So, rather than relying on other factors to make a task more rewarding, you make it more rewarding yourself.

Tip: Our articles on Alderfer's ERG Theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provide more information on understanding and examining your needs.

Self-Motivation Strategies
Just as there are two types of motivation, there are two main strategies for motivating yourself:

1. You make the task more intrinsically satisfying.
2. You provide your own extrinsic rewards.

Using a combination of both is often the most effective way to motivate yourself. So, you have to find further intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to get those undesirable tasks done. Here are some tactics that you can use motivate yourself:

• Change your attitude and approach to undesirable tasks - For example, the task of reorganizing your filing cabinet may not be motivating in itself. But being seen as a competent and organized person might provide intrinsic motivation for you. By thinking of filing in this way, for example, you can connect completing the task with meeting your needs.
• Think about why you do what you do - Sometimes you may start to think that your job is pointless, so why bother to do things? A great way to increase self-motivation is to list all of the positive outcomes of your job. If you're on the cleaning staff in a hospital, ultimately your job keeps patients safe from germs and disease. If you sell office equipment, you're helping people to work more efficiently.
• Set goals - By setting goals you'll know exactly what you need to do to achieve what you want in life. Then, by looking at this "bigger picture", you'll be able to see how those undesirable tasks can help you reach your goals, and you'll be able to see "what's in it for you" to complete these tasks.
• Break your tasks down into smaller pieces - Organizing the entire filing cabinet may be too large a task to do all at once. Start alphabetically, or with the first section of files. Then, when you complete the first group, you can use your success with the smaller tasks to motivate you to finish.
• Build in accountability - Tell you colleagues or manager about your task. It can help to motivate you if you know that someone else is expecting you to complete the task.
• Master time management - Learn to take control of your time, and create a schedule that helps you to do things more efficiently.
• Don't procrastinate - When low motivation and procrastination occur together, it can be doubly hard to get things done. See our article on beating procrastination for more on dealing with this.
• Reward yourself - Make an agreement with yourself to give yourself a reward when you complete a task. For example, buy yourself a specialty coffee for completing smaller tasks, or send yourself to the spa for a massage when you finish a major one.
• Scare yourself with the negative consequences of not doing it - If not doing the task is going to get you in trouble with your boss, focus on this, and scare yourself into doing it!
• Swap tasks with a colleague - Maybe you can trade your undesirable task with someone else who doesn't mind doing it, and you can do something for that person in return. Use each other's needs, interests and talents to work more efficiently.
• Surround yourself with positive thoughts and people - Positive thinking is very powerful. Just telling yourself that you can do something is often all you need to get started. And when you're around other positive people, they'll support and encourage you to keep trying.
• Create an accomplishment log - Use this to record all of the times when you were able to motivate yourself to complete a task or keep moving forward. The log can inspire you the next time you need some extra motivation.

Key Points:
Motivation is a complex subject, and motivating yourself can be difficult. By examining your needs, you can often change the way you view a task, and you can link completing it with something that's intrinsically satisfying. You can also provide your own rewards, and change how you approach undesirable tasks to provide more extrinsic motivation.

By using a combination of self-motivation tactics, you'll motivate yourself to get those undesirable tasks done. Then you can get on with the parts of your job that you really enjoy!

ModernManagers is an affiliate of MindTools See our site for more.   www.modernmanagers.com

Modern Managers offers a turnkey supervisor training course that we have created so you can customize your leadership training needs to help the new supervisor gain a deeper understanding of leadership training elements that can be applied in everyday situations.

Our New Supervisor Training Program, an effective Leadership Development Course, and our Employee Handbook were designed especially for small businesses that do not have the time, resources or expertise to develop their own.

Our TurnKey New Supervisor Training Program product can be made specific to your company’s needs and helps new managers develop successful skills to effectively communicate, delegate and manage priorities to increase employee productivity, morale, work quality and accelerate their ability to focus their time and efforts on tasks that achieves results that are most important to the organization’s success.

Why write your own New Supervisor Training Program or an Employee Handbook when it's done for you? Pre-written course ware saves you time and money and helps you better prepare for classroom training with well-researched and proven course materials.  (ModernManagers.com HR in a Box)

A  turnkey handbook  that covers employee-related policies and benefits.  Make it your own merely by inserting key words, selecting alternative phrases, deleting segments that are not required or adding topics unique to your operation. Included is a power-point presentation that you can use to introduce your employees to your company products, customers, and community!

Multitasking

Can It Help You Get More Done?  You're on the phone with a supplier, while quietly typing up notes about your previous phone call. As soon as you hang up, a colleague sends you an instant message, which you read over while dialing your manager's extension number. Then, during your phone conversation with her, you start updating your week's to-do list.

To boost our productivity, many of us multitask like this to some degree. And, in a world where the pace of life is often frantic, people who can multitask are typically seen as efficient and effective. After all, don't we get more done when we do more than one thing at a time?

Actually, multitasking often doesn't make us as productive as we think. What's more, it's likely that the quality of our work is worse when we multitask. In fact, it could actually be costing us time instead of creating it.
In this article we'll examine the issues associated with multitasking, and look at why we shouldn't do it. We'll also look at some suggestions to help you get out of the multitasking habit.

Multitasking and the Myth of Productivity
Many people have studied multitasking over the last decade, and most of them have come to the same conclusion: Multitasking doesn't make us more productive!
Several studies have found that multitasking can actually result in us wasting between 20 and 40 percent of our time, depending on what we're trying to do. Among these studies is the frequently quoted article, "Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching," published in 2001 in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Experimental Psychology.

The simple reason that multitasking doesn't work is because we can't actually focus on more than one task at a time. But we think we can - so we multitask to try and get more done.
Imagine trying to talk to someone and write an email at the same time. Both of these tasks involve communication. You can't speak to someone and write a really clear and focused email at the same time. The tasks are too conflicting - your mind gets overloaded as you try to switch between the two tasks.

Now think about listening to someone as you try to write an email. These two tasks are a bit easier to do together because they involve different skills. But your attention to the person will fade in and out as you're writing. You simply can't fully focus on both things at once.

The biggest problem with multitasking is that it can lower the quality of our work - we try to do two or more things at once, and the result is that we do everything less well than if we focused properly on each task in turn.
When we switch tasks, our minds must reorient to cope with the new information. If we do this rapidly, like when we're multitasking, we simply can't devote our full concentration and focus to every switch. So the quality of our work suffers. The more complex or technical the tasks we're switching between, the bigger the drop in quality is likely to be. For instance, it would be almost impossible to write a good-quality presentation while having an emotionally charged conversation with a co-worker!

Another major downside to multitasking is the effect it has on our stress levels. Dealing with multiple things at once makes us feel overwhelmed, drained, and frazzled.

On the other hand, think of how satisfied you feel when you devote your full attention to one task. You're able to focus, and you'll probably finish it feeling as if you've not only completed something, but done it well. This is called being in flow, and it's a skill that can be developed with some practice.

Spotting the Multitasking Tendency
It can be hard to identify when you're multitasking. But there are a few key indicators you can look for:

• If you have several pages or tabs open on your computer, then you're probably multitasking. The same goes for your desk - if you have several folders or papers out that you're working on, you may well be multitasking.
• Multitasking is more likely when you're working on a project or task you're not excited about. For instance, conducting a spreadsheet analysis might be an unwelcome task, so you might frequently check your email or do some research on a new assignment in order to lessen the pain of the current task.
• Frequent interruptions can also cause you to multitask. For instance, you might be writing your department's budget when a colleague comes into your office with a question for you. You then carry on trying to tinker with the budget as you answer their question.

How to Stop Multitasking
If we want to improve the quality of our work, lower our stress levels, and become more efficient, then we need get out of the multitasking habit. Here are some suggestions to help you cut back on multitasking:

• Plan your day in blocks. Set specific times for returning calls, answering emails, and doing research.
• Manage your interruptions. Keep a log showing who interrupts you the most, and how urgent the requests are. Once you've compiled a week's worth of interruptions, politely but assertively approach your colleagues with a view to managing and reducing their interruptions.
• Learn how to improve your concentration so that you can focus properly on one task at a time. Doing this may feel awkward at first if you frequently multitask. But you'll be surprised at how much you get done just by concentrating on one thing at a time.
• Every time you go to check your email or take a call when you're actually supposed to be doing something else, take a deep breath and resist the urge. Focus your attention back to what you're supposed to be doing.
• If you get an audible or visual alert when emails come in, turn this off. This can help you avoid the temptation to check your inbox whenever you get new mail.
• Whenever you find yourself multitasking, stop. Take five minutes to sit quietly at your desk with your eyes closed. Even short breaks like this can refocus your mind, lower your stress levels, and improve your concentration. Plus it can give your brain a welcome break during a hectic day.
• There will be times when something urgent comes up and you can't avoid interruptions. But instead of trying to multitask through these, stop and make a note of where you left your current task. Record any thoughts you had about how to move forward. Then deal with the immediate problem, before going back to what you were doing. This way you'll be able to handle both tasks well, and you'll leave yourself with some clues to help you restart the original task more quickly.
• If you find your mind wandering when you should be focusing on something else, you need to guide your thoughts back to what you are doing by putting yourself in the moment. For example, you might be sitting in an important team meeting, but thinking about a speech you'll be giving soon. Tell yourself, "I am in this meeting, and need to focus on what I'm learning here." Often, acknowledging the moment can help keep you focused.

Key Points:
Many of us think that multitasking is the best way to get through the demands of our working day. This is a myth! The reality is that multitasking lowers the quality of our work, reduces our ability to focus, and can actually cost us time.

It's important to stop multitasking as soon as you realize you're doing it. Schedule your day into blocks of time, try to minimize and manage interruptions, and work on improving your concentration.
Controlling your tendency to multitask could have surprising benefits. You probably find that you get more done, feel less stress, and have more energy at the end of the day.

ModernManagers is an affiliate of MindTools See our site for more.   www.modernmanagers.com

Modern Managers offers a turnkey supervisor training course that we have created so you can customize your leadership training needs to help the new supervisor gain a deeper understanding of leadership training elements that can be applied in everyday situations.

Our New Supervisor Training Program, an effective Leadership Development Course, and our Employee Handbook were designed especially for small businesses that do not have the time, resources or expertise to develop their own.

Our TurnKey New Supervisor Training Program product can be made specific to your company’s needs and helps new managers develop successful skills to effectively communicate, delegate and manage priorities to increase employee productivity, morale, work quality and accelerate their ability to focus their time and efforts on tasks that achieves results that are most important to the organization’s success.

Why write your own New Supervisor Training Program or an Employee Handbook when it's done for you? Pre-written course ware saves you time and money and helps you better prepare for classroom training with well-researched and proven course materials.  (ModernManagers.com HR in a Box)

A  turnkey handbook  that covers employee-related policies and benefits.  Make it your own merely by inserting key words, selecting alternative phrases, deleting segments that are not required or adding topics unique to your operation. Included is a power-point presentation that you can use to introduce your employees to your company products, customers, and community!

Taking Control of Your Day

How to Be Organized

"Time is really the only capital any human being has, and the one thing he can't afford to waste."
- American inventor Thomas Edison

Do you waste much time during your day due to disorganization?

Perhaps you spend 5 minutes searching for a misplaced file, another 5 looking for an email detailing an important meeting, and perhaps 10 minutes more finding today's to-do list, lost in the piles of papers on your desk.

Before you know it, you've spent an hour throughout the day looking for things you can't find. And that's just one day! Imagine how much time you're losing each week, each month, and each year!

Many people struggle with disorganization. And, while some think they can succeed amidst the chaos, this disorganization can end up costing a high price.

Disorganization can hold us back from getting the promotion we've always wanted. It can block our creativity, add stress to our lives, and prevent us from being as productive and effective as we could be.

In this article, we'll look at some strategies for getting organized, so that we can start living and working to our full potential.

Organizing Best Practices

• Use a notebook - One strategy that many organized people use is to work with a notebook. This notebook is like a "catch-all" for your thoughts and for what you do during the day.
  For instance, use your notebook to take notes when you're talking with a colleague or with a client on the phone. If you're working and need to remember to tell your boss something, write it down in your notebook. If you have a brainstorming session in the afternoon, your ideas can go in there too.
  The advantage of a notebook is that you capture all of your thoughts, conversations, and ideas in one place. Also, once things are written down, you don't have to waste mental energy remembering everything!
  It's helpful to start a new, dated page each day. This way, you can easily go back and find the information you need.
• Get organized during the first 15 minutes of your day - When you walk into the office in the morning, spend your first 15 minutes looking at what you need to do that day. Start with the "Next Actions" list from your Action Program, if you have one - or make a To-Do List, with your most important priorities at the top. This gives you a solid grasp of which tasks you need to complete first, and which you can complete later in the afternoon.
  During this organization time, knowing when you do your best work can also be helpful. Find out more with our article "Is This a Morning Task?"
• Clear your desktop - Your desktop can often become a "catch-all" zone. There are old papers, future projects, files you're currently using, and a pile of papers you simply haven't put away yet. Although some people feel they work better with a cluttered desk, it's distracting and inhibiting for many of us.
  If you want to get organized, then clearing your desktop is a smart strategy. This can be a time-consuming task, so it might be best to work on this at the end of the day or at the weekend.
  Start by clearing everything off of your desk. File papers and reports that you've finished using, and recycle anything you don't need. Office supplies should go in a drawer or cabinet.
  The items that are left are probably files and paperwork that you currently need.
• Create an "action area" on your desk - Use this area for the materials you need to complete the project you're currently working on. As soon as you complete each "action," clear this area off to get ready for your next task.
• Organize supplies or files you use often - The more often you use something, the closer it should be to you. Arrange your desk for usefulness, not for the way it looks.
  How do you keep your desk organized? Spend five minutes at the end of each day clearing off your desk and keeping it organized. This way, you can come into work the next day with a clear, organized surface.

Organizing Tools

We live in a time of some amazing technology. Let's use it to get organized!

• Use digital calendars or planners - Many people use these to help organize their schedules. These can be very helpful for keeping you on task!
  For instance, many digital calendars, like Outlook and iCal, allow you to color-code tasks. You could use red for urgent, green for extended deadlines, and blue for low-priority tasks. Color-coding your day helps you quickly see what you need to do first.
• Use a spreadsheet to track your progress - Spreadsheets are helpful because you can use conditional formatting that alerts you when tasks are getting close to their deadlines. As a result, you can see at a glance which items are, or are not, on schedule. This is especially helpful when you're working with a team, and when you have to be aware of people's progress.

Organizing Tricks

• Offer yourself a reward - If you're finding it difficult to stay organized, try offering yourself a reward. For instance, if you complete four things on your to-do list, reward yourself with a cup of coffee, or with 10 minutes of free time to surf the web.
• Use one calendar - If you enter some things in your PDA, some things on your desk planner, and some on a calendar at home, then you're probably going to miss key appointments and tasks.
• Schedule small tasks - If a task or project requires action beforehand (like picking up bagels and coffee for the staff meeting), then schedule these related tasks into your planner as well. This helps you set aside enough time to get everything done.
• Scan your documents - If you don't like having an office with lots of filing cabinets, then why not scan all of your documents and store them on your computer? If you have a personal assistant, this would be a great task to delegate. If not, then try scanning a few documents every day, and eventually scan all project documents over the long-term.
• Choose organizing tools that you like - Pick products that appeal to you on a visual or emotional level. For example, if you decide to start using a notebook on a daily basis, then purchase a nice one that you really like. When your tools are visually appealing and comfortable, you're more likely to use them.

Key Points

Disorganization can cost you career advancement, decrease your productivity, and add stress to your life. Devoting time and effort to getting organized can help you tremendously in the long run.

Start by using a notebook on a regular basis to keep track of conversations, ideas, and reminders. And begin every day with a clean desk and an organized to-do list. Use technology to keep your schedule and projects running smoothly. Features like color coding and audio alarms can help you ensure that you don't miss appointments or deadlines.

ModernManagers is an affiliate of MindTools See our site for more.   www.modernmanagers.com

Modern Managers offers a turnkey supervisor training course that we have created so you can customize your leadership training needs to help the new supervisor gain a deeper understanding of leadership training elements that can be applied in everyday situations.

Our New Supervisor Training Program, an effective Leadership Development Course, and our Employee Handbook were designed especially for small businesses that do not have the time, resources or expertise to develop their own.

Our TurnKey New Supervisor Training Program product can be made specific to your company’s needs and helps new managers develop successful skills to effectively communicate, delegate and manage priorities to increase employee productivity, morale, work quality and accelerate their ability to focus their time and efforts on tasks that achieves results that are most important to the organization’s success.

Why write your own New Supervisor Training Program or an Employee Handbook when it's done for you? Pre-written course ware saves you time and money and helps you better prepare for classroom training with well-researched and proven course materials.  (ModernManagers.com HR in a Box)

A  turnkey handbook  that covers employee-related policies and benefits.  Make it your own merely by inserting key words, selecting alternative phrases, deleting segments that are not required or adding topics unique to your operation. Included is a power-point presentation that you can use to introduce your employees to your company products, customers, and community!

Choosing the Right Time to Expand Your Team

When to Create a New Role

Has your team had too much to do lately? Are people increasingly stressed, because of the volume of work they must complete?
Or perhaps sales forecasts show that volumes will increase dramatically. You're getting nervous: if this happens, you won't have enough people in place to handle the resulting workload.

So how do you know when to hire new workers? After all, there's a lot to think about before you take new people on!

In this article, we'll look at when to consider creating a new role, and what you need to analyze before making the investment. At the end of each section, we'll give an action step that will help you make the best decision for your situation.

When NOT to Create a New Role
Hiring a team member at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons can waste a lot of money. There are several factors that do not justify a permanent addition to your team:

• Seasonal increases in workload - If your team is overworked at specific times of the year, then hire temporary help to relieve the workload.
• One-time or unusual projects - If your people are responsible for delivering an unusually large project that's outside either the type or volume of "business as usual" work, then consider using contractors to meet this temporary change in staffing requirements. You can use contractors to do the project work itself, or you can use them to do the regular work of your permanent staff, whose expertise you need to deliver the project.
• Sick or vacationing team members - Again, temporary staffing can help fill these gaps.
• Complaining staff members - If people on your team complain about their workload, then make sure they're managing their time well. You can fix poor time management much more easily than hiring someone new to do some of their work.

When to Consider a New Role
So, what does justify creating a new job in your organization?

• Consistent work overload - The main indicator that your people need extra help is that they're consistently overloaded with tasks and projects. If they work hard and manage their time effectively, then adding a role will increase your team's productivity as well as reducing stress.
• Regular use of contractors - Do you already use a lot of temporary workers, contractors, or freelancers? If you regularly hire outside help, this could mean that you need a permanent person.
  However, it's important to consider the costs of this move. On one hand, if you hire contractors and freelancers, you can get rid of them as soon as you don't need them. On the other hand, they often cost more per hour than your permanent staff, and they generally don't know your organization as well. Analyzing the hidden costs as well as the more obvious ones will help you decide whether to use contractors or create new, permanent roles to get the best overall value for money.
• Improvements in the economy - The state of the economy is important when creating new roles. Many organizations restructure and downsize their teams during a recession. When things begin to improve, they often want to rehire. But it's not necessarily that simple! If a role was eliminated, there might be laws that determine when it can be reactivated, so talk to your HR department early in your decision-making process. They'll be able to advise you on whether you can create a new permanent role, and what the scope of the role can and cannot be.
• Time spent on tasks that don't need your expertise - Your own schedule and tasks can determine if you need additional help. If you spend most of your day performing tasks that could easily be done by someone less skilled (and therefore cheaper), then creating a new role could actually help you increase revenue or productivity. This would free some of your time to focus on more profitable tasks and strategies.

When and How to Structure Team Growth
You have three options for creating a new role:

• Option 1: Hire in advance - Here, you proactively hire someone before your team gets really busy. This is risky, because if the expected increase in workload doesn't materialize, then you'll be overstaffed, and you'll be exposed to all of the extra costs that go with this. However, hiring in advance allows you to train new people before workloads increase, so that you can maintain turnaround times and quality levels.
• Option 2: Wait until the need is obvious - If you wait until work volumes increase to a level where people are over-stretched, then you'll have to recruit and train during a very busy time. And by the time your new worker is well-enough trained to be effective, you'll have risked upsetting existing staff because they're overworked and stressed.
• Option 3: Compromise with a "halfway" plan - Here you hire someone part time. The advantage of this is that you can expand your team by a smaller number of hours each week. The disadvantage is that the person you hire will probably want to work only part time - and if your work levels continue to increase, you won't be able to use the new person's growing expertise and skills on a full-time basis.

If this is the case, you can hire another part-time worker, or you can eliminate the part-time role and hire a full-time person. Although these two options give you more flexibility, they'll take more time and training, and they'll disrupt your team.

You could also hire someone to fill two roles, dividing his or her time, if you don't have quite enough work in just one role. This can be an effective solution in the short term. However it often isn't sustainable over the long term, partly because it's hard to find a replacement who is capable of performing both tasks, and partly because people can tend to gravitate towards the roles they most enjoy, and neglect less appealing ones.

Using the HR Department
In all but the smallest organizations, there are usually protocols to follow when creating a new role. If you need approval from HR, then you must follow their procedures.
Every organization is different, so it's impossible to list the exact HR steps to follow. However, you'll probably need to do the following:

• Calculate the cost of the new team member, and identify the source of the money.
• Provide a business case for the new role.
• Write a detailed job description for the new role.

Key Points
Creating a new role takes time and careful thought. Start by identifying why you or your team needs help. If you have a temporary increase in workload, or if several workers are out sick or on vacation, then hire temporary help. If business forecasts show a big increase in the near future, then carefully consider your two main options: hiring now to train the new team member, or waiting until business has already increased.

If your organization requires HR approval, then make sure you have the budget for a new role, write a detailed job description, and learn about other HR requirements for the approval process.

Modern Managers offers a turnkey supervisor training course that we have created so you can customize your leadership training needs to help the new supervisor gain a deeper understanding of leadership training elements that can be applied in everyday situations.

Our New Supervisor Training Program, an effective Leadership Development Course, and our Employee Handbook were designed especially for small businesses that do not have the time, resources or expertise to develop their own.

Our TurnKey New Supervisor Training Program product can be made specific to your company’s needs and helps new managers develop successful skills to effectively communicate, delegate and manage priorities to increase employee productivity, morale, work quality and accelerate their ability to focus their time and efforts on tasks that achieves results that are most important to the organization’s success.

Why write your own New Supervisor Training Program or an Employee Handbook when it's done for you? Pre-written course ware saves you time and money and helps you better prepare for classroom training with well-researched and proven course materials.  (ModernManagers.com HR in a Box)

A  turnkey handbook  that covers employee-related policies and benefits.  Make it your own merely by inserting key words, selecting alternative phrases, deleting segments that are not required or adding topics unique to your operation. Included is a power-point presentation that you can use to introduce your employees to your company products, customers, and community!

Leading is an Art

There is honor, discipline, talent, and individuality in it. It is unfortunate that in many companies, management teams have no clear understanding of how to lead. Keep in mind; even the largest corporations have CEO's that do not know how to effectively manage others.

Leadership Development Programs, courses and workshops that will definitely be of great help when it comes to that business. Such programs will help you gain higher self-esteem and confidence in oneself.

Everyone has the capacity to lead, but not everyone responds to this.

Leadership Trait # 1: Being a Good Follower

A good team leader is a good follower. After all, how can your team look up to you if you yourself dont have any respect for the authority? You’re supposed to be the prime example of how a person should behave.

Besides, there are certain disciplines that come with being a good follower. For example, a manager who has gone through the hardships of serving coffee at a popular coffee ship will be able to immediately pinpoint his teams weakness (if any) and how the overall operation can be improved, as opposed to someone who has never even made coffee.

Knowing what your followers are going through makes you all the more effective as a team leader.

Leadership Trait # 2: Being Self-Motivated

What makes a good team leader is self-motivation. Nobody’s going to mollycoddle when your team starts operation. Nobody’s going to be there to hold your hand and uplift your spirits.

That’s your job! You’re the one who always needs to be motivated so that you, in turn, can motivate your team.

Leadership Trait # 3: Being a Good Communicator

Good communication makes a good team leader. It’s a two-way street. You have to know how to give out orders clearly and efficiently. Should you fail to do this, your operation will most likely end up half-baked. And who do you think will be responsible for that?

On the other hand, you also have to know how to listen well. Your team might have ideas that are worth listening to. Or they might have something important to say. Being a good listener enables you to understand where each member of your team is coming from and how they think.

Knowing what makes a good team leader is just the first step. Applying these principles into your everyday life is another. There are times when being a good leader can be trying. But that’s all part of the process.

Leaders don’t live like kings because they’re too busy making sure that their team is operating like a well-oiled machine. However, effective leaders are also greatly rewarded for all their hard work.

A great leader is not noticed for the title, but for the ability to motivate the team consistently; one who is always searching for new ways to motivate and improve standards.

Some companies opt to not send their employees to a conference, but to have training in house. The bottom line is to keep their employees in the company atmosphere while learning and applying their new education on the spot.

Some say that a leadership development program is the road map to success. Leadership is not just something you prepare for on the outside. Those chosen must establish the self motivation to show the very best of themselves. It is not possible for someone to effectively lead others if they cannot lead themselves. Set examples by doing.

Leadership Training are put in place for the high level leaders that need additional training and have proven very successful. One of the best ways to ensure you have the best leadership team around is to put the education out there for them to grab.

Modern Managers offers a turnkey supervisor training course that we have created so you can customize your leadership training needs to help the new supervisor gain a deeper understanding of leadership training elements that can be applied in everyday situations.

Our New Supervisor Training Program, an effective Leadership Development Course, and our Employee Handbook were designed especially for small businesses that do not have the time, resources or expertise to develop their own.

Our TurnKey New Supervisor Training Program product can be made specific to your company’s needs and helps new managers develop successful skills to effectively communicate, delegate and manage priorities to increase employee productivity, morale, work quality and accelerate their ability to focus their time and efforts on tasks that achieves results that are most important to the organization’s success.

Why write your own New Supervisor Training Program or an Employee Handbook when it's done for you? Pre-written course ware saves you time and money and helps you better prepare for classroom training with well-researched and proven course materials.  (ModernManagers.com HR in a Box)

A  turnkey handbook  that covers employee-related policies and benefits.  Make it your own merely by inserting key words, selecting alternative phrases, deleting segments that are not required or adding topics unique to your operation. Included is a power-point presentation that you can use to introduce your employees to your company products, customers, and community!

Follow the Leader

Who is the most important person in your life? YOU should be the most important person in your life. Through the ages of time the question constantly surfaces, do I have to be born a leader or can I be taught?

Believe it or not most of the general population is like a chameleon, they blend in with their surroundings. Our physiological condition affects us and those around us, we feel comfortable in being in the company of individuals like ourselves.

Have you ever heard of success breeds success? It is a proven philosophy many embrace. When you are successful you tend to be more optimistic. Optimism and action provides results. So the action you need to take if you want to be successful, surround yourself with successful people.

Self confidence is needed so as to enable a person to find a middle ground; to create balance and harmony. When you feel self-confident you are able to stand up for yourself in a comfortable manner. There is no need to over-compensate, nor a fear of doing or saying something which might be considered wrong.

A confident person feels comfortable to disagree or to agree to differ. A person who lacks self confidence will, in contrast, run the risk of silently disagreeing whilst at the same time thinking that nobody listens; unless you speak up, nobody will hear you. Perhaps they are listening, perhaps they are not. But it is up to you to get them to listen.

The old theory of "follow the leader" comes into play here; we all played this game as kids. Remember how fun and easy it was to just follow someone? Do you want to be a leader or a follower?

Steps to Leadership:

1. Know your current status as a leader- Ask your current team what they think about your leadership style. Tell them why you are asking and how their honest feedback can help you in helping them.
2. Be available- Your team will have opportunities at work and home, be available to lend an ear. Don't interrupt, and be sincere in the feedback you give. Don't try to solve their problems unless they are asking for solutions.
3. Positive Communication- You are looked upon to be the positive person in the group. As leaders we are always give the opportunity to deliver information. How you deliver this information has a huge impact on how the team accepts the information. Find the silver lining of a situation or information before you deliver to the team.
4. Leads by Example- Never ask a team member to do something you aren't willing to do yourself. If you see something falling apart, be willing to jump in and help. This shows your team that you feel you are not better than they are.
5. Delegate Your Responsibilities- People always want to feel like they are moving forward, who says it feel good to go backwards? As you share some of your responsibilities it shows your team members you trust them and rely on their abilities.
6. Develop the team- Work with your team on a daily basis if possible, focus on building their skills, and show them they have the ability to do so much more. Remember success attracts success. When your team members are successful, the team is successful, and you are successful.

Modern Managers offers a turnkey supervisor training course that we have created so you can customize your leadership training needs to help the new supervisor gain a deeper understanding of leadership training elements that can be applied in everyday situations.

Our New Supervisor Training Program, an effective Leadership Development Course, and our Employee Handbook were designed especially for small businesses that do not have the time, resources or expertise to develop their own.

Our TurnKey New Supervisor Training Program product can be made specific to your company’s needs and helps new managers develop successful skills to effectively communicate, delegate and manage priorities to increase employee productivity, morale, work quality and accelerate their ability to focus their time and efforts on tasks that achieves results that are most important to the organization’s success.

Why write your own New Supervisor Training Program or an Employee Handbook when it's done for you? Pre-written course ware saves you time and money and helps you better prepare for classroom training with well-researched and proven course materials.  (ModernManagers.com HR in a Box)

A  turnkey handbook  that covers employee-related policies and benefits.  Make it your own merely by inserting key words, selecting alternative phrases, deleting segments that are not required or adding topics unique to your operation. Included is a power-point presentation that you can use to introduce your employees to your company products, customers, and community!

Effective Communication by New Supervisors

Leadership Training offers both background knowledge and the practical help you need to create strong leadership training at all levels within the organization. Training is designed to be a practical, hands-on roadmap to help you quickly develop training in key new supervisors areas.

Increasing productivity often starts with reassessing and eliminating bad habits you have develop over time. The more you 'put things off' the more 'clutter' accumulates which will then challenge your ability to make the best use of time.

In any relationship communication is incredibly important. And not just between two individual people, but in any kind of relationship between one or more people, the ultimate success of the relationship depends upon effective communication.

What is effective communication?

Effective communication is the practice of conveying information in such a way that the recipient understands it in the specific way desired by the other party.

For example, it can be logical information, such as a boss instructing an employee on exactly what needs to be done for a specific task. Or it could be emotional information, as in the case of a person communicating to their partner how he or she feels about something.

Whatever the case is, communication is important because it allows both parties to CONNECT with each other and understand one another.

If you're trying to tell me something in a language I don't understand, how can we ever develop the rapport that is required for even the most basic relationships?

One fascinating thing is that there IS a language that almost everyone understands, regardless of their spoken language, age, gender or intelligence: emotions.

Even babies can be quite intuitive when deciphering emotional cues from their parents. And everyone can relate to emotions because we have probably experienced most of them throughout our life experiences.

Now how does this relate to communicating effectively with people?

Well, whenever you communicate with someone in person, there is much more information being conveyed than simply the words you are pronouncing. In fact, scientists believe that around 93% of communication is completely non-verbal!

What does this mean?

It means that when we communicate, there are literally thousands of little things you are transmitting to the other person, as well as picking up from him or her. Things such as vocal tonality, vocal pitch, speech rate, eye movement, posture, body language, mannerisms, etc. are all sending very clear signals about what kind of emotions you are experiencing.

Have you ever been communicating with someone, and it was almost like there was this weird dissonance...almost like they were saying one thing, but it FELT like the exact opposite at the same time?

This type of thing occurs when someone's emotions are not in alignment with what they're actually saying.

To be an effective communicator, the first step is to know exactly what we want to communicate. If you're trying convey information, how are you supposed to do that when you're not entirely sure what you want to convey?

After we know exactly what we want to communicate, we have to understand the other person's perspective. For example, if you want to teach someone complex mathematical operations and they can barely perform simple arithmetic, then you can't just skip ahead to the advanced theories -- you have to explain it to them in a way where it will be possible for them to follow along.

This leads to the last point. After you know exactly what you want to communicate and you understand the other person's perspective. You want to communicate your message in the simplest, most concise way possible, so that the recipient can fully grasp what you are saying.

Modern Managers offers a turnkey supervisor training course that we have created so you can customize your leadership training needs to help the new supervisor gain a deeper understanding of leadership training elements that can be applied in everyday situations.

Our New Supervisor Training Program, an effective Leadership Development Course, and our Employee Handbook were designed especially for small businesses that do not have the time, resources or expertise to develop their own.

Our TurnKey New Supervisor Training Program product can be made specific to your company’s needs and helps new managers develop successful skills to effectively communicate, delegate and manage priorities to increase employee productivity, morale, work quality and accelerate their ability to focus their time and efforts on tasks that achieves results that are most important to the organization’s success.

Why write your own New Supervisor Training Program or an Employee Handbook when it's done for you? Pre-written course ware saves you time and money and helps you better prepare for classroom training with well-researched and proven course materials.  (ModernManagers.com HR in a Box)

A  turnkey handbook  that covers employee-related policies and benefits.  Make it your own merely by inserting key words, selecting alternative phrases, deleting segments that are not required or adding topics unique to your operation. Included is a power-point presentation that you can use to introduce your employees to your company products, customers, and community!