Because managers face many, many and complicated things every day, in so many complicated jobs, the more managers need to cultivate the quality of concentration, especially those very important jobs, the more they need to devote themselves to doing a lot of complete time, and only in this way can they achieve good results.
I believe you have had a similar experience. When you are dealing with a job that requires concentration, if you are interrupted in the middle, you need to take time to find your thoughts when you return to this job. When dealing with work that takes a long time, such as communicating effectively with subordinates and making plans, two to three hours without interruption is often more effective than one day without interruption.
? It is easier to understand "only do one thing at a time". So how to judge what is "important"
In this book, Drucker does not give a clear answer, but the author still gives a thinking angle to judge what is important.
The first is to give up jobs that no longer generate value, such as products and services that no longer meet the needs of today's market. For example, once a mobile phone giant, Nokia's mobile phone sales accounted for 40% of the market share when it was brilliant, but when Apple launched the first generation of smart phones in 2007, Nokia did not realize the crisis. Google is still reluctant to give up its Symbian operating system after launching the Android operating system for mobile phones. In 2008, we cooperated with Intel to develop mobile phone operating system, and in 20 1 1 year, we cooperated with Microsoft to re-develop mobile phone operation.
Secondly, Drucker talked about the important principles of determining priorities in the book, including:
1, focusing on the future rather than the past;
2. Pay attention to opportunities, not just difficulties;
3. Choose your own direction instead of following blindly;
4. Be ambitious and innovative, not just for safety and convenience.
I once coached a manager. I called her Xiao A. Once she asked me if I wanted to accept the opportunity to take charge of a department independently, because her leader thought she was well prepared. However, she hesitated. The new position requires her to be transferred to another factory under the group, far from home. In addition, she heard that another employee in the new department wanted to compete for this position and failed. She is worried that she will not be able to handle the old employee when she goes.
According to my experience, I feel that the small hesitation is more scared by the immediate difficulties. I didn't discuss the current situation with her directly, but guided her to see her career direction clearly. In this process, she saw that her future vision is to be an independent, capable and powerful manager. At the same time, she also realized that she had the experience of being responsible for small departments independently. As long as she makes the right decision and takes it seriously, she has the ability to face this new challenge. Finally, she decided to seize the opportunity given by the leader.
It can be seen from this case that when making decisions, it is more based on the future direction and opportunities than the immediate difficulties.
The two cases just now, one is about the strategic direction choice of the organization, and the other is about the personal career direction choice. Friends may say that we seldom encounter the situations in these two examples in our work. Then, in our daily work, how can we practice the two principles of time management "priority of important things" and "only do one thing at a time"?
You should be familiar with the tool "Time Management Matrix".
We divide our work into four quadrants, and each quadrant has two dimensions: urgency and importance.
What is both important and urgent is the first kind of affairs; Important but not urgent is the second kind of business;
What is unimportant but urgent is the third kind of business; What is neither important nor urgent is the fourth business.
What is important and urgent is the crisis, which requires us to put out the fire, and the pressure is great. This kind of thing is too big and consumes energy. It's easy to get yourself into a situation where you don't have the energy to think about whether what you want to do is important, because you did it in an emergency. Important and non-urgent things will be delayed again and again, and managers will be busy putting out fires all day.
Many years ago, I was promoted from the head of a single department of a company to the head of the human resources department of another subsidiary of the group, and my responsibilities extended to the whole module of human resources; The number of subordinates has also increased a lot, because it is a new department, the ability and professional habits of department employees are also mixed, and team members still despise each other. I remember that for half a year, I was in a hurry and often had to work overtime until late to go home. Although I can finish my work by working overtime every day, I am more and more anxious because I don't know my role and goals in different jobs and lack serious thinking about priorities.
This kind of working and living condition made me exhausted, and it was not until I began to adjust my planning method that my work gradually got on the right track. Below, I will briefly introduce my own practice:
First, list the important work of the week every week, and refine it on the basis of the weekly plan every day;
Every day after work, I will sort out the work plan for the next day, listing all the things to be completed, as well as my role, the phased goals I hope to achieve, the resources and time requirements I need.
Second, make clear which tasks I have to complete, choose 1-3 tasks I have to complete, and arrange the appropriate time period for the next day to ensure effective output;
Third, for those tasks that can be completed by subordinates, arrange them through effective authorization.
In terms of task arrangement, for those with strong ability, I will define specific goals, requirements and results measurement standards, and ask my subordinates to give regular feedback;
For those with weak ability, we should not only explain the requirements, but also give clear guidance and task standards, and follow up the counseling in time during the process. This part belongs to the scope of work guidance. If you are interested, I can share it later.
After the plan is set, I will push forward the work as planned the next day and adjust it in time when the situation changes. At the end of each day, I will review the completion of the work that day and put the work that needs to be followed up into the follow-up plan.
After doing this, I am very clear about my daily work, which work should be done by me and which is the responsibility of my subordinates, and my role in it is very clear. By changing my habits a little, I can devote more energy to some important but not urgent work, and my work output and subordinates' growth are much better than when I am doing it myself.
The key to effective self-management and effective management of others through empowerment is not skills, tools or other external factors. The center of this kind of effective management is internal, which is a mindset centered on the second kind of affairs, allowing you to observe everything from the importance rather than urgency. If you can put this habit into daily practice, believe me, your work and life will be different, perhaps more efficient, perhaps more clear and firm inside. Invite your friends to practice in person and find the answer about yourself.