A Newsletter from Harvard Business School Publishing

harvard

management update
ARTICLE REPRINT NO. U0506E

Resist the Urge to Overreach

and Win Back Valuable Time
by Paul Michelman

For a complete list of Harvard Business

School Publishing newsletters:
http://newsletters.harvardbusinessonline.org

For reprint and subscription information

for Harvard Management Update:
Call 800-988-0866 or 617-783-7500
http://hmu.harvardbusinessonline.org

For customized and quantity orders of reprints:

Call 617-783-7626 Fax 617-783-7658
For permission to copy or republish:
Call 617-783-7587

Executive Toolkit
by Paul Michelman

Resist the Urge to Overreach

and Win Back Valuable Time

our ability to use your time as

effectively as possible is jeopardized at every turn. New
priorities spring up like dandelions in
May. Strategies shift, market conditions change, and unforeseeable crises demand immediate responses.
But if you look closely, youll see
that most time-management problems dont arise from such external
factors but rather from internal ones:
they stem from deeply embedded individual habits, which, thankfully,
can be corrected.
One of the most nefarious time
robbers is overreaching. Many ambitious and dedicated managers take on
new tasks without thinking about
how theyll actually get the work
done. Their desire to confront new
challenges and build their organizational value blinds them to the realities of their workload. In the end,
they accomplish nothing well.
With the help of Managers Toolkit:
The 13 Skills Managers Need to Succeed (Harvard Business School Press,
2004), we look at how to defeat several of the most common manifestations of overreaching.

Know your key responsibilities,

and focus on your top-priority
goals and tasks
With continually shifting strategies
and top organizational priorities, this
is no easy task. Once a week, look at
your current to-dos and prioritize
them based on which have the biggest
potential impact on the short- and
long-term goals of your unit, your
company, and your career.

Also, consider which could have

the biggest negative impact if they
dont get done. It never hurts to have
a sounding board in this effort. Look
to colleagues, managers, and even
direct reports for their thoughts and
input from time to time.

Learn to delegate effectively

The experts offer a couple of suggestions: when making assignments,
think about the match between employees skills and the tasks youre
giving them, and make sure you are
directing employees to the resources
that will help them.
As many effective managers will
attest, asking trumps telling in the art
of delegation. Engage an employee in
a new assignment with questions
such as, What do you think should
be done?
This also conditions employees to
come up with solutions to problems
on their own instead of always passing problems on to you.

Resist the urge to step in and

take over because someone isnt
doing his job or not doing it to
your standards

but keep the burden of producing

the desired result on the shoulders
of the person to whom you gave the
assignment.
If, with proper direction, an employee cannot deliver what you need,
then youve learned something valuable about that employees capabilitiessomething that can save you a
lot of time in the long run.

Dont assume that everything

has to be done
Some things arent important, but its
true that everything is important to
someone. When deciding to let a
project fall by the wayside (or even
when moving it to the back burner),
its critical that you articulate to
stakeholders why you are doing so.

Learn to say no when added

responsibilities threaten your
effectiveness
As with the previous point, saying
no is a lot easier when you can articulate why youre doing so. The why of
saying no becomes clear once you
consider the consequences of saying
yesnamely, destroying your ability
to get higher-priority jobs done
on time.
This can make for a difficult
conversation, especially if senior
managers have a stake in a particular
assignment. So make sure your response is specific and couched in
the language of company strategy.

This is a tough one, particularly in

the face of the kind of pressure most
of us experience today, but it will save
a great deal of time in the long run if
you resist the urge to take over and
fix things.
Instead, provide the support employees need to improve their own
performance. Serve as a sounding
board, ask probing questions, and
lead someone in a new direction,

Copyright 2005 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.