How to be an Effective Staff Member
How the principles of "Managing Management Time"™ can make individuals more "Effective Staff Members"
The Real World
Not everyone is in an organizational setting where they have direct reports. Many in specialized professions such as engineers, doctors, accountants, lawyers, technicians, and various other individual contributors have no desire to be in “management” positions. However, everyone is a “subordinate”, that is, accountable to someone – a “boss” — for both what they are doing and how they are going about it.
Individuals in those professions worked hard to earn their credentials and gain on-the-job experience, and want to exercise their competencies through self-directed actions on the job. Oncken’s First Law states that “what you know will not get off the ground without the active support of who you know.” In other words, no one is “an island” unto themselves. Everyone needs the support and backing of their boss, chain-of-command, and peers to accomplish their daily tasks, to meet their goals and objectives.
Our “How to be an Effective Staff Member Seminar” specifically addresses how to get the necessary backing and support. Drawn from our MMT seminar, it illustrates the organizational problems we all face in this regard, and how to implement the most practical solutions.
Our Approach
Understanding the Problems. Why “Plan-your-work, then work-your-plan” often doesn’t work in management.
Bosses Can Cause Time-Management Problems: Though not necessarily the most frequent nor the most severe disrupter of your time, your bosses can be the principle disrupter because they have final say as to your priorities.
Peers Are Also Part Of The Problem: Unless you get three-point landings—what you want, when and where you want it—from your peers, you have time-management problems.
Implementing the Solutions. A new formula for becoming an effective staff member: “Get control of the timing and content of what you do!”
Managing Your Boss. Right or wrong, your boss’ anxieties are the source of his impositions on your time. Your strategy is to maximize your discretionary time by minimizing his anxieties concerning not just what you are doing but also how you are going about it. Completed-Staff-Work is one of the primary tools discussed here.
Managing Your Peers. Since you are dependent on other people in the organization for the necessary support to get your job done, you can recapture more of your discretionary time—and thus further maximize your effectiveness—by getting the system to work for you before it succeeds in enslaving you to it.
Prerequisite
There is no prerequisite requirement.
Our Invitation To You
To make our How To be An Effective Staff Member™ course an integral part of your organizational culture, contact us about conducting on-site Seminars at your company location.