Supervisor's Playbook: Track the Work

Tackle that feeling of overwhelm using a practice, simple tool.

Situation:
Overloaded with tasks. Getting delegated to from multiple sources and you suspect someone may be overloading you.

Bonus:

Helps you prioritize based on who assigned the work
Allows you to add and identify what you own because you assigned it (to yourself OR to others)

How it works:

Add a column for "Per" for the person who assigned you the task.

For example:

Priority Scale:

A = Urgent, important, and due today

B = Important but not urgent

C = Not due soon, more tactical than strategic

D = Delegate or delete these

Additional Uses:

A way to show the people who assign you work how much they assign you and also what else you are working on.
Makes you assign a realistic priority value instead of calling everything an A (urgent AND important.)
When deployed among your team you can see if the distribution of work is optimal or needs adjusting.

-- doug smith

Comments

Keep your choices open

Have you ever felt like a prisoner to your own emotions? The feelings can be so strong that they flood your being with an almost paralysis. I have found myself wandering away from a situation because my emotions were pushing so hard, even though a better choice would have been to stay, get those emotions under control, breathe, and choose. Once a bad emotion has sent you its warning, it's best to send it on its way. Emotions can drive us, but don't need to. Feel it, pause, and step away. Keep all of your choices open. -- doug smith

Move Ahead

There are so many parts of my past that I would love to fix. Thinking about them doesn't help and won't fix them. The best I can do is to reflect on the lessons learned and do better next time. How about you? If we could fix the last we'd break it in brand new ways. The price of being imperfect is a glorious one: constant learning. That's not so bad after all. -- doug smith

Collaborate

Working together is not over-rated. Even the sharpest of minds miss some important details. Even the strongest of leaders needs a team to lead. Truly collaborating means accepting that sometimes your point of view is flawed, and is almost always incomplete. Staying open to the ideas of others, while working in the same direction on a unified mission, creates a path for success. The art of leadership benefits from collaboration. -- doug smith

Positive Solutions

Problems need not prevent positive outcomes. It's what we do with them that matters. -- doug smith

Team Talk

The most powerful team building tool is talk. Talk with each team member and talk together as a team. Communication is the most powerful skill to practice. -- doug smith

Misunderstood

It's frustrating to be misunderstood. It is well worth working on our communication skills in order to minimize misunderstandings because they lead to hardships and hard feelings. But, do you know some one who just seems to always misunderstand your message, or your intention? It's almost as if they are missing the point on purpose. They probably are not -- there's just some filter in the way. Some people will misunderstand you no matter how clearly you speak. Reframe, rephrase, re-try...it's not worth letting the misunderstanding stand. -- doug smith

Multiple Solutions

That extra tough problem might need multiple solutions -- in fact, its probably does. -- doug smith

Maybe Start With A Smile...

How do you react when you meet someone new? They're not new to the world, of course, just to you but that's new enough, isn't it? What if they disagree with you? What if you're on different sides of an issue? What if you don't know? People desire respect. When respect is lacking, we know it right away, don't we? And when we withhold our own respect it stands to reason that others know that right away, too. But if we start with respect -- if we start with the idea that every person we meet has value -- it becomes easier to interact meaningfully and maybe even share common ground. When we connect with respect we dramatically increase our chances of communicating effectively. I'll do my best to practice that today -- how about you? -- doug smith

Build The Right Connections

Build the connections that strengthen your team and release the ones that tether your team to trouble. What we hold tight might not be what we need now. Deliberate connection just might take your full attention. -- doug smith

An Artist's Palette

The art of leadership includes a palette of patience, passion, and persistence. That will likely take practice, too. -- doug smith

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