Episode 271 Transcript:

In this episode we’re going to talk about time management.

Here are the two questions. This podcast answers. One, how do you successfully transition into your first official leadership role? And two, how do you keep climbing that leadership ladder and continuously get promoted, 

although the competition and the expectations get bigger. This show with a manager track podcast will provide the answers. I’m your host, Ramona Shaw. 

I’m on a mission to create workplaces where work is seen as a source of contribution, connection and personal fulfillment. And this transition starts with developing a new generation of leaders who know how to lead. So everyone wins and gross. In the show, you’ll learn how to think, communicate and act as a confident and competent leader. 

You know, you can be.

Welcome to this episode of The Manager Track podcast. I wanna dive into something that has come up again and again in recent time management workshops that I’ve been facilitating over the last few weeks with two companies and, um.

Similar challenges have come up in both conversations in in their different time management workshops that are themes that I wanted to bring to this podcast here and to all of you who are listening as well, because I think we don’t talk about that as much as we talk about those time management hacks or practices that, you know, we can find on,

tikTok and all different places where people talk about productivity and what to do. But I wanna talk about sort of deeper, more systematic issues here that can I. Make even the most well-intentioned time management strategies fail. So let me first start off by talking about that first challenge that came up that stuck with me 

so imagine this, you know, you need focus time to do your best work.

You understand the importance of time blocking, of saying no to distractions, of protecting your calendar. But here’s the thing. You work in a company culture that’s very collaborative. Slack heavy or teams heavy, and people engage in those channels constantly. And if you are not, then well, the perception starts to form that you are not a leader.

Maybe you’re not thriving enough, you’re not a, a pacemaker you’re not engaged enough and you just don’t even get your say and your influence.

This was specifically pronounced in one of the companies that had a predominantly virtual and remote setup. So the vast majority of them were working off of, you know, from the home offices. And so not only is what I just talked about an issue, but also managers felt like they had a lot more visibility and trust with the employees where they could see what they’re doing.

And so the employees started to worry that if they block out time for focused work. Even when their direct manager knows that they’re working on something important, everyone else who doesn’t know what they’re working on, they may start to think that they’re blocking their calendar to avoid work or to go to the gym or long lunches, and so that they’re not really fulfilling their job.

Now, whether or not this perception was justified, it’s not really the point. The point is this fear, the tension of wanting to be productive and wanting to fit into the company culture, while also noticing that with doing that, then not as effective as they could be.

So the solution to this is actually to address it systematically and not individually First. We obviously have to recognize what’s actually happening. Most of us don’t even realize that we’re caught in this push and pull. We just feel stressed and think that we’re bad at time management.

When really we’re trying to solve an individual problem that is actually a systematic problem, a problem of the company culture or the values that are being promoted and fostered, I. So the key here is to address this with your entire team and talk to your team leader, your manager first, find out then how other people feel, and see if this topic can be addressed more broadly by defining team expectations

and team norms versus believing that you individually have to solve it for yourself and or just being caught in this. Tight rope and ultimately not really being able to have your focused work or your attention. Now, companies that do this well, and I’ve seen this in action, they don’t rely on these individuals trying to figure it out.

The leaders, they’re set the standards and expectations and they communicate them clearly. So it’s things like, we don’t schedule meetings on Fridays. Where all meetings happen between 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM so that the early birds can work in the morning and night. Owls can work late at night. Um, or if we put, put in basic time or a private appointment that we’re not supposed to overbook those, these.

Orange is nice to have some really clear boundaries that protect your team or people’s, um, ability to do work, focused work while also still being collaborative. Now if you are trying to initiate this conversation and it falls on deaf ears and sometimes it will, then you will have to make a choice. You can either continue to let your fear of the perception.

Drive your decision or you can understand the trade off that you’re making. Because here’s the thing, if you are not delivering on the big important projects, because you’re constantly responding to emails and jumping into Slack conversations, that is going to be noticed too.

And as a side note, what goes on your resume is not that you responded to 12,533 emails in six months. While that’s impressive, it is not the thing that people care about. People will care about the projects that you drove, the initiatives that you led, the results that you created. Those are the questions , that interviewers will ask you when you are looking for a new job.

It’s also your ammunition when you’re asking for a promotion. It’s the things that you accumulate, you keeping on top of your inbox and having an inbox zero. You being engaged in Slack channels or teams, channels, you being the person who helps a lot of other teams with their requests, that’s all nice, but it’s not the thing that gets you promoted or gets you the job. Now, the second challenge, it’s kind of just tying into what I just said is that many of us operate in an environment where one of the core values is collaboration or being a team player.

And it’s things such as we are taking ownership. We don’t pass the book. We are problem solvers, right? These are all great. Values, uh, when you see a problem solve it. I love that it’s an operating principle and many of us are actually naturally wired to feel that sense of contribution when we solve problems, when we address the fires.

When we help others and it feels good. On top of that, we all have a negativity bias, which essentially means that we are seeing the fires that are burning more so than we see the strategic opportunities. We pay attention to the negatives, the urgent things that instill a sense of fear more so than. The imported long lasting opportunities or future opportunities and initiatives that help us to get to a better place without there being a squeaky wheel or a problem or a fire burning.

But, um, when we pay attention to those negative things and we wanna collaborate and we wanna be a team player, we often forget about the bigger picture and where we actually should be spending our time. It’s really about making the right trade-offs. The question becomes how much of the work you are doing is actually important for you to do, and how much are you doing because you don’t want to upset anyone or because you don’t want to not be perceived as collaborative or

as a team player or someone who takes ownership. Which work is it? This is not. Binary. It’s not like you suddenly say no to everything, or yes to everything. You need to get more creative in how you engage in these conversations. I. If you have a hard time saying no, my initial suggestion is always to just give yourself more time to think it through.

So instead of saying yes or saying no, say, let me think about that and get back to you, and you push that timeline or that conversation back by a few days, sometimes even a few hours. Maybe you offer an alternative, Hey, I can’t do this full thing, but I can do some smaller pieces. Or, I can’t do it now, but I could do it later.

Or I can refer someone else who does have the capacity or actually has the expertise to help with this. Think about different ways to still be collaborative and still be a team player without you saying yes to. Things that actually don’t drive you forward are not the things that you should.

Because at the end of the day, all of us are gonna be faced with situations where the right answer is. That this isn’t something that you are best equipped for or it’s not something that you can handle or that it’s at odds with your priorities or that it’s something that we should address like a broader issue than trying to put a bandaid on this one thing.

And so we have to discern with the stuff that we say yes to. What is this and how could there be other approaches than simply saying yes

And all of that, by the way, ultimately often falls when we’re unable to tolerate that discomfort. The discomfort of pushing back on someone, the comfort, discomfort of delaying something or saying no, simply as that, and. This is why I love this statement that time management is pain management.

It is about our willingness to sit with the discomfort. In order to improve our ability to manage our time better and be productive, we have to say no. We have to disappoint someone. We have to also be bored during focused work or delay that quick hit of dopamine that we get from, you know, a distraction, a quick conversation, knocking out emails or, I don’t know, go on Amazon.

We have to tolerate this and sit with it. Or the overwhelm we might feel when we address a complex issue. Don’t even know where to begin. Another part of this is this pain management is tolerating the discomfort or the, the just. Unpleasant feeling is that when we plan something and then we start to feel resistance to doing this thing, we were supposed to be doing, procrastination kicks in, or we just find reasons not to do it.

This is when our minds become really persuasive. They give us all the reasons why suddenly today is not the day to write this difficult client email today is not the day to, share this difficult news with a client. Tomorrow will be a better day. It all sounds rational often in our head,

but we gotta remember. Hold on. The goal is not to eliminate the discomfort. The goal is to do what we need to do and to invest our time and what matters most, not in optimizing how we feel and avoiding the resistance or the discomfort. So what I really wanna address in this brief episode today is if you are feeling the sort of the tension between what you know would be best for you and how you would deliver your best work and you’d show up as your the best possible version of you in a professional setting, and that’s at odds with the company culture that.

The expectations of how quickly to respond to messages of how collaborative to be, of what, what people consider to be, uh, a team player and someone who takes ownership and doesn’t pass the buck. If you are struggling with that, it doesn’t mean you’re bad at time management. It simply means that you’re recognizing.

These things are at odds, and look at where is it really a problem with you and where is it a systematic problem? And then when you do identify the systematic issue. Have a conversation with your team about expectations and norms. Look for sort of where is sort of the shared struggle that you have.

Bring this to your leader’s attention. And then ideally, and hopefully you get, someone who is open to your suggestions and wants to figure out how to make this better. For you and for the rest of the team, and then to work collaboratively on what are the norms we’re setting up?

What are the norms we’re agreeing to, what are the expectations we’re agreeing to so that all of us can improve how we spend our time? How much focus and concentrated time we have to do really important and good work? How are we addressing fires and how reactive are we as well as.

How much do we collaborate and do we, uh, chi chime in when someone else has a problem in order to be team players and support team members or even other teams or other deport departments? What sets us up for success and what needs the broader needs and expectations of the organization? How can you strike that balance?

And I wish there’s sort of like a framework that I could give you or like, here is what works and what doesn’t work. But that’s not the case. That simply isn’t possible because it all depends on your organization, your team, your role, and what actually the type of work is that you’re doing.

So with that, if this resonated with you, I’d obviously love to hear from you and hear what are some of the challenges that you’re dealing with in your organization. It’s always, you can email us at contact at archova.org. Or check out my personal LinkedIn page, which is in the show note to send a dm. Thank you so much for listening to The Manager Track podcast this week. Short and concise and hopefully insightful, and some food for thought for you just as we love it every Tuesday.

Thank you, and I’ll see you next week.

If you enjoy this episode, then check out two other awesome resources to help you become a leader. People love to work with. This includes a free master class on how to successfully lead as a new manager. Check it out archova.org/masterclass. 

The second resource is my best-selling book, the confident and competent new manager, how to quickly rise to success in your first leadership role. Check it out at archova/books or head on over to Amazon and grab your copy there.