Managing Myself and Getting Organized

It was 8p.m. Like every other day of the week, I had put in 11 hours of work. Yet there was nothing to show for it. I had toiled and sweated, missed lunch (no breakfast by the way), still there was no effective work done. That spelt inefficiency. Something was wrong.

With a sigh of frustration, I went through all I had done that day.
1. Reply emails that led to series of other emails.
2. Answering phone calls.
3. Helped colleagues get their job done.
4. Struggled over something for boss that had no head or tail. It was only after 5 hours when I could not get it done, that I had asked for clarifications.
5. Mentoring.
6. Browsing.

It was the same pattern the whole week. Wasted hours.

I could not manage the team if I could not manage myself. Those were my thoughts all through the weekend as I tried to find a solution to the inefficiency.

A new week began with a different approach.
1. I had a motto: Work is 8am to 6p.m. If at the office earlier than 8 am, use the time to check non-official emails and browse. When work starts, start work.
2. Do not respond to non-pressing official emails until after lunch. By then, you would have accomplished a lot of things (done within the first few hours of work).
3. Outline the tasks for the day, and allocate timings (when and duration) to it. Take notes of incoming tasks and their level of priority.

When I tried these few things, I saw some improvement in what I was able to accomplish in a day.

The key to solving the inefficiency was: To manage people, you have to manage yourself. This involves managing your time and activities, and getting yourself organized.

But these were not all that made the difference. I will share with you more in subsequent posts.

The Promotion

I sat facing the set of managers as we discussed the next step in my career.

"What do you want next?"
"More serious technical stuff," I replied.
"Do you see yourself in management position?"
"No. But what does it entail?" I wondered.
"Managing the people, the business, making client contacts..."
"I won't do management. I'm cool with the technical part. I can handle processes. 'Don't want fight..." I was saying.
"Your boss says you have potentials to be a good leader..."
Was she looking for something to complete the 3 strengths of mine in the evaluation?
I could not call my boss a liar, not when she was on speaker phone somewhere.
"We'll give you an opportunity to prove or disprove what she said. Congratulations! You are now a manager!"

(Of 2 people, LOL)

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My People, the role was hectic and stressful. It was not easy. Everyday was one complaint or the other. Emails, phone calls, followed by meetings on my head. At nights I would come home and cry, wondering what I was doing wrong. My manager once asked me, "Why is everyone complaining about your team? Do you want me to micro-manage your team for you?"

I look back now and I give God all the glory. It was a challenge but a learning curve for me. Soon I will be moving on to something different, probably higher responsibility (I prophesy for my life). So I'd like to share with you on this blog some of my mistakes and some of the things I had to learn the hard way about management and leadership. The posts will come in no particular order.

If you find yourself in such a position, know that someone out there survived, and you too can do it.