"Great looking list," I commended. "So, how do you work it?" We had been talking about Marie's project list and her daily to-do lists.

Her brow furrowed. "I look at the list, and really, I just start working on whatever I think is easiest to get done right then. Or I try to pick off an A priority. But here's the rub. We just spent half an hour working on this list, and it's likely I won't even look at it again until next Tuesday. I don't use it to focus, I mean, I don't even look at it. And I don't know why. And then something falls through the cracks."

"What do you use to focus?" I asked.

"My calendar. I have a lot of meetings," she replied. "I live and die by my calendar. I look at it ten times a day."

"Then, stop making to-do lists," I challenged.

"But, I thought, as a manager, that I had to make to-do lists? It's one of those big Time Management ideas."

I smiled. "That's the trap everyone falls into. There are only about seven Time Management principles and the dirty little secret is that you cannot use them all, some principles won't work for you and you won't work some principles. So stop. Stop doing what doesn't work and stop feeling guilty about it."

"So, if to-do lists don't work for me, how do I keep things from falling through the cracks?"

"What do you use to focus?" I repeated.

"My calendar?"

"Then, everything goes into your calendar."

"Won't my calendar get kind of messy?"

"What does it matter? You look at it ten times a day. It's what helps you focus."

"You are actually suggesting that I don't prioritize?" Marie was having trouble with this.

"I know it sounds like heresy, but think about this. What is the biggest difference between an A priority and a C priority?" I nodded slowly.

Marie hesitated. "Well, it's either more important or it has to get done first."

"Good guess, but tell me, have you ever approached a deadline on a C priority and had to complete it before an A priority?"

"Sure, it happens all the time."

"Then what does that say about your priority system? And bottom line, it all has to get done sometime, just schedule it. If it doesn't have to get done, it shouldn't be on your list in the first place."

Marie was still trying to protest. "But, if I work hard all day and if something doesn't get done, at least it was the C priority."

"You are a manager. If there is something you can't get done, it should be assigned to someone else. At the end of the day, don't tell me something didn't get done because you ran out of time. It did not get done because you did not manage it correctly."

Brent wasn't sure he heard me right. I know he was expecting some sympathy for all of his long hours.

"Your long hours are not because you are working hard," I said. "Your long hours are because you didn't budget your time."

He tried the puppy dog look. "But I don't know exactly how much work there is to do until it piles up on me," he protested.

"That's BS," I responded. "If you would sit down and think about your week coming up, you would find that 95 percent of it is totally predictable."

"Well, I have a TO DO list, if that's what you mean."

"No, I am talking about a Weekly Time Budget. I am going to email you a Weekly Time Budget Planner. It's one page. Spreadsheet format. Let's meet tomorrow afternoon and plan your Time Budget for next week."

Managing Time, Managing Yourself kicks off on March 15, as our next Subject Area in Working Leadership Online. The Weekly Time Budget Planner is only one tool we will talk about as we explore how Time impacts everything we do, as managers. As a participant, you will receive a copy of this powerful, but simple, weekly planning tool. If you would like a Free Trial to the program, follow this link.

Working Leadership Online Free Trial

I had a hot tip to stop by and visit with Brent. As I entered his office, I noticed his eyes were sunk in. It was Friday, but he didn't look like he was ready for the weekend.

"You look like crap," I observed. "When did you get here this morning?"

Brent sat up, a bit startled. "Oh, man," he said. "I rolled in around 5:00a. I just had to get some stuff done."

"And when did you leave last night?"

"Well, I got out of here about 9:45p. I don't know what it is. This has been going on for the past three weeks. On Monday, things don't look so bad, but come Thursday and Friday, the work just seems to pile up. I have worked the last three Saturdays and last week, had to come in on Sunday. Missed the football game."

"So, this is not some special project. Just your regular work," I inquired.

"Yeah, in fact, if I had known about it ahead of time, I could delegate some of it out and it would already be done. But I don't know about some of this stuff until it's too late, or don't realize how long it is really going to take. All of sudden, the pile is stacked up and everyone has gone home. The work's gotta get done."

"Brent, what if?" I started. "Brent, what if I don't believe you."

From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:
What are your thoughts regarding the advantages and disadvantages of both mentoring and supervision? I believe that it's best to have mentoring from someone outside their organization. Do you agree?

Response:
Bringing in someone from outside the organization, a consultant, should only be used as a last resort, and only when there is no one inside the organization to play that mentoring role. Elliott Jaques, Requisite Organization, was very specific about these two roles, mentoring and supervision. They are separate and distinct.

Elliott was one of the few, who recognized, and distinguished the role of supervisor from manager. The role gets confusing because we have all kinds of words, supervisor, coordinator, director, first line manager. If you have people engaged in production, the role of the supervisor is to make sure production gets done, using schedules, checklists and meetings. If your production role is measured (Time Span) at Stratum I, then the role of the Supervisor is clearly Stratum II. This relationship between the Stratum II Supervisor and Stratum I Production is based on accountability. Their conversations are coaching conversations. The purpose, is to make sure production gets done.

So, who is this mentor? What is this purpose? And why should it be an inside role, not a consultant role? If Stratum I attends to Production, and Stratum II makes sure production gets done, Elliott described Stratum III as a true managerial role, whose focus is in creating the systems in which production is done. It is the role of Stratum III to determine the best sequence of process, to design the order, set the standards. The most critical element in any business system is the people system. What do we have people doing? What skills are necessary? What capability is required? AND who do we select into those roles?

As time goes by, the Stratum III manager constantly evaluates the effectiveness of the Stratum II supervisor. We don't have to ask the manager to do this, it is a sub-conscious evaluation that occurs every single day. At some point, the Supervisor role will turn over. The person will be promoted, transferred or will move to Montana to go fly fishing. And the Stratum III manager will now be required to fill the role. And this is where mentoring comes in. The first place the Stratum III Manager goes is to the Stratum I Production team. Is there someone on that team ready to move up to Stratum II responsibility? The only way the SIII Manager knows this, is through mentoring conversations, about career development.

Mentoring conversations have a very distinct purpose and are required as the organization goes forward. Mentoring conversations help the Stratum III Manager make decisions about who? Who has the capability, who has the necessary skills, who has the interest to move into this Stratum II role?

An outside consultant may be close enough to assist in this process, but has no stake in the game. It is the distinct role of the Stratum III Manager to engage in mentoring conversations with Stratum I. This is the role of the Manager-Once-Removed (MOR). These same mentoring conversations should occur between the Stratum IV Vice-President and the Stratum II Supervisor. These same mentoring conversations should occur between the Stratum V Business Unit President and their Stratum III Managers. Succession happens all over the organization. This mentoring relationship from the MOR is the necessary piece to make sure we make the best decision.