Being in Three Places at Once

• Have you been in the position where you you have multiple appointments at the same time?
• Do you at times have priorities that seem to compete with each other

If you answered “Yes” to either of the above questions then you are not alone. I seem to get myself into this position on a regular basis. In most cases I prioritise my appointment and then attend the one that is highest on my priority list. This is not always an easy task… There seem to be activities that are of equal priority and it is hard to decide between them. There has to be a better way….

Well this week I had this challenge. I have two major projects on at the moment and the person I report on requested meetings overlapping each other. Prior to this I had a meeting already lined up with a supplier to one of these projects. As I looked at my calendar with all the meetings overlapping each other I was wondering what to do. In the past I would have tried to reschedule two of the meetings and suffered the consequences.

However this week I tried something different… I accepted all the meeting invites and then spent a few days to work out what to do. This commitment to all the meetings got me thinking creatively. In the end I had a solution. It was a very good solution in my opinion.

I would attend one of the meetings, as there was discussion at this meeting that I had to have and could not delegate. This was my number one priority. I delegate one of the meetings to my offsider on that project. In reflection there was no reason why they could not have handled that matter from the start. So not just did I free up my time, I empower my offsider to complete a task. And the final meeting I briefed my offsider for that project and advised that I would be late. We talked about the key outcomes required at the meeting and had a common understanding. Then when I am done at the other meeting I would come and discuss the issues that I need to discuss personally.

In the end it all worked out very well. In fact it worked out better then if I had attended all the meetings myself. Through delegating and empowering the team on the projects, I was able to focus on key areas that only I could do and showed faith in the team….

• Do you empower your team enough?
• Are you doing things that you could empower your team to do?
• Are you allowing opportunity for your team to grow through delegating to them?