Project Management Training: Warning Signs That You Need One

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Are your call center managers in need of project management training?

When projects do not make it to deadlines, there are many things going on behind the scenes. As an accidental manager, you are tasked to keep the boat on an even keel with few resources and people. Project management training can help you man the ship effectively and take on more projects.

When Do You Need Project Management Training?

The boss has tossed you a small scale project, which turns out to be a titanic assignment for you because you do not have the skills to manage different capabilities and organize the whole show. Yet you take on the task hoping you pass muster and reap accolades for a job well done. You are one of the thousands of befuddled managers needing project management training.

Here is why you need project management training:

* You cannot produce a credible project plan

* Your project goes helter-skelter in different directions

* Your risk management techniques are outdated or implausible

* You cannot estimate work schedule confidently

* Your monitoring tools are inadequate or inapplicable

* You cannot run a motivated team

* You lack leadership skills

Can tell your boss no? Or do you take the project and hit the books because your boss expects you to effectively run a project with few people and resources, on a tight schedule, and get maximum results?

What Is Project Management Training?

The project management training educates project managers to foresee dangers that may derail project plans and activities. They should be able to minimize risks and solve problems head on to make sure that the project is completed successfully notwithstanding the risks. If you had the opportunity to have this training early on, no projects would be too big or difficult to handle.

The training also takes up management of IT skills when overseeing a project. This is a convenient and faster way to keep tabs of what is happening to all actors participating in the project. Instead of lugging journals, logbooks, and calendars, you log on to your PC and look at the worksheets of everybody to check how the work is going.

Knowing the IT part of project management training is just an aspect, but the bigger picture is effectively managing resources and meeting the project deadline because extended or delayed project activities incur more expenses, and the company loses revenues.

Why is the Project Management Training Important?

Projects, big or small, need a good manager to keep the project going on schedule. There is the competition to think about and the revenues to be earned from the project. During the course of the project, there will be slip ups or the project may go full steam ahead; a good manager will answer the following questions:

* What factors contributed to the success and failure of the project?

* What were the frequent problems that cropped up and why?

* How much resources were used and how were these used?

* Were resources available at the right time or not, and why?

* Were the skills required available and competent?

* What were the lessons learned?

* Were all aspects of project implementation documented accurately?

* Did management respond to issues quickly?

Project management training will help you see the big picture. The questions mentioned earlier are your guideposts to become an effective manager; hence, the training is important on two counts - career advancement and project success. Need you ask more?

Don’t pass up project management training. You can always get PMI exam prep to help you hurdle your PMI exam. Get more details from threeo.ca now.

Avoid dead-end meetings!

Meetings, Meetings and more Meetings! What call center manager hasn't felt like they spend half their time in meetings?

Before attending any meeting, ask these questions:

1. What is the purpose of this meeting, and how does that relate to my strategic objectives?

2. What is expected of me in the meeting?

3. What do I need to prepare or bring with me to be effective at the meeting?

4. What am I giving up to attend this meeting? Is that a good tradeoff?

5. What would be lost if I did not attend this meeting?

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What New Managers Should Know About Managing Their Time

Here is an article written by Andrew Rondeau to help new managers manage their time more effectively. Sounds like a gift for new call center managers!

Do wish there were 27 hours in every day instead of 24? This article will give you some tips to help you manage your time.

For some people it doesn't seem to matter how long their day is. They just never seem to have enough time. The clock is ticking and it's ticking too fast for comfort. It feels like they have a million things to do, a couple thousand of which were actually due last week and every new task is urgent and can't wait…

Sounds familiar? Well if it does, you might be one of those people who just don't have a very good relationship with time. It is often a sign that you're not in control of your own day-planner. You may have some things on your to do list that you set out to accomplish, but anything and everything that you come across interferes with your plans. Someone or something else seems to be claiming your time to the extent that you never seem to get anything done. You might be asking yourself: "How can I possibly get everything done?" Good question. The answer is very simple: "You can't and you shouldn't want to".

Wanting to get everything done is probably the main reason why so many people are short on time. They're trying to do too many things and fail to realise that there are only so many tasks that one person can accomplish in a day. Instead of focusing on getting everything done, focus on those things that really need to get done. Separating what's important from what's not important will help you prioritise your tasks. In addition, once you've done this, just remember that priorities are in order. That means that when you're working on something with a high priority it is okay to turn down someone asking you to do something that has a lower priority. Learning to say "no” is a huge time-saver. Of course, you can also say "no" to yourself when you find yourself tempted to interrupt your work for another task that pops up. You will find that if you focus on the most important task that needs to get done during the day, the major things, you will probably have enough time left to fit in some of the minor things.

Time is an area where we can be absolutely sure that everyone is treated equally. No matter where you're from or what your background is, everybody has the same amount of hours in a day. The difference is in how we choose to spend those hours. And that is why some people are considered miracle workers while others never get anything accomplished. Perhaps you've heard the story of the business consultant giving this simple piece of advice to one of his clients. His client was a CEO of a large corporation who felt he and his management team wasn’t performing to their best abilities. They just didn't seem to get the work done. The consultant listened intently for a while and then gave the following advice:

"Every night before your head hits the pillow, take a piece of paper and write down the six most important tasks you must accomplish the next day. Write them down in the order of importance. Then the next day, it at all possible, start on the first task and don't move on to the next task until the first has been finished. This may not always be possible because sometimes the most important thing can be something that comes up later during the day. For instance your most important task may be a certain presentation that is scheduled to take place somewhere late in the afternoon. In that case, you would move on to point number two. You wouldn't want to be sitting idle all day, right?"

When the client asked for the price of this advice, he was told to simply put in into practice and then determine the value himself. After a certain period of time had past the client wired an amount of $25,000 to the business consultant. Apparently, this little piece of advice had worked out quite well for him and the members of his management team. Do this for a while and you will see your effectiveness soar. A great side effect is that people around you are bound to see it too.

Become more efficient in your communication. This means: on the phone, in emails or letters, and of course in face-to-face conversations. A lot of time spent in communication is very inefficient. This is especially wasteful because you're not just wasting your own time but also somebody else's.

Touch everything only once. This can be a really great time-saver. Every piece of information should preferably pass through your hands only once. This goes for mail, email, but also things like certain websites, articles, newspapers and other sources of information.

In order to do this successfully you will need to learn how to take decisions quickly. Some decisions just aren't worth too much of your valuable time. The ability to take decisions is the key to becoming successful anyway. So why wouldn't you want to speed that process up a little. The ability to take decisions quickly, especially minor ones, will free up a lot of time that can be spent on things that are more important. Aside from that, it increases self-confidence, which will help you when making decisions on issues that are more important.

Which of These Time Management Skills are You Missing?

The one thing most call center managers would ask for is more time in their day. While we can't help you with that request; this article by Wendy might help get you started on better time management.

For many people, time management is difficult as a concept; however, if you take the time to learn some time management skills you can manage your time well so that you get everything done you need to. Here are three time management skills for you to consider and identify which you need to be implementing now to help you reach your goals much more quickly.

1 - Make Things Simpler. Even though it might seem you have a lot of things streamlined, you can usually simplify a lot of things so that you can manage your time better. For example, if you have a lot of clutter, get rid of anything you don't use, need or love; alternatively, perhaps you have too many tasks "cluttering" up your day and don't have time to get everything done, so that eliminating or rescheduling some of these things can remove some clutter and make your day simpler. If you do this, accomplishing what you need to in your daily life will be much more simple and straightforward; you'll also take less time to do this, which can save you a significant amount of time every day.

2 - Review and Reevaluate Weekly. Once you've established your time management techniques, you need to sit down every week at a scheduled time and determine how effective your time management techniques

have been that week; by doing this, you can change what's not working for you so that you make it more effective. If you do this every week and make a plan to consistently reevaluate the time management techniques you've put in place, you can change what's not working and keep reevaluating them so that they continue to do well for you. Figure out what's working and what's not, so that you have an excellent foundation to build further time management skills and fine-tune the ones you have in the future.

3 - Love Your Routines. Develop and learn to love your routines, so that you'll always have a very good idea about what you need to accomplish and by when. Establishing a routine will help you stay on track and keep action and momentum going; therefore, if you feel like you're not getting enough done in a given day, or if you think your time management strategies could use some revamping, routines might just be the way to give you the boost you need. Create routines for different areas of life, such as what you have to do every morning at work, or as a weekly cleaning schedule. When you don't have to figure out what you need to do next because you've laid a schedule out already, you'll find that you save a lot of time.

Discover how to get more done in less time, "5 Quick Tips For Dramatically Improving Your Time Management", by clicking here now =>

time management

Wendy works with business owners to be more effective and successful, achieving a more profitable business in less time using time management skills

Workaholics Are Not Role Models

Will all the tasks and balls up in the air that a call center manager contends with each day it can seem as though the only way to succeed if to work more hours. Here is an article that  doesn't support that theory.

A CEO of a reputed organization once said he has been working more than 90 to 100 hours a week for many years, and jokingly adds he should have done more. And in another reputed car manufacturing company dozens of employees and managers get cash rewards and appreciation certificates for not taking a single day leave during the last three years.

In yet another case, a jet set CEO was proudly patting his own back stating that he loves his work so much that he often does not see his family or kids for several weeks, and cannot remember when he took a couple of days leave or a vacation. Nowadays the list of such work crazy people are increasing at an exponential rate. And you can very easily spot such people as they will be constantly talking on their mobiles, checking their hand held devices for text messages or always connected to their office via their laptops for never ending emails and so on. Such people have their hands and minds loaded with projects, countless unfinished tasks, endless meetings, emails and constantly sweating the small, medium and big details.

When questioned they claim to enjoy their job so much that they just work, work and do more work, especially to impress the media. And they also proudly believe they can be role models for others. However, contrary to what they believe or self congratulate, such habits are nothing to be proud of, and nor should they be your role models as you will shortly see. In reality, workaholics are always driven by deep internal needs, rather than external ones. Here are some ugly facts about workaholics.

1. A New York tour operator once proudly said, “New York is a city that never sleeps.” For this an elderly tourist calmly replied, “And it definitely looks like it.” Super workaholics are not necessarily the most efficient people even if they stubbornly work 18 hours a day. In fact they are the least efficient of people. They may appear to be working, but internally their brain would have turned off. The output they produce or the ideas they generate when the brain and essential body systems turn off is nothing but trash and mediocre stuff.

2. Workaholics often believe themselves to be perfectionists and role models, and often the media also portrays them as so. But in reality they are neither perfectionists nor can be role models to anyone sensible and knowledgeable about the hazards of overwork. They may have plenty of hollow followers who are as lunatic as themselves, but no sensible person will agree or appreciate this kind of burnout.

3. High workaholics suffer from a disease called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and an inability to let go. Most of them suffer from the indispensability syndrome to constantly prove something great everyday and every minute. They cannot bear being left out and want to be involved in everything always. They are terrified of being left out of the loop or some information.  They are unable to delegate. And they believe nothing can work if they are not involved.

4. Excessive workaholics are appreciation seeking addicts with a deep craving for recognition and appreciation. They suffer from a deep inferiority complex and try to cover it up by proving they can work long hours and days without a break. Just like drugs, once a person gets into the appreciation seeking habit it is very difficult for them to stop. They constantly seek appreciation and will keep doing things to invite more appreciation, even if their mind and body refuses to tag along.

5. Working non stop is perhaps the lousiest of work habits and work life balance. It is also the perfect road to ruining your health and those of others. Poor health and lack of a solid family life leads to poor performance and relationships at work. Workaholics not only ruin their health but also of their subordinates and their family members. Of course, they may earn more money than ordinary workers and access to more materialistic pleasures. But when they get a heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure and other nervous disorders it is their family and dependents that will be bear the brunt of looking after a human vegetable. Hence every workplace and home needs mentally and physically balanced individuals that can create pleasantness instead of chaos, stress and constant pressure.

6. Workaholics often don't know whether they are workaholics. They falsely believe they are role models to the younger generation or their peers. But people will often pretend to appreciate a workaholic in front of them. But they laugh and ridicule them behind their back.

7. Finally no one on their death bed ever says, "I wish I could have worked more." And we can conclude this article with a great quote from Bertrand Russell, “One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.”

Thejendra BS is an IT manager and author from Bangalore, India. He scribbles mild and wild articles on technology, business management, self improvement and wacky humor that get published on many reputed websites and syndicated through various RSS feeds around our planet. He has also published diverse books like Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity, Practical IT Service Management, Corporate Wardrobe-Business Humor Series and Life-365-A Year's Supply of Wisdom, Tips & Advice. Visit his web cave www.thejendra.com for his free articles and details of his books.

Effective Working Practices - Three Tips To Clear Out The Clutter

From one call center manager to another. Here are three simple technques to help declutter your work life.

By developing effective working practices, you are leading the way in your business with a great example to others as well!

Effective working practices will reduce your stress and fatigue levels, as well as you becoming a better human being, which will help in hop you develop relationships, the cornerstone of great management.

Many things will simplify your business lives. Many of them indeed are simple too. So, it's all about finding the easy path to make your effective working practices work best for you. Some tips here are easy, others are bit more challenging.

And it's important to remember that with these - you are in control.

Let's take a look at a few simple ideas you can do today!

Defluff Your Monitor

It's important to help yourself and monitoring 'fluff' is one thing you have absolute control over.

So don't forget to remove self-inflicted distractions like notes; fluffy ornaments (dice are a common one); jokes and any other of 101 different things that people wind up cluttering the edge of their screen with!

Whilst it might have been funny once to have a saying like, 'You don't have to be mad to work here, but it helps', in the end, it just adds to the fluff and gets in your way, holding back your effective working practices and that means holding you back too.

  Prioritize Hard Copy Access

You will find that you use some documents much more frequently than others. It's a really efficient and effective working practice to have a 'fast-access' file that you can get your hands on quickly.

Initially it might take a few trial runs to see how this works. Truth is that there are relatively few documents you need that often, so providing a space nearby for just those, will mean that you efficiently get at them when you need them.

Bonus Tip! Similarly look at the growing pile of paper that has accumulated in that partially hidden corner, which you mean to get round to one day (meaning that you probably won't). So dump it! You will be amazed how good it feels!

  And Then Prioritize Soft Copy Access Too

The same goes for files on your computer too. By having a 'current' folder full of necessary files on your desktop, you will easily get to the stuff you need frequently, or are working on a lot.

It's an effective working practice that saves a lot of hunting around and will make you a lot less frustrated and effective too. And, of course, it means you have a lot less icons on your desktop.

Then you can properly see the wonderful dreamy photo of your vacation/dog/lover/kids/dream Mercedes/dream lover all the better (maybe that's not an effective working practice, but hey, who's perfect?).

Three simple ideas to deliver effective working practices for you, in your workplace, and you can start right now.

By mphcoach
 http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com

Get Rid Of Procrastination Once And For All

By Andrew Rondeau

The problems and Solutions of Procrastination! Did you read this immediately or leave it until another day? We all suffer from procrastination at some time in our life. Some of the problems and solutions are detailed below.

Problem: People procrastinate because many are paralysed with fear of failure, loss, pain and some, success! What we fear becomes our reality.

Solution:

1. Fear is "False Evidence Appearing Real".

2. 90% of what we fear never becomes reality.

3. The best way to overcome fear is to do what we fear.

4. It helps if you visualise the worst-case scenario and accept it as a possibility and realise it will probably never come to pass.

5. Our imaginations exaggerate negative fears completely out of proportion and in most cases never occur!

Problem: Few have a strategy to accomplish their goals.

Solution:

1. Make a contract with yourself.

2. Identify specific rewards for positive action.

3. Establish certain penalties for procrastination.

4. Break your goals down into small steps.

5. Schedule a time segment for each activity.

6. Give yourself rewards for correct action and penalties when you do not follow through.

Problem: Many have a lack of discipline. It takes 30 days to break old habits and establish new ones.

Solution:

1. Create a Success-Habits-Reminder card to record your daily activities.

2. Tape it to your bathroom mirror.

3. Stick it on your desk to keep track of your actions.

Problem: Most people do not have a plan or assign priorities.

Solution:

1. Create a "To Do" List.

2. Determine immediate, intermediate and long-range goals.

3. Plan the goals that are in immediate reach of your abilities and assign priorities: Important & urgent, Important but not urgent, Not urgent or important.

4. Do the urgent & important tasks first.

5. 80% of your activities are not important to your goals.

6. Only 20% are urgent & important.

7. Learn to eliminate the 80% activities that do not help you attain your goals.

Problem: Many try to complete the most urgent & important activities at the last moment.

Solution: Every day schedule a block of prime time to work on an important activity that is due in the future. Soon you will find the time to analyse and polish your projects many times before they come due.

Problem: There never seems to be enough time to contemplate your decisions

Solution: Schedule quiet time to make important decisions. Listen to relaxing music that balances both brain hemispheres. If you do not schedule time for exercise, rest and entertainment, you will spin out of control.

Problem: You are overwhelmed. Solution: Learn to say, "No!" to activities and individuals that do not contribute to the attainment of your goals. Often, people take advantage of your kindness and generosity without ever realising you have better things to do with your time. Problem: Most people do not have a master plan.

Solution:

1. Create a master list of all personal, spiritual, physical, emotional and financial goals for 1 year.

2. Assign priorities for each.

3. Predict a date for completion.

4. Write everything in pencil so you can change it.

Problem: Few people use an organiser or daytime planner to coordinate their activities.

Solution:

1. Transfer the things on your master list to the correct dates in your organiser.

2. Check off each item as it is completed.

3. At the end of each day, reschedule the things that were not completed.

4. If an item is rescheduled twice, you are procrastinating.

5. Ask yourself, "What if I never do this?"

6. If the answer is, "No big deal!" Delete it. Problem: Some people suffer from perfection paralysis. Solution:

1. Make the decision that you are not perfect and never will be. Everything you do will be imperfect in some way.

2. Realise that if it is worth doing, it's worth doing wrong until you get it right.

3. Stop judging yourself according to your accomplishments.

4. Learn to trust yourself by developing intuition and following your hunches. You will find your first premonition is usually the correct one.

5. Discover just how right you are by making predictions and observing how a high percentage of them are correct. (Predict the line at the supermarket or bank that will move the fastest and take action accordingly.)

6. Make quick decisions in 20 seconds or less.

7. Make your decisions the correct ones by believing in your choices and acting with confidence.

8. In difficult situations, flip a coin, choose heads or tails and then observe how you feel about the outcome of the toss. Your response to the coin toss will help you make the right decision. A last word….. Procrastination has to be learnt; we are not born with the trait of procrastination. That's means if you suffer from procrastination, you can unlearn it. Use the tips above to learn new positive habits.

Andrew Rondeau transformed himself from a $4 an-hour petrol-pump attendant to a highly successful Senior Manager earning $500k every year. Discover 7 Amazing and Powerful Secrets That Will Double Your Productivity And Reduce Your Working Week At The Same Time by receiving Andrew's free Career Course and report

Delegation For Managers: What Should You Do And What Should You Delegate?

As a manager, you're expected to decide what needs to be done, gather the resources to do it, and then decide who does what.

Okay, managing is a little more than that, but it certainly does include setting goals, gathering resources, and delegating tasks.

Now, if you're like many managers, there sometimes isn't any clear line between the work you think you should do, and the work you think your staff should do.

In fact, you may not be a "pure" manager (is there such a thing?) in the sense that you are expected to do some of the "doing" as well as the "managing".

For instance, you might roll up your sleeves and get behind the counter of your store now and again… you might go out on the road and sell at times… you might handle some of the consulting projects yourself… you might do a range of tasks that mirror those that your staff do.

Of course, you want to make the most of your time - and the time of the people who work for you - in order to generate the best possible results from your team as a whole.

So how do you decide who does what? How do you decide what you should do, and what your staff should do?

Now, you're probably well aware that just because someone enjoys doing something it doesn't mean they're good at it… so I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you allocate tasks purely on the basis of what people like to do.

On the contrary, your rationale may be: "whoever is best at doing a particular job should do it."

Unfortunately…

Bzzzzzzz! Wrong - thanks for playing!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

I know - it seems logical that if you - or someone else - is better at a certain task than anyone else, then you or that other person should do it.

But many times this does not generate the most overall value!

I'm not going to bore you with theory, but there's an economic principle called "comparative advantage" that, when applied to management, essentially says that when allocating tasks among people, each person should not do what they are best at, but what they are "most best" at.

In other words, each person should do the things that generate the most value for the group as a whole.

So, let's say you run a consultancy. We'll keep it simple and imagine you can do two things very well - you're an excellent manager, and you're an outstanding consultant. In fact, you're better at managing and consulting than each of the consultants you employ.

Now, given that you're the best consultant you have, you may be tempted to forego some of your management duties to spend more time consulting.

But before you do so… ask yourself: what is likely to generate the best overall results (as in revenues, profits or however else you measure results)?

Is it focusing wholly on managing, or doing less managing and more consulting?
The article below by  Anna Johnson may not be call center specific but many call center managers may find useful information on delegation within.

 

The answer is, of course, that it depends on what you are "most best" at. If you're better at managing than consulting - in the sense that for every hour you spend managing your team you indirectly generate greater results than what you generate for an hour you spend consulting - then you should spend all your time managing. Regardless of how much you enjoy consulting, and regardless of the fact that you're better at consulting than everyone else in your firm.

The principle of comparative advantage equally applies to allocating and delegating tasks to everyone in your team… and outside your team too - for example, outsourcing.

In fact, it applies to allocating every kind of resource you have.

So I encourage you to use this approach - you might be amazed at how much more time it gives you… and how much better the productivity and performance of you and your staff.

Anna Johnson is the author of the How To Manage People System, including her book, How To Manage People (Even If You're A Control Freak!). Get Anna's FREE 12-page report How To Be An Outstanding Manager - The 8 Vital Keys To Managing People Effectively

The Art of Delegation

Graeme Nichol compiled these tips on using delegation to help your work life run a little smoother.  Give a few a try and see if delegation can help your call center run just a bit smoother.

Lets begin by understanding a little more about delegation. Hopefully this short piece will allow you to assess your own approach and review its effectiveness or otherwise.

Definition - Delegation is where part of your own job consciously passed to a subordinate whilst retaining accountability.

As management is really about getting things done through people, successful delegation is vital aspect of a manager's job. The more senior you are the more you really delegate and the more effective you become. You're doing more strategic work as you progress upwards within your organization and doing less transactional work.

Delegation is something one needs to make a conscious decision about. Looking at your own time and how successful can you be doing everything yourself? Perhaps delegating makes sense to clear your desk of things that you don't have to be doing yourself.

Select a subordinate who is not only capable of doing the tasks but will be able to use the experience to grow their own career. This is a win-win experience. Of course you may not have the luxury of selecting your own subordinate and have to take what you get.

Then of course strike a balance between delegating too little or too much.

What to delegate and to whom

Divide work into meaningful tasks and then allocate them to specialists or people who will benefit from the experience.

Allocate the work

This is the hardest and most important stage of delegation and generally involves a number of issues:

The subordinate must understand why the work needs to be done.
Where the applicable the manger should set specific performance standards for output, time, cost and quality, and involve the subordinate in the process. Furthermore sub goals and monitoring and reporting procedures should be agreed upon;
The manager should delegate responsibility, the subordinate must be allowed to make decisions to achieve agreed results.
The subordinate must be given authority or control over certain resources and people.
While the manager can delegate tasks and assign responsibility and authority for their. accomplishment, he will always be held accountable for the tasks his subordinates perform.

Monitoring performance

A manager should constantly monitor progress against standards and sub-goals. Recognition must be given for task accomplishment and preventative or corrective action instituted when targets are not being achieved. It's the monitoring of performance which keeps you in control and aware of the results of the work you delegate.

If tasks are delegated as part of a developmental program the manager should ensure that the subordinate receives proper training and guidance!

Benefits of successful delegation

Providing subordinates with the opportunity for growth and development

Motivating subordinates by giving them the opportunity to make decisions.
Allowing the manager more time for relevant managerial activities such as planning and controlling.
Facilitation communication and understanding between a manager and his subordinates.
Reducing the time taken to make decisions.
Allowing the decision making to take place close to the point of action where the detail is known.

Obstacles to successful delegation

There are a number of possible reasons which hold managers back from delegating. The reasons are;

The fear that subordinates will do a better job and get the recognition.
Fear that the subordinate won't be able to do the job properly.
The fear of losing control over activities and tasks for which he is accountable.
A feeling that it is important for him to be seen doing the work rather than purely managing.
Preference for doing the work itself as opposed to managing people.
A manager might have the technical skill to perform the task but not the managerial skill to see that someone else does it. In the long run delegation is an essential skill to learn. Never be scared to delegate your ability to delegate will assist you in growing your career more than being an absolute expert in some minor part of your job. As a manager you'll be able to monitor the performance and still stay on top of the work you've delegated. You will reap the rewards.

Good luck in your delegation!

Graeme Nichol Arcturus Advisors (www.arcturusadvisors.com)works with business leaders and their teams to close the gap between great strategies and mediocre results. (Newsletter arcturusadvisor@aweber.com)

Manage Your Time For Your Business Effectively

What call center manager can say that they have enough time in a day? None that I have ever met!

Here is an article by Court Tuttle with tips to manage your time more effectively.

Just as a well-run business follows a budget in spending money, an effective businessperson should also follow a schedule in spending time. And a carefully developed strategy should be formed to determine how to use time wisely.

You start by identifying the number one way you can most increase profits by use of your time, then the number two way, then the number three way, etc. This list of time priorities forms the foundation for your time planning for every week of the year.

Focus is crucial for time management and the fewer priorities you focus on at once, the more productive you will be. It is important to limit the number of strategic time goals you have for each week.

No matter how hard we try to be perfectly organized, there are only 24 hours in a day. We have no control over time, we can only control ourselves and what we do with the time we have. Even if you have ten goals for the year, you can focus on no more than one or two per any given week.

A good place to start is by eliminating your personal time-wasters. For one week, set a goal that you're not going to take personal phone calls. For one day observe behaviors that interfere with successful time management.

Many of us are prey to time-wasters that steal time we could be using much more productively. What are your time bandits? Do you spend too much time net surfing, reading email or making personal appointment calls?

Constant interruption kills any hope of effective time management. One way to avoid interruptions is to make clear that when your door is closed you are not to be disturbed. Another is to have regular meetings with the people you interact with the most at those meetings.

Next, ask yourself if you are spending too much time around the most congenial (and talkative) people, or not starting your schedule first? Are you jumping from one task to another because you are over whelmed?

Now you need to track your activities so you can form an accurate picture of what you actuality do. Start out weekly to make up a detailed time plan which you modify each day as needed until you have it down as a desired personal plan.

Except in times of crisis, try to make sure day-to-day issues don't push your strategic time priority list off your personal schedule. You can do it, you deserve it and it will reduce your stress.

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