an icmr-iipm think tank publication - Cycbth.org

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
"TIME MANAGEMENT
CAN BE TAUGHT"
PAT BRANS IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH NIDHI
GUPTA EXPLAINS CYCBTH HOW TO BUILD TRUST
AMONG EMPLOYEES AND MASTER THE MOMENT
Pat Brans is author of the book Master The Moment:
fifty CEOs teach you the secrets of time management.
Affiliate professor at the Grenoble Ecole de Management,
Brans provides corporate training on time management
and productivity using a unique methodology, based
on exclusive tips from the world’s busiest CEOs, and grounded
in psychology research. Brans has held senior positions with
three large organizations (Computer Sciences Corporation,
Hewlett-Packard, and Sybase)
Time Management being your core area of research,
how can organisations leverage the same?
Each individual in a family manages his or her time well,
then the family as a whole is effective. If each family in
a community is effective, the community as a whole is
effective. Take the same principle and apply it to work
organizations. If all individuals in an enterprise are effective,
teams will work well. If each team works well,
departments will produce more results. And if each
department produces more, the company will have a
better overall result.
'Master The Moment' consists of six steps to better
time management: identify yourself, energize, prioritize,
optimize, head off problems early, and finish
things. When I provide training, I like to use the acronym
HIT (for Habits, Ideas, and Techniques) to help
people remember that each of these steps consists of
two habits to develop a few ideas to integrate, and a
small number of techniques to learn.
What kinds of leadership skills and management
skills do these kind of managers need to follow?
Good leaders always surround themselves with people
they can trust, rely on and whose skills compliment their
own. To build trust you have to be trustworthy yourself.
You have to be somebody others can count on. If you say
"THE ONLY WAY TO BUILD THAT TRUST IS
FOR A LEADER TO PLAY BY THE RULES AND
COMMUNICATE HONESTLY. PEOPLE WANT
LEADERS WITH PRINCIPLES"
you’re going to do something, do it. Tell people “no”
when you have no intention of doing something. It may
be hard to do at first, but in the long run people will learn
to count on your honesty. Maintain a consistent style
and communicate it clearly. If you do these things, people
will gravitate towards you.
Can time management be taught. Do you think every
leader is equipped with this important trait?
I think time management can be taught. As demonstrated
by the fifty CEOs featured in my book, it’s
more about attitude than talent. Experiments show
that whether it be in sports, work, or intellectual pursuits,
talented individuals with performance-oriented
attitudes (those who view their goals as a way of demonstrating
they are talented) don’t do as well as less
talented individuals with learning-oriented attitude
(people who understand that they simply need to
learn what it takes to reach their goals).
What are the hurdles a company faces when it brings
in changes in the style of working with respect to
time management and multitasking?
Rather than talk about hurdles, let’s think of some of
the things we can do to make positive change. There
are a few things companies can do to discourage multitasking.
The first thing is to forbid (or at least discourage)
bringing laptops and cell phones into meetings.
This message has to come from the top, and upper management
needs to practice what they preach.
Companies should offer time management training
and encourage workers to read books on the subject. If
every employee picks up just one or two new ideas on
how to work more effectively, think of how much of a
difference that would make.
How important is ethics in leadership?
Think about how you assess people you first meet and
adjust that assessment as you get to know them. Over
time you develop an opinion about how much you can
trust that person. The only way to build that trust is for
a leader to play by the rules and communicate honestly.
People want leaders with principles. They want
leaders who stand for something and stick to their believes
when things get difficult.
count your chickens before they hatch 40 april 2012