|
Tom Reilly Training Home of Value-Added Selling and Coaching for Sales Success |
|
|
Time Management Attitudes by Tom Reilly ©Copyright 2000 Time is our most precious and fleeting resource. We never have enough yet we have all that there is. This is the time management paradox. Time is something that I feel very passionate about. It’s my commodity. I sell it. Time management is one of these areas where attitude plays a major role in your effectiveness. Attitude drives behavior. We behave as we believe. There are a number of positive time management attitudes that will help you to become more effective. The gifts-of-time attitude The gifts-of-time attitude recognizes that everyday life hands you moments that collectively turn into hours. Your attitude toward these moments determines your stress level and how you use them. For example, you’re in the express line at the grocery store and the person in front of you has two items in his basket that push him over the ten-item limit. How do you handle this? Some people, I call them the shopping line police, feel the need to call attention to the ten-item limit. They say something to the person in front of them. This causes stress and it adds no value to the interaction. Someone with the gifts-of-time attitude will view this unexpected delay as serendipity—a pleasant surprise. This person may use the unexpected gift of time to catch up on reading the point-of-sale magazines. Another person may see this as an opportunity to meet a new friend and strike up a conversation with the person in back of her. And still another person may perceive this as a chance to spend a few minutes with his Creator. These reactions add value to their days. Your attitude toward time, especially toward these gifts of time, determines the stress level at which you choose to operate. How effectively can you use your time when you feel stress? Do you have the gifts-of-time attitude? Is time your friend or your foe? Does your attitude toward time add value or stress to your day? Waiting is an attitude. When a customer keeps you waiting for ten or twenty minutes how do you use that time? Some salespeople will sit and stew. Others use that time to prepare and review their notes again. It’s a gift of time. It’s similar to the student who has studied for a test and the teacher announces that there will be a twenty-minute delay before the test begins and that the students may use that time any way they choose. The serious student will spend that last gift of time reviewing what he already knows. Respect time Value added salespeople respect time—their time as well as other people’s time. When you respect your time you automatically send out signals to others and they too will respect your time. Just because you respect your time doesn’t mean that you will disrespect others’ time. A healthy respect for your time means that you will make the best use of it. By respecting others’ time you acknowledge that you realize their time is as important to them as your time is to you. Demonstrating a respect for time is especially important in sales. High-level decision makers use time as a weapon. They appreciate the significance of “so many dreams and so little time.” For them, time is a precious commodity. You establish credibility with them by mirroring their respect for time. Be cautious of spending time with customers that seem to have nothing but time. These people ramble and meander incessantly. They are spending your most precious resource. If someone has that much time on his hands aren’t you the least bit curious as to why? Maybe he has nothing else going on. Be assertive with your time You alone are responsible for how you use your time. No one in this world is more responsible than you for protecting your time. Not your boss. Not your spouse. Not your assistant. You are the most accountable and responsible guardian of your time. Assertiveness and respect go hand in glove. If you respect your time you will assert yourself when it comes to others misusing your time. If you have difficulty asserting yourself, begin by working on respect for your time. Learn how to say no to people and projects. The world is filled with people that will use your time as a way to get more time for themselves. Some go to great lengths to manipulate others into doing things for them that they should do for themselves. You cannot please everyone in this world. In fact, there is an emotional disorder reserved for those that try. It’s called the please everyone syndrome. If you try to please everyone you generally end up pleasing few—especially yourself. As you attempt to serve others selflessly and tirelessly and work on their priorities versus your priorities you may help them get their work done yet fail to complete your work in the process. I understand the importance of teamwork and believe in it. I also am leery of people that make it a habit of finding ways to enlist the aid of others to do their work for them. Your ability to sift through different requests and identify legitimate requests to help others will automatically eliminate one of the biggest time wasters all people experience—interruptions. At this point you are probably thinking, “Boy, this guy Reilly is ruthless when it comes to time.” You’re right! I am. And I hope to share some of this attitude and respect for time with you. Until you develop a similar “ruthlessness” you will never have enough time to accomplish your goals. Until you develop the habit of prudently saying “No” to others’ requests, projects, and priorities you will spend more time working on their objectives than your own. Successful people respect their time and others’ time. These people are far more sensitive and accepting to your respectfully declining their requests. At a gut-level they understand the importance of time. Control your time Do you run your territory or does your territory run you? Do you attack your day or does your day attack you? Are you in control of how you use your time? Most of what happens to you is something over which you have control. Most of what happens is the result of choice not chance—the decisions you make and the behaviors in which you engage. Successful time managers control their days as much as possible. They live the philosophy, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” Unsuccessful time managers go through their days by accident. Being in control of your time is starting the day with this question, “What do I want to accomplish today?” Being out of control is beginning your day with the attitude, “Okay phone, ring. Tell me world, what am I supposed to do today?” There are things in your life that you control and things over which you have little or no control. A simple rule of thumb is to spend time and energy in proportion to the amount of control you have. Those things over which you have maximum control demand more focus and energy on your part. Things over which you have little or no control deserve less focus and energy. Time management is something over which you have significant control. You have a choice as to how you want to invest your time during the day. You can invest it in goal-achieving activities or squander it on non-productive tasks. It is your choice. Be proactive with your time Proactive time managers anticipate. They are forward thinkers that take the initiative and act. Reactive time managers have a wait-and-see attitude. They live life a day at a time. They are more focused on responding than initiating. A proactive approach to time management is goal achieving. A reactive approach is more crisis relieving. Proactive time managers control their days. Reactive time managers relinquish some control of their days. Proactive time managers prevent fires. Reactive time managers fight fires. There is a fundamental question that you can ask yourself daily to adopt a more proactive attitude toward time management, “What can I do today to stay ahead of the game?” This shifts your focus to the future. It encourages you to plan and take the initiative. By being proactive you ensure that you are working on your priorities versus someone else’s priorities. You are staging activities that keep you on the path of goal achievement. You are running your day versus your day running you. Good time management is good self-management. You manage your behavior within the constraints of time. Everyone has time management habits—effective or not. To become a more effective self and time manager, focus on priorities that add value to your day. Remember, time is your most precious resource. Invest it in ways that will help you to create the life you want to live. Tom Reilly is a professional speaker and author of eleven books, over two hundred articles, and more than forty cassettes, a video series and a CD album. This article is an excerpt from his tape and CD, Value Added Time Management. You may contact Tom Reilly at (636) 537-3360 or www.TomReillyTraining.com.
|
TOM REILLY TRAINING 171 Chesterfield Industrial Boulevard, Chesterfield Missouri 63005 636-537-3360 www.TomReillyTraining.com ©2008 Tom Reilly Training |