Hearing a lot lately about the value of time and some complaints about there not being enough of it to go around. Well, I am not going to say a word about time management because that is not my expertise. I do however want to share a perspective on time as an investment opportunity in building relationships both personally and professionally.
At a recent workshop, I shared a story about a disagreement I had with my thirteen year old daughter and how we used coaching and conflict resolution skills to collaborate and ultimately agreed to meet one hour per week to talk and listen to each other on a variety of topics. A woman in the audience asked, "How in the world can you carve out another hour of the week with a full time job and four children?"
It wasn't difficult to do the math. On Monday, I spent two hours trying to track her down when she didn't call in after school and another talking with my husband on how to handle it. On Tuesday, she and I had another miscommunication that cost me an hour with her and one hour in conversation with my husband and on Wednesday, the wheels came off the bus when she blew up about her allowance. I spent another hour and half with her resolving and an hour an half with my husband bringing him up to speed and deciding on an action plan. 3 + 2 + 3 = 8. Eight hours because we didn't have clear alignment around check in times and allowance. I just spent another hour writing a counter proposal to her allowance proposal which we will discuss at our first meeting.
So the one hour investment on Tuesdays makes a lot of sense. It's proactive relationship management with a clear long term payoff in time not to mention a more positive relationship and less drama!
The same is true at work. Time after time, I hear workshop participants and clients say that there just isn't enough time to build relationships or coach their co-workers, boss, or employees. Well actually, there isn't enough time NOT to. How much time does a relationship or communication failure cost you and
what might become available if you were proactive in managing your
relationships with partners, peers, bosses and direct reports? We have the choice of being proactive in building our relationships or doing damage control when "people issues" arise. Which is more efficient?
As always, would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
All the best,
Lora
Lora Banks, CPCC
lora@TheCoachApproach.net
The Coach Approach, LLC
