All goals are time driven – whether we announce the time-frame or not ALL GOALS ARE TIME DRIVEN. As a Manager setting goals “What-by-When” is how you add value to those who work with you. As an employee completing goals “What-by-When” and setting goals for ourselves are what adds value to those who work with us. Determining your own & others time-span to complete a goal will make your work more fulfilling and innovative. The Exponent Leadership Process has a tool to determine just that. Making your team and leadership better; By improving team processes and individual effectiveness. Contact Mike to learn more.  

team building and leadership expert michael cardus

Knowing the time-span of a task is necessary for completion of the task. Sounds obvious and simple BUT

Simple is not easy.

Have you ever worked for a manager and you found that you, as a subordinate, were able to plan further into the future and with greater accuracy than that person? Frustrating isn’t it!

The idea of working for someone who just “Does not get it makes you feel constrained and is a block to innovation, morale and great work for you.

When I consult and speak with managerial leaders about the concept of time-span management they all nod their heads in agreement and many have stories of subordinates and peers were this rings true.

Stories like “I have two people Emily and Frank, on my team who do the exact same work and have been here about the same amount of time. I can delegate one of them Emily, a task that may take 10 months to complete and she gets it done with little to no need for me to help solve problems. THEN Frank, I may delegate a similar task and he are runs to my desk every other day asking questions about how to solve problems and the obstacles they are running into.” This is an example of Emily vs Frank in time-span management. Emily can plan further into the future and Frank can’t plan as far as Emily. As a manager if you know this then you can better delegate goals, add value to their work and evaluate their performance; and if need be de-select or demote them to a different level that can handle a shorter period of planning – So you can do your own work.

Which brings us to this weeks inquiry;

How Far Into The Future Can You Plan?

  • Have you ever thought about this? If so what is your initial reaction to the question?
  • In the role you currently have at work – what is the longest time-frame you have to complete a goal? i.e. 1-day, 3-months, 18-months, 3-years, 10-years
  • When hiring, promoting, demoting people how do you determine the maximum time-span that a goal will be assigned to be completed?
  • When hiring, promoting, demoting people how do you determine what their maximum time-span for planning is?
  • Knowing yourself as well as you do, what would you say is the longest goal you have to accomplish?
  • When will you start working on that goal? How will you know when you have started?
  • How will you know when you are done?
  • In the past when faced with a goal that you could clearly see the end point of (meaning you could describe with accuracy how things will get done and by when) how did you manage to plan that? How else? How else? How else? How else?
  • With this in mind – choose your longest time-span goal to complete?
  • If I was to observe you making positive progress on this goal – when in time would I be watching you?
  • What would you be doing? How would you be following up with your manager? How would your manager and you interact?
  • Looking at this goal what have you already accomplished?
  • How did you manage to accomplish that? How else? How else? How else?
  • Being that you have already made some progress – what is your next immediate step?
  • Reflecting on what you have done – are you correctly matched to YOUR ability to plan into the future?

We all know how important Self Discipline & time-management are to completing work, and we all know people who can plan and complete longer time-frame work. Determining and using this knowledge as a workplace tool will drive results and innovation in the work.

Because all you can expect from anyone is to do their best.