THE ENERGETIC, FOCUSED MANAGER
Are Your Managers Distracted or Purposeful?

For the first time in history, Americans are working longer hours than the Japanese.

Over the past 20 years, technology has allowed working styles to be more open and flexible, while at the same time allowing work and life to impinge on each other, making both more stressful. As we embrace information technology, giving ourselves more freedom of choice of lifestyle, a shift from management to leadership is crucial in creating value and achieving competitive advantage in the modern work organization.

If your organization's managers are not focused and energized throughout the day, your bottom-line results can be measurably affected. Harvard Business Review's ten-year study of busy managers in nearly a dozen large companies including Sony, LG electronics, Lufthansa and more was conclusive. Their findings showed that an astounding 90% of managers squander their time in all sorts of ineffective activities while only a mere 10% of managers spend time in a committed, purposeful and reflective manner. And 40% of the managers fall resoundingly into the distracted category. Energy without focus creates purposeless busyness resulting in delayed achievements or works not achieving quarterly goals and objectives.

A manager must have both focus and energy. Neither alone can produce the kind of purposeful action that organizations need most from their managers. Focus without energy results in poor execution or leads straight to burnout. Energy without focus dissipates into purposeless busyness or, in its most destructive form, a string of wasteful failures.

An effective and focused manager can zero in on a goal and see a task through to completion. Managers should not be in reactive mode; those who are too busy may be the least effective. An energized manager prioritizes goals and makes a personal commitment to go the extra mile when tackling heavy workloads and meeting tight deadlines. But effective managers know when not to respond immediately to every issue that comes their way, or get sidetracked from goals by distractions like e-mail, meetings, setbacks and unforeseen demands. A focused manager knows when to research a solution to a problem, an idea instead to ignore or delay the issue rather than lose time in unproductive busyness.

In addition, good managers take responsibility for motivating their direct reports providing a work environment that encourages the creativity that achieves results. They spend responsive time with employees listening intently to new ideas solving existing issues, and understanding an employee's career goals and objectives to encourage performance and results. A good manager builds a team dedicated and excited about working for your organization. People join companies for various reasons. Often they leave companies because of ineffective management.

Being a good manager, however, has become harder over the past two years as companies are looking increasingly at the bottom line, downsizing and giving more and more responsibility to their management staff. Purposeful managers, aware of the value of time, manage ever more carefully. Purposeful managers reflect on what they must achieve and quickly sort through the irrelevant tasks. They do not accept defeat. They develop strategies for achieving clearly defined goals and communicate and support their people to take responsibility, to take the initiative to do the right thing and thereby excel.

So how do you identify the distracted manager in your organization? How do you provide an organized, structured approach to give managers the tools to become a focused, energized manager? You pay close attention to how individual managers perceive the broad meaning of their work. To what challenges each face. To the degree of autonomy each can successfully enjoy. Your HR department can not solely accomplish this task.

It can happen with a commitment from your company's executive team to consider J. Lillis Consulting programs as a key corporate strategy for success. We develop a confidential relationship with key managers in your organization. We help create an environment of focused, open and honest dialogue and integrate a practical, behavioral change mechanism as a vital foundation element that is at the root of successful coaching. We help your managers set attainable goals and empower them to be responsible for achieving results. The results you want. The results by which you measure success.

Simply put, we'll help you create a more effective future for your corporation.

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