Supporting Multiple Projects Doesn’t Need to Give You a Big Fat Headache
As a supply chain professional you have multiple projects with different agendas, priorities, challenges and expectations that are ALL competing simultaneously for your attention and your time. How do you get all this varied and demanding work done effectively, efficiently and on a timely basis without getting a big fact headache? The answer is four fold:
Negotiate to give yourself more time, specifics and leeway
One of my former employees had mastered this technique to get more time, specifics and leeway to do the projects that I assigned him. Whenever I gave him a lengthy or complex task he would ask me which project that he was already working on for me should he re-order to get this new one done (he would then show me his to-do list to get my attention). Next, he would talk about the specifics of the project and then negotiate with me to whittle it down to a reasonable size. Finally, he would ask how I felt about doing the project differently so he could get it done easier and even faster than I had proposed. I always marveled at how this employee managed me on each project I assigned to him, but the results where always equal or better than I thought possible. You can use these same artful and powerful tactics to manage your bosses and your department heads and managers too.
Learn how to say “no” to projects that should go elsewhere
This is hard to do, but not impossible if you look at what is being asked of you by your bosses. Let’s say that you are asked by one of your bosses (if you think about it, we all really have more than one boss) to perform a telecommunications study to determine if there are savings opportunities for your hospital.
The question you should ask your boss, before saying yes to this project is “wouldn’t it be better if our in-house telecommunication expert Joe Smith performed this study since he knows more about this subject than me”. The chance that your boss would say yes to this proposal is very good and then you just got off the hook for this project without really saying no to your boss.
Increase your bosses’ awareness of the challenges you face
Too often we don’t keep our bosses’ informed about our workload, people problems and things that are happening in our hospital that are making our jobs more difficult. So our bosses’ think we always have the time and resources to do just one more project that he or she has just thought up with another important and unreasonable deadline.
Fatal flaw! If we keep our challenges to ourselves then our bosses won’t be aware of the problems we are encountering in getting our jobs done and they will continue to pile on the work at unrelenting speed. To prevent this from occurring, you need to meet with your boss (weekly if possible) to have an ongoing dialog about what’s happening in your department. Then he or she can be more sensitive when they assign you a new project and/or protect you from when other bosses ask you to do something that will be difficult for you to get done on time.
Delegate anything and everything that someone else can do
I know that every time management book will tell you to delegate, delegate, delegate to manage your time and workload. However, from my experience, very few supply chain managers really take this advice and run with it.
Why? They don’t want to lose control over the task or project, so they do it themselves since they think they can do it better than anyone else. Hence they never have enough time or energy to get everything done that is requested of them. Isn’t it about time we really rethink what we are doing about delegation, so that we can get even more done in less time?
Supporting multiple tasks and projects and getting them done in a timely fashion is every supply chain manager’s challenge, not just your problem. The good news is that there are strategies, tactics and techniques to ease your burden and lighten your workload if and when you decide to stop getting headaches over too much work and start managing your workload with new ways to do things.
Filed Under: savingsblog • Supply Chain Management • Utilization
