Three Fundamentals of Managing Work

 

During the first 85 years of the Tour de France, no American had ever won.

In 1986, Greg LeMond was the first. What's more, he won again in 1989 and once more in 1990. This made LeMond one of only nine cyclists to have won the Tour three or more times. A powerful competitor, LeMond has said, "Perhaps the single most important element in mastering the techniques and tactics of racing is experience. But once you have the fundamentals, acquiring the experience is a matter of time."

I think the same can be said of successful work management. Experience comes after fundamentals. Let me suggest a few of the fundamentals I think apply to successfully managing work:

1. Make sure everyone understands what they're doing and why they're doing it: It might sound like a no-brainer that everyone should know what they're doing, but unfortunately it's not uncommon for a lot of time to be wasted by people trying to figure out what to do next or what work is the priority. What's more, people tend to perform better when they understand the value of what they're doing. "Do it because I told you to" is not the best way to motivate people.
2. Make sure everyone is committed to see it through to the end: This doesn't mean a "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" attitude is appropriate, but it is important that everyone is committed to see things through. If people are quick to give up in "crunch time," very little will actually get done.
3. Don't be afraid to empower individuals to make decisions for themselves: I don't' think it matters what type of work you do, forcing your people to "mother, may I" on every decision just isn't a good idea. If you've hired the right people, they should be allowed some autonomy to impact what they do and how they do it. If you can't trust your people to get the job done, maybe it's time to start looking for other people. The key is to identify a decision-making process, who has authority to make decisions and what type of decisions can individuals make.

Mastering (and practicing) the fundamentals might not be very exciting, but it's often the difference between someone who is successful and someone who isn't.

Both experienced and new managers have a number of tools to help them establish work management best practices and methodologies—many are turning to project management tools to help them understand and organize their work. However, nothing can substitute for establishing a good work management foundation.

Do you have any fundamental skills you would like to add to the list?