The problem with thinking of yourself as, just generically, a manager, is that you then begin to think of matters that cross your desk as being separate and equal. They seem to flow like unrelated, discrete events or items making their separate demands on your managerial attention.

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	Jim Stroup

Nothing makes any one of them, in and of itself, stand out from the others. The only priorities are imposed from the outside — from your boss, say — but not inherently from the item or task you are considering at the moment.

Checking off your tasks . . .

For example, let's look at some of the items on your to-do list for today. You have some personnel position assignment and scheduling decisions to make. So, you consider things such as seniority, ability, employment records, and the like to resolve the assignment matters. For scheduling, you'll look at these along with, perhaps, other factors, such as special family-related needs, commuting issues, or even suitability for flex-time or telecommuting.

Next, you have some tasks to distribute. Maybe the way to handle this is to rotate the assignments, ranked by how easy or enjoyable they are, to everyone in turn. That way no one feels put upon, and everyone gets their fair share of the grunt work. Or, you might try just listing the tasks and letting your staff sign up for them. Then, at a pre-determined cut-off time, if there are some that haven't been taken, you can assign them yourself.

Finally, you have resources to allocate. Some of these are generic, and some are task-specific. So, you simply divvy up the former group evenly and give everyone an equal share, then pass out the others according to how the tasks wound up getting distributed.

Alternatively, you could set up an auction system in which your staff members bid for items using credits assigned periodically, saved from previous auctions, or earned. This is also an employee-empowering technique that has the additional advantage of taking a possibly onerous task off of your shoulders.

Okay, we're done, and not a bad job, either. And you can take comfort in knowing that decisions very much like these are made every day in companies of all kinds, sizes, and reputations. The criteria for making them are objective, fair, and in some cases, at the cutting edge of innovative management. Sometimes a traditional approach is used, and sometimes the manager experiments with new techniques gleaned from reading or conferences.

. . . one item at a time

But there is a problem with all this: for all that you seem to be making rational decisions, there is no overall rationale being used to guide the making of them. Each issue is treated in isolation from the others and, indeed, sometimes in isolation of the demands of the work.

If you think about it, however, you can see that there is a high likelihood that they are, in fact, connected. And, if you neglect to take this into account, those ignored connections could come back to surprise you unpleasantly in unexpected places and times.

There is another possibility: even if they aren't related to each other across your to-do-list, perhaps each day's decisions are related to each other across time. We'll take a closer look at that idea in a moment.

Asking why

Peter Drucker once said that it doesn't matter how efficiently you do something that shouldn't be done at all. So, you must understand why you're doing what you do. Otherwise, you can't possibly be doing it efficiently. Here's the way out of this dilemma: think of everything you do as part of a project. Then, determine how each particular item fits into and helps to advance that project.

In order to conceptualize your work in this way, first determine your ultimate objective. Then calculate what you need to do to accomplish that; those steps will become intermediate objectives. Now continue this "in-order-to" style of planning until you have established a reasonable progression of targets that build upon each other in order to execute your overall strategy, and that you can use to guide and integrate all of your managerial decisions.

With this in mind, let's take another quick look at your to-do list. Recall that when you went through it the first time, you treated each item in isolation, addressing them one at a time until you got to the end. Any cross-category integration was largely coincidental.

The consequence of this was that your decisions regarding each one were made on the basis of factors independent of their relation (indeed, if there was one) to each other. That is, you made your personnel and scheduling decisions without considering their impact on task distribution, or the impact of either, for the most part, on resource allocation.

But when you view your work as a project, you can begin to see that all of these things need to be carefully coordinated with each other. Now, you will consider your alternatives not solely according to their effect on the single issue at hand, but on the basis of how they influence your progress toward the next project objective — and even how they affect follow-on goals.

This may seem somewhat impersonal — even insensitive. But recall that this approach doesn't exclude incorporating personal matters, or even innovative management techniques — it just disciplines their selection and implementation according to more operationally compelling standards. And that's an important point for another key reason: you will find that you can explain your decisions according to an overall rationale that makes immediate sense to everyone.

But there is, in fact, more at issue than just the execution of operational projects. Your job as a manager is twofold: you have to allocate resources to execute strategy, yes — but you also have to develop those resources. With respect to material, much of that is done by colleagues in other functional specialties, or as an inherent part of your project. But, what about your staff?

A vital part of your work is managing your staff. This is not restricted simply to directing their work, but includes developing their capability to do it — now and in the future. You should establish with each staff member goals for his or her career with your firm. That is your joint project. You will then generate objectives using in-order-to planning. These will act as a secondary and parallel consideration (alongside your operational project execution) helping to guide decisions ranging from personnel assignments to task distribution.

You are a project manager

So, now you're not just a manager — you're a project manager. You see each action not as a discrete to-do list item, but in the context of the overall effort it is expected to further. You can even use that as a screen to determine if you should be doing a particular task at all. Additionally, you are learning to conceptualize and integrate the two fundamental roles of your profession: operational execution and staff development.

Learning to use the project manager approach will help you develop and maintain a balance of focus and perspective that vastly increases your effectiveness — and your career. Don't forget that project!

About the Author

Jim Stroup is an international management consultant specializing in organizational leadership and strategic planning. Learn more at www.managingleadership.com/blog.

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