Dealing With Interruptions As A Manager

Dealing With Interruptions

When you manage people, you learn that everyone has a different idea as to what is important. You also learn that everyone battles to manage our time effectively. These two come together to form what seems like continual flow of interruptions. So how can we reduce these interruptions and still maintain the rapport with our team?

First, we need to develop a method of making decisions as to what can wait and what must be done immediately. Stephen Covey introduced the idea of Urgent vs Important several years ago. His idea is that we can make decisions on how to react to these interruptions by placing each one into a box or category on this matrix. Based on where the items lands, you react accordingly.

Urgent items are those things that come up and tend to “appear” to need immediate attention. A great example would be your phone ringing. You only have 4 rings before the caller is sent to your voice mail. Most of the time we stop what we are doing and respond by answering the phone. It may be important, it may not.

Important items are those that align with our goals and objectives, or have serious consequences by not reacting timely. An example of important would be someone on your team having a medical emergency. Not acting immediately would have a very serious outcome. An important customer that is not happy and wants to talk with you is another example of important. You can have items that are both important and urgent, like the example of the medical emergency. Items that are important but not urgent need to be done, just not immediately.

So now that we understand how to determine if we need to act on something, let me share some specific techniques to reduce the number of interruptions you experience during the day. First, I don't recommend having any chairs in your office or cubicle. You should have a chair or two near by, but never inside your office area. Why? When people walk into your work area and see a chair, the first thing they will do is sit down. It's a fact that conversations that take place standing are shorter than those that take place while sitting (great for meetings by the way). Without a chair in your office, people will walk in, start a conversation, but will not stay nearly as long if they are standing next to you while you sit.

Another suggestion is to place on your schedule, a time in the morning and another time in the afternoon for open discussions. These are times when your team knows they can stop by and chat about things or ask a questions about something. Your plan is to mark that time off as available, and if no one comes to talk, more time for you. This will really cut down on the frequent interruptions and just leaves the Urgent and Important conversations.

Finally, meet with your team and go over the Urgent vs Important concept. Teach them to think their question or issue through a little bit before just tossing it your way. This will also help them understand where you are coming from when they just stop in. You're both using the same process to decide what needs immediate attention and what can wait until the scheduled open time or the next one on one meeting.

So use these techniques in your role as leader, and you will find time you never had while teaching your team to think for themselves and work together to solve more of the day to day problems.