A month ago, I was promoted to the Manager of my group. When I agreed to take the position, I knew it wouldn’t be all lollipops and ice-sculptures. There are a lot people that have needs. There are a lot of things to think about, and there are a lot of things to do. Ergo, it is important to know what things to do at any given moment. There is little leeway for incompetence when you have demands coming from all directions.

My Strategy

1. Maintain and Rebalance Priorities.
Keep a short list (no more than 3 or 4 items) of my big priorities. These are the things that must be focused on. I keep them ordered so that I know what takes precedence. I rebalance this weekly so that I am adjusting to the current needs.

2. Make Progress.
Identify the most important gaps to fill and start there. I realize that I can’t finish everything I want to right now, but I can make progress as long as I break down each item into small enough tasks so that they will get done.

3. Communicate clearly.
One of the first things I did was to write up a position focus document for everyone on my team. It is important that everyone knows what is expected of them. How else can you know if you are successful?

4. Write things down.
I was doing this before, but I am trying to focus on recording my thoughts, discussions, and actions, so that they are available to review.

I have yet to come up with a plan to maintain the backlog of my position, but as long as I know what to do to make progress, it’s just a matter of time before I have things under control.

For the first 30 years of my life, I’ve sung this song as my yearly national anthem to myself. I might as well be saying, “I pledge allegiance to myself…” A couple weeks ago I finished reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. At one point, he mentioned how he felt like he was in a great play, and the central character was himself. I often feel like that. I bet most people do.

I wonder what life would be like if I played a supporting role in that play. What if I didn’t even play a part in some scenes, but was working on the special effects. That would be cool. I think this metaphor is gong too far…