When I was a camp counselor, there was a joke among us that everything about being a counselor was great. There were just two things that got in the way: wasps and pioneers. Everyone understood the essence of this joke, as they all knew that without pioneers, there wouldn’t be any counselors.
Another story.
Petya and Vova were each given a puppy. They started building doghouses for them. A couple of hours later, Vova’s parents went to see what he had come up with, and they saw something crooked and unfinished. They asked what had happened, and Vova replied that the puppy had been distracting him from working — it kept barking all the time.
Petya’s parents saw a completely different picture. A nice, tidy doghouse and a happy puppy sitting inside it. They asked him how he managed. In response, Petya said that the puppy helped him. — How? — It barked the whole time!
How often do your employees complain about disruptive calls from annoying clients? How often do they simply not want to pick up the phone? I wonder how a client’s call can interrupt work that is fundamentally about serving that client. There are also instances when, while assisting a client, an employee might get distracted by something else, like something they consider more important.
Yes, yes, we hear a lot of songs about time management and all that. But, friends, the client comes first. IRQ 1. We actually work for him, and thanks to him, we… we exist Some managers, however, believe that the highest priority for interruptions belongs to them. But it should be the other way around—this priority should belong to their subordinates, that is, to their immediate clients.
Of course, it’s important to understand the principles of time management and to avoid frequent task switching. On the other hand, one of the principles of time management is prioritization. So what are we really talking about? 🙂