Editorial
Managers have to make sure their teams are on track to hit company goals. Unfortunately, that can lead to a toxic, ineffective dynamic between managers and employees.
When managers don’t have a system to understand how employees spend their time, they may resort to overly frequent check-ins, both scheduled and unscheduled — a form of micromanaging.
Micromanaging is “a management style characterized by excessive scrutiny of and control over a team and its members,” according to Coursera. Ironically, micromanaging interrupts employees’ focused work, making them even less likely to meet their targets. Research shows that micromanaging employees removes their autonomy, makes them perform worse and smothers creativity.
Through micromanaging, managers feel like pests, and employees feel their employers think them incompetent. And that thinking isn’t always deluded. Because when managers lack visibility into how employees spend their time, they might misconstrue their work performance.
When tasks and projects take longer than originally planned and expectations aren’t met, managers are left guessing why. Is the employee not capable? Is he not motivated? Is she looking for another job? How are they spending their time?
In response to underperformance, managers often ask employees to do more and work longer hours. But this common knee-jerk reaction asks employees to give more than they expected, stressing the working relationship and causing the employee to burn out.
For managers and employees who want to get on the same page, there is a far superior alternative to micromanaging. It’s called schedule-syncing.
What Is Schedule-Syncing?
Schedule-syncing helps managers and coworkers gain better insight into how employees spend their time, which can be achieved in two ways.
One: Have your team designate specific periods for focused work each day, without distractions like messages, calls, emails, meetings or quick in-person check-ins. Give your employees time to complete their core tasks without interruption, and watch them thrive!
Two: Ask each employee to create and share a timeboxed calendar of what they plan to do and when.
Timeboxing is an amazing time management technique that involves reserving blocks of time for certain activities in a calendar. For example, employees can timebox when they prefer to respond to emails and messages, do focused work, or be available for calls and meetings.
A detailed timeboxed calendar helps clarify the central trust pact between employers and employees. It gives managers visibility into how employees spend their day and helps managers avoid interrupting employees during their focused work or off hours. (Hey, managers, you can use this to your benefit too: Schedule-sync your own calendar so employees know when they can and can’t interrupt you.)
Through schedule-syncing, managers can also review an employee’s timeboxed calendar and, if necessary, suggest a reprioritization of tasks.
Related Article: Finding the Balance Between Deep Work and Collaboration
How to Schedule-Sync With Employees
To schedule-sync, I recommend that managers meet one-on-one with employees to look over their timeboxed calendar together. Through regular review, the two parties can make informed decisions regarding whether the employee’s time is appropriately spent or help them allocate time to more important tasks.
Employees can share a printout of their schedule and say, “Here’s everything on my plate for the week ahead and how I plan to allocate my time for the tasks you’ve given me.”
Then, the two of you can figure out if anything is missing from the schedule and, if so, when the employee can work on those tasks. This helps employees prioritize the most important work.
By efficiently gaining transparency into how employees spend their time, managers can understand when their schedule is full — and avoid piling on more work.
Working this way reduces interruptions and saves employees from the pain of having to tell their boss “no.” With schedule-syncing, they’re not saying, “No,” but rather, “What would you like me to deprioritize so I can fit this into my calendar?”
Related Article: How to Tell Micromanagers From Concerned Bosses
Schedule-Syncing: A Case Study
Schedule-syncing helped one sales executive I know to cut out the nonsense from her work agenda, make more time for her main task of increasing revenue, feel less overwhelmed, and build more trust with her manager.
When we met, April had two months left to close over a third of her annual sales quota of $15 million, but she was so overwhelmed with daily administrative tasks and meetings that she didn't have time to focus on her core goal.
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To combat these distractions, she timeboxed one block of time for focused work (creating new client proposals), another for client calls and meetings, and another for processing emails and messages.
I encouraged April to share her work-related timeboxed calendar with her manager, David, who turned out to be very supportive of her intention to stick to a more planned-out day.
April realized many of the commitments clogging her calendar weren’t nearly as important to David as the time she spent closing deals. Thanks to their newfound alignment, David agreed she didn’t need to attend so many meetings. He reassured her that this would not adversely affect her career ambitions as long as she put in the time for her most important task: increasing revenue.
To help them stay in sync, they agreed to meet for 15 minutes every Monday at 11 a.m. April loved the outcome: a detailed view of her entire week that respected her time reduced distractions, and gave her more time to do her core work.
Using schedule-syncing tactics will give managers better insight into how employees spend their time without micromanaging them. Managers will be able to do their job easier, and so will employees!
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