I don’t have time…said every local government professional…ever
Balancing local government responsibilities can often feel like navigating a whirlwind of urgent and important tasks. It's crucial for professionals to prioritize effectively to make a positive impact. The Eisenhower Matrix, a powerful time management tool, can help local government officials assess their tasks and responsibilities, ensuring that employee development doesn't fall by the wayside. In this blog, we'll explore how the Eisenhower Matrix actually plays out for many local government professionals.
In my experience, the following is how the workload for each of these quadrants actually plays out for local government professionals:
Not Important/ Urgent - There's no one to delegate to, so I spend a whopping 70% of my time here!!
Not Important/Not Urgent - But it's important and urgent to someone else, so I spend 20% of my time here.
Important/Urgent - Scramble, stay late, work weekends, give up my sleep due to anxiety over these issues and spend 25% of my time here and it eventually starts to take a toll.
Important/Not Urgent - I'm too tired, I have no more mental or emotional energy. I spend 10% of my time here (and it should be 50%).
Yes, the percentages add up beyond 100% because that's the reality we face as local government professionals.
If you ask any manager they will tell you they “just need more time” to give the attention needed to their “Important/Not Urgent” responsibilities, which is where employee development usually falls. Employee development is more than just a check box or an annual performance review. It's about providing valuable feedback, celebrating achievements, fostering relationships, expanding skills, training others, observing performance, and so much more!
I encourage local government leaders to be honest with themselves and the realities they face when it comes to the very real conflict between workload and resources. Of course managers want to develop employees, and many feel very passionately about doing so and continue to be unable to invest the time to do so effectively.
There is a way out of this conundrum and that is to utilize help from a professional coach so that organizations are able to give their employees the support they need to grow and increase their potential and value to the organization, remain excited and engaged and become better leaders.
After spending 17 years in local government and seeing the gap between the time I wanted to dedicate towards employee development and what I was actually able to do, I realized that I was consistently setting myself up to fail. Now, play that out across the entire organization! As leaders, this is the exact opposite of what we strive to achieve.
For this reason, I pursued my professional coaching certification and established SRSD Consulting, LLC for the purpose of assisting local governments fill the gap between the employee development managers should be giving their employees and what they actually have to give.
Utilizing a professional coach can also be more effective because of their objective perspective and ability to challenge individuals in ways their manager may be hesitant to do. If you are curious about coaching and learning more, please contact me at info@sarahschillerstrom.com
I help local governments improve employee performance through personalized coaching, addressing the challenge of limited time and resources for routine employee development.
