What is your approach to difficult conversations? How do you prepare?
My approach is to try and not make assumptions about what is happening or about a person's motivation. Instead, I try to figure out from talking to them what their perspective is, why something is going on. Part of that is expecting the best, or just realizing that everyone has a life and their own situation. There could be many, many reasons why something unhelpful or inappropriate has happened. Another approach is — and I'm not always successful at this — but turning the lens on me and thinking, ‘OK, where did I fail in communication?’ Because I'm also making assumptions about myself: “Oh, I'm so transparent. I'm so clear. I expect this and that.” Then I realize — when have I actually said what my expectation was? When have I laid that out for the whole group?
How do you keep track of what you have to do?
I use Tasks in the Outlook suite. I categorize the tasks. I have a task list for my boss, I have a list for the office. I have a list for professional development. Then, I just move them off the list as I finish them. Before the pandemic, I had stopped taking very many paper notes. I was using Google docs for that stuff. I don't know why the switch happened, but I just started keeping a bound notebook. I have a record of all of my meetings and then, at the end of each meeting, usually right away, I go back through the notes and put the things that I need to do in my task list. That really alleviates stress because I'm not worried that I've forgotten anything. Once it's in that list, it's there. Then it's just up to me to review it. Here’s what I love: I love when I've left things on the task list long enough that I actually don't need to do them anymore. That’s the stuff that seemed like it needed to be addressed, so you wrote it down, but it’s not critical or things changed and it’s not important anymore.
What have you learned about communication in this work?
I remember someone said in one of The Dean’s Lists that you can never communicate too much. That is one thing that I've learned —that there's a difference between that and being repetitive. But just never assuming that your message got across or that you were heard or that you told the right people. Erring on the side of caution in terms of that has helped. Another thing that I’ve learned, even before this job, is don't avoid communicating when it seems hard. It's only worse if you don't address it. And usually when you address it right away, it's not anything bad, and the person is thankful or maybe they just wrote something in a hot moment and just needed some information and now they have it. I guess it's a practice — not delaying communication and noting if I get that kind of hot feeling when I see an email or phone call come in. I try to note that then actually take it as a cue to go ahead and dive in. It's true with everything we do: don’t rush the communication, but certainly engage in the communication.
What’s the best process or system you’ve set up for yourself or your department/office?
Well, let me say it's in the process of getting set up, but I’m working on having a focus for the week, a big-picture project. A lot of times you have more than one of those per week, and some of them might just take a little bit of maintenance. But if I can identify the project that takes more focus and really focus on making progress on that and getting to an endpoint during that week, then I feel really productive. Focusing on that relieves some stress. You always feel like you have all of this stuff to do — and you do. You can't do it all, but you can do something. What I discovered, too, is that what I was doing was trying to save a block of time, like on a Friday to do that, but that actually isn’t how the work happens. It takes communication, and that takes a couple of days, you know, so instead of saving this big chunk of time to work on this big thing, it's a lot of little chunks of time throughout the week that are focused on that thing.
What is the best productivity or time management trick you’ve learned?
I'm laughing because I really think it’s building in time almost every day for exercise. I know it's not direct that way, but if I take that time and do that, then I have a higher level of focus and satisfaction while I'm doing the work. I don't consider it part of my work, but it's something that makes productivity happen.
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