Delegating And Prioritizing: Tools For Managing Multiple Scheduling Demands

Published on: 23 February 2023 Last Updated on: 30 October 2024

Leaders and managers have a lot on their plates. Between coordinating teams, project management, and task prioritization, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and stressed out.

The two greatest abilities that a manager has are delegation and prioritization. Mastery of these skills is critical to achieving business goals as well as peace of mind.

Delegation

The shifting of authority responsibility for particular functions, tasks, or decisions from one person (usually a leader or manager) to another.

A leader is nothing – literally, he’d have no job – without a team. A manager needs to know his team, inside and out, especially their strengths and weaknesses. He should have a good idea of their respective workloads and availability. This way, he knows precisely who to turn to and when. These are the key factors in the art of delegation.

Prioritization

Organization of tasks by relative importance.

The most important and pressing work gets done first, within reason. The manager needs to have the competence and discretion to identify what areas need to be prioritized and what can be put off, using task and calendar management tools to stay on top of everybody’s schedule.

How to Develop a Prioritization Matrix and Improve Productivity

There are many schools of thought and paths to success regarding task management, but we’re going to hone in on just one that we find incredibly useful: the prioritization matrix.

A prioritization matrix, sometimes called the Eisenhower matrix, is a simple way to organize tasks by priority and importance. President Eisenhower always stressed the difference between urgency and importance.

Urgent tasks require immediate attention. If they’re not done now, there will be consequences.

Important tasks do not necessarily require immediate attention, but they help you achieve your long-term goals. You’ll need to be diligent about allocating resources towards these tasks because they are critical to your overall mission, though the consequences of not completing them might not be as apparent.

Create 4 boxes:

Box 1 (DO) – Urgent, Important

Box 2 (SCHEDULE) – Not urgent, Important

Box 3 (DELEGATE) – Urgent, unimportant

Box 4 (DELETE) – Not urgent, unimportant

Use this grid to sort your tasks into different prioritization categories.

5 Tools for Managing Multiple Scheduling Demands:

1. Monday

Monday is a project management software that helps you streamline your work for maximum productivity and stay on track to reach your goals through any workflow. With their building block system, you can easily build a visual representation of your unique workflow.

With a whole suite of end-to-end products for all teams including sales, marketing, CRM, dev ops, and more, you can have all your project management needs synchronized and compatible through one provider.

2. ClickUp

For an all-in-one solution that provides tools for project management, team chat, goal setting, and more all with a variety of dynamic and intuitive view options, look no further than ClickUp.

View charts, whiteboards, priority lists, and team documents from desktop or mobile devices. It’s all very fluid and responsive if a bit visually busy.

3. Asana

Much like other project management tools, Asana’s MO is helping teams manage and organize work. With Asana, you can create projects, assign tasks to team members, set due dates, track progress, and communicate with your team.

Asana offers a broad range of project templates for common use cases like marketing campaigns, product launches, and event planning so you don’t have to start from square one.

In terms of saving time, Asana offers a range of automation features such as automatic task assignments, reminders, and status updates, giving leaders more time to focus on the important, urgent tasks on their plate.

4. Calendly

First and foremost, Calendly is a scheduling tool. Improve your speed to lead with smart availability calendars that allow clients to book meetings with just a click, saving everyone the hassle of back-and-forth emailing.

Custom booking links for different types of appointments or meetings can be shared with clients/colleagues or embedded into a website.

5. Wrike

Wrike is a simple project management tool that helps teams collaborate and track progress on all sorts of tasks.

Break down tasks into subtasks and assign them to different team members. Track time, set deadlines, and communicate all with built-in time tracking, custom workflows, and reports to help you make data-driven decisions.

Conclusion

Keeping track of all the moving parts as a team leader is difficult. Deadlines accumulate and you only have the bandwidth to remember so much on your own.

Productivity and project management tools allow you to easily view, organize, and triage your tasks so you can prioritize the most important and urgent items. If your startup or SME isn’t already using one, invest in software tools like appointment reminder apps to streamline and simplify your workflows.

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Arnab

Arnab is a professional blogger, having an enormous interest in writing blogs and other jones of calligraphies. In terms of his professional commitments, He carries out sharing sentient blogs.

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5 Tips to Finding Better Talent for Your Bar Business

Bar business owners or managers face an almost universal challenge: hiring the best staff. It's not about filling shifts nowadays. Your cooks and servers all play a part in the customer's experience. Choosing the best talent for those roles and your cocktails are equally important to your business’s success. Even a novice bar manager will tell you how crucial staff can be. Here are 5 useful tips to get the best employees. 5 Tips to Finding Better Talent for Your Bar Business: Bar business owners must follow the below mentioned points to select the best talent for their organization. 1. Attitude is Important: Your staff is your bar’s face. If a server or bartender approaches a customer with a negative attitude, the customer will leave, never to return. If you feel your staff is not performing well, ask yourself if you can trust them to run the bar for you. Staff is bound to mess up, but it’s their recovery that matters. If their attitude is affecting other employees, do something about it before they bring the whole bar business down. If you hire a great pro with a bad attitude, your cocktails will look nice, but your clientele will flee. Work ethic, team dynamic, and personality are much harder to teach than how to pour a drink right. Part of the process is finding job candidates. The other part is training them. As competition for great employees increases, bars now need to make more effort and tell a better story about the value of working in a team. There’s an imbalance between demand from bars and supply of quality staff. The people you hire have the greatest effect on the bar’s overall culture. 2. Know Your Market: Knowledge of the bar industry is important, but it’s not the only factor. Comprehension of best practices, industry standards, and good suppliers should be second nature to a decent bar manager. Do you know what the market in your area is like? Who are your main competitors? Is the bar you manage just another place to go, or is there a gap you can fill? Why might someone go to your bar business instead of the one down the street? Bar managers need to understand the competitive landscape they inhabit. 3. Hire the Right Bartenders: You cannot afford to hire fresher as bartenders and then train them to deliver. This will eat into your revenue and you will never get the desired results. The bar industry is a vibrant industry that faces a lot of attrition. If you are strategic in terms of looking for the right people, you will be successful. It is always a good idea to have at least 2 experienced bartenders and 4 fresher. This helps maintain the standard and helps you prepare the next rung of the leadership. A good bartender for your bar business is a big reason why some bars are successful, while others shut shop within a few months. Investing in the right bartender is probably going to be one of your toughest decisions. Train Employees to Upsell: Upselling customers is a great way to boost profits in your bar. This is where profits are made and success stories crafted. Upselling involves influencing customer preferences so that they end up making a choice that is beneficial for your establishment. It is also about the staff reading the body language of consumers. For example, if someone is celebrating a promotion, a staff can garner the public opinion of the group and suggest a far more expensive bottle than the one the customer had originally intended to purchase. Peer pressure, wanting to show off and winning over loved ones are reasons people fall easy victims to upselling. A bigger bill means better tips. People usually fix their tips at roughly around 10 to 15 percent of the total bill. Upselling helps boost employee morale as they get more tips and earnings from the same. By training your staff to upsell, you will be contributing to a better working environment. 4. Build Positive Relationships with Staff: Experienced bar managers know that success isn’t possible if you don’t manage your staff wisely. To establish an open and positive rapport, try to build positive relationships with them. A frustrated staff member affects performance, morale, and customer experience. While it’s often claimed business shouldn’t be personal, this is changing in many industries. When bar managers form relationships with their staff, they establish a personalized connection with someone who will become a reliable, long-term employee and attract people to your bar as well as keep loyal patrons coming back. Take the time to interact with your staff. 5. Believe in your Staff: It may seem easy to be a bar manager, but it’s definitely not. If you decided on this job because you thought it was glamorous, you might want to reconsider your decision. However, if you are running a bar because you want to, stay confident and passionate and project this mentality onto your staff. Encourage them and believe in them. They will reciprocate and this will reflect on the customer experience in turn. Your clients will keep coming back. They will visit you whenever they're thinking of a place to go out because of the positive, laid-back atmosphere you’ve managed to create. Final Thoughts: The right employees and attitude are very important for smooth operation, but getting a reliable bar POS system is just as essential. Your bar needs a firm grasp of cash flow, inventory management, and data. Moreover, an outstanding POS system will expedite and ease the bar management process. You can’t afford to dispense with a solid POS system. Read Also: The Best Red Wine That Suits Your Taste Is Your Company Offering Enough To Potential Employees?

How to Become a Good Team Player at Work?

or a lieutenant in the army, you should always show that you make time to lead. Therefore, know your team well, communicate with every single team member, and reward all of them including the underperformers. Make time to lead This part might be the most important one as a true leader must find time to lead, no matter how much the workload he or she has. This is also to ensure that you are reliable and find time to support your team by assisting and coordinating. In addition, you may as well pretend that you are not busy and provide the necessary attention to everyone. Get to know your team The time that you spend remembering your team’s names and dates of births will not be wasted. The most important part of these details is that you will make sure that everyone feels special in your team. Another part is that they do not feel left out. You will sense and see when your team members feel left out as they will not commit themselves at their fullest and probably will look for other opportunities at other places. Jobsora.com will provide vital information on how to list your team’s birthdays and names, but also try to find other sources of information that provide similar suggestions. Communication is the key to order To make sure that your work is done appropriately and timely, dedicate yourself to the team and communicate to the completest. Therefore, establish a certain chat room on social media that everyone uses or develop a specific way in which you will communicate to all of your team members. A professional way is usually one of the email services, like Gmail or Outlook. There, you will be able to schedule meetings and be sure that everyone will attend by making them confirm attendance. On the other hand, do not forget to speak in person to each one of your team members, as personal communication has always been essential. However, modern technologies are enabling the process of communication very easy, so make sure to use it appropriately too. Lead by example This attribute will ensure the team will view you as their role model. In particular, they will ask questions that they will know you are able to answer because you do that in front of them. In other words, if you tell your team to follow a specific order of their working style, look at what you do first to demand the same from others. The example that you will show to your team will also lead to new ideas and improvements, from which you could assign responsibilities and be less busy with basic work. Surely, this would not be possible if you cannot show your team how to effectively work in your organization. Therefore, lead by example and you will also see the secret talents that people have around you. Reward all your people no matter of their ability By rewarding all the people from your team will ensure that everyone will feel like they are part of the family and their work is not overlooked. You will have the hardworking and not so talented employees. Yet, the rewarding process should cover all. Indeed, by giving prizes to your best workers, you should also ensure that the other office members are not left out. Some of the rewarding processes could include paying for a night our for all of your team associates, even the ones that did little for the job. It may sound odd, but the power of persuasion will provide fruitful results. For example, instead of punishing your staff for bad work, encourage them to work hard instead. Therefore, try not to make too much of a big deal when something is done badly, but try to focus on the positive sides of your team’s efforts. Indeed, some of your team members are not as skilled as others. This would be for a variety of reasons but try to not blame them for not knowing enough, yet, try to encourage them to improve themselves. For example, try to organize some training courses or even encourage your team to seek for some by financing them. Overall, the tips mentioned above will surely help you in advancing your leadership skills, but try to look for alternative answers too. Jobsora.com will answer most of your questions and provide you with a blueprint of your actions. The ability to be a good leader will increase your reputation at your work and it will be improving your team’s productivity and capacity. Read also: 5 Informal Team Building Activities To Break The Ice Among Co-Workers

5 Reasons You Should Respond To Every Customer Complaint

Any business encounters a customer complaint at some juncture. Despite the best of intentions, there will be situations when a client leaves feeling dissatisfied. Such a customer may initially try to seek resolution from the business itself, but increasingly, they are more prone to air their grievances on social media platforms. When such negative feedback is published online, it becomes a permanent fixture. This puts business owners and managers in a position where they must make a choice: either overlook the complaint or use it as a platform to exhibit their c for everyone to witness. Here Are Five Prime Reasons You Should Respond To Every Customer Complaint Here are some reasons why responding to customer complaints is crucial for your business's success. 1. Forge Strong Connections Customers tend to be doubtful, particularly regarding reviews. Research indicates that only 39% of consumers believe retailers seriously consider their feedback and an additional 22% feel this simply never happens. Making public responses to your reviews is the initial action towards alleviating these suspicions. Don’t solely concentrate on responding to negative feedback. Yes, one and two-star reviews should be addressed first, but recognizing customers who have given you positive reviews, even with a plain “thank you,” can greatly enhance brand loyalty and demonstrate to the world that you value every piece of customer feedback. Ensure your responses strike the right note. This is your opportunity to initiate dialogue with your customers and exhibit the personable side of your brand, so think deeply about the image you want to project. 2. Motivate Employees When your entire support team commits to elevating customer satisfaction by gaining insights from customer interactions, it naturally leads to fewer disgruntled customers and boosts motivation. Employees feel more motivated and their morale improves when they're not constantly dealing with negative feedback or hostility in every interaction. If you're overwhelmed, you could outsource professional answering services from Absent Answer to handle any high volumes of customer interactions. 3. Complaints Help to Pinpoint Defective Products Regrettably, despite rigorous quality control measures, defective products occasionally reach consumers. Organizations need to be informed about these flawed items by customers to rectify similar issues that might exist in other products. This scenario is especially relevant when a discourteous employee interacts with customers over the phone. Many individuals would prefer not to expend the effort to report such instances of rudeness. However, without this feedback, a manager may remain oblivious, potentially resulting in a single employee driving numerous customers away. 4. Complaints Pave the Way for Service Improvement Opportunities Studies indicate that a customer whose concerns have been addressed satisfactorily tends to be more loyal than a customer who has never had any issues. Complaints provide a chance to demonstrate to the customer that their satisfaction is a priority for the business by implementing service recovery measures. Numerous businesses implement a service recovery strategy to handle those occasional yet significant instances when customers feel their expectations have not been met. A well-executed service recovery program can potentially convert a dissatisfied customer into a loyal patron, who may be more satisfied than if they had never experienced problems. 5. Improved Digital Presence Complaints on review sites and social media are becoming more common. While it might be disconcerting to publicly display a customer's dissatisfaction, remember that potential customers expect to see some negative feedback. The key is demonstrating that your business is proactive and committed to satisfying its customers. Responding to complaints by regretting any less-than-positive experiences shows potential customers they can trust your service. In your response, highlight your eagerness to rectify the situation. Once you've addressed the issue publicly, follow up privately as well. This prevents the possibility of an extended discussion overshadowing your initial response. Generally, you'll be able to resolve the problem and, apart from maintaining a positive public image, you'll also enhance your reputation with the affected customer. Tips on How To Effectively Handle Customer Complaint Responding to customer complaints as soon as possible is crucial as it sends a message to them that the business or organization values their concerns and feedback. Moreover, ensuring customer satisfaction also helps in building and maintaining one’s brand reputation. However, handling and responding to customer complaints is not an easy thing to do. Here are some tips on how to effectively handle customer complaints. Go Through The Complaint The first step to effectively handling a customer complaint is actively listening to the customer and trying to understand the issues that they are facing with your product or service. If you are reading online reviews feedback or complaints sent via email, then don't just skim through. Make sure to read the review thoroughly from top to bottom. While reading through the reviews, you should also try taking notes such as product or service number, day and date of the incident, and any other information that you think is relevant. Carefully reading or listening to the complaint will help you to understand the issues and determine a suitable course of action. Stay Professional and Apologise to the Customer It can be difficult to accept criticism, be it online or face-to-face, especially if it is about your business that you have worked hard to build from the ground up. However, it is crucial that you stay calm while listening to or reading customer complaints, even if you think that they are wrong, lying, or being unreasonable. Getting emotional or worked up over customer complaints and then reacting angrily in front of customers will only escalate the situation and harm your brand’s reputation. So be professional and apologize to the customer even if they are the ones who are in the wrong. You should also be courteous and thank them for reaching out to you and voicing their frustrations and assure them that you are looking into the issue. Most of the time, apologizing immediately to the customer can go a long way toward defusing the situation. Formulate A Course Of Action To Resolve the Customer Complaint Once you have carefully heard or read the customer complaint and understood the issue, try to formulate a suitable course of action. Some problems can be easily resolved, while others may take some time. If the issue can be fixed easily, then you should get back to the customer as soon as possible with the solution. The customer will appreciate the promptness on your part, and it will go a long way in ensuring customer satisfaction. However, there can be issues that cannot be resolved quickly. In that case, you should determine how much time it will take for you to fix the problem. At the same time, be honest with your customers and tell them that you will need some time to fix the issue and provide them with a timeline. Here are some additional tips on what to do after the complaint is resolved: Follow up with the customer after the issues are fixed and make sure they are happy with the outcome. You can ask for their feedback on how you handled the complaint and what you can do better next time. Try to exceed their expectations by offering them something extra, such as a discount, a freebie, or a referral. This will help you turn a negative experience into a positive one and increase customer loyalty and retention. Endnote If you've been neglecting your reviews, feeling too anxious to reply, or simply haven't had the opportunity, there's no more suitable time to start than now. Responding to all your reviews, whether they are positive or negative, can contribute immensely to strengthening trust in your brand and depicting your company as one that genuinely listens and deeply values its customers. Read Also: 5 Most Common Digital PR Mistakes And How To Avoid Them The 7 Steps to Create a Storybrand to Ensure Marketing that Works How Customer Success Can Help Grow Your Business

Delegating And Prioritizing: Tools For Managing Multiple Scheduling Demands

Delegation

Prioritization

How to Develop a Prioritization Matrix and Improve Productivity