|
 William James said, "Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task." In business, both the procrastinator and the task owner suffer from fatigue. We’ve all had them, intelligent, talented, and educated employees, who have been assigned certain tasks on which they never take initiative, or never finish – but are always one step away from the great breakthrough that will make all this procrastination worthwhile.
A task which has been on an employee’s to-do list for days, weeks, months, possibly even years is mentally fatiguing -- the mere thought of it may sap the employee’s energy. He puts the task off for another day, and further avoidance of the task can cause more stress than the task itself, both to the employee and the employer.
Procrastination is simply putting off doing something, a decision or an activity, for whatever reason. But you may not want to lose that intelligent, talented, and educated employee. People procrastinate for a variety of reasons. On the job, reasons may include any one or combinations of the following:
Too much talk and not enough action. The task may have fallen into an endless cycle of committee meetings and consultations where no action if decided on or taken.
Fear of failure or success. The employee may be concerned with the consequences of failing at the task or the consequences of outstanding achievement which might bring more workload with higher expectations.
Lack of belief in the end product. Past experience tells the employee that hard work on this type of task will not be recognized or rewarded, so why bother?
The environment, including other people. For some tasks, the physical environment where the task assigned may be too noisy, quiet, bright, dull, hot or cold, the other people around may be demanding too much attention on other tasks.
The belief or knowledge that the task is too big. A task can be assigned that really is simply too large for the employee to manage. For example, an administrative assistant who has been in charge of inter-office communications, business letters, etc. might be given the task of writing company policies and procedures. As time moves and the scope of such a project sinks in, the employee may start to doubt having the ability to even finish the task or know they can’t complete the task.
Tips to help managers overcome procrastination problems
The first thing the manager or task owner needs to discover is the reason for the procrastination. Talk with the employee about the reason for the problem, then give them direction for completion or make necessary changes in the task assignment. What are some positive directions or changes management can make to help bring the task to completion?
If the task has fallen into the endless cycle of committee meetings and consultations, get the employee to actually do something now… make a decision, take some action, make a phone call -- SOMETHING to start the ball rolling. While sufficient planning is always important, over planning can cause a project to never happenGetting people to consistently be pro-active (doers) often is a matter of getting them to plan less and do more.
If the employee may be concerned with the consequences of failing or succeeding at the task, then address those issues and be clear about what the consequences actually might be. If the employee is still uncomfortable with the task, it’s time to assign the task to someone else.
If the employee believes the task will not be recognized or rewarded, explain the importance of the task to the company’s bigger picture and as above discuss real outcomes.
If the employee is distracted by the physical environment or other people where they are expected to perform the task, see if you can limit distractions or move the location for task performance and make sure the employee is not having to multi-task for other people when working on the problem task.
If the employee believes or knows the task is simply too large, your first action should be to go over the task with the employee and determine if this task is really too large or difficult for the person assigned or if that is a misperception on the employee’s part. If you believe the task can be completed by the employee, brainstorm solutions with them, help them break it down into achievable chunks, and set deadlines. However, the task may actually be too large for one person or that particular person as in the example given above with writing policies and procedures. If this is the case, decide which solution will be the best course of action. Should you assign a team to the task? Can you spare that kind of manpower, and do you have teamwork down? Should you hire a professional consultant to work with the assigned employee, at least to a point where it becomes a manageable task for the employee? There are lots of options here.
After these types of positive action on the part of management are taken, the employee should be motivated to stop procrastinating and finish the task.
|
