Some time ago I was supervising a young writer, who we’ll call Brian. He was nice enough, showed up on time, had brains, and was responsible. But his work was coming in consistently late, and he wasn’t asking for help.
Now, I knew the lateness wasn’t due to a lack of effort. It was obvious that the effort was there; it’s that the results were lacking.
Finally I sat him down at one of our regular one-on-one catch-up meetings, and spoke to him about it. I assured him that I knew he was Some time ago I was supervising a young writer, who we’ll call Brian. He was nice enough, showed up on time, had brains, and was responsible. But his work was coming in consistently late, and he wasn’t asking for help.
Now, I knew the lateness wasn’t due to a lack of effort. It was obvious that the effort was there; it’s that the results were lacking.
Finally I sat him down at one of our regular one-on-one catch-up meetings, and spoke to him about it. I assured him that I knew he was trying, but that we were at the point where something had to change. So I asked him the way he spent his time. Not to embarrass or punish him, but I needed to find out exactly what he was–or wasn’t–doing, so that I could hopefully identify the problem and then make suggestion as to how to improve.
I found several.
Thing is, they were all related to technique, most specifically in regard to time management. He had the desire; he just hadn’t developed the skills to help him. After that I gave him some very specific instructions when tackling the following issues:
* When he was calling people to schedule an interview, I asked him to tell me–specifically, exactly–what he said to them. My wife got annoyed when I told her I did this, because she said that she wouldn’t like it if anybody did that to her, even if they were right. But by doing this I discovered that Brian was asking people to call him back by his deadline–the day his story was due–and so they often did as he said, waiting until the last minute, which really put him in a bind. I then instructed Brian to change his technique–I usually make gentle suggestions rather than give directives when it comes to these types of issues, but in Brian’s case, I felt that he needed to develop some new habits, and I wanted him to grab hold of them so they stuck; I explained this to him.
From then on, he was to ask people to call him back the day he called them, or at the latest, the next morning. Then they can arrange a time for an interview at a mutually agreed upon time–and early enough so that Brian can meet his deadlines.
* When it came to setting interview times, I instructed Brian to lay out three dates and times of his choosing, and then instruct his interviews to pick one. Not to ask [i]if [/i]those times work, but [i]which[/i] [i]one[/i] works best. This tends to keep them focused, and more often than not, I find that it works pretty darn well.
* In terms of starting his assignments, I instructed Brian to begin the process at least one week earlier than he had been. The idea is that if he makes his initial calls earlier, he gives people more of a chance to call back within a window he can work with, rather than making every call so urgent.
* Another big one was that–like many folks–he didn’t want to ask for help, or admit that he was stuck, and then sorta hoped I wouldn’t notice. Which of course I did. So I told him that when he’s stuck, he needs to ask for help. He didn’t have to ask me, per se, but he needed to ask someone, and he had many experienced colleagues to choose from.
A few days after our chat, Brian came up to me. He told me that the days immediately following our talk were his most productive ever, and that my suggestions to him were the reason.
Now [i]that [/i]was pretty cool.
As with Brian, my overall goal is to help as many people as I can be successful, in whatever ways they define success for themselves. Sometimes I’m in a position to help, sometimes I’m not. But when I see an opening, I usually take it. And even whey I try, it doesn’t always go according to plan.
But it’s really nice when it works out.
Post edited by: rcolchamiro, at: 2007/02/14 13:54
Post edited by: rcolchamiro, at: 2007/02/15 16:44
