PRINCIPLES OF SELF MANAGEMENT

- STRENGTHENING ANTICIPATION,
DELIBERATION, AND STRESS TOLERANCE

NIGEL A.L. BROOKS

THE BUSINESS LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

Article reprint
 PRINCIPLES OF SELF MANAGEMENT
- STRENGTHENING ANTICIPATION, DELIBERATION, AND
STRESS TOLERANCE

Entrepreneurs and leaders must first motivate themselves if they are to

establish an environment that motivates others. However, being motivated
also means applying the discipline of self management to strengthen
personal, professional, and enterpriship (entrepreneurship, leadership,
and management) competencies. As such, entrepreneurs and leaders
become role models.

Self management is an underlying discipline that applies the techniques of

the managerial role (planning, organizing, executing, measuring,
evaluating, and adjusting) to personal activities. Hence, the personal
competencies of anticipation, deliberation, and stress tolerance improve.
As a consequence, an individual's ability to perform personal, professional
and enterpriship (entrepreneurship, leadership, and management) activities
strengthens. Thus, an individual becomes a role model for an effective and
efficient work style to others.

The scope of the self management discipline includes prioritization, time

management, space management, resource management, follow-through,
and stress management. It also means living by a set of personal values
and guiding principles.

Prioritization:

Prioritization is about managing activities based upon value. The simplest

method is to apply the Pareto principle (eighty percent of benefit comes
from twenty percent of the effort). However, the principle should be
applied twice so as to address the top four percent of the activities first that
account for approximately 64 percent of the benefit.

The method is applied by creating a list of activities and then assigning

priorities as A, B, and C items - A having the highest priority, B having
medium priority, and C having the lowest priority based upon contribution
to value. The A items should account for no more than twenty percent of
the entire list, and the C items should account for no less than ten. The
principle should then be applied again to the A items as AA, AB, and AC.
The AA items account for about four percent of the entire list.

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The list should be visible, reviewed, and updated on a regular basis.
Attention must be given to resolving AA items, and the eliminating of as
many C items as possible.

New items will be added to the list from time to time, and the list should
be recreated from scratch as necessary. Old C items usually drop off in this
process.

Time management:

Time management is an extension of the prioritization technique, but

relates to the scheduling of activities. Time frames can differ depending
upon the types of activities and value, and can range from minutes to
years. Time management begins with how an individual lays out their own
schedule, and how they interact with others.

The key is to determine the time frame for each activity, and layout
schedules in blocks of time with slots. The activities should be listed and
prioritized, and then assigned to the slots. Schedule contingency should be
allowed for by assigning up to 85 percent of the available slots. That way,
if there are overruns, or if unanticipated events occur, there is some room
within the schedule to accommodate extra activities. Priorities should be
reviewed regularly.

An individual should be careful about communicating with others with a

different time perception. For example, strategic planners think long-term,
but production staff tend to think short-term. An information technology
strategy may take five years to implement, but the response times of
resulting systems may be have to occur within seconds, or fractions of
seconds for process control systems.

Space management:

Space management is about arranging physical layouts ranging from

desktops to entire communities. It begins with how an individual lays out
their own workspace, and how they interact with others. Space
management is based upon communications needs and workflows between
related parties.

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The further parties are located from each other, the less they are motivated
to communicate, especially if they are on different time zones. Crises are
the exception, and actually force parties to communicate. Effective
globalization requires establishing strong communications capabilities
between the various parties around the world.

In urban areas, it is usually necessary to densely pack people, equipment,

and inventory into small facilities. Some individuals are bothered by the
close proximity of people and objects around them, and the potential for
background noise, whereas others are not. Music can be used to reduce
distractions from background noise, and create ambiance.

An individual should be careful about communicating with others with a

different space perception. For example, strategic planners think globally,
but others may think locally. An electronic product design may require
large drawings that represent components that are fractions of millimeters
apart.

The Chinese practice of feng shui is becoming more popular in the West.
Definitions vary, but in general the practice relates to organizing
environments and the objects within them, such as facilities and
equipment, to promote balance, happiness, harmony, health, and
prosperity.

Resource management:

Resource management is about consuming materials, supplies, and

services effectively and efficiently. It begins with how an individual
consumes resources, and how they influence others to do so.

Resource management is about setting budgets for resource consumption,

and then monitoring the earned value - the budgeted cost of the resource
consumed to date. Negative variances result from an insufficient budget or
waste; positive variances result from an overly generous budget or
conservation.

If time is the resource, then waste results from inefficiency, and

conservation results from efficiency. Both productivity and efficiency
determine if results are delivered ahead or behind schedule. Productivity is
the rate at which units are produced within a time period; efficiency is the
ratio of the work performed to the effort applied, and is the difference
between the budgeted cost of work performed and the actual cost.
Parkinson's law states that work expands to absorb the available time.

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Follow-through:

Follow-through is about carrying an activity through to its natural

completion. It is easier to start an activity than it is to complete it
successfully. Natural completion includes determining the consequence of
an event or activity once it has occurred by getting feedback on results. It
includes both quantitative and qualitative information.

How an individual asks for feedback on their own performance determines

what they expect from others. Follow-through starts with an individual
assessing their own performance, and then asking for feedback from
others. Perceptions regarding an individual's own performance will differ
from that of others. Ultimately, it's the feedback from others that matters.

Follow-through is achieved by asking questions of constituencies, either

directly or indirectly through surveys, in addition to whatever quantitative
data is available about actual behavior.

Follow-through is also essential to prospecting activities. If effort is

expended to identifying those people with whom to build relationships,
then it is essential to follow-through to find what mutual opportunities and
benefits actually exist. Follow-through is extremely important when
proposals are issued. If a salesperson doesn't follow-through on a
proposal, can a prospective client or customer expect them to follow-
through on the account itself? Prospective clients and customers are
notorious for not following-through to deliver results to unsuccessful
bidders. Therefore, bidders should always follow-through to find out
status, criteria, and reasons for both acceptance and rejection, so that they
can improve in the future.

Stress management:

Stress is human body's response to demands made on it. It is the response

to pressures from responsibility, to both real and imaginary threats from
people, and to fear of potential negative events and activities. Stress arises
when an individual moves beyond their comfort zone - their boundary for
risk tolerance, especially when situations appear out of control.

Positive stress has a facilitating effect on activity; negative stress has a

debilitating effect. Negative stress must be overcome otherwise illnesses
can develop. Individuals who are self-motivated challenge the debilitating
effects of stress by moving to action.

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Stress reduction techniques include:

● Exercising and relaxing

● Eating a balanced diet
● Getting a good night's sleep
● Avoiding alcohol and drugs
● Involving a support system, such as family or teammates

By applying the techniques of planning, organizing, executing, measuring,

evaluating, and adjusting, an individual translates mindset into action and
becomes self-motivated.

Personal values and guiding principles:

Personal values and guiding principles form a system of beliefs that set
expectations for individual behavior and decision making that can be
applied to personal, professional, and enterpriship activities.

***

An individual's attention self management is a determinant of their

suitability for advancement. If an individual can't manage their own affairs
well, then how can they be expected to manage someone else's?

Entrepreneurs, lifestyle enterprise owners, executives, and managers must

balance both long-term and short-term mindset with action to ensure that
important items get done on a timely basis, without losing focus on the
future.

Self management is an enterpriship (entrepreneurship, leadership, and

management) competency.

***

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For more information...

For information about audiobooks, books, earticles, ebooks, and eseminars

offered by The Business Leadership Development Corporation visit
www.etailia.com

For more information about the discipline of enterpriship visit

www.enterpriship.com

To assess your individual competencies in thirty minutes or less, claim

your opportunity for instant access when you go to
www.individualcompetencies.com
About Nigel A.L Brooks...

Nigel A.L Brooks is a management consultant to entrepreneurs, business

enterprise owners, executives, and managers, and the enterprises they
serve. He specializes in developing the entrepreneurial, leadership, and
managerial competencies that build sustainable advantage from vision to
value. He is an author and a frequent speaker.

He obtained his professional experience as a partner at Andersen

Consulting (now Accenture, Ltd.), as a vice president at Booz Allen
Hamilton, Inc. (now Booz and Company), as a senior vice president at the
American Express Company, as president of Javazona Cafes, Inc., and as
president of The Business Leadership Development Corporation. He has
been a contributing editor for the Bank Administration Institute magazine,
and has served on boards of entrepreneurial networks. He was educated at
the University of Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom.

His clients are in the financial services, food services, high-tech,

manufacturing and distribution, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, professional
services, retail and wholesale, transportation, and government industries.

He has experience in North and Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

www.nigelalbrooks.com

About The Business Leadership Development Corporation (BLD)...

The Business Leadership Development Corporation is a professional

services firm that works with entrepreneurs, lifestyle business enterprise
owners, executives, and managers, and the enterprises they serve.

BLD develops entrepreneurial, leadership, and managerial competencies

that achieve performance excellence by building sustainable advantage
from vision to value through:

 Strategic Management Consulting

 Executive Coaching and Mentoring
 Professional Training via The Center For Business Leadership
Development (CBLD)
 Motivational Speaking

www.bldsolutions.com
For more information...

For information about audiobooks, books, earticles, ebooks, and eseminars

offered by The Business Leadership Development Corporation visit
www.etailia.com

For more information about the discipline of enterpriship visit

www.enterpriship.com
 THE BUSINESS LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
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www.bldsolutions.com
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