When you think about it, task management from a manager’s perspective is all about team management. For team members, it’s about getting work done on time and getting it done right.
Staying on time, on budget, and delivering a consistent, quality work product means having and executing a task management plan. The best plans have flexibility built in to manage the inevitable, late-breaking red-hot issues.
The risk of not having a quality task management plan is that workloads pile up, deadlines are missed, and stress increases. This can lead to finger-pointing and team members “checking out” of the process. It can lead to managers and team members going into the “box”.
As detailed in Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box, by the Arbinger Institute, being in the box is an act of self-deception:
“Self-deception is like this. It blinds us to the true causes of problems, and once we’re blind, all the “solutions” we can think of will make matters worse. Whether at work or home, self-deception obscures the truth about ourselves, corrupts our view of others and our circumstances, and inhibits our ability to make wise and helpful decisions.”
When developing and executing a task management plan, it is important to remember that tasks are completed by people, who often have heavy workloads, differing world views from us, and competing priorities at work and in their personal lives.
Your task management software can support you in making task management human again. Leverage:
- Reporting and portal views to:
- Gain real-time insight into workloads and assign tasks to the right person the first time.
- Proactively identify those who may need assistance and remove any blockers.
- Point-of-need communication tools. Make it easy for team members to request clarification on tasks, reassign and delegate tasks (when appropriate), and get help.
- Mobile capability. Make it easy for field sales, agents, and remote workers to update and assign tasks from a phone or tablet.
- Document management capabilities. Ensure everyone is working with up-to-date documentation from the source of record and eliminate the hassle of email attachments.
- Capture best practices. Reuse tasks and task templates to improve productivity on future projects.
We are here to help. For more information, take a look at the Tasker Suite.
