Time management - Friends
Friends
General
The trouble with team behaviour is selfishness isn’t looked upon very favourably.
If you need something from a team member or a friend it can’t all be one way traffic.
Ideally, you want to do as little as possible towards any tasks that do not further your own goals.
When it comes to team colleagues and friends it will require some negotiation and trading of needs to get to an end result.
These should be win / win situations and will be most useful when complementary skills are involved.
Approach
In this situation a friendly approach will often pay more dividends.
What ever it is that you require don’t ask for it directly. It is better to bring the conversation around to the topic and enquire what your team colleague or friend can do to help. Get their opinion on a level of performance that they would find acceptable.
In this manner you may already achieve your aims And could end up with agreeing a better deal.
If this level of performance is not acceptable you can then ask for what you want plus extra if necessary.
In order to finalise your agreement you may need to trade with some give and take.
The ideal situation is to find a negotiated win / win position for long term benefit. This is not always possible and you may have to settle for a short term lose (you) / win (colleague) expecting the long term position to turn in your favour. What you are not looking for is a long term lose (you) / win (colleague).
Areas to avoid:
- People who claim they are useless at things and are extremely grateful if you help them. These people need coaching or should go on a personal training course so they can become independent and not take up your time. If you have one or two people doing this on a regular basis come up with a remedy to fix the problem long term.
- Many friends and colleagues fall into the category of ‘unwanted visitors’ that can talk a lot. You will need to employ the methods listed elsewhere, see ‘unwanted callers’.
- The flatterer can waste your time quite regularly once they find out you are susceptible. Learn to say, ‘no’. This can be especially deceptive when advice is sought rather than help directly.