RSS Feed
Twitter
Procrastination most often affects our idea people. As they creatively come up with and play with ideas, employees make some valuable contributions and observations. They also can delay getting started by staying in the idea stage, still playing around. Mulling over ideas is only one of many reasons that employees procrastinate. For most, procrastination is simply a habit, formed when they delayed doing their homework and reinforced by nagging parents who never quite resolved the problem. Many procrastinating employees really don’t mind the work—once they get into it. It’s just getting into it that is an obstacle. This lifelong habit has become almost a ritual, part of the work process. One challenge that you have as a manager is to change the work process without assuming a parental, nagging role. The following interventions aid in putting the responsibility for changing procrastinating behaviors where they belong—with the employee.
Interventions/What to do
1. Set incremental deadlines instead of one final deadline. Slicing up a looming deadline into smaller bite-size pieces is less daunting to procrastinators. You might have assigned the employee to write a business case proposing the type of PCs to be installed in branch offices all over the region. Instead of a deadline for the final business case recommending a brand of PC, try divvying the process up into mini-deadlines:
• Please send me your short list of PC vendors that meet our criteria by May 1.
• Select the vendor by May 8.
• Have the rough draft completed by May 12.
• Complete the business case by May 15.
2. Make deadlines a team responsibility. Peer pressure is a wonderful thing. Employees who feel no compunction about letting you down won’t want to let a teammate down. Charge two or more employees with the deadline and watch how effective this is with procrastinators who are team players.
