Clear your inbox! You read that correctly. Zero it out; make it disappear. “But how will we manage administrative requirements without an inbox?” More efficiently, that’s how. It is a fair question, though. It was the same question I asked our Brigade Deputy Commanding Officer (DCO) when he suggested it during an obstacle course PT/mentoring session. Getting rid of my inbox was the single most liberating experience I have had thus far in command. Here’s how you do it.
Leaders have limited discretionary time. Time is our most valuable, and fleeting, commodity. This isn’t unique to the Army; it’s a function of executive-level management. Articles on time-management cover the pages of Forbes, The New Yorker, and even this website. As leaders, we establish priorities for our organization. We also set personal priorities for managing our own time.
As a commander, I prioritized getting out of the office to see unit training. I did this to assess our team and to determine areas of needed improvement. And every time I returned, I hit a wall of administrative paperwork the orderly room team diligently processed for my signature. My inbox, to include email and physical paperwork, was crushing my soul.
I dreaded clearing my inbox, but I was determined not to be a commander who sits on paperwork leaving the organization to wait on me. I sat at my desk, going through each packet struggling to decipherer the action being requested, if the packet was complete, and where I needed to sign. It was tedious and I’d often have to find a member of my team to clarify these details.
I was the initial editor, organizer, quality control, and adjudicator. And every time someone brought a new packet or requirement to my door it interrupted my train of thought and distracted me from the task at-hand. This was no fault of the orderly room clerk; she was executing my intent to the best of her ability. My system was the problem.
Circus Trainer or Zoo Keeper?
As the DCO and I vaulted over obstacles, he mentioned a Harvard Business Review article by William Oncken, Jr. and Donald L. Wass’, “Who’s Got The Monkey.” The authors proposed a way for managers to unburden themselves from work that is rightly their subordinates’. My DCO explained “getting rid of the inbox” and outlined the mechanics of how to put it into action. I instituted the concept the next day and never looked back.
We removed the inbox that was on my desk and relocated it onto the orderly room clerk’s desk. I also unscrewed the inbox off of my door and discarded it. I instituted a staff action process whereby each day, from 1600-1700, I would make every effort to be at my desk for signatures and soldier-actions. This meant throughout the day, as paperwork was turned into the orderly room, it was verified by the clerk, then the First Sergeant, aggregated, and brought to my desk for signature at 1600.
The orderly room clerk quickly realized that she needed to come to my office prepared as I began asking her all the clarifying questions that I previously had to seek out myself. Thankfully, we have a top-notch orderly room clerk, and she picked this up quickly. This also empowered her to judiciously scrutinize every packet she received. She now had the ammunition to turn packets away, saying “I know the Commander will not accept this until you correct x, y, and z.”
The Result: Efficiency
After instituting this process, clearing my inbox became something I eagerly anticipated each day. What I formerly wasted an hour a day completing, now takes me 15-20 minutes. That is 100 more minutes a week that I can invest in more productive means. More importantly, the orderly room clerk is an empowered member of the team. She now knows every detail of the administrative process. It’s now a codified battle rhythm and staff routing process that provides our team with increased predictability. They know that I will adjudicate actions they submit and have them ready for pick-up by 1700 that same day, or at the very latest by the next day.
Do you feel bogged down by administrative actions? Get rid of the inbox!
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Caveat: Emergencies happen, but in most cases those last-minute requirements are the result of someone waiting to the last minute. Sometimes the process must bend to not, as the phrase goes, cut off your nose to spite your face. You will have to decide when and how you will draw the line. Just remember, you will get more of what you allow. Sometimes a hard lesson in time-management requires the painful consequences of a missed suspense.
Check Out the Article, Who’s Got the Monkey, HERE!
And Check out the Will Oncken and Ken Blanchard collaboration, The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey featured on The Company Leader’s Reading List as well as our document A Deeper Look at the 7 Leader Attributes and Competencies that you will receive when you SUBSCRIBE.
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