Dr. Suzanne Minarcine

Time Management for the Holidays

My mother always had Christmas trees all over the house. She decorated everything that was possible to decorate. If my brother or I had stayed still, she would have decorated us, too. She worked outside the home and was always adding to her education, but she managed to do it all. How in the world did she do it?

My holiday dread begins in October. Work consumes so much of my time that I can barely think about cooking Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, much less shopping for gifts for anyone.

The thought of taking time off at the holidays makes me crazy. If we have two days off for Thanksgiving and two days off for Christmas, what happens to the work we’d normally do on those days and that still needs to be done?

This is where we need to go back to the basics of time management and we need to find ways to relieve the stress associated with the holidays. The Time Management Grid, designed by Stephen Covey in 1994 and introduced in his book, First Things First, divides tasks into four categories: important/urgent, important/not urgent, urgent/ not important, and not important/not urgent.

Urgent/Important Tasks

This list is for those important deadlines that must be done today, right now. We’ve all had those last minute projects assigned by our bosses that must be done now, and take precedent over everything else.

We’ve even found ourselves in a situation when we’ve forgotten to go to the grocery store and it is time for dinner. We’re basically putting out fires because we forgot to plan. Work to manage your time and you should avoid these kinds of stress-inducing emergencies.

Important/Not Urgent Tasks

This is where we need to spend more of our time, planning what we need to do and prioritizing our time. Do you really need to attend that Christmas party on Wednesday night, when you really do need to finish a report for Friday? Can you afford to take on one more volunteer project?

Spending time in planning and development can keep us out of the high-pressure urgent and important category. It might include a yoga class or taking time for daily exercise. You have some flexibility in the time, as they don’t need to be done right now, but they are very important for your health and well-being. This includes nurturing the relationships in your life.

Urgent/Not Important Tasks

These are the distractions that can keep you from doing what needs to be done. These tasks include meetings that you committed to without thinking first about whether you really needed to attend.

Not Urgent/Not Important Tasks

Social media falls in this category, although we very well may be categorizing it as urgent. How many times each day do you check Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and/or email? This is where the game of Candy Crush or whatever your distraction of choice goes. This is how we unwind, without thinking.

This holiday season is a good time to look at how you spend your time. Revisit the time management grid and look at how your workday is scheduled.

We live in a world that is much different from my mom’s. Our work environment no longer shuts off at 5:00 in the afternoon, as we are remote and we are connected in so many ways. Many of us don’t separate our work time and our personal time, and we forget to take care of ourselves.

This holiday season, try to plan ahead for those days off, anticipate what needs to be done, and weed out what is not important. Schedule some time for yourself and for your family, and enjoy the holidays.

About the Author: Dr. Suzanne Minarcine is a faculty director for the School of Business at American Public University. She currently teaches strategic management and entrepreneurship courses.

Seeking Zen with a Foster Dog

Fred Fred was one day away from execution. A friend of mine, Josephine Bennett, is a huge animal lover and through her I became aware of the plight of so many dogs. My dog history is not really exactly what you’d call stellar. Our Boston Terrier ran away and went to live with my grandfather, who would hold him in his lap and feed him from the table. We adopted a Golden Retriever that was in the midst of a custody battle, and the ongoing drama between his previous owners was too much for my children and then it became frightening. I gave up on dogs, but I had great memories of dogs from my childhood.

This has been a tough year for our family and there have been times I have alternated between wanting to run away, or just sleep. I have friends with wonderful dogs, and I even once went to the shelter to look at dogs. They just seemed to require so much more work than our two cats. Then along came Fred. It all happened so fast.

Fred became our foster dog on Thursday, December 10. I really did not understand what all we were getting into with Fred. I told Josephine that I needed Dog 101. He is not neutered, yet, so he had to be crated when inside. He is heartworm positive, so he has to have medication every 12 hours. I didn’t realize just how big his crate would be, nor did I anticipate the cats’ reactions. We’re working it all out.

I’ve obsessed over some of Fred’s behaviors, but mainly I think he’s behaving normally in a new situation. I’ve worried that he hasn’t barked, but if he did bark, I’m sure I’d worry about that. Last night, on our usual walking route, he stopped suddenly and growled at something. We walk by this house several times a day and this is the first time he’s had a reaction. I couldn’t see anything and it was a bit creepy. As strange as it sounds, I was happy to hear him make some noise.

We’re now on Day 5. What I really love is the walking. When Fred and I go out for a walk, I don’t text and I don’t talk on the phone. I focus on walking. I watch Fred and how he interacts with the environment. I listen to see if I can hear whatever it is that makes his ears perk up, and makes him stop and look around. Mostly, we just walk. I know when he comes over and leans on my leg he wants me to pet him. Fred is getting a lot of petting. In these 5 days, he’s gotten so much better walking on the leash. When he’s ready to come back inside, he guides me to the door and then walks directly to the crate.

I don’t know how Fred came to the shelter, much less how he came to be on Doggy Death Row, but he’s a smart dog. This is what I know. Fred likes me. I still seeking Zen and trying to find some sense in the tragedies of 2015, but Fred is helping. At least when we are on our walks, I’m just a human being, walking a dog.

Conference Call Etiquette

This seems basic, doesn’t it? As professional adults, we should know what to do and what not to do. As businesses embrace teleworking and alternatives, conference calls become a way of life. I spend a great deal of time on conference calls, with several organizations and NGO boards, and I’ve noticed a few patterns that are annoying to the other callers, and even rude.

Be on time, and preferably even a minute early. The chiming of callers coming on after the call has started is disruptive and it is disrespectful to the call organizer. Call in a minute or two early, then get your coffee or whatever you want to do. Our phones are generally portable, so we aren’t tied to our desks as we were 10 years ago. We can walk around and carry our phones with us.
Mute your phone! I can’t emphasize this enough. Your background noise is distracting to everyone, and it can even escalate beyond a simple distraction to a rude interruption. A colleague and I were conducting our monthly call when one of our participants decided to call someone else, on another phone. All 90 participants on our call heard one side of the conversation. We once heard someone snoring, and that is not even the most embarrassing noise we heard. You can imagine the chatter going on in the text box!
Pay attention to what’s going on. If there is an Adobe Connect (or other) room, also know what is going on in the chat box. This helps you in several ways. This will help you avoid asking a redundant question, and may also provide important clues on the topic and the culture of the group you’re working with. If the person carrying on a separate conversation on another phone had been paying attention to the chat box, he or she would have known that everyone was listening to the conversation!
NEVER interrupt the conference host. I had recently organized a conference call between three people. Five minutes before the call, I got a text from one of the participants that he could not make it, that he had another meeting. I told him I was unable to reschedule at this late schedule, but perhaps he could speak with this person at a later time. It would have been convenient for us to be on the call together, but it was not essential. I proceeded with the call, explained my colleague’s absence, then began going through my agenda. About five minutes into the call, my colleague dialed in and interrupted our conversation. He didn’t listen for a break in the conversation; he jumped in and talked over me, seemingly not even taking a breath. When he finished his seven-minute bombast (yes, I timed it!), he said he was done and was going back to his meeting and abruptly hung it. The conversation was thrown off tempo and the late caller’s behavior can only be described as rude and even arrogant. I was dumbfounded that a professional would treat a colleague with such disrespect.

Our global society has made conference calls and meetings via Skype a necessity. Following these few simple guidelines may help demonstrate your respect for your colleagues and can make these calls go more smoothly.

Trying to be Normal in a Completely Abnormal Situation

It has been almost seven months since three of our grandchildren came to live with us. It has been one adjustment after another. Bob and I are older and really enjoy our time together. We love traveling and spontaneous dinners with our friends. We love sitting outside and watching the sunset over the lake. We enjoy sleeping in.

All of that changed with the death of our precious granddaughter, Carly. If you have corded blinds in your home and you have children or pets, please do yourself a favor and replace them. Between law enforcement investigations and the utter stupidity of the Department of Family and Children Services, our lives have been nothing short of difficult. Seven months. I appreciate the need to investigate but this has gone on long enough.

Throughout this period, my husband and I have tried to keep things as normal as possible for the children. But nothing about this is normal. Tonight, though, I finally realized that we just have to find the humor when we can. Here’s my list of things where we found humor today. They all may sound trivial, but they are keeping us sane.

Sarah Katherine, who prefers the nickname “Snowy”, decided to help Bebob (what the grand babies call my husband) tape off the molding so he could paint the stairway going from my office to the main floor of our home. If you aren’t a painting perfectionist and haven’t ever tried to tape the molding going up the stairs, you’ve missed a treat. You have to laugh.
Tonight was a series of invisible “boo-boos” on four of SK’s fingers. Only one bandaid would do, and she moved it from finger to finger. When the one bandaid finally gave up the ghost, the insult of a second bandaid was just too much to bear. Not even a Disney bandaid was an acceptable replacement for the plain bandaid that had gone from finger to finger.
A bed would not do for SK tonight, as with most nights. She likes to sleep “on the ground.” This translates to the floor in our bedroom, which eliminates any CSI watching or any other TV program that is not suitable for a two year old. She has a perfectly fine bed, but in our room she has a spot where she wants to sleep and it covers about an area large enough for another queen size bed. The assortment of animals and babies that are lined up across the floor further add to the obstacle course of our bedroom.
Watching SpaceJam with the boys was also an adventure. What? You don’t know who Michael Jordan is? Seriously? Charles Barkley? Larry Bird? Our “good ol’ days” included Yogi Berra, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Joe Namath, Mean Joe Green. We had Neil Armstrong and John Glenn. We had Apollo 13. We had the Beatles making their debut in NYC. We saw the first lunar landing. These poor babies! What are they missing?

While they are missing their parents and they are missing their home, we make sure they get lots of love and the constant reassurance that there is an end out there, somewhere. Their parents are here every day, and my 82 year old mother makes the trip down as often as she can so that Bob and I can have some time away. My sister has also offered to come down. Many of our friends have helped, my boys call regularly and Jackie calls periodically, and you can’t imagine how much that means to us. You cannot imagine how much we appreciate those who have made efforts to help!

No, our life is not normal, but we’re hanging in there doing the best we can. We laugh daily, as much and as often as possible. We are thankful for our friends and for the family members who have been supportive. We are thankful for everyone who is helping.

The lessons learned from this are to hang in there. Appreciate what you have. Appreciate your family. Whatever their flaws, they’re the best you’ve got. Make the best of whatever your situation. Use humor when you can. As Scarlett O’Hara said, “Tomorrow is another day.”

How I Hire

My older son is in graduate school and has always thought he wanted a career in academia. His PhD will be in history, and he called to express his concerns about job opportunities. We ended up having a great discussion on hiring, both inside and outside of the academic setting, but he made me think about a few things. For any job there are far more applicants than jobs, there are certain things he can do to increase his chances of an interview.

I am a huge fan of Herb Kelleher’s philosophy of hire for personality and train to fit. There are minimum requirements for any job, but the personal qualities the individual brings is what will make them a good fit for the organization. Whether I am been hiring wait staff, pilots, or professors, it is their character and personality that will guide them in their interactions with the internal and external customers.

I was recently trying to hire an executive director for a nonprofit organization. I posted the job and got close to 100 resumes from highly qualified people. How do you process through all of that? I wanted to do telephone interviews with no more than 10 people, so I had to use the resume as my first tool. The telephone interview would help me decide who would be selected to come in for an interview with the board.

The resume provides important clues as to the person’s attention to detail. You would be amazed at the number of resumes I received that had not been updated or had multiple typos. There were resumes that did not match the job requirements, and those are quickly omitted. I looked for education and experience, but I also looked for things that might give a clue to the individual. Do they volunteer? Are they involved in civic organizations? Do they have outdoor interests or any particular skill? Do they list multiple part-time jobs that might indicate a person is too busy for the position I might be offering? But most importantly, what makes that individual unique?

The next step is a telephone interview. How do you gauge a person’s personality in a brief interview? In a face-to-face interview, the applicant comes in and presents his or her best self, dressed in their best business or appropriate attire. You can see the individual and how they interact with everyone they encounter. This can provide some important clues, but here I am screening and maybe even hiring based on a telephone interview. The cost of replacing an employee is significant, so I need to make good decisions.

If I am selecting 2-3 people to interview in person, I will do a group interview for screening and will ask another key person to participate on the call with me. A group interview can provide important clues on how the candidates relate to other people. I like the interview to be collaborative and somewhat relaxed, because I want to “see” as much of the real person as possible can. We begin by explaining the process and then ask for brief introductions. The applicant’s introduction can make or break the interview. We look for introductions that are engaging and presented well, but not read nor rehearsed. Is their introduction consistent with the resume we reviewed? Do they seem to be at ease with speaking? The ability of the applicant to comfortably discuss the questions and job expectations is important, but it is also important to see how the applicants relate to one another and the fact that others are present.

In the end, I am looking for someone who is highly qualified, presents well, and can relate to people, as well as the organization’s mission and vision. I am looking for good communications skills, written and verbal, and who is technically and professionally competent yet well rounded. I’m asking for a lot, but I’m willing to wait for the right person. He or she is out there. #hireihire