Tony Williamson

"Self-command is the main elegance."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dr. Omar Davies is a man I admire for his discipline of self-organisation. Some years ago I called him at his office. He was not in but, much to my surprise, he returned my telephone call. I thought I was someone special since the Minister of Finance was returning a telephone call to me, an ordinary citizen, but not so. Several people have told me that he always returns his telephone calls.

I contrast his discipline and respectful behaviour to that of many others with far less responsibility, less workload, more time on their hands, whoare either too busy or consider our calls too unimportant to take the time to return them.

Another exceptionally busy person who always returns telephone calls is Dennis Morrison, chairman of the Airports Authority of Jamaica, chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board, board member of several government companies, and, it seems to me, involved in everything else in Jamaica. If a man as busy as he finds time to return telephone calls, why can't you?

I happen to work with Dennis in the public service and am amazed at the many things he does simultaneously, and with such efficiency and effectiveness. So I picked his brain concerning returning telephone calls. This is what he told me: "Tony, first of all is respect. I return telephone calls because I have respect for people. That is the key. But I also make it a discipline. I will spend my afternoons returning calls. If I don't reach the person, I will try the next day. The third aspect is a system. My office details all calls and ensures that I have the message in as much detail as possible. A system helps."

I also spoke with the busiest persons I know and I asked them about the management of their time. Based on what they told me, I have concluded that busy, successful persons are the ones most likely to return your calls. In my years at Life of Jamaica, I had the honour to work under two presidents - the astute Adrian Foreman and the charismatic Danny Williams. They were both extremely busy persons but were never too busy to return a call from the lowliest agent. Michael Manley told me years ago, "If you want something done, find a busy [public servant] to do it."

Busy successful people have found a way to manage time stealers. Time stealers are those things or persons who interrupt your work, wasting your time. There are several time stealers - the telephone, the drop-in visitor, meetings, unnecessary paperwork, and so on. Today, I deal with the telephone.

TELEPHONE SLAVERY

( L - R ) Davies, Morrison, Williams and Foreman

The telephone is an interesting thing. It is, on the one hand, one of the greatest time savers. It saves time driving to see someone; it saves meeting time. Through conferencing, it saves multiple calls by bringing many people together, thus saving huge aggregate travel time. It saves useless trips. As a salesman for many years, I saved gasolene and time by calling ahead, only to learn that my prospect (who gave me an appointment) was not there. The telephone saves letter writing/email and the waiting they entail for a response.

Ironically, on the other hand, the telephone is one of the biggest time stealers. Nine out of 10 executives spend at least one hour each day on the phone and four out of 10 spend more than two hours per day.

Time management consultant R. Alex McKenzie has this to say: "A devastating factor in the battle for control over our environment is the incoming [telephone] call. In this tactical battlefield lie the shattered nerves of many a manager who conquered other, more imposing time robbers. Executives with secretarial help head inexorably down the road to defeat when they fail to give their secretaries authority in this critical area." (The Time Trap). McKenzie was of this opinion in 1972, before the advent of cellphones. What would he say today?

An interruption of one's work by the telephone has always been a problem. But with mobile phones now in proliferation, addiction to the telephone is now a major time consumer. Mobile phones are in such profusion that, as was famously said, you can have two, "You take out one and call yourself and you take out the other and say, "hello, hello'." (How will my friend Roger Clarke ever live this down?).

The problem came home very sharply to me when I was interviewing a lady who had sent in an application for a job. In the middle of the interview, her cellphone rang from the bowels of her cavernous handbag. She fought with the bag to find it and, having found it, she proceeded to answer the call, putting me on hold! I said to myself, "Anyone can forget to turn off his/her cellphone, so Ill let this pass."

To my horror, the lady's phone rang again and the interviewee again interrupted the meeting to speak with her caller! That did it for me. I politely terminated the interview, said goodbye and after she left threw her application form into the trash basket. If she spent so much time on the phone during an interview, what would she do on the job?

Successful people, be they executives, managers or housewives, recognise the tyranny of the telephone as an interruption of their work. How many executives accept phone calls in the middle of conversation with another person in their office? I have found the situation so intolerable as I have sat in one-on-one meetings with executives, that I have (humorously) told them I had better leave their office and then phone them, since it appears easier to get their attention on the phone than in person.

Not only is this type of interruption a time stealer, it is plainly bad manners. If you give someone an appointment to see you, at least pay him or her the courtesy of a meeting without serial interruptions on the phone.

How do busy, successful executives manage the telephone? Do they have a strategy to conquer the tyranny of this time stealer? Find out next week.