Allied Irish Bank (GB)
Roy
Hutton, an Assisant Manager at Allied Irish Bank (GB), had been
chosen by their Head of Management Development, Maura O'Mahony,
to pilot LMI-UK's business coaching service. While he was all for
personal development, this was not as especially good time.
Roy's responsibility for AIB's UK business systems meant that his time was torn betwen his London-based team, his Belfast-based developers, and the Bank's headquarters in Dublin. The systems changes imposed by ever-increasing regulatory requirements, especially in the wake of the Enron collapse, had increased his and his team’s workload significantly.
His extensive experience and knowledge of how AIB worked meant that he was constantly being interrupted by colleagues looking for help. This, on top of his burgeoning project workload, severely limited the time he could spend with his direct reports, which in turn was making him feel guilty.
With all of this and three childen under 5 years old, Roy had many demands on his energy and needed to free up some of his time.
“I know I should delegate more but it doesn’t seem fair on the team to be dumping my work on them,” Roy explained. “And I can’t ask everyone to stop calling me for help because they need to get their jobs done too.”
After initial interviews with Roy and his line manager, Jason Farrell, it became clear that Roy was an exceptionally valuable member of the AIB team in the UK but his talents were not being fully utilised. If not on the phone or answering e-mails, he was in meetings or away in Ireland. His team felt under-developed and neglected although they knew that Roy was working as hard as he could.
On the recommendation of LMI-UK coach, Frank Noonan, it was decided to put Roy through an Effective Personal Productivity® (EPP) programme. A six-lesson course, and probably the most popular LMI programme worldwide, the EPP focuses on maximising all of the aspects which determine our productivity including people, technology, communication, information and of course time.
LMI’s flexible approach meant that they could work around Roy’s schedule and thereby minimise any disruption. Four concise and measurable business goals, to be achieved over the timescale of the course, were set by Jason as a means of judging the return on AIB’s investment. As the course progressed, Roy would set his own personal goals for what he wanted to achieve from the programme. The combination of business and personal goals provided motivation and a clear means of measuring success for both Roy and AIB.
Over the following three months, meeting with Frank roughly once every fortnight, Roy began to change his attitudes to how he worked. Inevitably, his behaviours followed – ineffective and unproductive work habits were gradually replaced by efficient, productive and goal-focused habits.
No longer viewing delegation as dumping but as a means of developing people and facilitating a growth in their responsibilities, Roy’s team found themselves very busy! Instead of doing everything himself, Roy had discovered a key ingredient to success – that we get our best results with and through other people.
Despite severe initial reservations (“Not another organiser!”, moaned Roy), he was enthusiastically using the LMI My-Tyme® personal Success Planner™ to manage his time, his goals and his high payoff activities. No one was more surprised about how effective this was than Roy himself.
Results soon followed as he eliminated unnecessary but ‘comfortable’ tasks, trained his team to take on additional duties and redirected his time from low payoff to high payoff activities. He gave himself the freedom to say yes to the things that would get results by saying no to the things that would not. Interruptions were managed and massively reduced. E-mail became a productive tool for Roy rather than him being a slave to its every ‘ping’.
“Even after the first lesson of the EPP, I made changes which significantly increased my productivity,” said Roy. “By the end of the course, I achieved three of my business goals 100% and the fourth about 75%. I have developed new working habits which benefit me, my team and my family. Although our workload has actually increased since I started the course, I feel now that I am better equipped to manage it.”
“The biggest change for me has been moving from a task manager to a people manager,” concluded Roy.
Roy’s manager, Jason, said, “As well as achieving the business goals for the programme, Roy has become less stressed and more confident. His work-life balance has changed for the better and with three young children, that’s very important. He even took a holiday recently without calling the office once!”
Maura echoed Jason’s views. “Although I wouldn’t see Roy as much as Jason would, I can see a change in him. He seems more confident and happier in himself. The EPP has clearly delivered benefits for Roy and for AIB.”
Find out more about Allied Irish Bank (GB) by visiting www.aibgb.co.uk