How to help a Colleague that has Poor Time Management Skills
Time management skills are important in any organization. Businesses are all about timely action and opportunity. The sales teams and the supporting teams should work together to meet the organizational goals and objectives. However, should one member of that team deviate from the company's goals, the result of that colleague's non-compliance could have a negative impact on the team's performance. That colleague may be trailing behind in their projects or reports and causing the team to fall behind schedule. Perhaps that colleague has a time management issue.
It is quite likely that it is a personality trait. According to Myer-Briggs type Indicator or MBTI for short, it is a type of personality. It is not that they are being uncooperative or lazy. Neither are they unintelligent or incompetent. It has absolutely nothing to do with that. They are just wired that way. They could be easy-going, laid back, and generally treat deadlines and submission schedules as flexible. They eventually will get the work completed, but they like getting it done nearer to the deadline or even slightly pushing the boundaries of the time-line.
These colleagues belong to the "P" personality as their perception of information and handling of that information differs from people who may present characteristics on the opposite end of that scale. People who are of the "J" personality are usually orderly and punctual, and they are in stark contrast with these other people. So colleagues with the "P" personality trait will tend to appear to be uncooperative and even unprofessional at times.
The key to working together is really in understanding that we are all different. Focus on the strengths of this colleague rather than on their inability to keep to the time. Perhaps getting them to handle the non-time-critical aspects of the project would be a way to capitalize on their strengths. These colleagues can continue to contribute to the team in other aspects of the project.
If however, their involvement at work requires them to keep to a project time-line, then perhaps special arrangements to remind them and watch over their project submission should be implemented. To help them, the project could be broken down into many submission time-lines so that they will be programmed to follow the schedule closely. Colleagues with time management issues need to be monitored closely and constant follow-up is needed to ensure that they comply with the guidelines, and hopefully over time, their minds will be re-programmed to keep to the time-line.
