Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Priorities - advice from my former boss


"Control your own time. Don’t let it be done for you. If you are working off the in-box that is fed to you, you are probably working on the priority of others"

Donald Rumsfeld

5 comments:

  1. Justin Rogers ENS, USN (1170)July 18, 2012 at 11:19 AM

    Great advice for seniors and for anyone in their personal life. I am not convinced this is good advice for junior personnel...

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  2. I'll bet action officers on his staff worked to the inbox that reflected the SECDEFs priorities.

    This advice is clearly from one used to sitting near the top of the food chain...

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  3. Easily applicable for all O's and E-5 and above (rate dependent)...it all depends on the amount of responsibility and leeway granted by superiors.

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  4. Further to the last comment, it also depends on your the trust and confidence you behold in your subordinates, and your ability to delegate; if not, you'll very much be a slave to your inbox

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  5. Pretty sage advice. When I became a department chief, my long-time mentor advised me to take control of the POD and own that schedule and manage the "white space", otherwise the CO, whose declared jihad on white space, would manage it for me.

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