It's not unusual to have an entire fleet of bosses today. You may report to one person, but you also have a dotted line responsibility to another director, collaborate with other managers on special projects, plus report to several teams. As a result you're juggling priorities and personalities--and may feel as if you're losing your sanity.

Since cloning yourself isn't an option, you need to embrace what entrepreneurs and business owners have learned as they juggle multiple demands: Pareto's Law. This, according to Pat Nickerson, author of Managing Multiple Bosses (Amacom), is an economic reality "which demonstrates that 20 percent of your effort yields 80 percent of your profits." You need to apply that same thinking to your job.

"As owner of your career, you must decide which tasks have the potential to produce 80 percent of your value to your company. These selected tasks will always get preference when the pressure is on." You never let on that you are following Pareto's Law, she says, never allowing anyone to feel insignificant. Instead, you develop skills at friendly negotiating and proposing compromises.

You also need to be willing to control interruptions while enhancing interactions. For example, in jobs with multiple demands you probably have to balance two conflicting needs: the need to interact and the need to concentrate. "Random interactions destroy concentration. So it is the randomness you must reduce. Seek only to reduce the worst 30 percent of your interruptions," says Ms. Nickerson, so you can concentrate on the things that need your focused attention. How do you carve out concentration time?

Study your interruptions and look for patterns showing heavier interruptions at certain times of the day or month, at cyclical or seasonal events or interruptions invited by announcements you made, she suggests. Then create policies on when and why people should interact.

Policies might be explicit directions on your voice mail such as: "Voice mail inquiries left by 10 a.m. will be answered by 4 p.m." or "For help on using the new software, call the hot line or attend the clinics held daily at 9 a.m." Offer dedicated appointment time when you can give the best service. Without policies or an alternative way to assist people, you force yourself "to take all comers randomly." When you squander energy on small random issues, you're too tired to handle the big ones.

What about those times when someone stops by or calls asking, "Got a minute?" You probably want to solve whatever problem this person has at the moment. But you've got a deadline to meet for something else. Decide whether you need to negotiate this. What are your top three tasks to get done today? How does this interruption stack up? If it doesn't match up, you need to either:

1. Acknowledge and postpone, saying something like: "Thanks for telling me about this issue. This would take about a half hour to resolve. Let's get together today at 3. I'm under a deadline now." If that time isn't good, pick another. End with: "In the meantime, I'll check with Sandra to see where this issue stands." Now you can get back to your deadline.

2. Acknowledge and delegate, saying, "Yes, I see. I've given that project to Lou Kanarsky. That's his area of specialty. I'm not up to speed on that. Here's how to get ahold of him."

3. Acknowledge and empower. If there's something this person can do to speed up the process, get them started. "Yes, I see how important this is to you. There's some prep work that needs to be done so I, or whomever helps, can get started. So here's what to do now..."

4. Acknowledge and refer. Even if you're tempted to get involved because you know how to help or the person is a friend, but it's not in your bailiwick, show him how to get to the right source. Say: "Sounds important but that's something the marketing team works on."

These are just some of the suggestions for juggling multiple demands and bosses. What it all comes down to--as the author reminds us--is you can use tools and techniques but you really only manage yourself.

© by Andrea Kay