Want to Run Your Business Effectively? Stop Wasting Your Time
Are you a businessman with an active life position?
Are you looking to develop and expand your company?
Let's take a look at what your typical workday looks like.
First, a few words about plans and ideas. Maybe the schedule looks like this.
- Meeting with an alternative supplier and discussion of more favorable working conditions - 1 hour.
- Analysis of the company's financial results for the past month - 2 hours.
- Checking articles prepared for posting on a web resource – 1 hour.
- Selecting a thematic seminar for your employees – 1 hour.
- Review of products and technologies offered by your competitor – 1 hour.
- Attendance at your partner's open presentation at a nearby exhibition centre – 2 hours.
What will you be able to do in reality?
- Answering questions from subordinates – 2 hours.
- Resolving conflict situations in a team – 2 hours.
- Useless and unhelpful telephone conversations – 2 hours.
- Drinking coffee while trying to concentrate on work – 2 hours.
If you recognize yourself in this allegorical example, then this article will not only be interesting to you, but also very useful.
So, what should an effective manager do to spend his time as rationally as possible?
1. Get lost. The first method is simple, like all ingenious things – become unavailable. Some managers believe that if they do not personally control the process, then everything will inevitably fall into disrepair.
This is quite wrong, many successful businessmen can even afford to go... on a round-the-world trip, and their companies at this time are actively working and making a profit.
Statistics show that the most balanced “participation” in the work of the team is the following distribution: 80% of the problems your subordinates solve themselves, 20% - they agree with you. When you introduce such “standards” in your company, you will see that the team’s work will become more productive.
Indeed, now you can do important things without being distracted by trivial explanations and figuring out who is right and who is wrong.
There are two options to accustom staff to such innovations: stop coming to the office for a while and work from home, or work in the office behind closed doors. Instill in employees that behind this unusually closed door sits not their beloved boss, but a fire-breathing dragon capable of incinerating anyone who sticks his nose into the office without extreme necessity.
2. Stop answering the phone. You may be surprised, but the phone is the main enemy of productive work. Many people are convinced that they must answer all incoming calls for fear of missing something important.
In fact, in 99% of cases, all this is not important at all and could easily wait until the end of the working day, or even until... the next weekend. But every time you are distracted from the work process and talk to the subscriber.
Even if you plan to pick up the phone to let the other person know you're busy and ask them to call back later, you're still dramatically slowing down your work.
All incoming calls should be screened globally before reaching your ear. Use a hired secretary or voicemail. Create a minimum list of VIPs from whom you will accept urgent incoming calls. The rest of the calls should be recorded for possible subsequent callback.
3. Organize control over your subordinates’ email, corporate messages, and calls. You may think that communicating via these communication tools will help your subordinates work more efficiently. In reality, all of this significantly reduces their productivity. Regulate the number of times a day when an employee can contact you with a question or request.
After all, when you are on a plane or at an important conference, your phone is turned off, but the company's work does not stop. Let your subordinates "believe" that you are almost always at a conference taking place on board the plane. And at the same time, they learn to make decisions and find answers themselves. We do not call for giving up the use of phones and computer communication devices, we just want you to be the master, not the slave of these devices.
4. Use a nominal timer. Almost 100% of your phone calls and meetings should take place within strictly regulated times. We advise you to use the following technique.
If you receive an incoming call from a subordinate or a counterparty, first of all, inform them that you are totally busy and that the person has 15 minutes to convey the necessary information to you or to get clarification. Be polite, but unforgiving. Gradually, your subscribers will carefully prepare for a conversation with you, knowing that they should only talk about the most important things.
5. Show that you are busy. Your busyness should be obvious to others. It is difficult to demand clarity and minimal interference in your "life" from a person when you are playing solitaire on the computer or leafing through a glossy magazine.
It is quite obvious that your subordinates will rightly assume that you are free and ready to devote as much time to them as they want.
If you follow the advice given, you will soon be surprised at how much "longer" your working day will become. In addition, your subordinates will have an excellent example to follow in terms of productive use of working time.
Earlier I talked about how to understand that an employee is not interested in work: advice for the boss.
