|
Overloaded?
Lead Your Way Out!
By Harvy Simkovits
Are
you starting the new year over-extended, over-committed,
overwhelmed and over-stressed in your business? Maybe
you suffer from being under-leveraged as a leader!
"Too
much to do and not enough time"
is a common mantra for most business owners. Too many demands and
expectations from customers, employees, vendors (even consultants),
not to mention your own family (who want a piece of your time), can
throw off kilter your well-intentioned New Year's business resolutions
(those important "to-do's" you promised yourself in December to get to
in January).
Here are some thoughts to leverage yourself better
(using yourself to your utmost capability, and better working through
and with others) during those high-demand and high "to-do" times, like
right now.
1.
Share the "water carrying".
Does your business load rest just on your shoulders for you to carry
alone, while everyone else is watching or waiting for you? If so, then
you are setting the wrong expectation for those around you. You will
never get out from under your pile. State clearly what you expect from
whom, and reinforce the benefits for others to do their part to move
the business forward. Note: If you have the wrong people around
you, then change them as quickly as you possibly can. They can drag
you and your organization down rather than bring you up to the heights
you seek and deserve.
2. Make your conversations more candid and crisp. Stop "beating
around the bush" with people. Get to the point more quickly and
encourage others to do the same with you. You can still demonstrate
caring and respect while getting quickly to the heart of a matter.
Learning this skill can yield much saved time through more effective
and efficient conversations. Also, try standing up during meetings. It
can make day-to-day conversations go much faster.
3. Move others to bring forth their best (or point out how they
are being less than they could be). Some people are inspired by a
vision of what is possible, while others need a "wake-up call" (i.e.,
to be woken up to their capability and potential contribution). Employ
both ends of this spectrum in order to move the people around you to
take on greater ownership and responsibility.
4. Focus on what is really most important. Are you clear as to
your most important concerns? Stop for a moment and list your ten
most important priorities (or make 2 lists in order to separate
business and personal objectives). Then do not leave work today until
you have made some progress on at least the top two items on your
list. Often, some of the other listed priorities will magically
disappear when you have tackled the top two. Do this every day and
watch your major accomplishments grow.
5. Install and utilize standardized practices. If you
experience nagging business issues that continually reoccur, then that
usually points to an insufficient understanding of that issue. Also,
you may lack a practical or consistent policy, procedure or system to
resolve it. Look at the recurring issues in your world and do what is
needed from you to set those issues straight or to make them
effectively disappear.
6. Focus on what you do best. Are you personally doing things
that really do not fit with your best talents, resources and
capabilities? The best business leaders know how to utilize their
strengths while divesting themselves of what could be better done by
others. Look at what you do not like to do, or are not good at, and
assign that responsibility to someone more appropriate. Yet, also set
up a check-in system to ensure that things delegated stay on track.
7. Take the time to reflect and think things out. If your
behavior is constantly "do! do! do!", then you are locked into
responding to the immediate and urgent, and not focusing on what is
really important. The most effective people (like any sports team)
take the occasional "time out" to regroup, re-prioritize and
re-strategize. This way they have a better chance to tackle the
situations they face with heightened insight, better actions and
greater gusto.
By leveraging yourself in the above ways, you can lead
yourself out of being overloaded. It takes a conscious effort to slow
down in order to clear your head and act on the ideas above. Yet the
payoff is to be more effective in your business and professional
interactions.
email:
ezine@business-wisdom.com
web:
http://www.business-wisdom.com
|
 |
