Productivity

12th January 2012 / Posted in: Business efficiency, Operational management, Planning and preparation, Priorities, Productivity, Time management

Tips to boost your productivity

On 10th January I gave a 10 minute presentation,  at the Chichester College Business Breakfast Club, on what gets in the way of working productively. Judging by the number of e-mails, texts and tweets I received the subject and presentation were spot on. The slide presentation is on Slideshare and the following are the key points from the presentation:

• About 50% of the audience admitted to allowing their work to be interrupted by pop up messages on their screen, pings etc when e-mails, texts etc arrive. 
• Interruptions damage waste your most important commodity - time. Once used time has gone for ever.
• Interruptions are a distraction and reduce your ability to focus your concentration and effort on the matter in hand leading to lower quality work that takes longer to produce
• Many people use their diaries simply for appointments and sometimes to list reminders. Using your diary to schedule everything is a discipline and a disciplined approach to managing your time delivers results.
• To start using your diary effectively do a brain dump of everything you need to do - not just tasks, but strategic priorities or the actions needed to achieve these priorities. Go through this list and highlight everything you need to do this week then separate in to two lists for the week - one for strategic and revenue-generating priorities and the other for everything else.
• Schedule the strategic priorities into your diary first remembering that you can’t focus for more than 90 minutes at a time, effectively, then take a break. Make the most of the first 90 minutes of your working day - it’s when you’ll work most effectively  (See ‘The way we’re working isn’t working’ by Tony Schwartz.)
• In your breaks you need to do something different. If you’ve been sitting at your desk looking at Facebook or Twitter isn’t a break. Move around. Have a change of scene.
• Remember - successful people like Richard Branson schedule time to look at an action e-mails - rather than looking at umpteen times a day,  and also define one important or key task as the priority for the day.
• Electronic diaries make using different colours for different types of task easy so you can see what is fixed and what can be moved around.
• Like any new habit working this way takes a bit of time but once you start using your diary effectively you’ll:

1. achieve more priorities - providing you put everything in your diary and you don’t shy away from diarising the ones you don’t want to do
2. feel good about achieving more priorities .... and the business will benefit
3. be less likely to forget to do things as if you need to reschedule something you simply move it to another time
4. be better prepared for client meetings, phone calls etc because you’ve identified planning time in your diary
5. be in a better position to drive opportunities forwards and keep ideas on the agenda if you schedule time to write notes after all meetings
6. become more realistic about the time it takes to do something and hence better at estimating how long something takes - which is really important if time is money
7. find yourself working faster or more efficiently if you know you have an hour do to something - providing your interruptions are being kept to a minimum and you remember to take proper breaks
8. achieve things rather than getting to the end of the day and feeling a failure as you haven’t crossed anything off the to do list
9. discover if you really have more do to than time allows, thereby putting yourself in better position to evaluate what to delegate or outsource
10. have a better work-life balance
11. be happier!
12. It’s worth spending part of Friday afternoon planning your diary for the week ahead

If you work with other people the business will be more successful if everyone recognises that time is their most important commodity and knows how to manage it effectively.

Click here to go to the slides

0 comments | Add comment >

23rd June 2011 / Posted in: Business efficiency, Holidays, Planning and preparation, Productivity

Holiday Planning

August in the UK is rapidly becoming like Christmas. Apart from the retail sector there are so many people away that many businesses either just bump along or grind to a halt. But can you afford to write August off?  Even if you have staff, clients and suppliers on holiday for large chunks of the month a bit of forward planning stop it being a complete write off. 

Here are a few suggestions:

• Start planning holiday handovers well in advance, rather than leaving until the night before.
• Aim to get key projects and priorities completed before holidays, or to a stage where someone else can oversee.
• Check when colleagues are taking their holidays and the likely impact of them being away. If there’s no impact - why are you employing them!
• How can the impact be managed?  Do you have adequate resources internally to cover for absences without over stretching?  If not do you know where to find suitable temporary or interim staff?
• Who will respond to communications for staff who are on holiday? (don’t forget social media) An auto response saying the e-mail will be dealt with on the recipient’s return isn’t great customer service.
• Agree how decisions can be made in the absence of senior staff and under what circumstances those on holiday can be contacted.
• Encourage staff to take a complete break - adequate planning may allow them to spend time without a smart phone in their hand
• Don’t use the holiday break as the chance to take short cuts or reduce your service - particularly with long standing clients. Complacency be the excuse they are looking for to move their business elsewhere.
• Use the quiet time to review your business strategy or plans, and your marketing plans, so at the start September you have a clear idea of where you are going and how you will get there.
• Similarly spend some time checking what your competitors are up to and adapt your forward plans accordingly.
• Review last year’s sickness absence from September until December. If sickness was a problem - why was it a problem and what can you do to stop the same happening again.
• If you are making any changes such as changing software support, changing suppliers, introducing social media to your marketing strategy, do some background research.
• Encourage everyone not to send masses of e-mails etc to people that are on holiday so they return to an overflowing in box.
• Take time to step back and review the way you are working - are you using your time effectively

We are supposed to be having some decent weather this summer so if you’re not on holiday make August a month to remember - in and out of work.

0 comments | Add comment >

18th May 2011 / Posted in: General, Management, Operational management, Productivity, Strategy

What Keeps You Awake At Night?

What stops you sleeping?  Other than your partner snoring, or car alarms going off in the night, we sometimes find ourselves lying awake mulling over business concerns such as cash flow, cost control, sales pipeline, winning new business, retaining existing business, managing clients, competitor activity, staff performance, being too busy and not having enough time for everything, work-life balance,  etc.  Every business is different, as is our individual capacity for managing stress, so I’ve chosen just three worries which have given my clients, friends and me sleepless nights. 

Start with the end in sight

I’ve been asked this same question by business owners who work for themselves and have a really unique set of skills and experiences, and others growing their business. The question they both want answered is whether, or when, they should take on staff.  My answer to both is a question - ‘What is your exit plan?’ Do you want to turn the lights off, close the door and go home when it’s time to move on to the next thing, or do you want a business to sell?  If you want the former then you’ll need to manage the business to maximise your revenue streams.

The latter is more complex because if you’ve been doing everything yourself, and your business is ‘your baby,’ you may have difficulty letting go.  You may not be the best person to analyse your strengths, and the complementary skills required to share the load, so taking professional advice may save sleepless nights in the long term.

Taking your eye off the ball

If you’ve been in business a number of years, and you have a number of long standing clients, a good sales pipeline and you’re reasonably effective at winning new business  you probably enjoy what you do and feel quite pleased with the way business is going. But, it’s easy to feel too comfortable and take your eye off the ball in such a subtle way that you don’t even notice you are doing it.  Compared with the early days you deliver services to your clients more efficiently, you’re more familiar with your clients, your hunger is less pronounced and you’ve drifted out of the habit of challenging yourself to ensure you’re going the extra mile. Your clients seem happy. Nothing is broken so there’s nothing to fix. You’ve become complacent, you haven’t noticed and it’s a dangerous place to be.

Then disaster strikes. What seems like a insignificant oversight really damages a long standing client relationship and they either terminate the contract or ask you to re-tender. The mistake seems disproportionate to the client reaction. Either way, you feel devastated and you lie at wake feeling guilty and worrying about your other client relationships.

This isn’t an unusual situation and one I’ve experienced as an employee.  The reality is that statistics show clients move on every 7 years.  Your oversight just provided the trigger.

Don’t lose more sleep - learn from your mistake to avoid repeating the disaster: 

• if you’ve had clients for 5 years or more, start succession planning - don’t wait until you lose a client
• business is dynamic. If you haven’t refreshed your offering for the last couple of years it’s time you did
• don’t put off a periodic review because business is going well and you think the relationship will stand it, and don’t make it a repeat of the last review
• keep watching your competitors and your clients’ competitors
• put your self in your clients’ shoes. What would make them move to another supplier?
• remember that going the extra mile when the client relationship started is very different from what you need to do for a mature client business
• your priorities are not your clients’ priorities (see below)
• clients hire you because of your personality and the perceived added value you would bring. They probably selected two or three competitors for the original pitch but it was something about you that won the business. Over time this uniqueness can fade so it’s important not to get too comfortable in a relationship.  Most relationships that fail - whether personal or business - do so because of poor communication.

The waiting game

Have you ever sent a proposal to a client and heard nothing for weeks, sent information a client needed urgently and heard nothing, found yourself waiting for a signed agreement or purchase order to progress a project you’ve agreed with the client?  Most of us have been kept waiting, and probably lost sleep over it thinking the worst. 

What we forget is that our priorities are not our client’s priorities, and most of our clients have many responsibilities and priorities we don’t even know about, so the trick is not to worry.  In my experience if clients are unhappy they’ll waste no time telling you.   If you have a deadline to meet - don’t rely on e-mail - pick up the phone.  Leaving a message or speaking to a colleague conveys more urgency than an e-mail. If there’s no deadline then give the client a week then e-mail or call.  I had a client whose capability intimidated me.  I was approaching a deadline, had heard nothing so plucked up courage to pick up the phone. It was a great decision. The client was clearly much happier to discuss the issues on the phone than ping e-mails back and fore.  And, guess what - I feel more in tune with my client and I’m no longer feeling intimidated.

If I request information from someone I always e-mail a thank you as I think it’s bad manners not to do so. However I’ve found that my standards are not always the same as those of my clients or suppliers which can leave me feeling nervous when I've sent them something and heard nothing.   It can be true that no news is good news as if you get it wrong you'll hear soon enough so if you hear nothing leave it a few days then call to check what you've sent has arrived safely.

It's easy to fall into the trap of being less formal about aspects of managing relationships with clients. To ensure everyone has the same perception of  what was agreed at a meeting it's a good idea to write a succinct contact report, and when meetings are arranged verbally don't forget to send an e-mail confirmation.

This blog was written as a guest blog for Sussex Enterprise and published on their website in April 2011.

0 comments | Add comment >

21st April 2011 / Posted in: Business efficiency, Operational management, Planning and preparation, Priorities, Productivity, Staff engagement, Time management

Turning Bank Holiday Disruption on its Head

In the days when I was young, and an employee, the prospect of 4 bank holidays in less than a fortnight was a dream. Now that I run my own business and advise others about running theirs I feel very differently.  The prospect of a reduction in trading days in April and May, the distractions caused by Easter, the Royal Wedding and the recent sunshine, and staff wanting to take an extended Easter break will be bad news for many businesses.

Don’t take the defeatist approach assuming that business will be bad, but turn the situation around to limit the damage or even make it work in your favour. The most valuable commodities to your business are probably your staff and time so focus on making the most of what you do have during the next few weeks. Refocus everyone’s energies and priorities on what delivers your strategy and drives revenue into the business.  It may even give you an advantage over your competitors.   Finally, don’t forget to communicate these plans clearly with your staff, explaining why you are putting them in place and getting their feedback. Good two way communication and a few treats in the office will motivate your staff, keep them focused and make them feel appreciated.  

'What gets measured, gets done. And what gets recognised gets done again, and even better.' Robert Crawford, Director, Institute of Customer Service

0 comments | Add comment >

23rd February 2011 / Posted in: General, Human Resources, Management, Operational management, Productivity, Time management

Let’s follow the US and take a lunch break!

I’ve always been a firm believer that it’s good to take a break as doing something completely different is invigorating and I work far more effectively as a result. It’s why I like going abroad for the weekend as the different language and culture gives you the feeling you’ve been away for ages.

At work it isn’t realistic to do something as different at lunch time but some fresh air (or different air) and a change of scene is something we all need. However when I’m really busy and it’s pouring with rain, I too am guilty of taking lunch at my keyboard then at the end of the day I’m drained and not always pleased with my achievements. The reality is I know I’s have found time if I’d had to cope with unplanned interruptions.

In December I came across a blog, on the Harvard Business Review website, by Tony Schwarz entitled “Six ways to refuel your energy every day” and it really struck a chord. Although I’m not a big reader of business books I immediately ordered a copy of his book “The way we’re working isn’t working” and started followed him on Twitter. I’m a real advocate of what he says and regularly dip into the book to remind myself of how to work really effectively.

Last week he tweeted about “Take back your lunch” – a movement across America which encourages workers to take a collective lunch break every Wednesday. It’s a great idea which I think is worth sharing so I hope that today, and at least every Wednesday, you take a proper break at lunch time.

Links

• Tony Schwartz blog
• Take back your lunch

0 comments | Add comment >