Managing and growing a business in today's fast-paced, technology-driven landscape is demanding and organization (or lack of) can make or break your growth stride. Managing time and talent, making the most of technology and tools and investing in the right experts are surefire ways to get and stay organized -- and gain some time back for other pursuits.
Let’s talk about delegation. Many business leaders have a difficult time giving work to others. It’s important to focus your expertise on the critical aspects of running and growing your business. Strategy, key decision-making and talent decisions are all priorities for a business owner. Tasks including administration, accounting, maintenance, and other more tactical activities can (and probably should) be handled by other team members.
“Divide and conquer” is not only a battle strategy; it’s also a great way to organize and accomplish work. Delegating work reduces the burden on you, and gives others the opportunity to contribute and grow from new or expanded experiences.
Your strategic plan is a unique roadmap to the goal you want to achieve in your business. Strategic planning is an activity to organize your business efforts around this central goal. It’s important to know where you’re going and how to get there. As Zig Ziglar and others have said, ‘If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.’
Whether you’re a solopreneur, a small or a midsized business, you have a range of options for engaging other people to share the workload. Think of the image of a pebble dropped into a pool of water. The impact of the pebble causes ripples to spread outward from the pebble in concentric rings. These are your rings of influence and your available talent pool.
In a small or mid-sized business, the first ring is your lead or direct report team and your first line of available talent to manage work that doesn’t require your hands-on attention. Outer rings may be second level employees, volunteers or external vendors; all resources to be considered for work delegation.
For a solopreneur, think about creative ways to build a team of part-time employees, interns, and volunteers.
Know your talent pool, their strengths, and weaknesses. This is true for both employees and other talent resources. When team members work in their strengths, they will generally be more productive and engaged. Although you’re the business leader, in all probability you’re not an expert at everything. Use your unique genius where it counts most for your business. Engage others to manage work that is a lower priority or isn’t your strength.
It is vital to your success to stay attuned to tech trends. Choosing the best technology at the right time to organize workflow, manage clients and coordinate your supply chain will free additional time for you to spend on critical business leadership. And staying informed about cutting-edge tech innovations will help you prepare for the future
The term ‘work-life balance’ is an oft-repeated mantra and an elusive pursuit. In theory, the well-balanced life has equal portions of time, energy and passion spent at work and away from work. In reality, work hours consume far more of our 24 hours each day than can be equalized with non-work activities.
A more realistic and even comfortable pursuit is likely the integration of work and life so that we can comfortably prioritize and attend to both work and personal business demands, relationships and other pursuits in harmony.
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