Staying Focused
Where do you begin with this article? That’s a bit of an ironic statement since the topic is staying focused, but the reality is it is hard to stay focused. There are major demands on your time. Customers and employees have needs. Management has demands. Who manages the owners? Let’s be clear owners may manage their business, but they have 100’s of bosses called customers they answer to.
Step back and look at what matters. Are you taking steps that will add value to your customers and value to your business? That is where you need to stay focused. The short-term pulls on your time deter your ability to get to where you want to go.
Some owners have accomplished everything they have ever wanted to do. Most of us still have a need, that item, dream or feeling that we want to do because we feel it will make us more money, give us a better life or make a difference. Somewhere along the way, small fires keep popping up and time slips away. Those fires impact our ability to focus on the items that really matter.
A suggestion on staying focused. Start with meetings. It is estimated executives spend 30-40% of their time in meetings. That’s 600-800 hours annually. Imagine getting just 25% of that time back. Question if the meeting is needed. Is it the Monday morning meeting? Does it have the right structure? Does it need to be an hour? Are the meetings adding value to you, your clients, your employees or are they almost a little punitive? As an example, a new business pipeline meeting. New business is critical, but the way to get business is to figure out in that pipeline meeting how to identify why business is not closing. Holding people accountable to sell rarely works. Teaching people how to sell is the path to take. Redirect your focus.
The best solution to focus issues is to step back. Look at if the items in question makes sense before investing too much time. Time is one asset that cannot be replenished. It is by far our most valuable resource and it is the vehicle that creates the financial resources needed to help a business run smoothly or exceed expectations.