Maximizing the Human Potential

Slowing Down to Speed Up

By

Andrew Shaffer consulting slowing down to speed upI once had a mentor tell me that I needed to slow down to speed up. Now that sounds like an oxymoron, right? Something like hurry up and wait. He was right, I was trying to do too much all at once, and as a result I couldn’t do anything. I was just being pulled in too many directions to focus and concentrate on anything.  Over the years I have noticed a lot of people that could benefit from slowing down to speed up. Are you one?

Slowing Down to Speed Up

As a business leader you are not accustomed to going slow. By nature, you are a person that likes to take on a challenge and get things done. If anything, your success has made you take on even more and more risks, so you can grow your business. I have met many business owners like this, but the trouble is the end up taking on one too many things and it drags them down. Often, you try to expand your product line or enter a new market only to find that you can no longer sell like you used to and your profits are eroding. You might even find yourself in danger of losing your business. Why does this happen and what can YOU do about it?

Core Competencies

What are the core competencies of your business? I started my business to help companies transform cultures to improve employee performance, productivity and profits. Because I help with developing cultures and I work with business leaders, I am often asked if I do 1:1 coaching. I usually decline the 1:1 coaching, because that isn’t my core competency.

Business leaders, especially when they start seeing success, will often seek what else they can do to expand their company. When they get past their core competencies, they struggle, and the money and energy needed to expand their market place drains their resources and their core business begins to suffer.  I see this all the time on The Profit (which is one of my favorite shows). Stick with your core competency and expand from there. Taking on too much will spread your energy too thin and often lead to disaster.

Focus

What is even more dangerous than straying outside your core competency is changing direction once you’ve started an initiative. You sit down with your colleagues and decide that this year you are going to accomplish a certain goal. You had a great idea for a market expansion or new product line. However, before you finish your initial initiative, you find another good idea to pursue, so you shift focus. As a result, nothing gets done.

My friend Ross Foca, founder of the Power 6 Group, consults clients on the Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS) and advises his clients to focus on just a few things each quarter. He calls them rocks. This extra focus helps his clients accomplish more than they had in the past and gives them the flexibility to shift focus after the quarter ends.  Remember, if your idea was a good idea, it’s worth following through.

This Week’s Challenge

By nature, entrepreneurs are always looking for the next thing. You see a need and you’re eager to solve it. After starting a successful business, it’s natural to think you can resolve anything.  Put a system in place for making these types of decisions. The system shouldn’t be dependent on one individual (usually the founder) but include a team with several functions represented.  Once a decision is made, it is also important to follow through. If you don’t you run the risk of nothing being done.

To learn more about how to improve the chances of successful decision making and implementation please contact us to learn how we can help!

Three Qualities of Productive People

By

andrew shaffer consulting productive peopleIn my previous career, before starting my consulting business, I would occasionally have to work a weekend to finish up tasks that did not get done during the week. It always amazed me the amount of work I could do on a Saturday. It felt like I got a week’s worth of work done in just a few hours! I thought they should double my salary for the day! Was it really a week’s worth? No, but I did feel productive. Today’s article is going to discuss how to improve productivity. You’re an adult, I am not going to insult your intelligence by telling you that you need to close your email or silence your phone when trying to focus. I am going to share with you three qualities of productive people.

Three Qualities of Productive People

Most of us wish we could have more hours in the day. Why? So, we can be more productive! There is so much to do, and so little time. With all the multitasking, meetings, people asking “for a minute” (which is never a minute), work/life balance, being productive is a challenge. And if you’ve mastered productivity, perhaps others on your team haven’t. I have worked with, observed, and studied what makes people ultra-productive and today I am going to share these qualities with you.

Focus

Highly productive people have extreme focus. They have the ability to focus on one thing to the exclusion of all others. In my book, I talk about when I used to play sports as a kid. My parents would yell from the sidelines, and I would have no idea they were even there. It was just me and the opponent. I was focused on what I was doing. Actually, the focus I had while playing, would spill over into other aspects of my life. Because I learned to focus in sports, I was able to take that to my academics. I know this because when I stopped playing sports, my focus dropped.

In my professional career, I would often bother the busy person when I needed something done quickly. Why didn’t I go to someone with less of a workload? Because they didn’t have time to procrastinate. They’d focus, get it done, so they could go back to what they were doing. Learn to focus and improve productivity.

Enthusiasm

You aren’t going to be productive if you are not enthusiastic about your work. Ever work someplace, or take on a project you absolutely hated? How productive were you? Sure, you can get through it out of brute force and will power, but how long will that work. You have to find some enthusiasm in your work. This goes back to aligning your career with what you actually like to do. It also speaks to the importance of the right culture at work.

To develop enthusiastic and motivated employees – they go hand and hand – leaders have to focus on employee engagement. Enthusiastic employees bring a high level of energy to their work. They move faster, think faster, are more creative, and are more willing to help co-workers succeed. Creating an environment where people are engaged raises the enthusiasm in your company and will improve productivity.

Discretionary Effort

Discretionary effort is all about going the extra mile. If you look around the office at 5:00, do you see people finishing a task, or are they already heading for the door? Question: If they are already at the door, when did they stop working? Discretionary effort means people are there on time, and WORKING, not getting a cup of coffee and talking to Tom about the weekends NCAA tournament. It means working.

Discretionary effort means working until 5:00, and in many cases a little later to get something else off their plate today. Think about it, let’s say you lose 3 minutes in the morning, 3 minutes before and after lunch, and 3 minutes at the end of the day. That might look insignificant. It’s only 3 minutes. But 4 times a day x 5 days a week, that is a loss of an hour a week (that you are paying for). Multiply that by how many employees you have. How insignificant is 3 minutes now? Now imagine if they gave you an extra 3 minutes x 4 times a day x 5 days x #of employees. How much more can you get done?

As business owners and entrepreneurs, we are always giving discretionary effort. Are your employees? The beauty of employees giving discretionary effort is they do it because they want to, not because you tell them to.

This Week’s Challenge

Creating an engaged workforce increases focus, enthusiasm, and discretionary effort. This is real numbers, real productivity, real profits by investing in your company culture.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.