Avoiding Overwhelm
One challenge faced by every leader is this time of escalating change is that of mounting complexity in business and Life.
At a personal level, you may find yourself swamped with more projects that require your attention, more books / magazines you need to read, people you need to get back to, goals you want to achieve and so on.
At the same time, your growing business brings its own set of challenges in the form of changing customer demands, new competition, burgeoning personnel, outdated systems and the like.
In your role as leader, you must develop the habit of continually stepping back and surveying this shifting landscape. How can you simplify your Business and your life? You will find the Seven R’s approach to simplification a powerful tool. Use one or more of the following steps to streamline every area of your Business.
The Seven R’s
- Rethinking – Whenever you find yourself overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time, stop and think about your work. Stand back and ask yourself, “Could there be a better way”? Put yourself in the role of an outside consultant. Remain open and receptive. Be willing to apply Zero Based Thinking by asking yourself, “Knowing what I now know, Would I…”?
- Reevaluating – When you receive new information, stop the clock, like calling a time out in a football game and reevaluate your situation based on the way it is today. Jack Welch, ex CEO of GE refers to this as the “Reality Principle.” Welch is said to have begun every discussion or evaluation of a problem with the question, “What’s the Reality”? You should do this as well.
- Reorganizing – The purpose of reorganizing is to assure a greater level of outputs from the same quantity and quality of inputs. Be prepared to address reorganization thinking on your workspace, your schedule, your order, your priorities, etc. Be open to the thinking that there is always a better way to do the job.
- Restructuring – Restructuring your own activities requires that you continually focus and refocus your time and energy on those few things you that account for most of your results. Restructuring requires that you channel more of your time, energy, money and resources into the top 20% of activities that generate the most revenues and the greatest profits. You must concentrate single-mindedly on your most valuable tasks.
- Reengineering – Reengineering is one of the most powerful practices of all for simplifying your business.. Your entire focus is on process improvement. You constantly look for newer, better, faster, cheaper and easier ways to accomplish the task and achieve desired results. There are six ways to reengineer your business.
- Consolidate several tasks or activities into one
- Assign several tasks to a single person, rather than having them spread out among several people. This is called “job compression by responsibility expansion.”
- Outsource particular tasks and have them done by other companies or individuals who specialize in that area.
- Delegate tasks to other people or other departments and remove them from the work process altogether.
- Eliminate certain tasks altogether by determining that they are no longer necessary or essential
- Change the order in which tasks are done to reduce bottlenecks and increase efficiency.
- Reinventing – You should be reinventing yourself every six to twelve months. Keep asking yourself “If I were not now doing this in my business or life, knowing what I now know what I start doing it again”? Is there anything that you would More of? Less of?
- Regaining Control – This requires you to set new goals and create a new GOSPA (Goals / Objectives, Strategies, Plans & Actions). Take charge of your future, your business and your life
Applying these principles to your Business will put you in the elite area of Having MORE REVENUE, MORE CONTROL, MORE PROFITS while Working ON your business Vs. IN your business.
By Mark R. Steinke
Elite Business Coach / Owner
Focal Point Business Coaching of Pennsylvania
1.610.768.7774