How to Maximize Time

Posted on June 06, 2013 by Ruth Schwartz, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

Are YOU maximizing your time? To maximize your time you need to understand your strengths.

Here’s a scenario:

The question on the table is John’s. He asks, “Why don’t I accomplish the tasks that I have agreed to accomplish? Month after month, I know what needs to be done and yet, I am not doing them?”

Ron responds, “Delegate it.”

John’s reaction, “But I can’t.”

I ask, “Tell me what just went through your brain as you said, ‘I can’t.’”

John says, “If I don’t understand the steps, and practice them until I get the results I want, I can’t ask anyone else to do it.”

“What else went through your mind?” I ask the rest of the group.

“They might not want to do it.”

“There is no time to organize and train someone else to do new tasks.”

“It looks like I am unwilling to do it myself.”

“It makes me look bad if I don’t understand all of the skills required to complete the task.”

“What thoughts are underneath these comments?” I ask.

“If I want it done right, I have to do it myself.”

“They don’t do it as well as I do.”

“I need to show my workers that I am willing to work as hard as they are working.”

“I look stupid if I don’t understand everything.”

“I won’t deserve my income.”

“They may not like me.”

These comments are coming out of the mouths of successful businesspeople. Where did they learn it?

My mentor, Mike, was the first person to tell me that what I was doing was a $500 an hour activity. This was in response to my telling him for the hundredth time that I felt terrible about how much money I made in comparison to my employees. They deserved more of my money and I would have to gift them, bonus them, salary them more. I was sure that they would appreciate it.

I told Mike, “I have to be a role model. I have to show them that I am working as hard as they are willing to work. I have to work at least as hard as I am asking them to work.” That, or I couldn’t live with the fact that my pay was more than theirs.

Furthermore, I felt a tremendous sense of guilt if I sat at my desk seemingly immobile while I demanded that my employees work their tails off for the good of the company.

Mike told me in no uncertain terms that if I sat at my desk to think about the company, its future, its competition, its direction, if I read, studied or pondered profit, organization or strategy it may look as if I am doing nothing but I was in fact engaged in a $500 per hour activity and that no one else in the company had that job. I was worth every penny.

“But, Mike,” I said, “It looks like I’m doing nothing.”

“You are generating more money per minute than anyone else in the company,” stated Mike, firmly gave me permission to do my job.

Why are business owners in their own way?

And if we are how do we get out of our own way?

How do we maximize our time?

1. We give ourselves permission to attend to the big picture. Others in your company may be paid to do $15 per hour activities or $50 per hour activities. And it is OK for you to attend to the $500 per hour activities. In fact, it’s YOUR job.

2. We need many skill sets to be competitive in today’s marketplace. How can you possibly expect yourself to know them all? We never think twice about hiring a professional outside of our company with a skill set we don’t have: a web designer, attorney, or CPA. Why do so many of us feel that we can’t hire them inside our company?

3. When we empower other people to accomplish tasks we engender respect. When we order people about, not listen to them, not value their contribution, we build and create resentment. It is the way we delegate that creates problems. In fact, those organizations that hold back power and don’t encourage contribution are those organizations that people quit. Give yourself permission to ask for help.

4.Keyword being “Ask”. When people have information and are entrusted with it, they can accomplish tasks with greater success. Provide information and then ask what you need to do to make them successful. It is often uncomfortable at the beginning for you to ask and others to be asked and once you break the ice, some great communication may begin.

5. What is great communication? When each side of the equation trusts that the rest are looking for the win/win: the solution that is greater than the sum of the parts. We must stop being the know it all. We must stop with the lectures. We have to ask for the needs and ideas of others. We must learn how to repeat the vision we have of success and be willing to hear what others add to the equation. For leaders, great communication is knowing when to listen.

If you think that people resent your income and think that you don’t work hard for it, they could be right. There will inevitably come a time when they need to know that you are thinking of the future and the big picture. You can give assurance to those people who work with you. Done right, they won’t resent you; they will admire you, emulate you, and want to be like you.

When asked, business owners will all say that what they want most is respect. Respect is earned through leadership. Be the leader.