Efficiency - Improving the efficiency of business owners and managers
Control your resources
As business owners or managers, our resources are divided into two types of tasks. The first type is a response to requests or issues raised by other people such as our employees, suppliers, or customers. The second type is projects we initiate to promote ourselves or our business.
Performing the two types of tasks is essential to the success of the business, but efficient managers are careful about the proportion of personal resources (time, energy, attention, and creative thinking) devoted to each of the two fields. Clearly, the less personal resources we devote to the projects we are attracted to, and the more we initiate and are designed to promote our personal growth and business growth, the greater our efficiency will be. How do you do this?
Some simple ways:
Empowering - The more tasks people do, the less time, energy and attention you need, and the more you can devote to the really important projects.
Using Subcontractors - Even if you are a one-person business, why do you have to be the one who answers every call of an incoming phone call?
The development of automated mechanisms and response routers - robbers of time, energy and attention are many commonplace situations, so it is relatively easy to develop routine procedures and develop or acquire automated tools for handling them. Standing orders for paying bills, and setting up a structured process to handle customer complaints are two examples.
Disengagement - Determining when we will be disconnected from all the media, so that we will not be exposed to time robbers, energy and attention that others initiate, and we will be able to focus on working on the projects that are important to us without interference.
Focus
Many fall victim to the illusion of overload as if a workload indicates high productivity. When you are overloaded with tasks of secondary importance, you do not have enough time, energy, and attention to devote to the truly important tasks. Focusing is basically a mindset that when you internalize it, it will be easier for you to decisively execute the four recommendations presented in the previous paragraph.
Beyond that, it is essential to be careful and avoid falling into the trap of the victim. When a negative event occurs, focusing on accusations or blaming bad fate may provide some psychological comfort, but do not contribute at all to achieving your business goals and objectives. Managers and successful business owners focus on finding the solution or looking for ways to improve the situation rather than feeling victimized.
When we need to find a solution to the problem, to develop insight, or to bring up a creative idea, sometimes a back-up or disassociation is the most effective action. Separation means "leaving the situation" and looking at it as if from afar, from a larger perspective. In this situation, our emotional involvement is lower and the perspective is wider, so the chances of raising new ideas are higher. When we break off, that is to say, distracting attention from other things, such as during showering, on vacation, or during physical activity, we are likely to have higher good ideas.
The focus is relevant even when you help others. Successful people do not refrain from helping others, on the contrary, but here too they make sure to be focused. This is one or two areas that are synergistic with your areas of interest or interests, and make sure to help others only with them. For example, almost every professional can help the community by providing training, counseling, or performing work in his or her field of activity. In this way, the assistance you give to others will be more effective, and may, incidentally, also contribute to you.
As business owners, managers, or professionals in the 21st century, our efficiency results from the proper management of our time, energy, attention, and creative thinking. Our outputs, which derive from the business success we achieve, are not measured only by quantity, but mainly by the quality of the products, many of which, for example, ideas, are completely intangible. These insights require us to adopt new forms of thinking and behavior that are appropriate to the modern environment, our character and our type of business.
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