Are you tired of putting out fires? 3 tips to be more productive in your business.
Business is problem solving. And every time you solve one challenge a new one pops up.
You want more sales? Then generate more leads. Now you have more leads? It’s time to hire more sales people. Now you have more sales people, how will we manage them? Now they are well managed and you are converting more clients. Yikes! How do you take care of all these clients?
See what I mean? It’s an endless flow of problems and solutions. I call it productive problem solving. But trust me, it’s a BIG difference between problem solving and putting out fires.
Putting out fires would look like this. Monday morning you come in and your inbox is flooded with angry people who are mad because they were expecting to receive something from you last week and you didn’t deliver. Or you are on your way to the airport for vacation when you get a call that everyone on your team is quitting. Or you write an impassioned email and send it to your entire email list letting them know you’ve had an epiphany that you need to change directions in your business. And the next day everyone starts cancelling their subscription to your service because they need someone they can depend on. Those are actual fires I have seen business owners have to put out.
Being a fireman is a full time job. It’s mentally and physically exhausting! When you are in firefighting mode, your energy is not going to the proactive problem solving that your business needs.
- Fast Action: Fires start out as regular old challenges. Lets be honest, we always see it coming when a team member is unhappy. It starts first with less engagement. Then it moves into a standoffish attitude. It doesn’t go from happy to blow up over night. We usually don’t’ address the small signs because they are not bothering us at the moment. Challenges are easy to solve when you catch them at the beginning. They are painful when you get to the fire stage.
Test First: If you are implementing a change or a new process, make sure you test it to work out the kinks. You may have the greatest idea on how to make things run more smoothly, but if it has a problem and doesn’t work, people get upset. Many entrepreneurs, myself included, are stronger in the vision and ideas than they are implementation and execution. So while we see the big picture of where we are going. Everyone else sees our car broken down on the side of the road and they start honking! Instead, keep your car in the garage and test it to make sure it’s working before you take it on the road.
- Watch for Fires. My goal as a business owner isn’t to never have to put out fires. It’s just to make them as few and as far between as possible. Sometimes I see business owners feel so exhausted from the fire they just put out that they stop paying attention to what is going on around them. They are hiding because they got hurt, or resting because it was too hard. But while they attend to their battle wounds, the next fire is already brewing. Be diligent, aware and fully engaged in what is going on in your business. Look for problems so that you can be ready to implement solutions.
- The idea of “Don’t focus on problems or you get more of them,” is nice in terms of negative thinking. But that mindset is disastrous in running a business. Don’t hide from your challenges. They grow while you aren’t looking! Just engage, be on the lookout, and respond quickly! For more details: http://amywalkerconsulting.com/
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