I am sure quite a few of you watch TED Talks and a friend of mine recommended one to me last week. As I am always looking for material / things to share on the MM’s I love it when I get something that someone else thinks is worth watching.
The particular talk was about procrastination and why it happens, I found this useful and slightly worrying – especially when Tim shares his last slide with loads of boxes on it
That made me focus a bit.
Click here for the 14 minute video
I think this also connects with last weeks MM about continual growth and not stopping yourself from achieving what you want in life. Unless you CBA! (Can’t be arsed)
Recently we ran a visioning session with a company, who are very successful at what they do, but, no-one has a life outside of the business, which is not sustainable for any of them. When we facilitated the session, through a process using logical levels, there were no surprises in the findings, here are a few of them:
Organised chaos
Constantly being interrupted
Last minute (Just in time – or not)
Over worked
No time to complete projects
Spinning too many plates
Take work home
This seems to be a consistent message from people in the corporate world and business owners, and I’m not sure it has to be this way.
Some simple tips to avoid this being you:
- Communicate the vision – everyone needs to know why they are doing what they do and what impact it is having
- Succession planning – make sure you are training people to take over your job – NOW
- Delegation – work out what you need to do and teach someone else to do the other stuff
- Trust others – your way is not the only way! Let others explore different options, they may have a better way
- Recruit – 6 months in advance of the position being available, so people can hit the ground running
- Be proactive not reactive – plan things in advance to reduce ‘fire fighting’
- Celebrate success – recognise what people do right and share it with them
There are so many other things that could be on this list, but this is a good place to start and some simple things to do straight away.
If you hear yourself say ” Yes but” or “We tried that 5 years ago and it didn’t work” or maybe “We have always done it this way” then it is time to get some help….