As an employer, I know that consistency is one of the esteemed attributes required to support your business quality and subsequent growth.
There are many areas this can relate to in a personal and professional sense, though the one I find myself coming back to is time management.
Once you understand the appropriate time management optimisation that works best for you and your team, you will reduce time on low priority tasks, and maximise the time spent on work that will improve or grow the business. It sounds simple, and it is. However, without consistent and reoccurring reminders, you will find yourself working on unnecessary tasks with little value to performance.
Furthermore, Imposter Syndrome can commonly creep into your thoughts impacting your productivity and self-esteem even more.
Here is my groundbreaking time management objective that I have been using for many years, to cultivate good work habits with employees and drive efficiencies. I am not going to dive into time management strategies, just the simple objective.
Time management objective (for a service-based business):
50% of time to product/service quality (this includes your people)
30% of time to acquisition and retention (this includes your people)
20% of time to stuff… (the day-to-day things that must be done and yep, this includes your people)
That’s it. What a letdown…
Now, before you stop reading just understand I have been banging on about this time management objective at business planning days for 15 plus years and speak about it regularly throughout the year as needed with the team. Its not perfection, but a consistent approach works. Trust me.
It is very easy to let the ‘20%’ of day-to-day ‘stuff’ take over at least half your day, or even more. When this happens it's time to reassess and adjust your strategy to improve output. Not to mention this will improve service excellence, and bottom-line performance which will ultimately demand a promotion.
You are not a true success unless you are helping others be successful. Similarly, your business will not improve without a genuine focus on people. Given this, each time management objective involves collaborating, training, mentoring, liaising, partnering, supporting, or similar with people.
Judi Nash, a dear friend of mine published a book recently called ‘When Time Means Nothing’. Although this book has nothing to do with time management, I am referenced in the book throughout my late teens and early 20’s as a ‘time managing nut’. Nothing has changed.
Perfection is a fancy form of fear.
The fundamental issue with perfection is that it can often be disguised as virtue. How many times in an interview have you heard a candidate inform you they are a perfectionist. Perfectionism is unrealistic and can be linked to a fear of failure. This is not necessarily a good thing.
I would consider myself as mediocre at most things in a service-based business. Perhaps even with illusory superiority at times. But at least I am a consistent, mediocre worker…
I should also note consistency is partnered with a relentless (motivating) push and stretch tasks to get the best out of people. Consistency can and should also be supported.
In summary, stay consistent. In six months, you will either have six months of excuses, or six months’ worth of progress. Stop chasing that perfect result. The choice is yours.
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