How to Allocate Your Time, and Your Effort

How does he find time to meet with 10 customers a week and make his yearly quota in the first quarter?, a salesman wonders about his top producing coworker. I can barely find time to have five appointments a week and get all my paperwork done correctly and turned in on time. 

How does she manage to champion strategic initiatives, network with executives, and only work 40 hours a week?, a manager ponders about his colleague on the corporate fast track. After a day full of project meetings, the best I can do is reactively respond to e-mail at night instead of proactively developing my department.

Here's the secret: Your colleagues that zoom ahead of you with seemingly less effort have learned to recognize and excel in what really counts — and to aim for less than perfect in everything else.

Most likely the highest producing salesman on your team spends less than half the amount of time that you do on filling out paperwork. Yes, it may be sloppy, but no one really cares because he's skyrocketing the revenue numbers. The manager who has caught the eye of upper management may send e-mails with imperfect grammatical structure and decline invites to tactical meetings. But when a project or meeting really matters, she outshines everyone.

If you're shocked and feel like this seems completely unfair, I'm guessing that you probably performed very well in school where perfectionism is encouraged.

I know. I was a straight-A student from sixth grade through college graduation who did whatever it took to produce work at a level that would please my professors. Admittedly, this strategy paid off as a student. My perfect GPA signified an exceptional level of achievement, and I was fortunate that in my case, it was rewarded with scholarships and job offers.

The rules changed when I started my own business over seven years ago. I realized that doing A-work in everything limited my success. At that point I realized that I needed to focus more on my strengths. As Tom Rath wisely explains in his StrengthsFinder books, you can achieve more success by fully leveraging your strengths instead of constantly trying to shore up your weaknesses. Realizing the importance of purposely deciding where I will invest more time and energy to produce stellar quality work and where less-than-perfect execution has a bigger payoff has had a profound impact on my own approach to success and my ability to empower clients who feel overwhelmed.

As I talk with time coaching clients struggling with overwhelm whether they be professors, executives, or lawyers, a common theme comes up — they can't find time to do everything. And, they're right: no one has time for everything. Given the pace of work and the level of input in modern society, time management is dead. You can no longer fit everything in — no matter how efficient you become. (This conundrum is what inspired me to write a book on time investment).

In my time investment philosophy, I encourage individuals to see time as the limited resource it is and to allocate it in alignment with their personal definition of success. That leads to a number of practical ramifications:

• Decide where you will not spend time: Given that you have a limited time budget, you will not have the ability to do everything you would like to do regardless of your efficiency. The moment you embrace that truth, you instantly reduce your stress and feelings of inadequacy. For example, professionally this could look like reducing your involvement in committees, and personally this could look like hiring someone else to do lawn maintenance or finish up a house project.
• Strategically allocate your time: Boundaries on how and when you invest time in work and in your personal life help to ensure that you have the proper investment in each category. As a time coach, I see one of the most compelling reasons for not working extremely long hours is that this investment of time resources leaves you with insufficient funds for activities like exercise, sleep, and relationships.
• Set up automatic time investment: Just like you set up automatic financial investment to mutual funds in your retirement account, your daily and weekly routines should make your time investment close to automatic. For example, at work you could have a recurring appointment with yourself two afternoons a week to move forward on key projects, and outside of work you could sign up for a fitness boot camp where you would feel bad if you didn't show up and sweat three times a week.
• Aim for a consistently balanced time budget: Given the ebbs and flows of life, you can't expect that you will have a constantly balanced time budget but you can aim for having a consistently balanced one. Over the course of a one- to two-week period, your time investment should reflect your priorities.

Once you have allocated your time properly, you also need to approach the work within each category differently. As I explained above, trying to "get As in everything" keeps you from investing the maximum amount of time in what will bring the highest return on your investment. That's why I developed the INO Technique to help overcome perfectionism and misallocation of your 24/7. Here's how it works:

When you approach a to-do item, you want to consider whether it is an investment, neutral, or optimize activity. Investment activities are areas where an increased amount of time and a higher quality of work can lead to an exponential payoff. For instance, strategic planning is an investment activity; so is spending time, device-free, with the people you love. Aim for A-level work in these areas. Neutral activities just need to get done adequately; more time doesn't necessarily mean a significantly larger payoff. An example might be attending project meetings or going to the gym. These things need to get done, but you can aim for B-level work. Optimize activities are those for which additional time spent leads to no added value and keeps you from doing other, more valuable activities. Aim for C-level work in these — the faster you get them done, the better. Most basic administrative paperwork and errands fit into this category.

The overall goal is to minimize the time spent on optimize activities so that you can maximize your time spent on investment activities. I've found that this technique allows you to overcome perfectionist tendencies and invest in more of what actually matters so you can increase your effectiveness personally and professionally.
On a tactical level, here are a few tips on how you can put the INO Technique into action:

• At the start of each week, clearly define the most important investment activities and block out time on your calendar to complete them early in the week and early in your days. This will naturally force you to do everything else in the time that remains.


• When you look over your daily to-do list, put an "I," "N," or "O" beside each item and then allocate your time budget accordingly, such as four hours for the "I" activity, three hours for the "N" activities, and one hour for the "O" activities.


• If you start working on something and realize that it's taking longer than expected, ask yourself, "What's the value and/or opportunity cost in spending more time on this task?" If it's an I activity and the value is high, keep at it and take time away from your N and O activities. If it falls into the N category and there's little added value or the O category and spending more time keeps you from doing more important items, either get it done to the minimum level, delegate it, or stop and finish it later when you have more spare time.


• If you keep a time diary or mark the time you spent on your calendar, you can also look back over each week and determine if you allocated your time correctly to maximize the payoff on your time investment. 

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/01/how_to_allocate_your_time_and.html

Convert Community Goodwill Into Cash

You've worked hard to build your company's reputation in the local community. Convert that goodwill to real value as you prepare to sell your business.

Valuation can make or break the sale of your business. If your company is overvalued, it won't capture the attention of serious buyers and can languish in the marketplace for years. But undervaluation can be just as problematic. Although your business will sell more quickly, it may also mean sacrificing the financial objectives you hope to accomplish from the sale.

In the business-for-sale marketplace, overvaluation happens more frequently than undervaluation. For years, the seller has worked hard to build the company's reputation in the community, so when it's time to sell the business the intangible value of the company's reputation should be factored into the sale price, right?

The value of a company's relationships with customers, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders is called goodwill--and it does have real value for buyers. But to realize that value in the final sale price, business sellers need to execute strategies designed to convert goodwill to demonstrated business value.

How to Demonstrate the Value of Goodwill
As a small business owner, it's in your best interest to start making a case for the goodwill value of your company as early as possible. The more time and energy you invest in creating tangible measurements of your company's relationships, the easier it will be to demonstrate its goodwill value to prospective buyers.
With adequate planning, it's possible to increase your company's sale price by strategically documenting foundational elements of goodwill value.

1. Measure customer loyalty.
Customer loyalty is a reflection of your company's relationships in the local community. Although most business owners recognize the importance of loyalty improvements, relatively few owners establish loyalty goals and document the achievement of loyalty milestones for buyers.

2. Document customer service outcomes.

Businesses with strong customer service programs can benefit from positive word-of-mouth, advocacy on social media sites and other advantages. In addition to archiving positive customer comments and customer service interactions, create mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of your customer service efforts (e.g. average response time improvements, customer survey results, etc.).

3. Prioritize employee retention and development.
Employee relationships play an important role in determining the goodwill value of a small business. Buyers are willing to pay more for stable companies that can demonstrate above average employee retention rates and organized employee development programs.

4. Differentiate your products and brand.
Businesses that offer a unique product or service have a tendency to pique buyers' interest. By differentiating your business from other local providers, you can significantly improve its goodwill value--especially if you can demonstrate that customers perceive your business as the community's sole provider an in-demand product or service offering.

5. Benchmark everything.
Benchmarking is the key to demonstrating the cash value of goodwill. Sellers that make the biggest impact with buyers in the business-for-sale marketplace gauge loyalty, retention and other measurements against industry and regional benchmarks to quantify the company's intangible value.

Most small businesses have at least some goodwill value that can be converted into cash value during a business sale. However, the quantification of goodwill can be nuanced, so it's advisable to consult a business valuation professional before you assign actual dollar figures to the value of your company's relationships with customers, employees and other stakeholders.

http://www.inc.com/mike-handelsman/convert-community-goodwill-into-cash.html

Simple Secret For Happy Employees

Want to boost your employees' well-being? A new study weighs the emotional effects of workday duration, engagement, and time off. The results will surprise you.

Long hours are a hot topic here on Inc.com, with posts discussing the benefits (or lack thereof) of extreme hours generating huge interest.

That might suggest, of course, that workers think that the key to career happiness is a manageable time balance between work and home. What if that simply isn't correct?

According to a new Gallup poll, the key to increasing well-being for employees isn't popular work-life policies like flextime, limited hours or added vacation time. Instead, the thing that correlates most closely with happy employees is engaging work.

The study examined 4,894 full-time employees to determine what factors give the biggest lift to their sense of well-being at work. The results were clear: No amount of vacation time makes up for feeling one's job is boring and pointless.

"Though vacation time and flextime were associated with higher well-being, those who were engaged in their work but took less than one week of vacation had 25% higher overall well-being than actively disengaged employees, even those with six or more weeks of vacation," commented Gallup research manager Sangeeta Agrawal.

Flextime and vacation had an impact on well-being--flextime in particular appears to have a positive impact on employees' happiness levels--but this simply isn't big enough to offset the gloom on a less than engaging gig.


"Fewer hours, more vacation time, and flextime cannot fully offset the negative effects of a disengaging workplace on well-being," said Jim Harter, Gallup's chief scientist.
The findings are clearly of interest to workers who are, say, evaluating competing job offers or considering which career trajectory is likely to make them most satisfied. But the lessons are perhaps even more definitive for small business owners.

Sure, work-life balance friendly policies will win you some points with your team, but nothing can make up for feeling unengaged at work. So rather than fretting first about the hours your employees work, think more about ensuring they understand the usefulness of their work, are actively engaged in it, and feel empowered enough that they feel like their day-to-day duties make a real impact.

If the Gallup study isn't enough to convince you, several experts--including VC Brad Feld and management coach Dr. Serena Reep--have also endorsed the idea that flextime and other perks are pretty useless unless employees have a sense of the intrinsic worth of their work.

http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/simple-secret-for-happy-employees.html

Top 10 Traits of an Exceptional Boss

The first lesson in business is figuring out who you should listen to and who you shouldn't.

Let me ask you something. Would you trust a surgeon who’s never performed an actual procedure? How about a litigation attorney who’s never seen the inside of a courtroom? Of course not.

How about if they got good grades in school and could write really well on the subject? Would you let the doctor use a scalpel on you? Trust the attorney to litigate a big intellectual property suit? Probably not.

Likewise, you shouldn’t waste your time with so-called leadership experts and management academics who have never successfully led a company or run an organization -- emphasis on the word “successfully.”

The first lesson in business is figuring out who you should listen to and who you shouldn’t.
To me, it’s a no-brainer. If you have a choice, you should learn from those who’ve actually accomplished what you’re trying to do. That’s what I’ve always done and it hasn’t failed me yet.
Looking back on a long and eventful career as a high-tech executive and strategy consultant, of all the managers, leaders, and entrepreneurs I’ve worked with, certain management qualities stand out. These are the characteristics that achieve results in the real world.

They hold themselves and others accountable. There are no absolutes in business. You make commitments, put your butt on the line, then see how you did. Unless you complete that feedback loop and hold everyone’s feet to the fire, nothing really counts. Some managers are fearless in the way they accept responsibility and hold themselves and others accountable.  

They’re not full of surprises. An often overlooked but incredibly important aspect of management is the simple fact that we’ve all got issues, some more than others. Sure, we’re all different, but if you’re overly dysfunctional, if everything’s got to be about you, if you create more problems than you solve, if you have a disruptive or abusive management style, you’d better have an awful lot of great qualities under the hood to compensate, that’s for sure.

They fix things. A big part of running a business or an organization is troubleshooting and problem solving. One CEO I’ve worked with for years says that’s what he loves most about his job. Whether it’s a product, a customer, or an employee, every day brings new challenges and problems to solve. Every great manager I’ve ever known is a born troubleshooter and problem solver.

They have a feel for the business. Most managers just put their heads down and try to be good at their specific function. But the best managers have a solid understanding of all the key aspects of the business they’re in. They understand the products, the technology, market share, sales channels, and how to read an income statement. Those well-rounded managers make the best executives and business leaders.

They get the job done. Some people just make things happen. You give them the big picture, turn them loose and stand back. They’re like machines that are programmed to do whatever it takes to get things done. And they’ll find a way, no matter what. Those are the kind of people you want running things. 

They manage up and sideways effectively. Lots of managers are good at what they do, but put them in an organization of any size and they flop. More often than not, that’s because they’re good technicians who just want to put their heads down, get things done, and go home. The best managers know how to communicate and work effectively with their bosses and peers, how to give them what they need to be successful and get the same in return.  

They’re awesome decision-makers. More than anything, management is about decision-making. That’s where the rubber meets the road. The most effective way I know to do that is to ask the right people the right questions, listen to what they tell you, then trust your gut and make the call. If you’re right a lot more than you’re wrong, you’re in good shape.

They’re effective, not productive. We live and work in a fast-paced, ever-changing, highly competitive world. Maybe there was a time when process and productivity ruled, but these days, management needs to be flexible and adaptive. Sure, you’ve got to prioritize, but once you figure out what needs to be done, it’s generally more important to be effective than to squeeze every last iota of productivity out of yourself and your people.

They live for their jobs. The big management fad these days is employee engagement. But it’s even more important for managers and business leaders to be engaged, empowered, driven, and motivated. In my experience, that’s not a given. The best bosses I’ve known all live for their jobs, so to speak.

They have a sense of humor, humility, and empathy. When we’re young, we tend to be full of all the self-importance of youth. After all, children are completely egocentric and none of us grow up overnight. But time and experience usually teaches us lessons in our own limitations and fallibility. That tends to infuse a sense of humor, humility, and empathy, at least in some well-balanced adults who just so happen to make great bosses.

The thing about lists like these is they tend to be composites of all the best qualities we’ve seen in ourselves and others. That’s certainly the case here so, if you’ve got five or six of these qualities, you’re probably doing fine. But make no mistake. It’s a competitive world out there. If you want to make it, skip all the inspirational feel-good fluff and focus on what it takes to succeed -- in the real world.

http://www.inc.com/steve-tobak/10-traits-of-exceptional-bosses.html