by Hannah Peddle, Manager at The Neriah Group
Many of us want to do great things and achieve audacious goals, but few of us do the daily work to ensure the needle keeps moving. What is this daily work? And, how can we balance needle moving activities with the demands of the day-to-day?
The truth is, it's different for every business. Which is why we want to share insights gained from a round table style lunch and learn on this very topic. Here are what business owners and leaders had to say about this topic...
What Moves the Needle? Participant Insights
Innovation and Market Knowledge: Staying ahead of trends and knowing your market was highlighted as crucial. By anticipating client needs and adapting quickly, businesses can stay competitive.
Proper Discipline in Every Area of Life: Whether through sleep, physical activity, or nutrition, participants highlighted the correlation between discipline in personal life and discipline in professional life.
To-Do Lists: Taking 5-15 minutes to jot down tasks, prioritize them, and then select which to accomplish in a given timeframe (today, the next hour, by the end of the week, etc.) was commonly shared as the make-it-or-break-it factor for productivity.
Advancing the Customer Pipeline: All participants, whether dealing with customers, subscribers, or donors, noted the importance of keeping track of where all prospects, active clients, and past clients are in the customer pipeline so the next action can be taken to further engage them or elevate the customer experience.
Hurdles to Progress: What’s Holding You Back?
Multiple participants identified time as the biggest hurdle. We can't get more of it; so, what can we do? Here are a few ideas we fleshed out:
Delegate, Hire, or Outsource: Everyone has weaknesses. Everyone has personal preference. Of course, we should practice self-discipline and be lifelong learners, but some things just aren't worth forcing.
Do you hate data entry? Are you consistently dropping the ball when it comes to sending and following up on invoices?
Rather than try to fix every flaw, perhaps you can delegate, hire, or outsource to ensure some critical, needle-moving activities are accomplished with excellence despite your weaknesses.
Time Management: Another way to gain back time is through time-management techniques. Here are some great questions to ask to determine how you specifically can set yourself up for successful time-management:
Do you know what your work style is? What environment is most conducive to your productivity? Do you work in sprints or like a marathon runner? Is timeblocking effective for you? Or do you work well under the time-crunch of a timer?
Now it's Your Turn: How are you moving the needle?
The three questions we asked our Lunch & Learn attendees were:
What moves the need for your business / career?
What hurdles stand in the way of performing these needle-moving activities?
Jot down a few next steps based on the needle-moving activities you identified (think SMART goals).
Go ahead, take a few minutes to think these through and write down your answers.
We recommend doing this activity with a team or sharing your answers with a mentor or teammate. It just might spark the conversation your team needs to reach the next level together.
If you do the activity, let us know how it goes in the comments below!
For more tips on managing and growing your business, check out our full list of articles.
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