Productivity | Extraordinary Business

As a business leader, one of the first things that I learned was “just because you are rattling pans and making a lot of noise doesn’t mean that you are cooking!” Appearing to be busy doesn’t make you busy.

Productivity | Extraordinary Business

Digging Yourself into a non-productivity hole. Poor productivity is one of the biggest time-wasters small business leaders face.  Whether spending time on Social Media or other non-productive activities, all of these things take time and money out of our day.  While there are the normal “time wasters” that we might use as down time or to recharge, there are those things that we do to waste time that we don’t even pay attention to.

As a business leader, one of the first things that I learned was “just because you are rattling pans and making a lot of noise doesn’t mean that you are cooking!”  Appearing to be busy doesn’t make you busy.  No matter how many phone calls you are making, no matter how many emails you are sending, no matter how many connections you are making, if they are not to achieve a very specific purpose, they are for nothing.

People say to me, “I am not generating any leads out of [social media network].  Why is that?”

Social media, like anything else, isn’t one of those. “if you build it, they will come.”  You have to develop a plan, as you would for anything else that you wish to accomplish, and go for it.  It doesn’t need to be a ginormous plan with all of the risk analysis, alternative scenarios, etc., attached to it, but rather a plan that starts out with a) what you wish to accomplish b) how you will get it done and c) what resources you will need to get it done.

Think about it; if you were walking along through a path in your woods paying more attention to your smartphone than the path and somehow fell into an open well, which would be better:

a)  Stand at the bottom of the well and yell your fool head off, hoping someone will hear you or

b)  See if you can figure out some way to get out.

If you’ve never fallen into the bottom of a well, you may not realize that the sound doesn’t travel very well.  Someone basically has to be standing right above the well in order to hear you.  Therefore, screaming bloody murder will be as helpful as an umbrella in a tornado.  In other words, it would be unproductive.  However, since we are “plugged in,”  you could probably use your smartphone’s geo tagging capability and update your status to “stuck at the bottom of a well.  Please send help.”  That was easy, right?  There definitely wasn’t the fanfare associated with the screaming and panic attacks.  However, it was far more effective.

Without realizing it, you took the following steps:

  1. You evaluated your situation – you are now at the bottom of a well
  2. You decided where you wanted to be – on the ground, once again, sending emails through your smartphone
  3. You analyzed the environment – you asked yourself how you could get out of the well and what resources you had to help
  4. You made a plan – you decided that you could update your status to let people know where you were
  5. You took action
  6. Bingo!  You are out of the well.

That’s how we solve problems.  That’s how we decide what we will do next.  Please join us at the next Small Biz Boardroom for an experiential learning event on how to effectively and efficiently solve some of the challenges your business is facing, or how to help other people solve their problems. 

Be extraordinary.  Be productive.

Aepiphanni Business Consulting: The Business Strategy People is an Operations Management and Business Strategy Consulting Firm dedicated to serving the needs of small to medium sized business leaders. We specialize in helping leaders create extraordinary businesses.  We welcome clients in the personal and professional services industries, including Creative and Design Services, Software & IT Services, Professional Services and Specialty Consumer Services.  As always, we welcome your comments, thoughts, questions and suggestions.  If you are seeking a business assessment, or have further questions about creating your strategy or developing your vision, please give me, Rick Meekins, a call at 678-265-3908, or email us at [email protected].

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