Where to spend your time • 2 min read
Global consultancy firm Bain & Company carried out a piece of research which showed that the average company loses more than 20% of its productive capacity to what they refer to as “organizational drag”.
That’s ONE FULL DAY per week!
“Organisational drag” represents the structures and processes that take up valuable time and prevent people from getting things done.
Are you attending too many meetings?
Are internal processes sucking up precious time and energy?
Introduction
Professional development is closely tied to the behaviours and mindsets that we exhibit. But whether we’re trying to hit a performance target or improve our management skills, it’s hard to go it alone – we need continuous follow up and support to fuel our progress.
The first step in our professional development is to identify the areas that matter most within our role.
Identify, prioritise and action
We are big believers in taking away from your busy day-to-day to focus on improving the specific areas of your role that will have the biggest impact on your professional development.
In this post we want to help you identify, prioritise and action the specific activities that will help you achieve your professional goals. We want to begin by highlighting the importance of:
1. Raising self-awareness...
...to understand your current behaviours and work patterns and those of your colleagues too.
2. Implementing better work habits...
...to improve performance; to push you to prioritise what matters most; and to ensure you are leading a healthy and sustainable work life.
Which areas of your role need the most attention right now?
What aspects of your work could you improve to make you even more effective within your role?
Ok, how do I get started?
Begin by listing out your key responsibilities.
Let's look at some examples.
Shane, Customer Success Manager
As a Customer Success Manager, Shane needs to spin a lot of plates but what matters most is that his team hits their performance target.
His main responsibilities are:
Analysing customer and performance data
Managing the team’s performance
Promoting career development within his team
Identifying areas of improvement
Maintaining technical knowledge of the product
Aligning with other teams to complete projects
What matters most?
If his team is not hitting their targets, Shane could look to adapt his current work patterns to ensure he is spending more time with individuals to improve performance.
If members of his team are leaving for other positions or other companies, Shane could look to block off time each month to promote career development within his team.
Rebecca, Sales Executive
Rebecca wears many hats in her role but at the end of the day, she is primarily measured on one thing - how much revenue and profit she brings in for the company.
Her main responsibilities are:
Scheduling appointments
Delivering presentations
Demoing products
Sending quotations
Closing sales
Sending contracts
What matters most?
If Rebecca is struggling to book client appointments, her priority is to set better work habits around sourcing new leads.
If she is not getting beyond the presentation stage, she needs to focus her time and energy on delivering a more compelling sales pitch.
Remember, it’s all about focusing on the areas that will have the biggest impact on your role.
Key takeaways
List out the key responsibilities within your role.
Pinpoint the one area that could be improved that would have the biggest impact on your role.
Identify the specific aspects of “organisational drag” that can be reduced to help you focus more time and energy on your development area.
Think big. act small
Write down your key responsibilities and circle the one area that could be improved that would make you even more effective within your role.
Content sources
Harvard Business Review, Great Companies Obsess Over Productivity, Not Efficiency, Michael Mankins
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