In today’s world, why having focus is more important than ever

As we move into the Autumn it is increasingly apparent that one of the challenges we face and will do for the foreseeable future, is the reality of the “new normal’ and how we adapt to this environment as business leaders.

With large numbers of people still working from home, it is possible that there is not so much focus on the importance of making use of your and your team’s time. But remember, it is the one element of life that you cannot change, increase, or decrease, you can just make better use of it.

Planning is a key component of this. You need to make sure that you are giving yourself time to “work on your business and not just in your business”.

Here are a few suggestions for you to think about:

Be more deliberate in the use of time by creating time to:

• Plan your day – get the balance right between short term tasks and longer-term business improvements. Perhaps break it down into smaller chunks allowing you to get the right balance
• Look at your sales activities, do they need to be adapted to reflect changes in customer behaviour?
• Think about how is the team communicating and how often? – small pod calls, 1 to1s?

When you are planning, what do you want to consider?

• Think about your business platform, your products, and routes to market
• Having a strong delivery provides a good customer experience
• Make sure you have good quality, timely management information, this should help you to make informed decisions
• The structure of the team, how will it evolve? Can the team evolve with you?

Do you need to develop and adapt our culture to reflect changes in circumstances?

• Plan team social events or get everyone together once a week.
• Are we giving the people the opportunity to contribute their ideas?
• Do we understand everyone’s needs and do they understand our values and vision?

Thinking about these areas gives you an approach to develop your business in a different external world. At this point, it can be quite daunting, and you may find yourself asking does the business have the skillset to deliver this?

One solution to make this more manageable is to break them down into small areas and tackle them individually. You can also use a trusted sounding board to discuss it with, ask for advice and develop an implementation plan.

Our team at BHP Consulting have all successfully run businesses, and we understand that every business is unique. Our practical approach to supporting our clients enables us to share our real-world experience to positively impact on the performance of your business. To arrange a call or an exploratory face-to-face meeting, please click here