Getting the balance right between urgency and importance

Following on from our previous blog where we provided some useful tips to help you run a business at a time when there are so many additional challenges around people resources and supply chain issues, we thought it would be beneficial to continue this theme again this week.

The challenges outlined above can you leave you with very little time. However, if you want to improve your business and drive it forward, the chances are the impetus will need to come from you.

When I speak to business owners at the moment, I frequently hear that due to current circumstances, they don’t have time to look ahead to plan growth, identify future opportunities and address potential risks.

Invariably, ‘urgent matters’ take precedence over ‘important priorities’, given that the former tend to be driven by someone else – often customers but also employees, suppliers or other stakeholders – and invariably come with a deadline.

Carving out time for yourself to take a step back and reflect on your business, when done effectively, will lead to huge future benefits for the business.  But how can you do this?

One idea is to try to give yourself 30 minutes a day away from the laptop and phone and think about the objectives you would like to achieve over the next few months. Write it down and keep it with you and, next time you are writing up your ‘To Do’ list, take it out and prioritise the list in relation to the objectives you wrote down and wanted to achieve.

If you do this frequently, it will give you a far better perspective between what’s urgent and what are the important priorities.

Where is your time best spent?

Having identified where your time really needs to be spent, then you can look at why you are dealing with the ‘urgent’ issues that are preventing you from doing this.

This could be due to multiple reasons, primarily around resource and skillset but may also be driven by your reluctance to ‘let go’. Freeing yourself up to tackle the ‘important priorities’ and achieve the objectives you set will only improve your performance. Fundamental to this is your ability and willingness to delegate and we will look at this in more detail next time.

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.