Home by Six-PM Every Workday

Are you working twelve, or even sixteen-hour days, working most weekends? When was the last time you took a worry-free vacation (if any)? You may think your business needs this sacrifice. You may believe you have no choice.

I assert that you are mistaken. My 30 years plus experience as a business executive and as a Business Management Consultant, as well as a plethora of scientific studies in recent years, indicate that it is not only a mistake but potentially a disaster.

I have had too many projects of business coaching in Hebron, Kentucky, where I was called in to salvage what I could for a business because the owner died unexpectedly. The signs were there but ignored. That scenario is not inevitable, however. I have repeatedly proved, as an employee and as a consultant, that you can get home at a reasonable hour almost every workday. But it requires a paradigm shift for most business owners (and managers). You must change your belief system and your behavior. Let’s examine the phenomenon.

Five Top Reasons Why You Can’t Get Home by 6:00 PM Every Workday and Avoid Working Weekends

1. You want to control EVERYTHING directly.
   In my observation, Entrepreneurial Business Owners became one for one of three reasons (or a combination thereof):
   1. They believe they are right, and nobody knows better – they don’t want to listen to anyone else and want to control everything. Another take on this, they can’t work for anyone else peacefully, so they start their own business.
   2. They realize they can build a “Better Mouse Trap,” and they are on a mission to build it. Again, they want to control all facets of their baby.
   3. They have an overwhelming desire to serve their community and need a venue and environment that allows them to fulfill their vision. Since it is difficult for employees to fully understand their concept (as they do) and commit to it wholeheartedly (as they do), again, they want to control (or at least be involved in) everything.
2. You’re in the habit of throwing time at all problems.
   For most entrepreneurs, the first inclination is to solve problems by putting more (personal) time into them. As their business succeeds or grows, they run out of hours in their day because they want to control everything. They can’t keep up; their strategy no longer works, and their business begins to suffer.
3. You don’t have the data you need to manage your operations effectively and readily available
   1. Do you measure waste? I often find that my clients underestimate the cost of waste in their organization dramatically. Commonly, busy business owners go on impressions rather than data. They do their best to fix the issue as quickly as possible when they discover any waste. Due to their fast-paced and busy workdays, the waste incident is soon forgotten, and no accumulative total is ever calculated.
   2. Many business owners think it would be impractical or difficult to measure waste. I assert that hundreds of thousands of dollars of cost is certainly worth measuring and subsequently taking action.
4. You don’t have confidence in your team; you don’t have the team that you really need.
   1. An owner or manager can be super smart and have charisma and innovative ideas, but if their people don’t trust them, they’ll always struggle with attracting and retaining top talent in Kentucky that’s loyal and totally committed to what they want to accomplish.
   2. When your people trust you, they know you’re on their side. Then they’re more motivated to do their best and support not only their teammates but you and your entire management team as well. And in a high-trust environment, people are much more flexible, forgiving, and accepting when the going gets tough
   3. What every owner and manager should know about trust: If your people don’t trust you, you’ll always struggle with building a loyal team committed to achieving your goals and vision.
   4. Some managers do not want to delegate (see item (5)) because they do not want to give up control (perhaps a control freak), which is usually a symptom of a lack of confidence or outright mistrust in their subordinates. This often develops because others have let them down in the past, or they realize their management hasn’t invested in training their team members to be competent at a higher ability.
   5. Owners need to learn the following:
      • Why trust is dynamic, not static, and why you need to demonstrate trustworthiness consistently every day.
      • The three vital characteristics of leaders who are perceived as trustworthy by their people – are character, competence, and caring
      • What people look for in the character of a leader that makes them worthy of their trust and loyalty.
      • How to show your people you “get it” and that you’ve got the right stuff to achieve success in a rapidly changing business environment.
5. You don’t know how or don’t want to delegate properly.
   1. Do you feel stressed and overloaded? If so, you may need to brush up on your delegation skills! Whether or not to delegate is often considered a manager’s choice; however, there is no choice for effective management.At some point, a person’s area of responsibility can become greater in scope than a person can physically and mentally handle. At this point, one must delegate some duties and authority to others to properly fulfill all of the responsibilities of the position. If one is to be an effective manager, delegation is a necessity.
   2. If you work on your own, there’s only a limited amount that you can do, however hard you work. You can only work so many hours in a day. There are only so many tasks you can complete in these hours.
   3. It just so happens that the two most powerful words a leader can say are “You decide.”

The Path to the Optimal Balance between Business Success and Personal Wellness

1. Hire the Right People
   1. Take your time to hire a high-impact person who commits to learning, has relevant skills (technical/trade, leadership, good communication, attitude, cooperation, etc.), and fits your culture.
   2. Create your employment brand that attracts the desired candidates
   3. Develop a comprehensive onboarding program that helps new employees integrate successfully and engage quickly in the company’s mission.
   4. Give them the training that they need.
2. Train Continuously and Progressively
   1. Create a more competent, capable, and engaged team.
   2. Studies and corporate bottom lines show that companies reap many benefits from investing in employee leadership training.
   3. In challenging economic times, it’s easy to say “no” or “not now” to an investment in training. But is it prudent? Two studies provide hard evidence linking workplace learning investments with a company’s financial performance. The studies show what many trainers have been saying: training pays off.
   4. Surveys consistently show that providing an opportunity to learn attracts desirable candidates and significantly helps maintain ongoing job satisfaction.
3. Develop Systematic and Process Driven Communications ???? Collect, Organize, and Share Data
   1. An essential factor contributing to your success is that to improve a process, service, or product, you must measure and analyze its performance (measurements and analysis is a key principle in quality management systems). This requires data. Several methods are effective for collecting, organizing, and sharing your data.
      1. Modify your accounting system to sort and display operational, financial data points.
      2. Establish operations reports (a form of formal communication) that note (measure) performance against set standards.
      3. Create a dashboard that creates a summary of your key performance indicators.
         1. Sales
         2. Financials
         3. Operations
         4. Quality
         5. Training Progress
         6. Human Resources
      4. Conduct meetings to share information, support creativity, and solve problems.
         1. Practice meaningful daily scrums and plan more formal meetings.
         2. Prepare an agenda and stick to it.
         3. Have a goal in mind.
         4. Provide information for those who need it.
      5. Organize your chart of accounts to identify and isolate high financial impact data.
         1. Revenue sources and $’s
         2. Cost of goods sold $’s and percentage by essential items and in relation to industry performance norms
         3. Expense reduction opportunities
         4. Net profit by income type and overall net profit
         5. Cost of waste
         6. Overtime/Premium pay
         7. Billable hours vs. unbillable hours
         8. Note changes in income and costs
         9. Measure productivity by the numbers
   2. Learn to Trust People ???? Delegate Responsibilities
      1. Even “Super-You” needs help and support. There is no shame in asking for assistance. Push aside the pride and show respect for the talent others can bring to the table.
      2. Single-handed success is quite rare and extremely difficult. When you include and acknowledge all those in your corner, you propel yourself, your teammates, and your supporters to greater heights.
      3. You only have a limited amount of effective time you can commit to getting things done; the rest is waste and, worse, is ruining your health. It would be best if you delegated some responsibility to your well-trained (by you) and competent subordinates.
      4. Delegation Essentials:
         1. List your essential duties, tasks, and responsibilities that are reasonable prospects for delegation.
         2. Clearly articulate the desired outcome. Begin with the end in mind and specify the desired results.
         3. Clearly identify constraints and boundaries. Where are the lines of authority, responsibility, and accountability?
         4. Categorize your key duties, tasks, and responsibilities list into the following:
            1. Frequency & Priority
            2. Full Authority (periodic updating and reporting), Limited Authority, etc.
            3. dentify Communication and Reporting requirements
   3. Identify and MAP all Your Key Processes ???? Continuously Improve them
      1. Flowcharts are an effective tool for analyzing any given process. Flowcharts are maps or graphical representations of a process. They document the current or proposed flow of people’s work, paperwork processing, database or computer software use, product processing & flow, materials processing & flow, etc.
      2. Due to their visual nature, people can often understand the pictured process more easily and thoroughly. Flowcharts can help you see whether the steps of a process are logical. They further help people see trouble spots such as omissions, redundancies, bottlenecks, meaningless steps, resource consumers, time wasters, and lack of controls, etc.
      3. Identify each step’s owner (person(s) responsible for its execution), other stakeholders’ considerations (especially customers), prerequisites, resources needed, interfaces (software, suppliers, expertise, maintenance, etc.), Decisions that need to be made (as applicable), Expected Time to Complete, other appropriate measures, Expected Results, and workflow. Determine the value of each step and the process overall.
      4. Identify the proper sequence, proper measurements, needed competencies/skills, resource input points, process hindrances/problems, waste, redundancies, duplication, time discrepancies, changes needed, critical functionality to retain, opportunities for business improvement in Kentucky in each step, and the process overall. Get evaluation input from all the stakeholders, as is practical.

Want to learn more? Contact DIAD Consulting, Inc. at www.DIADconsulting.com.