Improving productivity often brings to mind the thoughts of doing more with less. A positive experience if implemented correctly, you can do more with less human effort, it usually comes down to how good your systems and processes work together. Here\u2019s the thing though, there\u2019s no silver bullet. Efficiency and productivity are as much about us personally as they are about systems and processes.<\/p>\n
This is such a hot topic for advice businesses, and when asked for tips, this topic would have to be in the top three requested. Everyone in advice is busy, and it seems getting busier. We\u2019re overworked, overtired and at times overwhelmed. So many feel like there\u2019s nothing that can be done about their situation and unfortunately just accept it.<\/p>\n
Between leading your team, serving clients, growing your business, and not to mention looking after your home life who can blame you for feeling like you\u2019re overflowing. Some people do get it all done, but they\u2019ve usually learned that the secret sauce in doing so\u2026. They outsource a lot.<\/p>\n
Achieving anything is possible, will you stay in the cycle of being busy or step outside to be productive? Everyone is busy but not everyone is productive. We all know that when we get things done, we feel better about ourselves, more engaged, more productive, learn more, earn more and have more time to do \u201cthe stuff\u201d we really want to and so a great place to start is looking at your personal productivity and how you set yourself up for success.<\/p>\n
The first place to start before beginning any of this is really understanding your why, this terminology gets a lot of airtime but it\u2019s so important to make sure you arrive at the right place if you\u2019re going to put all of the effort into making some changes to yourself, and your business.<\/p>\n
There are some days where you might feel like you are a jack of all trades or perhaps your head is spinning so fast you feel like a master of none but, what I know for sure is that most Advisers aren\u2019t admin gurus and if you are multi-tasking then you likely don\u2019t want to be. So how can you lead and empower your team to be the best they can be? Before you get started on your business, it\u2019s a great idea to have some honest self-reflection. Simply, if you\u2019re not organised then you can\u2019t expect your team and your business to be.<\/p>\n
Knowing your worth means valuing your time, many Advisers we meet tell us they struggle with articulating value, yet they spend their time on tasks around the office that more skilled administrators could do. You have a team for a reason, everyone in the team has a role to play \u2013 if you don\u2019t let them do it the team dynamic is broken and the inefficiency creeps in.
\nIn an interview, Tom Brady, the great American football quarterback, was once asked what does it take to be the best of the best \u2013 a truly great sports team? What\u2019s the secret to their success? His response was so simple…<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do your job so that everybody else can do their job, there\u2019s no big secret to it\u201d.
\nAsking for help isn\u2019t a productivity tip, but arguably it\u2019s the most important point to grab on to. There is always a lot of work to be done in advice and it usually has a tight timeframe to go with it, we see Advisers struggling because they think there\u2019s no other way \u2013 there is no help. There are always ways others can help, ask your team you might be surprised!<\/p>\n
If you are at that point of overwhelm then it\u2019s important to work out your stress points – deadlines, an overflowing inbox, meetings, the phone that never stops ringing, file notes. We are all different and we all go through times of the year where we have to give more of ourselves than other times. Once you\u2019ve pinpointed your frustrations think about how you could get some help and from whom.<\/p>\n
Another big leap toward greater personal productivity is to get some clarity and the best way to do that is to get it all out of your head, yes, that\u2019s right the good old brain dump does wonders here. Take a few minutes and write everything down, appointments you have coming up, all the projects you want to get started, all the people you want to call, and all the things you\u2019re waiting on. Once again think about who you might be able to outsource some of these things to or who might be able to help you get clarity.<\/p>\n
Yes, we hear that a lot. An ideal week should never be so rigid that it\u2019s inflexible. Discipline is required, the key with the ideal week is to get it done and then ask someone to help you be accountable to it.<\/p>\n
Part of the success of an ideal week is your diary management, are you really the best person to be managing your time? The best way to achieve success with an ideal week and diary management is to sit with someone in the team and work through your ideal week, make sure the team understand what you\u2019re trying to achieve \u2013 communicate your non-negotiables.<\/p>\n
Financial research and education take concentration, eliminating distractions, even temporarily, will make you more productive. Where you can, set up your office so it\u2019s an environment where people can do head-down work. Whilst an open plan office is great for fostering team culture, sometimes we have to be able to get away to a quiet space. Finally, if you are one of those people that just can\u2019t help but answer the phone or emails, switch the notifications off on both or better still get out of email, put your phone on silent and out of sight or give it to someone else to answer.<\/p>\n
When you just can\u2019t focus some meditation might help and so too could the Pomodoro technique. Pomodoro is great when you need to do head down work or you\u2019re on a deadline and great for study too. Any time you need to concentrate this technique will help you get into the zone. Work in blocks of 25 minutes then have a 5-minute break. It\u2019s really that simple.<\/p>\n
There is so much you can do to be your own Rockstar when it comes to productivity, giving your clients a Rockstar experience for client meetings is one place to start. Consider how you prepare for your meetings, how you conduct the meeting and then how efficiently and effectively you complete that meeting process will mean the client will leave that meeting feeling energised and inspired, and your team will be feeling relaxed and ready to get implementing.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re the business owner, you\u2019re usually the visionary in the business BUT have you identified who the organisers and the doers are? Every advice business will have the visionary and the doer but it\u2019s not often you\u2019ll have a true organiser.<\/p>\n
When you first start out you need doers otherwise the jobs don\u2019t get done, think Advisers and the client service team. Eventually, every advice business, whether you like it or not will need an organiser, this usually falls back to you as the business owner but the best money you will spend hands down is someone who directs traffic with clients, organises both you and your team, the workflow AND generally brings it all together and makes it happen.<\/p>\n
Get organised for the year ahead, if you can book leave as far out as possible that way you can be prepared for how the business will cover absences. But of course, it\u2019s not just about leave, it\u2019s about everything your business needs to do and achieve every year to make sure there are no gaps and you\u2019re prepared for almost anything to happen. A great place to start with finding the best rhythm for your business is to divide the business into parts Strategic, Financial, Client, People, Governance. Once you\u2019ve done that, decide at which points in the year you need to act on an annual, half-yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily basis. Document it all, you\u2019ll be shocked at just how much you get through every year.<\/p>\n
Whilst we all have a good idea of what happens in our business it\u2019s common for us to find that processes aren\u2019t documented. Remember process documentation doesn\u2019t have to be perfect, in fact, the simpler the better. The key is to get everyone doing things the same way, having ten people doing things ten different ways will slow things down significantly, it also creates stress and accentuates inefficiencies.<\/p>\n
Remember this is not just how you do business, it\u2019s also how you train people if they\u2019re taking on different responsibilities or if they\u2019re new to the team, so consider the detail you need to record. Have a process champion, every time something new happens in the business give a task to the champion to write the process and store it so it\u2019s accessible to everyone. The champion should be the go-to person in the business, responsible for building, tweaking, and training on updates and new process.<\/p>\n
Workflow and task management are subsets of process and are always hot topics. Managing your workflow is not just about a piece of software that you plug everything into so you can get your tasks done. Workflow management is an art that requires planning and organisation to get everything out the door on time. You may have a meeting to co-ordinate but it\u2019s how you plan and communicate that will make managing your workflow seamless.<\/p>\n
This is a task for the organiser in your business \u2013 they might need to manage two or more Advisers in terms of the reviews that are coming, new clients that you\u2019re working on, making sure that deadlines are met, tasks are up to date, the team has what it needs to get the job done and if not plans and arranges the resources so they can.<\/p>\n
Tasks can be easy to manage but for many it is hard. The secret to task management is doing them when they come up, don\u2019t put it off the faster you complete the task you have the sooner the next person can get on to the next task. Falling into the trap of ignoring tasks and thinking someone else will take care of them is poor form. If you have committed to managing tasks in a certain way and a task is allocated to you, you need to act.<\/p>\n
If your processes aren\u2019t right then this task management may not work for you, having your process right first means that work will be allocated to the right person once you\u2019re managing from a task list. For those who might be overwhelmed by tasks, then filtering is the best way to overcome the overwhelm, concentrate on what\u2019s due today or what\u2019s overdue before moving on to anything else.<\/p>\n
Meetings should have an agenda with a specific outcome in mind and be as short as possible. What every advice business can do better is to think about which meetings are important and those that are not creating as much impact. Once you\u2019ve considered this then think about why you need them and who should attend. If you\u2019re sitting on the fence about a couple of them, that\u2019s telling that you likely don\u2019t need them, or you could incorporate them into another meeting. The key to a great meeting is an agenda, preparation, and what communication of outcomes you expect.<\/p>\n
Those two very small words make advisers and advice businesses shudder, they can make or break so many things in the advice chain, the results of a file review or in the preparation of a client interaction AND it\u2019s probably the MOST common issue in advice businesses without a doubt. We all have to write file notes it\u2019s how you think of them that will get you into the right frame of mind to get them done.<\/p>\n
With some really simple places to begin every Adviser and advice business could find small productivity wins every day. Remember to start with the end in mind, what\u2019s your why and where do you want to be? Map your strategy for efficiency and consider what might give you the greatest impact \u2013 it might be something really simple.
\nWhen you make the choice to change, make sure everyone understands your why, don\u2019t leave them behind, bring them along and encourage them to take the lead.<\/p>\n
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Improving productivity often brings to mind the thoughts of doing more with less. A positive experience if implemented correctly, you can do more with less human effort, it usually comes down to how good your systems and processes work together. Here\u2019s the thing though, there\u2019s no silver bullet. Efficiency and productivity are as much about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n