Category Archives: You Can’t Think With Your Tool Belt on®

Following up on my promise from the last issue, this month I am skimming a bit further below the surface of ways to work smarter.

1. Don’t just say that you are going to think and act strategically, actually schedule time for it, just as you would a commitment to someone else.

2. Replace habits that are no longer serving you well. Why not set an appointment to check your email at 10am, rather first thing in the morning when it can distracting you from your day before it even gets started?

3. Step back from the tasks at hand and identify the process that it is part of. These seemingly spontaneous tasks that arrive are probably highly predictable if you look over the walls to see what is triggering them.

4. Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity when everything will be just right. Instead, get started and improve it from there.

5. Remember my saying “Don’t fire Bob, or by a tool. Instead, begin by improving the process.” Anything else is just treating the symptoms.

6. Motivate others by making measurable progress achievable. Punishing anything less than perfection demotivates and causes people to shut down.

7. Focus strategically on value and outcomes, not tasks and inputs.

8. Don’t make investment decisions on behalf of the customer. Instead, provide them with options.

9. Recognize that your true value is not in the tasks that you perform, but in the results that you achieve.


…And another thing
Anyone can cut your grass or clean your house, but only you can bring your unique value to the people that care about you. Make sure you target results that are sufficiently high value.

Sometimes potential clients meet me and tell me they want me to deliver a report. I ask them how thick? You can buy 500 pages from business depot for just a few bucks, and that is double sided. All you need to do is apply a staple.

They quickly realize that they don’t need a report. What they usually need is help making a decision or influencing others.

What are you doing to maximize your value? 

© Wayne McKinnon 2012. All rights reserved.

The start of a new year is a good time to start new habits.

How many times have you heard the phrase "work smarter not harder?" How many people really know what smarter looks like? I believe the desire is there, but many people either don’t know how to improve in ways specific enough to their situation, or lack the time to figure it out.

Here are some suggestions to help you get started:

1. Invest the very first part of your day in yourself.
Concentrate on improvements that will make your days more satisfying while benefitting both you and your employer. If you are a manager, take this time for some strategic planning. If you are staff, use this time to strategically streamline the way you do things, or look for the cause of those fires you have to keep putting out.

2. Trim back the busy work. People don’t need meetings or reports; what they need are the results meetings provide. Many meetings provide no results at all. Do you really need a report, or do you need to make an informed decision?

3. Create forms and templates for repeat activities. Stop reinventing the wheel.

4. If you do have to chair a meeting or even attend one, arrive with an agenda and stick to the topic rather than drifting in another direction. The task of completing a meeting is not valuable. Producing or improving business results is. Stop leaving the conversations in the room.

This list just skims the surface. Next issue will provide additional techniques for working even smarter.

What are you doing to move to work of higher value?

© Wayne McKinnon 2012. All rights reserved.

November 1, 2011

This month I have compiled a list of ten things that I consistently see as examples of people being satisfied with focusing on low value activities:

1. Stuck in minutia
2. Can’t see the forest for the trees
3. Busywork vs. strategic work
4. Labor intensive
5. Commodity
6. Language that only your peers can understand
7. One-upmanship vs. business results
8. Ego vs. making others look good
9. Enforcement vs. assessment and prudent risk taking
10. Prescriptive solutions vs. discovering and meeting objectives

What are you doing to maximize your value?

© Wayne McKinnon 2011. All rights reserved.