You will always have more tasks to finish, and more details that need your attention. To achieve success, you must know what is important and needs your personal touch, and also what you can be delegating to others, or to computers. Entrepreneurs and individuals in management should understand their strengths, so that they can build strategies to maximize them. On the other hand, they should also know what their weaknesses are, so they can begin delegating them immediately. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses increases the probability that they will build something of significance that creates millions or even billions of dollars of value, says Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup.
SWOT yourself.
To truly know your leadership capabilities, it is a good idea to look at yourself as a business plan to see what personal quirks and uncontrollable outside influences can stop you from success with your business. This is where SWOT comes in.
What are your strengths and how can they help your business?
What personal weaknesses can hinder your ability to do your job?
What opportunities do you have based on your past knowledge and network?
What personality traits threaten your company or your ability to lead?
As Marlo Zarka from Designed Alliance said, “SWOT can help people become the best version of themselves.” If you know yourself, you can pick your daily tasks based on your strengths and opportunities, and you can pass on things that take too much of your precious time or where your personality may get in the way of positive results.
Delegating will save you time.
Whether we are talking about delegating to individuals or computers, the practice of delegation is important. Some start-ups have seen just how important this practice is for leaders, and have developed tools that will automate tasks that used to take up a lot of time. Goal setting, PPP, employee feedback-there are many apps that will delegate the work for you, but the most difficult part is to figure out which product will help you the most. With Weekdone, we have automated weekly reporting and feedback functions for internal communications. This saves time for the entire team by not needing to meet to go over these reports. When we made this simple change, I almost completely stopped getting emails from my team. Can you imagine how much time this saved me? If you’re wondering, it is a lot.
You may think that saving a little time every day doesn’t have much impact, but the time saved from simplifying small tasks like these can really add up in the long run. As an entrepreneur or manager, you always have more things to do, so every second counts.
Great reminder that we can’t do everything we need to do alone. It takes a team of people and tools to do great things.