You Can’t Get Results in Your Head!
In a recent training session with leading managers of a large Australian company that is a household name, I told them “you can’t get results in your head!” Results happen out here, in the world. Many people try to keep track of everything they need to do in life and at work all in their head. This is a big mistake for business professionals who want to build the value of their personal brand in the marketplace.
As an executive and owner of an international consulting firm, I work with companies to build winning teams around a culture of results. Let’s face it, talk is cheap in business. What counts is putting points on the scoreboard–revenue, GP, EBITDA, and profit–but also becoming a business that positively impacts all shareholders (customers, employees, and suppliers) by being a key element of their success.
As I work with good companies, I have noticed the executives, managers, and A-Team players who get the most done are first and foremost excellent managers of their own personal productivity. In strategy execution and results work, we talk about the prepositional two activities needed to grow a business–working IN the business, and working ON the business. I have trained hundreds of business leaders in strategy execution. What I have discovered is if your daily life gets out of control, and you cannot manage the flow of tasks and demands that cone at your all day long, it is next to impossible to think strategically, plan effectively, or execute plans into tangible exponential results.
Franklin Covey calls the frenetic pace of maintaining the day-to-day operations of a business the whirlwind. If you are so caught in the whirlwind you cannot manage to achieve the tasks required of day-to-day operations, you will never have the head space or energy to step back, look at the larger picture, and work on growing your team or the business.
Living in Your Head is The Enemy of Getting Things Done
David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done” has been my standard of getting things done for over 20 years. An executive or manager will simply fail if you try to “keep it all in your head,” with “it” being everything you need to get done in your personal and professional life.
Our brains are optimized for fast decision-making, not storage. Trying to juggle too many things in your head at the same time is a major reason we get stressed out when there’s a lot going on: we’re using the wrong tool for the job.
The best way to stop mentally thrashing and start being productive is to spend a few minutes putting everything on your mind onto paper. You can write or draw a mind map–whatever works for you–as long as you can see it when you’re done. Once the information is out of your head, it’s far easier to figure out what to do with it. Even 10 minutes of Externalization can help you feel less freaked out about your workload.
A company gets results built on foundation of its leaders, managers at all levels, and all team members becoming great at organising their lives by learning a process of getting things done. Until the entire team can master personal productivity, building a company economy of 10X results will remain an elusive, aspirational “pie in the sky” dream. Kevin Baker Consulting trains teams how to become personally productive so they can move on to running copanies producing exponential results.
Now go and keep climbing to The Peak of Potential.