From the Desk of Paul:

Productivity-Killer #5 - Leaders waste too much time on low-money work

Now this one may be a bit harder to recognize or admit, but let’s face it, nearly all of us do it!  Some more than others, but we are all probably guilty of this one.  How many times in the last week have you worked on something that you could have likely paid someone else to do.  And while they may not have done it exactly the way you would, it would be at least sufficient, and the cost of their time would be significantly lower than the cost of your own time.  This is a huge pitfall! Someone once told me, “If you want to be a millionaire, then stop doing $25/hour work!  I’m still learning this lesson, but more than ever, I find myself asking, “is this a task that I could pay someone else to do, or is this a task that really has to be done by me?”  And you know what, too often, the answer is “I could pay someone else to do this.”  As leaders, our time has a particular value because there are certain things that only we can do for our organizations – cast a vision, deep financial analysis, lead a new software implementation, sell an enormous and complex solution, etc.  But there are often many supporting tasks to these big responsibilities that we just insist on taking on ourselves instead of delegating them.  Unfortunately, in doing so, we cap the growth of the individuals around us and max out on our own capacity to the detriment of the organization.  In your daily planning, consider what tasks on your list could be moved off of your list and onto someone else’s list. 

That wraps up our 5 biggest productivity-killers. Just for review, here they are:  

1) Your staff doesn’t know the score  

2) You tolerate too many unproductive relationships  

3) You tolerate, or welcome, distractions because you likely don’t have a solid plan for the day   

4) There are start times, but no deadlines or end times for important tasks, as a result, the needed sense of urgency is lacking.  

5) Leaders waste too much time on low-money work    

Paul Meadows,
President/CEO