As January winds down, some of the best decisions you can make are what to stop doing. Or what to say “no” to.
Let me explain.
I will speak for myself here – I have a hard time saying no. Whether it is at work, and someone asks me to do something for them, when a colleague invites me to an event, or when a friend “needs a favor”. I’m the kind of person who likes to make it easy for other people. I don’t want to be any trouble.
So, if a friend wants to meet for lunch – I have a habit of offering to drive to a place close to them, instead of offering to “meet halfway”. It took me a long time to not feel like I was putting people out to meet me halfway.
At work, we’ve all heard the adage, “it’s just easier to do it myself” than to take the time to explain to someone else what needs to be done.
What I’m getting at here is to ask yourself, “what are your HPAs – or High Payoff Activities” for your position or competency?
If you are the CEO of a company, should you be the one doing labor scheduling or financial spreadsheets, when there are other people whose job is to do that? Just because you started your career doing labor scheduling, and you get a feeling of satisfaction from doing it, does not mean it is your best use of time, as CEO.
If you are a salesperson at your company, should you be doing order entry paperwork, collections or packing up samples for clients, or should you utilize or hire an assistant (whose salary is less than yours)? Shouldn’t your “high payoff activity” be the highest, best use of your time: making sales calls and visits to clients to close new business?
But we all get into habits. Habits that are not the best or highest use of our time.
As CEO or President of a company, your HPAs should be focused on company vision, strategy, culture and making sure you have the right people in the right senior positions. It’s kind of obvious to me that if you don’t have the right people in senior positions, then you will be more tempted to do their jobs for them.
Imagine this: with your company vision clearly stated and specific yearly goals communicated, you make sure you have the right people in leadership positions. This may involve some tough people decisions to get the right leaders. You have clear metrics in place to measure success and you create a culture of accountability. You stop doing your teams’ work for them, which I realize can take self-discipline.
Each time they come to you to ask for your help, inside your head you ask yourself – do I have the right person in this position? Would the ideal candidate be asking me for help right now?
So, look at your project list and your calendar and objectively ask yourself, “What things can, or should I be delegating to someone else? “What are those things that only I can do that are the highest use of my time?”
It’s a freeing experience to be able to use those skills and talents that only you possess. And just think of how your year will end, if you are focused on your HPAs, vs. just keeping yourself busy.
What should you be saying no to? What actions are you delaying because you have not made it a priority to focus on the big things?
Onward and Upward,
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