27th September 2023
“How your 'Secret To Do List' is killing your business growth & team effectiveness. ”
From the desk of Skye Barbour.
Oxford, United Kingdom.
Creator of Leadership Design™️
We work with business owners and their teams to enhance people's performance that directly grows your bottom line.
Let's dive right in......What do I mean by a 'secret to-do list'?
It’s a scrappy list of things to do, probably written down in a notebook of yours, on a post it note by your laptop or just a list of things in your head. It is a secret because you are keeping it to yourself or making it hard for others to see (and probably feel frustrated that you don’t feel supported right??)
Are you guilty of this?
Read to the end to see my simple solution to making a start on the road to task list heaven!
When it comes to getting a task done, do you.....
You’re not alone… but in getting the work done… it’s on you!
You know that phrase ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’?
Well, the same theory applies to your to-do list in your business!!
And your secret to-do list means all the tasks sit with you and no one can actually help you to their fullest!
I see THREE BIG challenges for business owners when it comes to tasks and getting things done.
1.Unjumbling all the things in their head to make sense of them, so they can actually take action
2.Putting these ‘things’ (tasks) some where others can see and collaborate
3. Delegating everything that doesn’t need to actually be them
If any of these sound familiar, I’d really love to hear from you - you can email me, tag me on IG or book a call if you want help unjumbling your mind and spring cleaning your business.
Challenge 1 - Unjumbling all the things in your head.
Our gifts as entrepreneurs and creatives is that we are never short of ideas. But with that comes the reality of pinning down said ideas, looking at timelines realistically and truly understanding everything that needs to happen to get an idea into creation. Mixed in with the day to day delivery of our business, marketing, tracking and life outside of work etc etc! It can be total chaos in your mind!!
And let’s face it, by the time one amazing new idea has entered your mind and opened a mental tab of ‘to-do’s’ you are already on to the next new and shiny thing - so guilty of this!
It’s like a pinball machine on steroids - so it is no wonder you can’t gather your thoughts in a way that allows you to organise and navigate what the heck you are meant to do next!
But if you feel like this, how must it be for your team?
Challenge 2 - Putting the tasks down somewhere other people can see
We feel really passionately about this one at Skye Barbour Ltd. I am all about small but mighty teams. We need our people to be able to think, predict, understand and use their initiative WITHOUT us as the business owner having to spoon feed or hand hold. We just don’t have the time for it!!!
But how can you expect any of the above to be possible if your team does not have sight of what is on your secret to-do list?? It is setting them up to fail.
You have to find a space, system or tool that you can document your tasks, your team can do the same and everyone can see what is going on in the business. It allows for collaboration, better delegation and removes time wasted repeating conversations, following up or redoing work.
It is also a great way to look at the facts. When things live in our heads, it is easy to run off of the emotions, when things are taken from your head and are in front of you in black and white, it is hard to ignore the reality.
You might be feeling entirely overwhelmed by a piece of work you need to deliver, but when written down and broken into tasks and subtasks the job may seem really easy. Facts vs emotions.
How do you do this? Team Skye uses and implements project management systems for our clients. It’s a big bit of work if you want to do it properly and to last, but ultimately you need to focus on:
Challenge 3 - Delegating everything that doesn’t need to be you
All the while your todo list remains secret you are subconsciously accumulating tasks that do not need to be you. And as a result spend unnecessary time doing things your team could help with and you could spend growing your business. It is mind blowing how quickly many small tasks add up to a whole job description!!
Once you have gotten all of the to-do’s out of your head and down in a system, you need to focus on the things that need to be you, everything else can be delegated. I fyou feel the need to hold on to something, ask yourself why? If it is because you want to do it or have to - keep it, everything else goes!
Delegating can feel like hard work, but once you have a task management system in place delegation and follow up become so much easier - the system does the work for you.
Our clients rave about the visual ease of being able to see what their team have on, what has been completed and what they may need help with….without having to ask!!!!
The sooner you stop working from your secret to-do list, the sooner your team can truly support you.
The sooner they support you to their fullest, the more time you have to focus on your goals and vision.
It really is as simple as that.
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