by Keith Rosen
Aside from exercising, use this time to mentally download all of the things that have transpired throughout your day. Take time to process it all and to embrace what you are learning, where you were, where you are, and where you are going. Otherwise, when do you make the time to decompress or unwind? If you don’t treat this as a priority, you may continue to feel like a tightly wound coil ready to snap. Gee, no wonder you may be feeling off, overwhelmed, or stressed.
Don’t have an hour each day? Then take fifteen minutes. The fact is, we spend about two-thirds of our life working and sleeping. Factor in your other personal responsibilities, and there’s not much time left. So ask yourself, “When am I happiest?”
Are you doing the things that bring you the most joy and that take care of you?
Be careful of falling into the all-or-never trap. That is, “Either I’m going to exercise and eat healthy every day or I’m not.” Don’t set yourself up for failure. Be realistic, and start with what you know you can commit to. Then build on those successes each day.
Expose Your Diversionary Tactics
Some nonnegotiable tasks, activities, and priorities in your life may be obvious; however, some may not be so visible.
The activities you need to engage in that support your lifestyle and will truly determine whether or not you will reach your personal and professional goals need to be nonnegotiable tasks rather than optional. Otherwise, you’ll find that they have tendency to take a backseat to the activities or tasks you may be more comfortable doing (such as cleaning your office, doing paperwork, responding to e-mails, helping other people, compiling data, attending meetings, putting out fires, and working on getting your new-hire training material perfect) but don’t significantly move you forward.
Instead, they’ll keep you stuck in maintenance mode, allowing you to do just enough to stay afloat. Then you may have conversations with yourself that sound like, “That’s okay; I was busy today. I’ll do that tomorrow.” Or “I just wasn’t able to find the time to get to that today.” And wouldn’t you know it, something else always seems to come up!
This busy work will disguise the truth, creating the illusion that you’re working hard simply because you feel busy. These diversionary tactics enable you to do everything but the activities that would dramatically accelerate your success. Just ask any salesperson who has to prospect to build business. They can justify practically any and every activity that will take them away from prospecting, allowing them to major in the minor activities that act as a diversion to doing what’s truly needed to build their business.
“Find the time?” In my experience, I have yet to stumble across time I just happen to “find.” It becomes a never-ending search, an exercise in futility; “The Journey to Find the Time.”
Consider that these nonnegotiable activities must become as habitual as waking up in the morning, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, and breathing. These are the activities you do (hopefully) without a second thought. That’s why you must make the time first to do them until they become habitual for you.
Go Do: Schedule Your Nonnegotiables
Schedule an appointment with yourself for self-care. Build this time into your routine, and schedule the activities that you’ll do for yourself every day or every week that are just for you. Go a step further, and schedule an appointment with yourself for one full day each month that is just for you. This is your time to have fun, for reflection, to catch up, or to rejuvenate yourself. Doing so will provide you with some well-needed freedom and will make you more effective in every other area of your life.
Chances are, you are only going to get busier. So if you don’t make self-care nonnegotiable now, it may never make it into your routine later and will end up being the first thing that gets compromised. After all, if you don’t do it now, then when is the big payoff?
Other nonnegotiable time blocks you need to consider in your schedule as a sales manager could be weekly scheduled appointments with your direct reports, boss, peers, customers, and cross-functional teams.
Being the optimistic realist, this list might also include those personal responsibilities that don’t make the list of making you exceptionally happy but absolutely need to get done for you to achieve your personal and professional goals, and you are unable to eliminate or delegate them to anyone else.
[PART TWO]
CHAPTER 9
Identify Your Value—Delegate the Rest
Developing Strengths and Delegating Weaknesses
It’s time to identify and develop your strengths and delegate or eliminate the activities or tasks that don’t support them. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Do you know what yours are?
The mistaken belief is that if we spend time strengthening our weaknesses, it will help us grow. But even if you do end up strengthening your weaknesses, you’re still likely to only end up with some very strong weaknesses. The irony here is that your strengths are not getting the attention they deserve that made you successful in the first place.
Instead of spending the time strengthening your weaknesses, practice developing your strengths and delegating your weaknesses, surrounding yourself with other great sales leaders. Besides, the people you hire are the future leadership of your organization, right?
Engage in the activities and tasks you are really good at. Focus on strengthening your personal talents, gifts, and abilities. I guarantee there are certain items that you can let go of or take off your plate and give to someone else. That’s why the Go Do at the end of this chapter contains one of the most important exercises of the book—to determine the tasks or activities you can delegate that have to be done but are not the best use of your time or don’t maximize your strengths. After that, you will determine who is the best person to delegate these tasks to.
As a sales manager, it’s critical that your role and the responsibilities of each person on your team are clarified and that you are allowing your people to do their jobs. This will eliminate any overlap or redundancies and ensure that each person is accountable around effectively contributing to the overall success of your team.
How to Delegate Safely and Effectively
Everyone wants more time, and delegation is one way to create it. Yet, we often have a hard time letting go, believing that we are the best person to handle the task to have it done correctly. Become a more powerful and less frustrated sales leader by learning the following ten simple steps to safe and effective delegation so that you can get your day back and focus on the things that matter most.
Sales managers are often left feeling frustrated when their staff members don’t perform tasks the way they expected. Then, quite often, managers learn the wrong and dangerous lesson: “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” We often lay the blame on the people we delegated to, believing they are not competent and fail to meet your expectations and achieve the results you desired.
Stop and think about who would ultimately be accountable for any breakdown during the delegation process. Yes, it’s the person who delegates the task. To eliminate communication breakdowns permanently, we must take full accountability not only for the message we send but for the message the other person receives. And that’s the good news because now it’s 100 percent in your power to create the outcome you want in every conversation.
You can eliminate the frustration that ensues when your people don’t follow through and perform the way you expect by sharpening your communication and filling in the gaps that are often left open for interpretation. Here are ten steps for sales managers to delegate safely and effectively.
Step 1
Know what the task is. (Delegate one task at a time. If you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.)
Step 2
Have the end result/desired outcome you want to produce in mind. This level of clarity is critical to create alignment around what is expected.
Step 3
Find the right person you need to delegate to, and give her the
task.
Step 4
Share with that person the results you desire.
Step 5
Ask her why she feels this task is important. Once you uncover their point of view, fill in the blanks and share with her what she missed—that is, share with her any additional reasons why this task is important, its overall impact, and the role she plays in completing it.
Step 6
Follow up Step 5 by asking, “How can taking on this task benefit you?” What is the advantage for her to handle this project or task? Acknowledge not only her role but also how completing this task or project will benefit her. After all, every person, when asked to do something, try something, or change something, is immediately thinking, “What’s in it for me?” Making someone feel needed, included, and part of the team builds their skill set and confidence and helps them do a better job. Simply telling them what to do does not.
Step 7
Ask her how she plans to approach and complete this task. Ask questions such as, “How have you handled something like this in the past?” “How would you go about handling/completing this?” and “What’s your opinion about how to resolve this?” The answers to these questions will determine if she is comfortable performing this task and whether or not she has the right tools, information, strategy, skills, and knowledge needed to complete it. It will also help you uncover the gaps in her strategy, should her strategy be half-baked. Now, rather than run the risk of being redundant, you can listen for the gap in her thinking and solution. Then coach her to fill in the gaps or missing pieces that are needed to effectively complete this task, or share with her what needs to be refined in her suggested solution or approach. (Caution: while doing this, be careful not to sound condescending. You can say, “So repeat back what I just told you.”)
Step 8
Determine the exact time frame in which you want the task completed. Ask questions such as, “Given your current commitments, when do you feel you can complete this?” This creates ownership in the person’s mind to get it done because she is creating the timeline herself. (If the deadline she chooses isn’t appropriate, ask, “What would you need to complete this task sooner?”)
Step 9
Reconfirm. To ensure crystal-clear communication and alignment in thinking, reconfirm what was discussed. That can sound like, “Okay great, so to reconfirm, you will be able to have ______done by ______ date?” Or “So I can expect the presentation on my desk by tomorrow at ______?” This will eliminate any costly assumptions or misinterpretation of the message on both sides, as well as clarify your expectations.
Step 10
Most important, make sure you follow up at the time the task was to be completed to ensure it was done. Otherwise, you run the risk of sending the wrong message to your direct report. If you don’t follow up, your direct report will be thinking, “Well, my boss didn’t follow up with me, so it seems this wasn’t that important after all. I guess it’s okay not to complete what’s asked of me because there’s no consequence anyway.”
With no follow-up, you’re giving your people the out so they do not have to be accountable for completing what is asked of them. Now they believe it’s okay for tasks not to be completed!
Remember, you can’t scale dependency. To focus on the more timely and important projects, tasks, and goals requires letting go of being a control freak and trusting the people you work with. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself in a position where you’re not only doing your job, but now you’re taking on everyone else’s job and responsibilities. Following these ten steps to safe and effective delegation will help you build further accountability, confidence, and trust within your team and with those you have to influence. It also will help you maximize your skill set and leverage your time to focus on the activities and results that serve you best.
Go Do: Delegate Something Now
Using what you learned from this chapter, identify three tasks you are currently responsible for that would be better handled by someone else on your team. Identify another three tasks you’re not responsible for but handle anyway. Delegate those tasks to the appropriate people/person using the ten steps listed above.
[PART TWO]
CHAPTER 10
Treat Everything like an Appointment
Your Calendar Is Lying to You
Bottom line: If it takes up time, then consider it an appointment and schedule it.
Getting ready in the morning, breakfast, and your commute to work are just some of the activities that need to be part of your routine. Treating every activity as an appointment will allow you to plan better. It will also keep your honest about how much time you actually have throughout your day so you can realistically assess what you can and cannot do so. That will help you perform each task with conscious intention.
Here’s a rhetorical question: Have you ever been in a situation in which you promised more than you could deliver?
That’s right—you overcommitted yourself!
There are three primary causes that lead to overcommitments, and if you think it’s a strategic issue, then you are off. In fact, they’re all rooted in not having an honest relationship with time:
Not being realistic with how long each task or project will take
Not planning for unplanned externalities (upset clients, sick salespeople, traffic, longer meetings, additional e-mails, unexpected calls, etc.)
And finally, not being realistic with what you already have scheduled in your day (getting ready in the morning, breakfast, or your commute to work)
If it takes up time, then consider it an appointment and schedule it. Think about how having an honest handle around how much time you actually have each day so that you can effectively plan out your routine will keep you when it comes to the commitments you make.
For example, before you had a realistic routine in place, perhaps things unfolded something like this:
Salesperson: “Boss, I really need your help! Are you available for a deal review at three o’clock this afternoon?”
You: (After looking at your blank calendar) “Sure, I’ve got time. See you at three. ”
After developing a more honest relationship with time and creating a more realistic representation of your routine in your calendar, that same scenario could possibly unfold like this:
Salesperson: “Boss, I really need your help! Are you available for a deal review at three o’clock this afternoon?”
You: (After looking at your thoroughly filled-out calendar) “I’m actually joining another salesperson on a conference call with one of our biggest clients at that time, but I’m free at one forty-five, two fifteen, or four o’clock. Would one of those times work instead?”
If you don’t have the appointment, you don’t have the commitment.
There’s No Such Thing as Free Time
That’s right—there’s no such thing as free time because everything, including what you would do during your free time, needs to be scheduled. This includes downtime; time to process, reset, and refocus; meditation time; and time for self-reflection. I know it may sound strange, but if you’re not scheduling these things into your routine, then chances are, you’re not doing them or doing them consistently. And if you’re not taking the time to schedule your free time, here’s an opportunity to do something the world’s top leaders do.
Go Do: Make Your Calendar Honest
First, review any to-do lists you have, and transfer those tasks into your calendar, or at least block out time for when you plan on working on certain groups of tasks. We explore this at a deeper level later.
Second, take a moment and make a list of any other tasks that you tend to keep track of in your head. Once you have those all written down, insert them into your calendar as well to help create a more accurate representation of your day.
[PART TWO]
CHAPTER 11
Be Realistic with Your Time
Plan for the Worst
While some may have tried, it’s impossible to p
lay a great round of golf in an hour. It’s also impossible to drive from New York to California in six hours. If you have a meeting across town that is thirty miles away, instead of assuming you’ll be able to make it there in twenty minutes based in the best-case scenario, for your integrity and peace of mind, plan for worst-case scenarios instead.
Three Steps to Completing Your To-Do List Every Day
Now that you have captured every imaginable activity and action item and made them a part of your routine, you will want each activity to be scheduled for appropriate and realistic lengths of time. Use the following guidelines to determine how much additional time to add on to the timelines you have created for each activity.
For the tasks/activities you have never engaged in before and are not sure how long they will take, double the timeline you have allocated for those tasks/activities. (Example: If you had originally allocated one hour for an activity, now allocate two hours.)
For the tasks/activities you have engaged in before and have an idea how long they will take but are not completely certain, add 50 percent to the timeline you have allocated for those tasks/activities. (Example: If you had originally allocated one hour for an activity, now allocate 1.5 hours.)