What is productivity?
When pondering the answer to a very important question it proves often to be a good tactic to first think on what a concept is not. Productivity is not appearing to be busy.
Productivity is not spending most of your time actually being very busy, but busy with things that propel you forward on the journey towards great achievements and making your vision a reality.
Productivity is simply to produce results. Results that leaps towards your end goals and ultimate vision. Trying is not an option, doing the right things in the right way so that they produce results is the only option, that is, if you really want to build a legendary company.
The ground-breaking difference between effectiveness and efficiency
Efficiency means to do the right thing. It is the right thing to do in business to give quality service, right? So what if doing the right thing does not produce results?
Effectiveness on the other hand is doing the right thing in the right way so that it produces results.
Quality service given in the right way so that we obtain actual referrals and the client comes back for repeat business is an example of effectiveness.
What must you be busy with?
The Pareto principle applies but in overdrive. Really hone in on the 20% of things to do that really brings home the profits, the purpose of the business, and brings joy to customers and team members.
Yes only 20% of your activity as an entrepreneur (roughly on average) brings in the true results, the other 80% of your activity is pure fluff.
Entrepreneurs often revert to what they like doing as opposed to what they actually need to do to be a success. Business growth and productivity is not a game of meandering between the options of dislikes and likes , but instead, taking action on what needs to be done to reach goals whether I personally always like it or not.
Be busy with what works in relation to producing the desired results. If you do not know what actually does work, be busy in terms of researching what needs to be done to produce results.
BE EFFECTIVE.
Get the right people on the bus
Another critical question to answer is: Who must be busy doing the right things in the right way to produce results?
Well only the people who really want to be successful and are willing to pay the price of disciplined and purposeful action will sustainably be effective anyway.
Hire people that authentically believe in your business’ purpose. Hire people that love what they do and already are highly skilled, or alternatively will put in the required work to become very skilful. Remove toxic behaviour from your business by either coaching towards excellence or firing for misaligned behaviours.
Lead by example
Do not expect productivity in the true sense of the word, from your employees if you as an entrepreneur is not the living example of the results producing behaviour that you require from your team. Inspire your team, not only by producing excellent results, but by doing it in a creative, purposeful and joyful way.
As Mahatma Gandhi said: “Be the change that you want to see in this world.” Do not simply demand it, be it first.
“Slay the holy cows”
Most businesses have ‘holy cows’. That means things that do not necessarily produce any results, or even produce very negative results, but the team keeps on doing those things because:
‘That’s how we do things here’
‘That’s how we have always have done things here’
‘We love doing things in that way, here’
A troublesome example is the ‘meeting holy cow’. Some people just love the sound of their own voices and will carry on speaking for hours upon hours within meetings, which usually then leads to little or no action. A meeting is usually just talking whilst only action can really produce results.
‘Slaying the meeting holy cow’ does not mean we stop having meetings. We simply change the way we do them so that they become effective. By having shorter, very concise meetings, that are actionable, measurable, and results driven we have ‘slayed the meeting holy cow’.
Next steps
Productivity is producing results that continuously move you forward on the journey towards attaining your vision. Be busy with the 20% of activity that produces the real and tangible results that you want for your business. Be willing to ‘slay the holy cows’ that take up time unnecessarily and that do not produce the desired results.