by Kristen Digionia
When you are a busy professional running your own business, it can often feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish everything. Being strategic with your time is the best (and possibly the only) way to achieve all of your daily tasks. If you are struggling with time management, then coaching by a business coach in Atlanta, GA, will help you take control of your work life. Follow these ten tips to reap the benefits of time management for yourself and your business.
Be Well Rested
The first tip for effective time management is to start your day well-rested. To function at a high level, you need to take care of your body by de-stressing and getting the recommended amount of sleep. You should also take short breaks throughout the day to keep your mind sharp.
Create a Distraction-Free Workzone
Optimize your workspace to ensure you are ready to focus when you start working. Clear out any clutter or distractions, then organize your desk. Avoid loud noises or stress that prevents you from concentrating intensely.
Understand Your Productivity Levels
Everyone’s energy levels are different depending on the time of day. Take inventory of your productivity levels throughout the workday. Then schedule your tasks around those times, ensuring that tasks that require a lot of energy are planned in your peak productive hours.
Avoid Multitasking in Favor of Deep Focus
Try to work in organized blocks of time rather than jumping around between jobs. It takes time to refocus and readjust to new activities, so deeply focusing on a single task often saves time over multitasking.
Plan Your Time Management Ahead
Having a weekly schedule is essential when you run a business. Planning your week gives you a broader perspective of work goals and multi-day tasks. Investing in time management coaching can help you organize big-picture goals into smaller attainable tasks.
Organize Your Daily Tasks
Planning your day should be a priority in your time management strategy. Making a to-do list the night before can save you so much time in the morning. You can be ready with a list of top urgent tasks first thing in the morning.
Prioritize Based on Urgency or Importance
Have a list of your most urgent and vital priorities and continue to scale down into unimportant and not urgent tasks. Time management coaches can help you prioritize these items and plan accordingly.
Have Measurable Time Management Goals
You should have long-term and short-term goals that your company is aiming to achieve. If you are having trouble setting or achieving your business goals, time management coaching will help you strategize.
Delegate to Others Appropriately
When organizing your tasks, take note of the jobs that only you can do. Then delegate the remaining tasks appropriately to the members of your team that can handle them best.
Automate Processes Where Possible
Try to find technology that will automate simple routine tasks to save time. Using helpful software can save you and your team time and energy.
Effective time management can seem like a faraway dream when you’re in the thick of a busy business. Working with time management coaches may be the boost you need to get the right strategy in place. Consider working with a business coach in Atlanta, Ga, to help you achieve the best time management strategy for your business.
by Kristen Digionia
So often, people view leadership as a talent: you’re either born with this quality or you’re not. However, this is not always the case! In reality, good leadership is made up of skills, and anyone can learn how to improve. Some people may pick up leadership attributes quicker than others, but you don’t have to worry if you are struggling to find the right leadership style or skills, as they can be learned. Consider leadership coaching in Atlanta if you’re in the area so you can learn and develop the skills you need to thrive.
Strategic leadership is a particularly effective leadership style known to be highly effective in businesses. If you are running a business, learning and practicing this kind of leadership will lead to more success for your team and the company as a whole. In this article, we’ll cover the definition of strategic leadership and the basic skills needed to practice it so that you can run your business effectively.
What Is Strategic Leadership?
There are a few different types of leadership styles out there, such as democratic, autocratic, and servant. These styles tend to dip the scale when it comes to big-picture leadership versus day-to-day objectives.
Strategic leadership is all about successfully balancing the company vision, valuing the team, and making clear decisions. This type of leadership is all about a leader’s ability to present and manage the company’s overall vision successfully so that it inspires other team members to initiate and carry out day-to-day responsibilities supporting that goal.
This leadership style should present open and transparent decisions concerning company objectives, as well as incite all employees to play a part in daily goals supporting the long-term success of the business.
Have a Clear, Actionable Vision
To be a good leader and run a successful business, you must have a clear vision for your company’s future. To enact this vision, however, you should work on strategizing and organization skills. That’s because in order to execute your vision, you will need to create actionable steps to get there. Having KPIs to track your company’s vision and growth helps you understand the right direction to take. If you’re having trouble developing your wealth management strategies, consider working with a business coach in Atlanta to help you overcome any challenges you may be facing.
Break Down Your Objectives
A big-picture goal can seem out of reach to employees whose jobs revolve around completing daily goals. Though wealth management strategies are important to leadership members, it is not relevant to everyone within the organization.
To make your vision relevant and attainable, try to break down your company vision objectives into small steps. This way, all team members can see clearly what their work is doing to support the company vision, and another plus is more clarity around expected tasks.
Encourage Collaboration Leadership
Putting together a stellar team that supports, trusts, and communicates with each other is important. Effective leadership should encourage collaboration and initiative at every level of the organization. By doing this, you receive valuable feedback and information for minor improvements that could prove to be important to the running of the business long-term.
Encouraging collaboration will also lead to more employee engagement with the success of the company. Try to implement an open communication policy within your organization, and be sure to celebrate achievements and appropriate employee initiatives. If you’re looking for leadership coaching in Atlanta, you can receive help putting systems and strategies in place that will streamline communication issues. It’s always helpful to review some leadership practices with an expert before you implement them yourself in your business.
Plan for All Scenarios
Business leaders can not predict the future all the time, though they should prepare and explore situations and decisions thoroughly. Leaders should be intuitive and practice anticipating positive opportunities and negative outcomes alike. By looking out for changes and trends in the business’s orbit, a leader will lead the company to growth rather than a crisis. To start practicing this skill, do research on competitors and the market, conduct regular team brainstorming meetings, and prepare for the unexpected with strategic plans in place.
Be in a State of Constant Improvement
Just like you should plan for all unanticipated external scenarios, you should always be looking for ways to improve your business. Avoid the pitfall of complacency and challenge yourself and your team to think outside of the box. This mindset will enable you to keep an open mind as you solve problems and adapt to an ever-changing world.
It’s important to surround yourself with team members who will present opposing views to your own. Even more important is to listen and explore these differing views to get a better understanding of a particular issue or idea. Practice this skill in your business by running meetings where people feel comfortable sharing ideas and holding respectful debates.
Stick to Your Decisions
Your role as a leader is to make informed decisions. All team members may not agree with you and have different opinions on the subject, but it is your responsibility to make decisions openly and transparently. Confidence and clarity are key here, as team members need to understand your decision-making process and respect the outcome.
To gain executive decision-making skills, try to implement a process where you inspect multiple sources of information and opinions and take into account the business’s long and short-term goals. When you run a business, sometimes you will have to make tough decisions.
However, once you start practicing this skill, the quicker and stronger your calls will be. A strategic leadership style could be what your business needs to grow in your community and succeed. Try out leadership coaching in Atlanta to work on any of the skills mentioned in this article. The benefits of strategic leadership strive to create balance within an organization, so this management style should work for most businesses. Get in touch with a business coach from Atlanta for more information. We’re here to help.
