Do you get trapped in the ‘day to day’? Do you get bogged down in the ‘nitty gritty’? Is it stopping you moving forward? Well, you’re not alone! New research suggests that the vast majority of business leaders have the same problem!
The Working ON, Not IN report from Growth Accelerator highlights that 33% of small and medium sized business leaders say it is impossible to create time to step back and it is seen as a bigger blockage to moving forward than the economic uncertainty they face!
In fact, 63% say they spend less than 2 hours a week leading their business and working on ‘strategic’ issues! This doesn’t surprise me – so many of my clients tell me that they get trapped in the day to day doing the day to day stuff! In fact, to be honest, I do too!
‘Going For Walks’ is a fundamental characterstic of 3D leaders – it’s all about thinking and working ‘strategically’ – that means working ‘ON’ the business, not ‘IN’ it! Crucially it’s about consciously creating that time to work ‘ON’ the business!
A lot of our work involves being invited in to work with business leaders to help them think and work ‘strategically’ and that’s why many of them say that they come on our business development programmes – it ‘encourages’ them to take time out!
The good news is that The Growth Accelerator research suggests that they are doing the right thing (No, I don’t just mean coming on our programmes!) They’ve found that those that have consciously worked ‘ON’ their business and taken the time to plan say it has put them, on average, 10 months ahead of where they would have been without planning!
So, 3 questions for you…….
- Do you create suficient time to work strategically and think long term as well as short term?
- What do you need to do to make this happen?
- When are you going to do it?
Go on, you know it makes sense – get your diary out, create an appointment with yourself and get thinking ‘strategically’!
Here’s how Tim Cook, CEO of Apple does it!
The Growth Accelerator programme is a Government funded coaching programme to help ambitious business leaders grow and develop themselves and their business. We can help you with this, so If you want help on working ‘ON’ your business this or need more information about the funding available to help you do it through the Growth Accelerator scheme then contact Jill in our office and she’ll tell you how!
