Have you fallen into the ‘Activity Trap’ with a To DO list to match ? It’s a term taken from one of the most influential management books ever written.
It was the famous management guru Peter Drucker that gave us the well know term ‘ The Activity Trap’ back in 1954 in his book The Practice of Management. It’s that place where you are constantly busy. As the founder of your ‘busyness’ you are trying to do everything, feel that you have to step in to help your staff and feel that only you can do it as that’s how to get things done properly? You are constantly telling yourself, and others, how busy you are, how you have no time for a holiday or take a half day out for some useful training or planning.
Despite all this activity you are frustrated because you are not seeing the financial rewards of all this time you are spending at work. You can’t see an end in sight and you feel that nothing will change as you are just too busy to change things. Things may have been like this for years and you have become used to it so you have learnt to accept that things will never change.
If you were to read Drucker’s book today you might realise how ahead of his time he was. In fact, it has been said that much f what he said in 1954 can be seen in the worlds top companies today. He talked about ‘a community built on trust and respect for the workers, not just a profit machine’. He aimed to create ‘a principle of management that will give full scope to individual strength and responsibility and at the same time give common direction of vision and effort establish teamwork and harmonise teamwork and goals of the individual with the common wealth’. In other words, if people feel part of something meaningful then they will more likely have a vested interest in making sure it survives. Your role as a Manager is to set clear objectives, take risks, measure performance, create a team and ensure a good fit of the business with the marketplace and environment. It’s not to be busy trying to do everything yourself.
The key message here is that if you make the business all about you then you may never evolve past being the ‘job owner’ and you will never graduate to being the business owner. As a Coach I am fortunate to work with people that have become aware of this and are taking action to change it. In a nutshell it’s all about building a team and system that can operate independently of the owner. Even if you decide to work in the business the key point is that you have the choice. If you decide to spend two months away in the summer then the business will still be there when you get back.
The other interesting point is that if the business is dependant on you then it actually reduces the value of the business in any potential sale at exit. If you want to prove it then I’ll send you a link to a great online tool that tells you the current and future value of your business.
It’s all to easy to think that things have never been so complex, no one understands what its like to run a business today and that you have to keep soldiering on until retirement. It’s also worth noting that 1400 business go bust every day and only 4% of companies exceed a £1 million turnover. Perhaps there’s a link between the two points.
If you want to change the situation, get more profit, win back more time and build your business as an asset with a clear strategy and an engaged team then get in touch and we’ll arrange for you to reserve one of my business review sessions. During that 90 minutes we will discuss what you really want from your business, who you need to be and how to start creating a compelling future that excites you.
Maybe it’s time to try something different
You can contact me via the Contact Us page or simply email me at richardperry@actioncoach.com or call 01582 935121
