The Power of Productivity
The Power of Productivity
OF
PRODUCTIVITY
T H E R I G H T H I R E . R I G H T N O W. belaysolutions.com
What does it actually mean to be productive?
Todayʼs work environment has shifted over the past few years and, for many, returning to ‘how things have always
been doneʼ feels irrelevant. Now, more than ever, productivity is measured by results, however and wherever the
work takes place.
Productivity can soar for a hybrid workforce—the key is to learn how to equip your team and leverage their
productivity to maximize results while maintaining momentum to reach organizational goals.
PRODUCTIVITY REDEFINED
Productivity is how employees—whether in-office, remote or hybrid—are assessed as to their efficiency in the
performance of their jobs.
How you choose to measure this will depend upon the job requirements and industry but generally, itʼs based on
the output of the employee within a specified period of time. Often, an employeeʼs productivity is evaluated based
on a related average of employees performing similar work.
Simply, productivity increases the overall efficiency of an organization. Typically, this reflects that all resources
are being leveraged for optimum performance levels. In business, increases in product output will result in lower
overhead and, in turn, provide a higher profit. Conversely, when productivity is overlooked, the result is often higher
costs for production and reduced profits.
Focusing on productivity—rather than solely profits and revenues—often results in a more successful company.
The gravity of this should never be ignored. While the main goal of a successful business is profitability,
productivity extends beyond that. If tasks are completed as efficiently as possible, payroll will decrease, employee
morale will increase, and customers will recognize—and appreciate—that your company is well-structured.
So, how and where do you, as a business leader, establish productivity within your company?
W H AT Y O U R D E S K S AY S A B O U T Y O U R S TAT E O F M I N D
As successful leaders, you want to feel like you have everything together—and know what your personal and
professional goals are while leveraging to-do lists, project management software, and other organizational tools.
But, how many of you organize your desks, cars, and offices similarly to your task lists? Dave Ramsey once
Having read that—and nervously assessed your desk as you did—what message do you think your desk conveys?
Every day youʼre inundated by incoming projects and tasks. If youʼre not good at delegating and organizing, it can
become overwhelming—and you may lose control of your workspace.
Simply, your desk represents your state of mind. Maybe you’re running to tasks and projects reactively, instead of
being intentional and proactive about effective processes and long-term project goals. Granted, there are certain
things you likely need (and want) at your desk: a computer, headphones, pen and paper, etc.
If your workspace is feeling cluttered and contributing to the chaos surrounding your
productivity levels, itʼs time for a clean sweep. We suggest:
Use a whiteboard
Leave only essential items out
H O W Y O U ’ R E W A S T I N G 70- P E R C E N T O F Y O U R W O R K D AY E N E R G Y
Whether you lead a team of high performers or youʼre the high-performer in question, thereʼs a good chance youʼre
spending too much time on tasks that could easily be delegated.
Thatʼs what venture capitalist and former CEO of three companies, Bill Trenchard, shared with Inc. magazine in
this article. His time spent with dozens of CEOs showed that a full 70 percent of their time was spent on what he
called, ʻsub-optimalʼ activities.
However, he did find a few superstar time managers among his coaching clients and found that those leaders did
the same things consistently. We’ve experienced these same techniques getting used in combination with the
services of a virtual executive assistant—to completely alter how business leaders spend their days and set their
organizations on a path toward increased productivity and results.
E M A I L M A N A G E M E N T S T R AT E G Y
Leaders who optimize their workdays have a strategy for managing their email. Hint: Itʼs not
monitoring an inbox all day, every day. Effective leaders check their inboxes two to four times
a day, and leaders who’ve handed off their email management to an assistant report that it
revolutionized their workdays.
P L AY B O O K S
Leaders shouldnʼt spend their time writing step-by-step instructional manuals. If thereʼs an
activity you find yourself doing more than three times and itʼs not something that only you can
do, such as strategic planning, business development, and similar—then someone else should
take on this responsibility Dedicate time to documenting how you accomplish these tasks and
hand that document—along with the responsibility for results—to someone else.
W H AT, E X A C T LY, I S K E E P I N G Y O U F R O M B E I N G P R O D U C T I V E ?
Multitasking requires the ability to focus on the execution of multiple things at once—and the human brain is
simply not wired to do that. Consider the cognitive science findings of David Meyer, Director of the Brain,
Cognition & Action Library at the University of Michigan:
“You canʼt do two cognitively complicated tasks at “Too much access to the cerebral grid shuts down
once.” critical thinking.”
“Multitasking is...very often highly inefficient and “The conflicts triggered by incessant multitasking
could be dangerous to your health.” can set off chronic stress and slow you down.”
“Even the most adept multi-tasker will crash and “If you’re disciplined enough, you can map out the
burn trying to resolve simultaneous conflicting usage of your time in a way that minimizes your
demands.” exposure to interruptions.”
It’s easy to lose yourself and your daily momentum with distractions. So, place them on your Zero-Tolerance List.
Now that youʼve listed what you should stop doing, letʼs move to how you can start accomplishing more.
Executives, team leaders, and individual contributors of any company can benefit from these practices.
If you want a simple solution to complete tasks in a relatively short period of time, follow these five steps:
3 Start early.
Have you ever taken a long car trip for a vacation and left really early in the morning? Those first few hours
on the road fly by because youʼve stepped outside your norm. The same idea applies to work.
5 Donʼt quit until youʼre done, even if finishing takes longer than expected.
Stopping short is habit-forming. There’s a significant difference between a starter and an executor.
At BELAY, we work with organizations of all sizes across the U.S. and Canada and see countless business leaders
who could benefit from more productive time management skills. Over the years, we have noticed interesting
habits that waste time and kill productivity.
1 Invest the extra time upfront to teach someone else how to help you.
Set aside 30 minutes to train an assistant on how to do something you do in 15 minutes every week. Itʼs
worth it in the long run.
4 Embrace technology.
Look for ways to automate your systems. Save contacts, documents, notes, and any other key information
electronically—so itʼs easy to find. Set recurring appointments, use document management systems and
electronic task lists.
Protecting your time is not rocket science. Itʼs about the willingness to let others help you.
It’s about trusting someone to come alongside you and help protect your time as a leader. It could ultimately be the
best decision you make for you and your organization.
D E L E G AT I O N V S . D I Y : W H I C H I S R I G H T F O R Y O U ?
At some point, when a high-performing employee is excelling, they come to a place where productivity reaches the
intersection of ʻDo It Myselfʼ and ʻDone For Me.ʼ
The former protects your money, the latter protects your time. So, what will you protect?
Many high-capacity go-getters can task away without needing assistance. They blow through tasks and think it
would take them longer to teach an assistant than just to do it themselves. Sound familiar?
The fallacy in this notion is that when you sum up the amount of time the task(s) take up over an extended period,
Hiring an assistant to execute tasks and get a job done is not a luxury. It is just plain smart. Chances are, they can
do the job better than you, quicker than you, and more productively. Your pride—not your budget—prevents you
from delegating so you can focus on leading well.
To put it in the clearest perspective, money is fluid; it comes and goes. But your time? Time is finite. Protect it at all
costs. You can either use it wisely or waste it. The decision is yours.
You’ve cleared your desk, learned new ways to save time, and discovered great resources to help you delegate. The
thing is, tools can help you be more productive with your teams, too.
5 E S S E N T I A L C O L L A B O R AT I O N T O O L S
Research has shown that virtual teams are just as, if not more, productive than their in-office counterparts.
And thatʼs a good thing because todayʼs work environment is substantially different than it was just a year ago—
and, for many, it shows no signs of returning to ʻhow things have always been done.ʼ
So, whether your staff works from home or in a brick-and-mortar office—or both—now, more than ever, the tools
with which we equip our teams to maximize their collaboration prove paramount.
Google Documents
Thereʼs a wide variety of document collaboration tools out there, but Google Docs remains the gold
standard. Itʼs a streamlined, no-nonsense platform that allows team members to collaborate on
a document from anywhere. Docs also provides ample cloud space in Google Drive to share and
exchange files. Arguably the best feature? Itʼs free.
Slack
Slack claims to be ʻ … a collaboration hub that connects your organization—all the pieces and the
people—so you can get things done.ʼ And weʼre here to corroborate those claims.
With Slack, you can collaborate online—just as you would in person—by bringing the right people
and information together in a one-stop shop to communicate efficiently, stay connected, and get
things done—faster. Fast, efficient. and communicative? Thatʼs (productivity) music to our ears.
Teams can add tasks, assign them to colleagues, set due dates, comment, and share relevant
documents while notifications on the status of each task—and their approaching deadlines—
are sent to your inbox. Best of all? Itʼs customizable. Want to work in a way that is driven by
conversations? Asana can do that. Prefer to work in a way thatʼs driven by tasks? Asanaʼs got you
covered, too, so every team has the opportunity to collaborate and stay on track in a way that is
most productive for them.
Grasshopper
Grasshopper is a phone service, designed to work on top of your existing landline or mobile
service. Like many virtual phone systems, Grasshopper offers a mobile app that allows you to
make and receive calls from your business number—even when using your personal mobile
devices.
There are literally hundreds of websites, platforms, and applications designed to help virtual teams connect and
collaborate. We couldnʼt possibly list them all, but these five are a great place to start.
We would be remiss, however, if we didnʼt point out how all of these changes weʼre proposing might impact your
culture. So, how exactly do you delegate and be more productive without messing up the status quo in your office?
However, we want to help alleviate your concerns by offering tips for how to navigate an evolving team.
Whether you lead an in-office, remote, or hybrid team, benefits such as in-house daycare, paid maternity/paternity
leave, flex-time, remote opportunities, and hired contractors are a growing trend. Gone are the days when an
employee clocked in at 9 a.m. and clocked out at 5 p.m. The corporate culture is shifting and evolving.
According to a ConnectSolutions Study, “Seventy-seven percent of remote workers get more done in fewer hours
thanks to fewer distractions like meetings, conversations, and noisy coworkers.”
It allows employees to work at the times they are most productive and in an environment in which they are most
comfortable. Individual or team check-ins can be done with the latest video, phone or messaging technology and
apps. Given the chance to meet the needs of their life outside of the office, most employees become even more
invested in the company that places such value on their personal needs. This is, however, contingent upon the
individual, their personal discipline, and the policies stipulated by the employer.
Additionally, it cuts expenses for the employer who has a dispersed workforce. People working remotely donʼt
require employers to pay for office space, equipment, heating/cooling, electricity, and certain types of insurance.
According to Global Workplace Analytics, “… employers can actually save over $11,000 per half-time telecommuter
per year, which is a lot of money when you think about all 3.7 million employees who currently work from home
at least half the time.” Sick and personal time off decreases as well. These studies seem to show that while the
productivity argument can be manipulated, the decrease in overall expenses to the employer is without dispute. By
giving employees the freedom to work remotely, productivity increases, expenses decrease and you’ll have a much
healthier team to work with.
Businesses recognize the benefits in offering remote opportunities and hybrid models may be the new way
forward. This is simply just an idea to consider as you start to evaluate the power of productivity within the
organizations you lead.
A New Reality
As you grow in numbers, the plans for scaling your workforce start by thinking of what you want your culture to be
in five years.
Be careful to not get stuck in the past with how you approach your employees and their needs. Stay on top of
new trends in business models, technology, and employee benefits. Do your best to invite employees into the
conversation and you will be rewarded with reminders of why you hired these amazing people to begin with.
A team that works and plays well together is your most profitable asset.
Many of our clients come to us because their businesses have outgrown their available time.
These leaders find themselves buried under the details that come with a successful venture and are in danger of
drowning in those responsibilities.
If you ever catch yourself wondering, “Why am I doing this task?” a BELAY Virtual Assistant can
tackle it.
Keeping the books and preventing blunders are a financial equalizer among all organizations. Itʼs just par for the
course of doing business. A Virtual Accounting Professional can help keep you in the driverʼs seat of your business
while they tackle the daily crunching of numbers.
Provide Reporting
You can’t grow without the right information. Your Marketing Assistant will identify which
metrics are most important for your specific marketing goals and track your progress through
targeted reports. Whether it’s social media/email campaigns or webinar registrations, they will
provide integral data and analysis so that you can make better-informed marketing decisions.
We get it—you canʼt just take our word for it. We need to put our money—and messaging—where our mouth is. Take
a minute to read these successful stories from BELAY clients.
When you’re finished, we’ll be ready and eager to match you with a BELAY Virtual Assistant, Virtual Accounting
Professional, or Marketing Assistant of your very own.
Nick Knapp
The Challenge
Since 1994, Knapp Business Solutions, Inc., has been a family-owned firm.
Nick Knapp trusted his co-workers fully—as in keys-to-his-house kind of trust.
Then again, it helps that they were family.
When the business continued to grow, as did the number of tasks and unread
email threads in his inbox. As a husband and father of a one-year-old, Nick was
continually faced with missing bedtime, something he cherished. He knew a
change was necessary.
Nick attended the EntreLeadership Master Series and went to BELAYʼs
breakfast session with Chris Hogan on delegation. However, delegation wasnʼt
his problem. As he worked through his tasks, and those he delegated to his
team, he realized that all of their plates were full, too. He was the lid on his own
business.
It was time to find help—but, how could he find someone he could trust like
family? Thatʼs where we came in.
B E L AY S O L U T I O N S . C O M
T H E R I G H T H I R E . R I G H T N O W. belaysolutions.com