Why according to a recent survey in America are seven out of ten of the most productive people women?
A research paper published in the BMC psychology journal confirmed that women outperform men when multi-tasking in a majority of cases. So as we get busier and bombarded with more information the ability to do certain tasks simultaneously becomes significantly more important. The other key characteristic that was identified during the survey was that women get less distracted especially when they are working and can actually remain focused on a task for longer than the average man. Obviously therefore, this often results in women getting the job done more quickly. During the Covid crisis with more people working from home another article in The Times suggested that women executives have coped far better than men because they adapt to the changed environment more quickly and don’t lose focus with other home based distractions.
Let's consider some of the great personal productivity traits of Warren Buffett one of the world’s richest men and the most successful investor of all time. He has the ability to process significant volumes of information quickly and has a highly analytical brain. Although, a great deal of his investment skills come from his disciplined thinking and not allowing himself to become distracted. If a business fails his first test then he does not rely on a second digit of computation, it is this razor sharp focus that dictates his decision-making.
One of his other great habits is that no meeting enters the diary unless it has a clear added value to current priorities. He often keeps his schedule completely free. The onus is on his team to fully justify the “added value” of him being distracted by a meeting. He has a phenomenal ability to just say no to things. He understands how he delivers his best results, knows what he likes to do and what he does is achieved to an unbelievably high standard. He will sit in his office and read and think without distraction. In his personal life he knows a certain set of people and is comfortable with this tight group of friends and family again avoiding distractions just focusing on the people that are important to him.
His desire for routine flows into his investment habits. He sticks to companies he is comfortable with and does very little investment outside the United States. There are very few companies that he has decided are great long-term investments. Some argue that his investment style at times can be more philosophical than optimisation driven but he gets it right more times than anybody else so how can you argue. His attitude towards his children is fascinating he does not believe that passing on huge wealth to your children is in society’s best interests. Buffett wants to leave his children enough money to do anything but not enough to do nothing.
Several of you may have heard of Beth Ford who first came to my attention in 2018. She is the CEO and President of a Fortune 500 agricultural company called Land O’Lakes she is one of only 25 women running a Fortune 500 company. Not only that, but in this world of diversity and equality she is also the first openly gay woman and only the second openly gay business person to become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company; the only other is Apple’s, Tim Cook. She started her career at Mobil Oil and now also sits on several different boards.
So what are her tips for multi-tasking and improving personal productivity?
She has a list of priorities that are aligned to her core purpose and roles that she reviews and refreshes every evening then again everyday when she gets to the office. The first 30 minutes are allocated to writing down clearly the top three things that need absolute focus for the day. This creates a discipline, structure and an anchor point so that the distractions, inbox and telephone calls cannot deflect her attention and take her off course for the day.
She works through emails, social media and text quickly because one of her goals is always to review what comes in and separate those that she can answer immediately. Her team are coached to understand her productivity style an example of this is that she tells them not to write her a novel because she will not read it understanding that time is too valuable an asset. The team know to write in the subject line what the email is about and to tell her upfront if a decision is needed now or does she need to look at something or is it useful background information for when she has time to read. This enables her to prioritise effectively and be responsive when needed to be. Like my old boss, John Caudwell, who stated that the only limit to his personal wealth was the quality of the people he employed. Both argue that the best tool for personal productivity is recruiting and developing the best talent or in the words of Mark Fritz, ‘If you don’t have a who then there is only you’.
Here at Uspire Network we constantly try to stimulate our Members thinking and to deliver great speakers like David Thomas who can improve our effectiveness and then the effectiveness of our teams. In the forthcoming ‘Think Tank’ we will reflect on our learnings and applications from the David Thomas session but also delve more deeply into ways of creating more time.
During my period of studying entrepreneurs one of the key characteristics was their unrivalled ability to get more things done than the average person.
Here at Uspire Network those learnings prompted the development of the “25 Hour day” principal.
Big Picture
This needs to encompass your ‘balance of life wheel’ consider your financial goals for the next 5-10 years; think about your health and wellbeing objectives. Then reflect on our ‘spirit’ encompassing your values and the things that give you emotional energy and build your self-esteem. What are your personal goals, the things that you want to do with the family or targets for yourself. Finally, what are the business goals, those objectives that need to be achieved because they define the strategic position for the future?
Everything begins at this ‘Big Picture’, it sets the rhythm of your life, it defines your roles and goals and without this being well developed your day-to-day activity can have reduced overall purpose. However, when that purpose is aligned with your activity then you enjoy the greatest sense of passion, motivation and commitment, which can only come from the feeling of taking action and living what’s most important to you everyday.
Goals
Once you understand the ‘Big Picture’ then identify the key goals or statements of intent that enable you to visualise this objective and break them down into manageable tasks. Several techniques and processes exist within the Uspire Network productivity tools that can guide you to do this better and within your own personal productivity style.
We have all heard about how goals should be SMART but at Uspire Network we now recommend and adopt the 3 dimensions SMART – PURE – CLEAR methodology
Systems
How you mange your time and allocate your goals is fundamental to personal productivity this is where time is lost or gained. In the ‘Think Tank’ we will explore a range of other tools and techniques that can match your productivity style. Mixing up your time management techniques can often boost your effectiveness.
Delegation
It is very transparent and easy to measure that those leaders who can delegate to high calibre people and can be ‘nose in’ but ‘fingers out‘ achieve more than others. However, effective delegation cascades from not only your ability to recruit and train the right people but also to create the 3 dimensional objectives and draft detailed and easy to understand project charters. The quality of these charters can make the difference between an average result from your direct reports or an exceptional one.
Energise
The energy that drives your productivity is not endless so within our Uspire productivity toolkit we also talk about gaining a deeper understanding of your ‘BEAD’ which is your biological energy attention and drive this fluctuates during a day and week. Having greater awareness of your personal ‘BEAD’ enables you to allocate task and activities more effectively.
Knowing when to take breaks, how to find your work life balance along with learning to celebrate success are all fundamental ways of energising your BEAD.
Three Monkeys
Great leadership involves equilibrium of both resources and method. Optimising these efforts by splitting your time with your people around the three principles of observing, listening and speaking creates better leadership and embraces humility.
What is it like when your boss spends 90% of their time telling you what to do? What is it like when your boss spends 90% of their time watching what you are doing? What is it like when your boss spends 90% of their time listening to what you say providing very little advice or guidance?
Great leadership finds the balance for each individual but the principle of a third listening, a third speaking (giving feedback) and third observing (catching you doing things right or coaching when needed) never goes far wrong. When looking at how you are using your time what is your ratio like?
Review
We never get better without learning and continuously applying the right mind-set. You should adopt a personal productivity-auditing tool that enables you to benchmark your effectiveness against some key principles. These findings will help you adapt and make interventions that ultimately enhance your performance.
When reflecting on the highly focussed and undistracted Warren Buffett, the disciplined and organised Beth Ford and the long list of successful entrepreneurs several characteristics spring to mind that again draw references from the Uspire Network 25 hour day:-
- They all understand the big picture and their own sense of purpose and definition of balance.
- The goals they set for themselves and the team are challenging because they know these require focus and are less distracting.
- Adopt a structured approach, they set a consistent and reliable pace to their activity, it’s not about being busy more about being effective.
- They only tackle things they understand and when that is not possible they learn quickly but also seek out expertise that can help.
- Always focused on the outcome, they understand that it is the result that counts. With a competitive nature completing bite size tasks feeds the sense of achievement and drives them forward at pace.
- Visualise success and anticipate the obstacles. Creative thinking and problem solving enables them to overcome problems quickly by mentally rehearsing the solutions this helps prevent the impact of an unexpected event.
- No matter how challenging or tedious they always ‘eat the frog’. Putting difficult or boring things off is not in the mind-set in fact they use their most productive BEAD to tackle these and get started.
- Whilst personal productivity is about the individual many challenges need a team or require delegating in a supportive style. They always recognise that a collaborative approach is often the most effective response.
To achieve the 25 hour day requires discipline and repetition this ultimately embeds the principles of excellent time management.
Great leaders know how to do the right things, to the highest standard on a daily basis and know using a structured approach gives them no limit to their personal success.
They constantly ask the question what’s the most important action to take right now with the resources I have accessible that can enable us to deliver the objective. It is also the realisation that to do less is acceptable especially if you are doing more of the stuff that really matters to your big picture.
Being constantly busy is not a ‘badge of honour’ it can be a signal of poor planning or resource management. When you adopt the ’25 hour day’ methodology you focus on what’s important and you are not busy but in control.
Colin Wright is the Chair of the Uspire Network. To find out more how The Network can help you become the best leader you can be contact Colin for a confidential chat.
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