Strategies Releases Top 5 Tips on How Leaders Can Manage Their Time Like Money
(PRWEB) July 02, 2013 -- “Manage time like money”, says Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies, a leading business coaching and education company. “Think of all the stuff you need to accomplish as if they are line items on a Profit and Loss Statement. Income is your time. Now, what would you do differently?”
“We only have so much time and always wish we had more”, continues Ducoff. “If we are frugal with it, we can maximize our time, invest it wisely, and be incredibly productive. We can squander our time by being disorganized, lazy, and a master of procrastination. Lastly, we can allow our time to be stolen by others simply because we let them. Like money, time will disappear if you don’t pay attention and budget it like the precious resource it is.”
Here are Strategies top five tips on how owners can manage their time like money:
ATTITUDE AND TIME: Leaders must change their attitudes in order to manage time like money. This means how they perceive themselves and their ability to accomplish great things. Anyone can check tasks off of a task list, but truly great leaders believe in their ability to accomplish great things. If leaders believe that they are capable of doing great things, they need to budget time to achieve them.
VISION AND TIME: Vision is projected income. It’s the goal. It’s what leaders channel all of their resources toward achieving. It’s the direction in which they lead their companies. It’s at the top of the scoreboard. If leadership doesn’t have a vision – they don’t have a destination.
COGS AND TIME: “Cost of Goods Sold” is where leaders should budget the largest chunks of time to achieve their vision. COGS represent the most important work that needs to be done. It’s the high value work that must be done without compromise. It may be spending thirty to forty percent of their time interacting, relating, and communicating with staff, or just taking the time to show appreciation for the individuals working for the company. Leadership’s COGS represent the time they invest in making the vision a reality.
GROSS PROFIT MARGIN AND TIME: Controlling Gross Profit Margin is essential to financial success. It represents how much money is left to cover General and Administrative (G&A) expenses – and Net Profit. G&A expenses are largely fixed expenses and will occur no matter what. If Gross Profit Margin is too low, there won’t be enough money to create Net Profit. If leadership doesn’t manage the time they invest in their COGS, they won’t have a life.
G&A AND TIME: G&A time is the budget for all the stuff that needs to get done no matter what. Just like the rent that needs to be paid, leaders have to budget time for managing your finances, dealing with vendors, meetings, performance reviews, and the general work of leadership. If this time isn’t budgeted, the general work won’t get done … and that will compromise the business and the leader’s life.
NET PROFIT AND TIME: Leaders always talk about balancing work and personal time. Just like Net Profit is a planned outcome, so is personal time. Personal time is the Return on Investment for the time put into work and leading the company. Leadership will never achieve the gift of free time if they don’t take a no-compromise approach to managing time.
Want more leadership tips on how to grow your business? Sign up here to receive updates from Neil Ducoff and Strategies in his weekly leadership email series, the Monday Morning Wake-Up.
About Strategies:
Neil Ducoff is the Founder and CEO of Strategies, a business management coaching, consulting and training firm. He is also is the author of the award-winning "No-Compromise Leadership" leadership book , as well as "Wake Up!" and the recently published second edition of "Fast Forward". To learn more at http://www.strategies.com/business.
Eric Ducoff, Strategies, http://www.strategies.com, 860-767-2064 204, [email protected]
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