I had a great question come up from the post I used in my newsletter last week:  Who Needs Sleep?  8 Things to Watch Out For.  The question was in reference to point #3 – Constantly fighting fires (living in Quadrant 1) and brought up an issue that I think almost everyone can relate to.  The stuff in Quadrant 1 is IMPORTANT and urgent, so you can’t blow it off without serious impacts, so when things are crazy, how can you find the time to work in Quadrant 2?

Jason did a better job than I did with the question – here’s the actual text:

“In the small business environment where there is only one employee, the owner, what practical ways can we focus on quadrant II and yet keep quadrant I from failing?  I’m sure it’s about balance, but that’s easier said than done.”

So if you’re spending all of your time herding cats and you don’t have  a lot of help, how do you make things better?

As with most things, the answer to this sounds simple (but it’s not), the first step in solving the problem is admitting you have one.  If you don’t recognize that you’re consistently in Quadrant I, then it’s unlikely that you’ll be in a position to make any progress on getting those cats into their place!

Let’s take a quick look at the quadrant 1 again – Q1 is stuff that’s urgent and important…usually it’s a situation where you are reacting to something (a client is upset…or has something they need right away).  Sometimes Q1 stuff is driven by others, but often it’s self-inflicted a result of poor planning, time management issues or just trying to do too much.

The problem with Q1 is that it’s completely tactical, reactive and exhausting.

How do I find time for Q2?

So once you’re into a crazy situation, how do possibly find the time to get out in front of it and start planning?

You have a couple of choices:  The first one is to hold firm, bite the bullet and just block out time on next week’s calendar and make that time sacred with no interruptions.  The other option is to work a little bit harder or longer – set aside some time on the weekend or a planning block of time some evening.

Once you’ve got some quality uninterrupted time, then you need to identify the top 3 or 4 recurring crises that you face.  The kind of thing that happens every month, or maybe an activity that happens with every client.  As an example, I have a client who just got slammed every month when it came time to do monthly invoicing and accounting.  They never allocated time for it and it ended up taking almost 8 hours to get everything accounted for and sent out – which impacted other activities and generally caused a lot of problems.

Once you identify some good candidates of things that take a lot of time, pick one of them and figure out how you could streamline, automate or delegate that activity.  In the example of monthly invoicing, the answer was a combination of upgrading Quickbooks for better automation and training the part time office admin (also known as ‘Mom’) to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

Granted that only saved 5 to 6 hours a month (the owner still had to do some things), but if you can find 4 or 5 examples like that, all of the sudden you’re saving 20 to 30 hours a month and you’ve got a lot more time to play with!

What’s an activity that you do on a regular basis that takes way too much of your time (maybe something you don’t like doing)?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to get out in front of the cat herding…share your thoughts in the comments below!

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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Habit number seven from Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly effective people is “Sharpen the Saw”.  He uses a story of a woodcutter who is struggling after several days of sawing wood – he’s lost effectiveness because his saw is no longer sharp.  From Covey’s perspective, there are different aspects to this – physical, mental, spiritual and social.  If you want to remain at peak effectiveness, you need to sharpen up in all of those areas.

I’m fortunate to be part of a great group called the Professional Business Coaches Alliance (www.pbca.biz ).  It’s a group of business coaches from all over North America who all have their own companies but share common values and approaches to helping business owners succeed.

Our annual meeting was this past weekend in New Orleans and I reflected on the flight home how this was a really well timed chance for me to ‘Sharpen the Saw’ across a lot of different areas.  We spent a lot of time learning and discussing new ideas, best practices and how to be more successful in our businesses (and how to make our clients more successful).  We also spent time connecting and reconnecting with colleagues who share a lot of common ground (and I had some great meals in New Orleans!).

When was the last time you sharpened your saw in a meaningful way?

Most business owners are continually caught up in a firestorm – they’re really trying to be a Hero for their business (and it’s killing them).  There’s always a lot of urgent things to do, but if you don’t make time to step back, you will drive yourself into the ground.

Ideas for Sharpening the Saw

1. Clear out 1/2 day to think every month

As the owner of your business, you are the ONLY person who can really see the big picture and do anything about it…however if you never make the time and let yourself dream, then you’re going to be stuck on a downward spiral.  Find a quiet place and challenge yourself to come up with ways to improve – work with someone else to collaborate and push if that would be helpful.  (maybe a coach…?)   

2.  Sign up for a quarterly learning event

It’s a safe bet that there is always new stuff for you to learn.  Find a topic that sounds interesting or would be really helpful and commit to attending.  Make the investment.

3.  Carve out gym time or walking time 3 days a week

You could kill a couple of birds with one stone on this one.  What if you set aside 45 minutes to an hour 3 days a week for a walk, either by yourself or with someone you enjoy talking to?  You could use the time to think or to increase your connections with someone else and you’ll get some needed exercise!

4.  Have lunch with a friend once a month

A lot of business owners don’t have time for lunch – they eat at their desk and do work or they use that time to meet with clients or networking partners.  In terms of productivity, that’s great, but you should be able to carve out at least one day a month for someone that you just enjoy being around. 

5.  Spend time and develop your core values…in writing

I’ve been working with a client on this recently and it’s really amazing how energized the entire team got by really diving into what made the business tick.  The clearer you are on what your core values really are, the more it will appeal to the right customers, employees and partners (and it will energize you).

What other things could you do (or are you doing) to Sharpen the Saw?  I’m sure there are a lot of other things that I’m not covering – share your thoughts below, I’d love to hear what other people are doing.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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Imagine that all of the money, influence and power in your world is a pie (apple in this case).  Now imagine hundreds…no thousands…of people in your industry, your geographic space, your niche of business all vying for their piece of that pie!  There is no way there’s enough pie to go around – if you’re going to get the pie you need it’s clear that you need to step on people, be ruthless and constantly be looking out for yourself.  You must win at all costs!

Sound overblown?  Unfortunately it’s not – it’s called a scarcity mentality and most people default to this mentality unless they actively guard against it.  Here’s Stephen Covey’s take (from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Habit #4 Think Win-Win):

Most people are deeply scripted in what I call the Scarcity Mentality….

The Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit – even with those who help in the production. The also have a a very hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people.

It’s an insidious problem because it gets worse with fear, so if you start to struggle in your business, you will shift to more of a scarcity mindset, which brings on more fear, less collaboration and ultimately makes all the problems worse! 

You start looking at all transactions as a Win-Lose proposition – you have to win and the other person has to lose (‘cause there’s only so much to go around).  However Win-Lose relationships aren’t sustainable and you’ll soon find yourself alone against the world wondering why everyone has turned on you!

Overall it’s a pretty bleak picture (especially since we started with apple pie!).

Or…you could think abundance and Win-Win!

Here’s what Covey has to say about the abundance mentality:

The Abundance Mentality, on the other hand, flow out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.

Ultimately that sounds like a whole lot more fun and it positions you for long term success, great relationships with other people and the ability to follow your passions and believe that good things can happen!

An abundance mentality is a choice – not that it’s easy to just start looking at things a new way, but if you work at it and really focus on developing only Win-Win scenarios, you can change your outlook.

What to look for?

How you can you recognize if you’re stuck in a scarcity mentality?  Here are a few things to look for:

1.  You spend more time worrying about your competition than about your customers.

2.  You’re in a networking group and extremely concerned that a new member of the group is going to overlap with what you do and take your referrals.

3.  You refuse to share ideas, resources or your connections with anyone else – regardless of whether they are sharing with you.

4.  You worry constantly about whether you’re good enough or whether you’ll have enough.

5.  You constantly look at how hard things are and why you can’t do things.

6.  You fear change, other people, pretty much anything that’s not the status quo.

Do you notice this with anyone around you?  It may be difficult at first to notice it in yourself, but I would challenge you to periodically see if you’re slipping into ‘scarcity’ mode.

What can you do about it?

As mentioned above, the first step is to be aware that you have choices and you can consciously work on having a Win-Win approach and an abundance mentality.  A couple of months ago I wrote about a great book called Mindset by Carol S. Dweck, she talks about Fixed and Growth mindsets (and how to migrate to a Growth mindset).  It’s not exactly the same thing, but it’s related and can move you forward.

Secondly, start hanging around with can-do people that have the right mentality.  If you start noticing people that are around you have the wrong approach – do the hard thing and stop hanging out with them (even if they’re friends and family)!  Relationships can be poisonous or they can be uplifting…you get to choose.

Start challenging yourself to consistently to ask “how can we make this work for both of us?” , “What can I do to help you?” and to look for the successes and positives rather than the failures..

Fear and scarcity ultimately leads to regrets, struggles and failures.  It doesn’t sound like a great way to go…so why does it seem like so many people are stuck there?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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