Being a leader. Many times we think that having the title of leader means that you have to wait until it is bestowed upon you or that you have built up your resume and talents to be allowed to posses the title. But neither of these things is the actual way that it is supposed to work.
To give an example, in my nine to five job, after working for many years I was finally able to be promoted to supervisor. As soon as I had received the title, people came to me almost immediately asking for direction and answers. When I would look at them with a blank stare or admit that I had no idea, they would respond with, “Well you are a supervisor now, so you should know.”
The point of the story is that just because you are given a title, it does not automatically bestow you with all of the knowledge and wisdom of that position. Most of that is learned over time and sometimes, at least for some people it may never be learned. The same holds true for people who are given the title of leader. Just because they are given that title, it does not mean that they know what they are doing or that they are even a leader.
A leader is someone who takes charge. They are an organizer. They act in the best interest of everyone involved. A leader sees the big picture and delegates duties to others based upon that big picture. They are an organizer who sees what others need to be doing and directs them in the best actions. A leader also takes interest in those on his team and builds a rapport with them.
A true leader doesn’t need to announce that they are in charge or that they make the rules. A true leader is someone who will treat their team with respect and act in the best way, not seeking notoriety or demanding respect. They will be someone who people will be willing to follow out of respect.
The best way to become a leader is to be an organizer. See the big picture of what you want to accomplish. Share that picture or vision with others. Then go about your work, instructing your employees as needed and organizing their activities and delegating work to them. When needed, take an interest in them as people and their issues.
It doesn’t take much to be a leader, you just need to swallow your pride and put others first, helping them to see your vision and guiding them. You don’t receive it simply because you were given a title or because you demand it, you receive it out of compassion and out of respect. But you do have to learn what the answers are or at least how to find the answers when you need them. You will make mistakes along the way, everyone does, even great leaders. But the key to a great leader is admitting when you have made a mistake and correcting it, this will gain you respect from your employees and make you a leader they will want to follow.
Create systems and templates to stay productive. The more that you can create different systems, templates and team expectations, the better your business will run and the more you will get done and the more time you will have. By creating these systems, you run on autopilot. You don’t have to think about what to do next, you only follow the plan or system.
Systems are simple, repeatable plans for getting things done. They are step by step plans and you don’t have to think about the next step, you only have to work on the step you are on and then move to the next.
Templates are forms or papers that you write out on a regular basis and all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Emails are a great example of something that you can create templates of. This way, you do not have to always be writing out new emails or copying old ones and rewriting them. All you do is a have a boilerplate template that you fill in the blank to create a new email. You can use templates on any number of things that you have to create on a regular basis.
As for systems, begin by getting up earlier and getting more done, so you can be more productive. Have a list of specific things you need to get done, plan these out the night before, so you are sleeping on them. This also lends itself to making things a less of a surprise when you sit down to work on them in the morning.
For your systems, know what work that is going to be done, who is going to be doing it, when you are finished with it, how you are going about completing it. The more you have this organized, especially if it is a repeatable task, the less you will have to think about it when it comes up and the faster you will get it done.
The idea behind systems and templates is to lessen the amount of repeatable, monotonous work that has to be done. You do this be creating ways to accomplish it as quickly as possible and to overcome as much as possible. An interesting idea would be to interview many different business owners, entrepreneurs and wealthy people to see what types of systems they have created over time and to write a book about those systems so others may develop them also. Along with that idea, why not a system for writers among other professions?
Productivity: Wrapping up the First Stage of a Special Project by: Dennis Hamilton is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Organizing Systems and Templates
Organization is a large part of using systems and templates, because it is no good if you can’t find them once you have written them down. Email, letter, spreadsheet or presentation templates can be easier to organize b putting them into a template folder on the computer. You can even organize this into a hierarchy of folders to give yourself a reminder of its use. You can even store some of these into a program such as Evernote.
Systems can be more difficult to organize because these can very from job to job and person to person. A couple of ways you can organize this is to file your system information into a binder. You can even use an online version such as OneNote or Evernote. The other thing you can do, which sometimes is better organized and more beneficial is to save the system layout or plan as a part of the template. Especially if there is a place that you can make notes or comments on the template, where it wont be over written or printed on the final sheet. This can be more beneficial because all of the information is right there with the template that you need to work on.
Contact Relationship Management tools or apps can be very helpful in business. For years ACT! Has been the go to computer application. These days there are a few others that can come in handy especially if these are on a smartphone. HighRise and Evernote Hello are a couple that come to mind. These programs or apps allow you to manage the contacts you make as you network and get to know and interact with people. That way it is much easier to remember who someone is, your connection with them, what they look like, how to get in touch with them and what you have worked on. The more people you meet and the more you work with others, the more you will need this software to keep track of things.
As you develop your systems, templates, tasks, and contacts, everything will run smoother and once you have the bugs worked out and can complete these tasks easily then, you can pass them off to a virtual assistant to complete many of the tasks. Ultimately, that is part of the idea behind creating these systems, so you can delegate them to others. Yes, there will always be something that you must do yourself but, many of the tasks can be completed by others.
Reviewing Systems
You should get into the habit of reviewing your tasks, systems and templates on a regular basis. You want to do this, so you know everything is working the way it is intended and nothing is changed or is outdated. Sometimes, your systems may need to be broken down into smaller tasks or combined into larger ones, so less time is wasted. This will help your processes to run more efficiently. Don’t overlook the opportunity to include in the review process, those who are currently doing the work. They will be able to give new insight into improvements to the process that you may not see since you are detached from it.
Look at every task, letter, activity that you accomplish, especially if it is something that you do more than once and ask yourself if it is something you could build into a template or a system. You will save yourself a lot of time and streamline you activities and your business will run better overall.
How do you create and manage your systems and templates?
