One of the questions I often ask my mentoring clients is:
“What’s getting in the way?”
By that I mean, what’s getting in the way of you making the progress you want, achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself, working on the things that are important as opposed to urgent? Generally the list tumbles out of their mouths – clients, customers, staff, kids, IT issues, emails, traffic, the government, change in policy … blah, blah, blah. This list of barriers can often feel insurmountable – particularly when day after day feels like a never-ending list of issues and challenges instead of productive, satisfying work. So what gives? Well, my first tip is to break the barriers down into three categories.
- Speed Bumps – these are the things that are slowing you down … they’re an annoyance but aren’t insurmountable. A speed bump I’ve experienced today has been intermittent and slow internet connectivity. Extraordinarily annoying for someone who practically lives online … but I know it’s temporary and I’ve been able to work around it.
- Bottle Necks – this is where the traffic-flow of your business is slowing down due to a constriction of flow. It often happens when a particular staff member needs to approve ‘things’ … so work piles up in their in-tray while team members ‘wait’ to move-on. In a micro-business, a bottle-neck can often be lack of effective email management systems – so highly valuable emails (like a new client enquiry) gets lost in the ‘mass’ and doesn’t get addressed until the client has lost interest.
- Road Blocks – just like at major road-works, a Road Block in your business is where you’ve hit a complete stop with a particular project or conversation. For me at the moment it’s a major client who just won’t return phone-calls or emails. I can see the writing on the wall … but I can’t get a response and therefore can’t take any action on the file.
By categorising the list of barriers in this way you are in a better position to problem-solve … and you no longer see an endless list of ‘complaints’, rather items that need attention and can be resolved. Pay attention to recurring speed-bumps and bottle-necks – they may point to systemic issues in your business management or business model which, once resolved, could make a huge difference to your business. Road Blocks hopefully are one-off events … but by articulating them as such you can often quickly figure out a resolution.
By categorising the list of barriers in this way, you are in a better position to problem-solve
So next time you feel like you’ve hit a brick wall in your productivity, ask yourself
‘What’s getting in my way?’ and
‘Are these Speed Bumps, Bottle Necks or Road Blocks?’
When you do, you’ll find yourself on the freeway again in no time.
