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How To Focus On Your Most Valuable Work - Prioritisation Tips For Managers · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Working out what your most valuable work is, and doing that work is a crucial action every manager should be thinking about every single day.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone has the same amount of time to use, and working longer hours is not a great solution.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Focusing more of your time and effort on what the most valuable work is is a crucial difference between okay performance and amazing performance as a manager.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Another way to approach what to focus your time on is how can you personally add as much profitability or cash to your company as possible.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Both of these financial metrics are designed to quantify performance.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: As a manager, you have a lot of ways to add significant value to your company.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: The best ways are going to be specific to you and your situation, so make the time to figure them out.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: To get you started, here are four actions that any manager can use for how to focus on your most valuable work.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, bigger teams demand higher prioritization.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, find and solve your team's biggest problems.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Third, the importance of alignment, and fourth, mentor your managers to amazing.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Any staff member will get promoted into a more senior role when they demonstrate they can keep increasing the value they add versus their peers in similar roles.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I personally was promoted 13 times in my career from junior trainee all the way up to a board director of a large business because I figured out how to keep adding more value in my roles and worked hard to deliver measurable improvements.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Figure out how to focus more of your time on the most valuable work and you should get similar promotions.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: The biggest prioritization tip for managers that I have is bigger teams demand higher prioritization.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: The best way any manager can add the most value to a business is increasing the performance of their team.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Increasing team performance uses a leveraging effect because the work of one person increases the output of many.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Leveraging your time through your team is nearly always going to create significantly more value than increasing any output you produce directly yourself.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as you are promoted into a management position, the performance of your team should be your first and top priority.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: As a new manager, you'll have a lot of output to create personally, and you'll also be responsible for the output of several other people.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Focus on increasing the output of the team before trying to increase your personal output.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Some prioritization tips for managers to increase team output include firstly removing problems stopping team members working effectively.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, getting the right resources in place at the right time for team members.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Third, protecting team members from interruptions and lower value work.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, teaching and training team members to follow best practices for tasks and activities wherever sensible.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, redesigning processes to reduce time spent and resources needed to get the same or a better outcome.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: 6.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Investing in automation where software can do the same task a person undertakes faster and at much lower cost.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: There are tons of things you can focus on to increase the output of your team.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: The bigger your team gets, the more valuable your work to help your team becomes.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: For example, removing a problem for 10 people will have a much bigger positive impact on company performance than removing the same problem for 5 people.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Prioritize your team output ahead of your own output in most cases.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: You will personally add a lot more value to your company by doing so.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Second, for how to focus on your most valuable work, find and solve your team's biggest problems.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Finding out what your team's biggest problems are is usually not that hard.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Spend time with your team members and firstly ask them about their jobs, their tasks and the issues they encounter.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, ask them to explain what they do and why they do it if it's not that obvious.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Third, listen to what they tell you and make the time to understand.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Each of your team members will have a list of problems.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: They'll be delighted to tell you about them if you ask and listen to them and you try and remove those problems afterwards.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Listening to team members always gave me a lot more problems than I had time to solve.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: When you have a list of problems your team is facing, prioritize them by.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, which are having the biggest negative impact on the team.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, solving the problems that move the team closer to achieving team targets.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And third, which you have the most influence or control over.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Consider all three criteria.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: You may have others that you need to include depending on your situation and role.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: You want to prioritize first the problems with the biggest impact, over which you have the most control and influence, and that move the team closest to team targets.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: These are the most valuable problems that you are most likely to be able to solve.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Solving problems that stop your team members working or working as well as they might is very valuable work as a manager.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Proactively look for these problems and work hard to solve them.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: As well as improving team performance, your team will love you for it.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to the podcast, enhance.training shares people management expertise, resources, and courses teaching you how to be a great manager and build high-performing teams.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've included links to additional resources in the podcast description which you'll find useful, so do take a look at these.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: The importance of alignment when thinking about how to focus on your most valuable work is a really big deal.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: The more that everyone in the company focuses their time and efforts on reaching the overall company goals, the more likely those goals will be reached.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if company staff spend 80% of their time on tasks, activities and projects that directly move the company closer to its goals, you know, versus say 60% of their time, you would expect company goals be reached a lot sooner.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Aligning the effort of your team to company and functional goals results in more staff time and effort moving in the same direction, being coordinated and supporting each other's efforts.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: The company and everyone in it will be more successful at reaching company goals as a result.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Alignment is a big difference between okay company performance and very good company performance.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Make the time to understand exactly what the company and functional goals mean for your team.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Understand the best ways your team can support those goals and focus your team on those specific activities to reach those goals.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: 4 practical actions to create focus in your team.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, constantly remind the team what the goals are every day and week.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, publicly and visibly measure progress towards those goals.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: You can also measure the activities that drive the results you want.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Third, align individual and team rewards to the activities and results you need.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And fourth, create games that with prizes that keep the team focused on the best activities and projects to reach your goals.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping your team aligned to the company goals demonstrates your strategic understanding and cements your team player credentials in the eyes of your bosses.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Next, we're going to talk why it's such a priority for any leader to mentor your managers to amazing.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: The more people you have in a business that acts like leaders, the less pressure you have on yourself and your management team.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you are a manager, you can take the same actions to develop management skills in your most promising team members.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: The more people you encourage to work autonomously, to take ownership, to take responsibility, to develop critical thinking, problem-solving skills and make decisions, the more agile your business is likely to be and the more successful.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Spreading the burden of implementing strategy and tactics over more people within reason increases the likelihood of success.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the actions you should take in building leadership skills in your team include, firstly, coach and mentor personally and expect your managers to mentor and coach their line reports.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, delegate problems instead of delegating tasks to improve problem solving skills throughout the team.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Third, create clear frameworks for decision making through the organization and expect staff to make decisions.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Frameworks create safety and permission to make decisions.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, give responsibility early, in tandem with lots of support as they need it.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, create a safe environment to take learning risks and make some mistakes.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: The more you can develop leadership skills in those below you, the more time you'll have available to do even more valuable work.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Developing skills in others is great for succession planning and moving your own career forward as well as being great for the team and company.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: So in summary, you have the same amount of time as everyone else.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: What you do with your time is the most important factor between okay performance and great performance.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: As a manager, you have to prioritize your own time and that of your team.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: I've shared tips on how to focus on your most valuable work, and it is really important to put these prioritization tips for managers into practice.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Key prioritization tips for managers include, firstly, bigger teams demand a higher prioritisation.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, find and solve your team's biggest problems.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Third, the importance of alignment, and fourth, mentor your managers to amazing.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions on how to focus on your most valuable work, prioritization tips for managers, please email me at support at enhance.training and I'll get back to you.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do visit us at enhanced.training to take a look at all our courses to improve your management skills and how well you use those skills.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Invest in your ability to get more from your team and you invest in your career progress.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks very much for listening, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.