Struggle Less, BE More

Managing your business effectively can be similar to using your computer effectively.

Sometimes it just makes sense to hit the reset button in order to give yourself a fresh start.

Here are the usual reasons why I sometimes have to re-start my PC- adapted to your work, to get you thinking about re-starting in your business (or life).

Too much stuff is running in the background, competing for resources and making the work extremely slow.

Do you have a lot of tasks and programs that are running and keeping you and your people extremely busy with activity, but very slow when it comes to results?  Just like the slow PC, you haven’t stopped doing anything, just started more and more.  Now you wonder why you can’t get the important work of getting or serving customers, done.  Reboot: Shed tasks and programs that don’t serve your core work.

We’ve started a new program / initiative, but people aren’t getting on-board

When you install new software, usually a reboot is required to integrate key settings into your PC’s operating system.  Have you embedded the new program into the basic activities of your business?  Have you changed the rules of operating so that the new initiative isn’t just an add-on, but an integral, definitive part of your work now?  Reboot: Restart the system long enough (or shake it up) to alter the status quo and replace the old way with the new.

We’re trying to do too many things at once, too quickly, and our customers have “stopped responding”

The problem here, provides its own answer.  If the people or systems you’re working with have stopped responding, you’re likely spreading your attention too thin.  If you wait, PC programs that are hung up will often start responding again.  But sometimes the situation is bad enough that you need to reboot.  You’ve overtaxed the entire system by multi-tasking.  On computers, people often try to move things forward by clicking their mouse button a lot on the various programs (maybe you’re read about these people).  Reboot: FOCUS on what’s most important for you to accomplish.  Identify the simplest version of how you value-add to your client- and do only that.  And avoid the temptation to think that more pushing (clicking) is the solution.

We’ve started a new program and it’s not really working that well

With computers, as in my work itself, I try lots of new programs.  Will they take? Are they useful? Do they move things forward?  Sometimes they don’t work well on my system, so I simply remove them.  It’s easier and quicker than trying to get every new thing working well.

How do you regard new initiatives and programs?  Are you able to drop them if they don’t work and cut your losses?  Reboot: If you really need for that new program to work, then by all means invest more time. But if another idea will come along soon and this wasn’t THAT critical to your work…drop it.

We were able to get more done, quicker before we “made upgrades”

You can remember a recent time, maybe last month or last year or 3 years ago, when the way you worked really did…work. But the improvements and changes you’ve recently made are actually more frustrating than helpful.   Reboot: Return to the point when things were working.  Identify why things were going well back then.  And then implement like you did back then.  Strip away all those new developments that obviously aren’t helping and get back to your basics.

Don’t be afraid to reboot your business so you can spend more time being creative and gaining the edge.

(This post was previously published in the April 2010 issue of Business Leader http://www.businessleader.bz/ )