What will you STOP doing?

At the end of last week’s Amplification Factors, I mentioned making time for the things you’re working to amplify!
 
Here is a story from way back when I was a Regional Sales Director.
 
I was feeling completely O V E R W H E L M E D by the things I was doing every single week. From reports to meetings to whatever, it felt like much too much for a single human to do.
 
I can’t remember who was my coach at the time (I wish I could because I’d buy them a drink or chocolates) – sharing my feelings and I’ll admit one of those feelings was despair. When they said:

STOP doing the extras for one week,
see who misses things enough to ask for them.

Wait, WHAT. I exclaimed. I couldn’t possibly stop doing things without telling people. What would they think? What would happen? I may have hyperventilated just for a moment.
 
They explained if I told people it would shift the dynamic, they would begin to think about the extras and believe they MIGHT miss them… whereas if I STOPPED doing them without saying anything, they’d either miss them or not.
 
That way I’d only need to restart doing extras that were valued by my team.
 
So, I agreed and began deleting all my reminders for the stuff I was doing that didn’t specifically involve what I believed my job to be (for me being a Regional Sales Director = facilitating every salesperson’s ability to make quota).
 
It was F R E E I N G. I literally remember exhaling and feeling lighter as I looked at my week.
 
Funny thing – I distinctly remember TWO, and only two, of those extras being asked for during the week. The best part is I thought to ask “Do you need this every week or at some other interval?”
 
One of the two requests, the answer was yes I do like to have the report weekly. The other answer was that it was an ad hoc request vs one the salesperson actually needs on a regularly scheduled basis.
 
I probably reclaimed almost a full 8-hour day doing this for myself.
 
This leads to today’s exercise:

  1. Define what the goal of your job is; regardless of your job title or function – salesperson, manager, or leader, what is the goal you’re trying to achieve in that role?
  2. Remove everything from your week that doesn’t tie directly to achieving that goal.
  3. See what happens.

Steps 1-3 may be the only way to take the last step:

  1. Add time to focus on your amplification factors.

Productively yours,
Lynn

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