Leveraging and leading teams is always a hot topic for our clients.

And whether you work with a single virtual assistant…

Or run a bustling office of 30+ employees…

Effectively utilizing a team is the key to more money and less work hours for all of us.

That’s why I’m sharing this quick Q&A with recent advice I’ve given that will help you do just that.

Let’s get right to it…

Q: “How can I be a better “Boss” and communicator?”

Answer:
First, don’t be too hard on yourself.

I am a reformed horrible boss and living proof that you can change.

That’s why this is another topic near and dear to my heart.

Communication is a learnable skill — everyone can get better.

Progress will come over time if you remain committed to the practice and to seeking out info.

The keys are to:

a) Create your vision and share it with your team weekly

b) Share client / customer success stories with your team weekly

b) Lead a great weekly team meeting held at a consistent time where everyone gets to speak

c) Encourage your team to share “what’s not working” so that you can fix it

d) Be clear about WHO does WHAT by WHEN so everyone knows their roles

These 5 simple steps will clear up 80% of the communication problems in your business.

Q: “Craig, I have a big project I’m behind on that needs to get done ASAP. Help!”

Answer:

You’ll make more progress working in BLOCKS than in “slivers” of time.

You need 3, 4, or 5 hours straight or else you’ll never “chip away at it” fast enough.

Block off time for the BIG project and commit 5-6 hours straight (with a 45 min break in the middle and two small breaks in between).

Working in BLOCKS is 5x’s more efficient than doing the same work spread over multiple days.

Blocks = Focus & progress

Slivers = Productivity "death by 1000 cuts" due to inefficient transition time

Applying this to the next two weeks...

Take an hour today to plan your big blocks... when they are and what you’ll do ... AND how to protect your time from distractions

Then hit your first block as early as possible in the day and as early in the week as you can.

Q: “Craig, I’m overwhelmed. What’s the best way to delegate and get some tasks off my plate?”

Answer:

Shout out to my old friend Frank Den Blanken for a great idea here...

You can quickly build an SOP library (standard operating procedure) for every applicable task.

Record a screen video walking your team member through the task...

Then have the same team member watch the video and write-up a “checklist description”.

That’s an efficient way to teach anyone how to do something and get them to codify the instructions into a document that can be added to a library.

Start this process listing out all the specific significant tasks you do – but shouldn’t be doing:

These are generally admin / legal / financial / communication jobs such as customer support, editing videos, creating contracts, bookkeeping, and uploading social media material.

Create a video showing how to do it... and then get that off your plate.

Once the task has been assigned you’ll need to give feedback to your team member for a week or two and correct them / improve their efficiency.

Eventually you’ll be doing much less work and life will be easier and you’ll have moved from $10 an hour tasks to $100 and even $1000 an hour tasks.

The end goal: More time for you in FLOW state working on higher financial value activities.

“If you concentrated on the efforts that actually mattered, your professional contributions could be compressed into a handful of efficiently planned weekly hours.” – Cal Newport

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Anyway…

These are just a few quick ideas to get you moving in the right direction.

When you give them a try, not only will you hit your goals faster…

You’ll also be able to shorten your workdays while making more money…

And maaaybe even start taking some 3-day weekends.

Let me know how it goes!

Success Loves Speed,

Craig

PS - If you’re ready to 2X your income (or more) while working 10 less hours per week...

... Just REPLY to this email with the words “2X 10 LESS” and we'll set up a time to chat with you to find out if we can help.

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