How Do You View Your Time?
Time Management is important for all business leaders, but in the financial services industry there are points of view that make managing your time extremely difficult. These may include:
- I’m at my best when I’m in front of clients: This sees you as the best salesperson in your business but doesn’t recognize how valuable your work is as a business leader.
- My clients expect me to be available: This is a reflection that your clients are running your calendar. Would you give your clients control of your personal bank account? Probably not, but too often professionals allow clients to control their most valuable resource, time. It also puts service as your most valuable work, when your business needs a balance of sales, service, marketing, operations, and business strategy.
- I’m the only one that can do this or handle this client: This is an indication that your team needs training, or you need help delegating work. Navigating this issue can include changing your sales process to promote your team, training your team to be gatekeepers, not giving out your cell phone, and more.
- Our goal is to provide amazing service: Providing exceptional service is a great goal, however, how do you define exceptional service? Does that mean dropping everything for every client? If your number one client is sitting in front of you, would you interrupt that meeting to take a call from a new prospect? What if the call was a client that just has one policy with you, but wants to change their vehicle? Chances are there’s very little that would cause you to interrupt that meeting with your number one client. Yet, if you’re working on prospecting, business strategy, or even the operations of your business you might be tempted to take that call. This shows that you value service over everything else. It can lead to vital business functions getting delayed, or worse, not completed. In addition, it means when you do take that call it means that you’re distracted. Do they really get the best service? Or is it better to schedule time to talk to them later?
What these points of view have in common is that lasting change starts with the way you think about your work. If you’re not happy with your time management, are overwhelmed or burnt out, or if you feel like you’re not in control of your calendar, the number one thing you need to do is to increase your self-awareness of how you think about time and time management.
Quite simply you won’t work differently unless you think differently. Changing these points of view is what’s needed. There’s not an app, program, trick, or calendar that will help you until you’re ready to change the way you view your time and time management. But, once you’ve changed the way you view your time and time management, it’s easier to implement the tips and techniques to get you to the next level. Working with a business coach, a manager, or even a mentor can help you see the unproductive ways you view time.