DON'T STRIVE FOR EFFICIENCY AT THE EXPENSE OF EFFECTIVENESS by Wendy Hearn
What is your level of effectiveness? What difference
would it make to your life and work if this level
were raised? One of the first steps to achieve this
is to understand what being effective really means.
I've found that many people confuse effectiveness
with efficiency. They struggle to improve their
efficiency but their effectiveness doesn't always
improve. Striving for efficiency is sometimes at
the expense of effectiveness.
What's the difference between effectiveness and
efficiency?
Being effective means producing powerful effects.
Being efficient means producing results with little
wasted effort. It's the ability to carry out actions
quickly. However, by so doing, you may not
necessarily be achieving effectiveness.
Effectiveness allows you to accomplish the worthwhile
goals you've chosen. The ones which support your
vision and your mission.
For instance, you may be very efficient at working
through your to-do list and completing a lot of it.
However, when you shift to being effective, you may
choose to delegate part of it, stop doing some of it
and focus on one or two things which will allow you to
achieve your goal. Perhaps you're efficient at sending
follow up letters to potential clients but being
effective may mean only following up certain key ones,
yet doing so in a fuller, more complete way.
Where does your time go?
When your intention shifts to being more effective,
you can achieve your worthwhile goals in much less
time. You choose the things which will make you more
effective instead of doing more and more to achieve
efficiency.
Effectiveness comes from taking the time to stop and
evaluate, rather than running faster and faster.
Discovering for yourself what effectiveness means,
and what it will take for you to achieve this, is an
area in which a coach works, both with individuals
and organisations. When I'm working with clients, we
often focus on their effectiveness. The coaching
session we conduct by telephone once a week gives
them the opportunity to stop, look at where they are
and where they want to be.
I believe that by taking time out, this allows you to
increase your effectiveness. I'm also a great believer
in taking this time at regular intervals during your
day. So many people set out to work harder and harder,
without really looking to see if they're being
effective. I've found that what works best for me, and
most of my clients use this, is to work for 15 minutes
slots with breaks of a few minutes in between.
I strongly believe that if more people worked in this
way, companies would be much stronger and more
effective. For instance, lets say you're working on a
proposal. You work on it for 15 minutes and then put
it aside for the next few minutes. You can use this
break to either stretch your legs, step outside for
fresh air, enjoy a period of quiet reflection or to
clear thoughts from your mind. You choose what would
feel most useful.
When you return to your proposal for the next 15
minutes, you'll probably find that something occurs to
you which you'd forgotten, or you didn't see as being
very important. You may find you now have a different
perspective on it or you now have a solution to
something you were stuck on. It's increased your
effectiveness. When you only have 15 minutes, you'll
work more effectively to achieve more within this
artificial deadline.
What I want is for you to be effective in achieving your
goals and vision.
Wendy Hearn
Coach
She works with business owners, professionals and executives to
discover and unlock their own inspiration, to effortlessly take
the actions required to have the success they desire.
To receive Wendy's fre^e newsletter, send an email to:
newsletter@wendyhearn.par32.com
http://www.Business-Personal-Coaching.com
More articles on BUSINESS-MANAGEMENT
Some Hints in Time Management
How to Set Realistic and Effective Goals
Design Your Business The Way You Want
Develop a Theme That Inspires You
Bring Your Dream, Vision or Theme to Life
Don't Strive For Efficiency At The Expense Of Effectiveness
282
|
|
|
|
