If you can fix the jobs that are holding you back – what will you do next?
Remember why you got into this business? Remember the passions and dreams that got you through the early days? If you’re like many business owners and managers, you might feel you’re spending too much time fixing things in your business every day.
You’d rather be improving the performance of your business, lifting your bottom line and supporting the lifestyle you’ve always wanted. And those things are still all possible.
Automate the time-consuming admin first
Now for some good news: many of those admin tasks that keep you working in the business, rather than working on improving it, can be automated and sped up.
You might be surprised just how much admin you can fix with tools like Deputy plus the collection of apps and services it integrates with.
In fact, Deputy’s own business grew out of a desire to improve a multitude of day-to-day workforce management tasks in a previous business, which we solved with cloud software and automation.
Doing this frees the team up to think more, which is one of the main goals of automation.
Once you have your systems working well together, the next step is to commit more time to focus on strategic activities like marketing, product development, long term planning and developing strategic partnerships.
Developing ‘human’ skills in an automated workforce
As more processes become automated, digital literacy and STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and maths) are crucial.
Though human-to-human management skills will still matter explained Richard Miles, pro vice-chancellor at the University of Sydney, in an interview with The Guardian in February 2017.
Young workers entering the workforce face a high probability that 40% of existing jobs could be taken by robots in the next few decades, so they need to develop strong human relationship skills to give them a clear career path.
“Can you really separate education from personal development when you get somebody coming through your gates at 17, 18, and leaving at 21 or 22? Those are really transformative years, right?” he said, adding that critical skills include:
- Critical thinking and the ability to summarise
- Problem solving
- Communication and presentation
- Emotional intelligence
Purpose and relationships matter
In my experience in leading teams of people from various backgrounds, work has to serve a greater purpose for individuals beyond just making money.
You can reconnect with your business, and help other people fulfil their purpose at work by focusing on:
- Personal growth – mentoring for collaboration and personal skills
AND
- Professional development – coaching for new ideas in products, sales, customer experience leadership development
Both drivers are about learning new things, improving ourselves and opening up more possibilities in our lives. Some of those new possibilities are about money, though a lot of them are very human.
If you can improve your problem solving skills, for example, you could see all kinds of benefits in your own life, from resolving family challenges to improving your health. You can also improve team work in your business.
Work needs to answer a calling within you – and within the people working with you. It’s no secret that staff retention can be improved if you help your team fulfil their chosen purposes at work, enabling greater levels of satisfaction to be achieved. They’ll also perform better and be more productive for you and the business.
