“Organize, Deputize, and terrorize” was the favorite slogan of one of my friends. I would love to add another word to it: Prioritize.
When you utter these words, it might sound fairly simple, but when as an entrepreneur, you starting jotting things down on paper, you would be in for a few surprises as we as become aware of numerous obstacles coming in the way of getting things done.
Not many of us have the habit of putting our vision, goals and modus operandi on paper. We think hard, and keep every thought where it came from – in our heads. The biggest problem with this habit is that it is not only a way to fail in business but also that no body knows what you are up to – because you have it all in your head. So the people around you in business have to literally spend weeks with you to know what you aim to do with your business. So the sooner we put them down on paper, the better it is for the business as well as for all those who are working to make it prosper.
- ORGANIZE –The first job is to put down every single detail of your business procedure on paper. Choose any format which you are comfortable with but remember to put down all information which your business needs to operate and produce. It could even include details like when the office/store opens to how much you would like to produce every day and the time take for a particular operation to get completed. You ought to write down your objectives also and details of your plan to achieve them.
- PRIORITIZE –Once you know what to do to run your daily operations, you prioritize them one after the other in order of importance. Put down each job what you need to do first, then second, and so on. For example, you should not open a store without having the change in the cash register.
- DEPUTIZE –Remember, even if you may believe so, you can not do all the jobs yourself. After you know what is to be done every day to get your business moving, delegate your staff specific responsibilities, so that they know what is expected of them at the end of the day. You must also plan ahead what if some one is absent and who would take over the other person’s responsibility. This would also bring a lot of role clarity in your business.
- TERRORIZE –Though this is a harsh sounding word, what is really meant by this is that once you have assigned someone some work, do not be overbearing and intervene while he is at it. However, you can not leave everything to him – just do enough supervision to keep a tab on his work progress. This is not policing on someone, but simply keeping a close watch on the progress of your business and preventing any sudden event which may put the business off gear.
When you have got settled with this kind of prioritization, you would be amazed at the clarity of goals and sharing of common objectives which happen in your business. Your future is clear to all concerned and everyone in the company knows what they have to do next month and the month after next.
At the end of the day, remember that do be a good leader you would also need good followers.
