URGENT, IMPORTANT OR GET TO THE BACK OF THE QUEUE?

Have you ever felt that everyone who knocks on your office door needs something like yesterday? The CEO and Board need that report like yesterday, your Private Equity investor has a potential buyer lined up and needs data room information ASAP, the auditors have some urgent action points for delivery and one of your team has just accidentally deleted some macros in a spreadsheet and doesn’t know where to begin in sorting it out – you know how it goes!

Their priorities are different from your priorities and could be slowing you down in achieving what you needed to deliver in your role to be successful. Undoubtedly this Covey Time Management Matrix will be familiar to you but prioritising which activity needs to go in which quadrant can be a major challenge.



Having spent time this week with a successful CEO who is now a portfolio Non Exec Director the key message that came out of the meeting was to PRIORITISE.

Think:
1)     Is it an essential or desirable activity to do?
2)     What is the opportunity cost of you spending time doing it?
3)     Delegate or outsource where ever possible especially with things that are not in your key area of expertise.

One thing for sure is that the To Do list will never be complete but you can get somewhat closer by seeking short term support. At Resourcery Group we support clients with temporary and interim consultants to get to you where you want to be without compromising your time management and opportunity cost therefore allowing you to focus on other more pressing activities.

Ask yourself the questions below:

·        What initiatives or projects are you looking to accomplish this year that you don’t have the capacity to deliver or expertise in?
·        What is the quality of the data analytics/business intelligence coming from your reporting function? Is your team really providing the decision support that your internal stakeholders require?
·        How could you use your accounting system to provide more timely and relevant information? Could you save headcount longer term by driving efficiencies through the business?
·        How much of your time is spent engaged in managing risk, compliance, and regulatory matters? Loan staff from your Auditor partners might not be the only answer.
·        What came up in your recent appraisal that is going to help you get promoted that you could use an extra pair of hands to help you get there quicker?
·        Do you need some fresh ideas on cost control and finance transformation to impact the bottom line quickly?

If think that your company would benefit from support from an immediately available Temp or Interim to allow you to focus on the ‘Important & Urgent’ tasks then please get in touch with Allison Hodgkinson at Resourcery Group on 0151 345 9394 allison.hodgkinson@resourcerygroup.com .

Using Time Effectively, Not Just Efficiently