Recently, I listened to one of Brian
Buffini’s coaching tips on Prioritizing Your Day and I realized
that that single tip, if we can all remember it, can make every one of our days
far more productive, less stressful, and thus more profitable in our business
and more enjoyable in our lives! Buffini’s Peak Producers Training Program
focuses on building our business by focusing on referrals from our Sphere of
Influence, so his suggested prioritizing starts with People. Current
clients of course would come first, but if we think about who among our sphere
is most important/helpful/responsive, ie, those we might consider our business advocates, and focus
our time on them first, we’ll enhance our success. Of course,
prioritizing this way can also help us realize on whom we should spent less
time!
Buffini goes on to say that once we
prioritize the people we want to focus on, we then can prioritize the actions we need to
perform to optimize our ongoing service relationships with people, showing our
professionalism as well as our appreciation for their business and their
referrals. So, what will we do to interact with
those important people when we engage with them?
Then, once we have set our priorities
of people and actions, Buffini says, we can then more easily prioritize our time. And
knowing the impact of proactively working with our key people, we should be
more aware of the need to protect and make best use of our time.
Finally, he concludes by noting that
prioritizing has two dimensions to it, that of focus and that
of boundaries. Keep in mind that focus will be
difficult if not impossible if we don’t set boundaries! Buffini reminds us
that we should spend our time and energy on the people who deserve it, not
just those who only need it! Of course, our business is serving client needs, but we’ve all had
those energy sucking clients, friends, or that kindly agent down the hall who
loves to chat without asking us if we have a moment, so Buffini suggests a few
of the tips we’ve covered in the Playbook before: don’t answer
your phone, turn off the dinger on your email device, (oh, no mine just rang!!)
close your office door at least part way, and maybe offer that friend/agent a
chance to chat later once you finish your tasks. All good ideas, and much
easier to implement if we remember the goals of prioritizing and setting
boundaries: to enhance our business, reduce stress, and enjoy life and family
more and more!
Have you set your priorities for
today . . . for next week . . . next year?
David M. Hassler
VP, Professional Development
No comments:
Post a Comment