The problem with trying all the techniques we have discussed in these blogs is how to be effective when others are not.
How many times have you had everything organised, you have employed the Ivy Lee Method, your day or week or month is organised and someone comes along with something “urgent” that was not even on the horizon 24 hours ago?
I don’t know if it is a factor of getting old or if it is actually true but it seems to me that as time goes by people get less and less organised and less effective. It almost seems as though they dedicate their lives to making things difficult and causing problems for others.
The answer is education.
Not the formal course type of education, these people aren’t interested in improving. If they were they would have done it themselves by now. No, the answer is we must educate them that they are the problem and that we are not the solution.
If they are clients / customers or suppliers and they regularly cause problems (remember we all get it wrong occasionally) by being late, placing last minute unreasonable orders or failing to supply on time then we must act.
We must ensure that we either firmly refuse to budge from our effective schedule or they must accept the cost of their actions by accepting less or by paying more or giving discounts. Most people will change when their wallet is involved.
I can hear you screaming from here “I can’t do that to my best customer, they will go elsewhere”. Ok, before you do it then plan to lose them and if they stay then they stay in an organised way. If you are so dependant on the customer that you can’t afford to lose them then you should be preparing for what would happen if they went away anyway. The same with suppliers. If you are so reliant on others that you must bend to their every whim then there is a bigger business problem than simple ineffectiveness and you need to solve it.
All customers and suppliers go away eventually. It’s just a matter of time.
I also hear those of you who are employed saying “it’s alright for you, you are self employed, I have a boss.”
The answer is the same – education.
Every time your boss comes to you and throws you off course then he / she is actually saying “I can’t be bothered to be properly organised because I know whenever I have a problem I can offload it to you” and they are right!!
The answer is every time they come to you with yet another unreasonable demand you need to ask politely. “As you know I am really busy on all these projects / things that we agreed. If you want me to do this new project / thing which one do you want me to drop to make room for it?”
Put another way. “You’re the boss and paid the big bucks, you decide.”
After a few goes this normally works or they will find a some other victim however, you will always get the boss or client or customer who is totally incompetent and demands you do everything.
In this case I’m afraid you have two choices:
- Get out.
- Plan your mental breakdown.
There are no other alternatives. I know. Please take action one before it is too late. Too many of us have waited too long. Either way you end up getting out. It’s better that you do it in an effective way.
If you want to look at this further we have both manufacturing and service simulations to enable everyone to be more effective then please contact us for details – https://www.wellsassoc.co.uk/contact/
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