Think your office might be seriously disorganized?
Not sure if you are disorganized enough to need help?
You have your own business which you love. It does ok. Clients are happy – most of the time. But you admit to yourself when no one else is looking that things aren’t as good as you think they should be. You are really afraid someone besides your accountant and CRA, or IRS is you are south of the 49th parallel, will find out your taxes were late last year….again. The assistant you hired reminded you that the last 10 client orders were late. Meanwhile, you find yourself running from home to office to home to office, always late and always rushing.
You, and your office or business, may be disorganized and not be aware. Here are the top five indicators I find when clients call me for help.
1 Targets are missed.
This is the indicator that keeps you awake at night. As the fiscal year goes by, and performance targets get missed, you are already sweating. You didn’t meet your sales targets for last year and you don’t even know if you are on track for first quarter. If fact, you are pretty sure your records aren’t up to date. Do you and your employees have a clear, strategic plan to accomplish those targets? Creating a step by step plan for everyone to follow will help keep everyone on the same page and the business on track.
2 Priorities are confused.
You know your ideal client. You know your business mission and you have an awesome vision. Should be enough right? Then why is it you can’t meet performance goals. Employees don’t understand the mission and/or strategic goals.You have the mission memorized. You’ve agonized over your strategic goals. Every word is perfect. You’ve done the retreat and handed out copies. Why is it then, that no one remembers? Why don’t your employees remember what the company is trying to accomplish this year?
Maybe because words on a page don’t translate into happy customers. A perfect mission, vision and values statement is only helpful if there is an action plan to translate that into the satisfied client. How does you mission statement turn into sales? How does your mission statement become a product or service that removes your client pain point? Turn your attention to providing value to clients and your mission will come alive with sales.
3 Employees are unhappy.
You have a sense that there are just too many good bye lunch parties. Meanwhile you’re soaking up your training and development budget with new hire orientation rather than development of your existing and loyal employees. At the same time, you’ve hearing complaint after complaint from employees about this, that and the other thing. They never bring it up to the team meetings, (do you have them?) they just grumble.
Disorganization in an employer or boss can quickly lead to disgruntled employees. With clear expectations, timely projects and constructive feedback, employees will more likely enjoy making a contribution to your goals.
4 Offices, work spaces are cluttered and disorganized.
Starting with yours; do you, or your staff, keep asking for another copy of (name of latest report on the file share system) because they can’t find it? Do you, or your employees, spend too much time looking for things and not enough time acting on goals? Sure, you know exactly where that proposal is, right? If I said you had 10 seconds to find it, could you? What is under, behind or beside your desk? Your employees desks? Check it out.
Keeping a clutter free work space contribute to higher productivity and happier staff. Try putting aside a Friday afternoon for an office clean up – with everyone responsible for their own work area. Keep common work areas clutter free.
5 Someone is always at the office or online trying to work late – very late.
Someone, or ones, is (are) working longer hours than they should. Is there one person, maybe it’s you, that is always working later than everyone else, comes in on weekends, and probably still is not meeting their performance objectives? That extra work time without the work output to show for it, is a common sign of disorganization. That person may need some help to clarify their priorities and deadlines. Or they may need some support to create a more productive work environment.
My goal is to help you develop an awareness of what some of the indicators of disorganization. With that awareness, you have the power to make changes. Even small changes can make a big difference. Become a clutter free role model at your office and to your employees. Keep your work area clutter free. Small changes applied consistently over time amount to big results.
