The Question
As a leader or sales professional, do you ever struggle allocating your time properly?
Wait, I already know the answer.
What about the people in your purview?
This is one of those areas where even the best have room for improvement, and like all things, perfection is unattainable.
Here’s part two of the question:
What is the opportunity cost of the time we spend thinking about how to allocate our time?
Or worse, the cost of the time we spend on things that are at best limited in return or at worst detrimental to the team?
Ouch.
The Quote
In The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker stated “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
And what about our time spent on lower-return activities that are necessary but taking too much of our precious time? Ever hear of Parkinson’s Law of Time Management.
It states “work expands to fill the time available for its completion,” highlighting how tasks often take longer when given more time.
The Story: From The 101 Lesson to the 301 Mastery
The example I give is specific to real estate leadership – yet formula I have devised can be adapted to both leader and sales professional, in virtually any industry. The tactics and even the acronym might change but the concept of formula around what matters most and the corresponding rules are sound.
2008 was my best year in real estate sales. It was a grind. The odds were against all of us. The market had grinded to a near halt, foreclosures and short sales were a big thing. People were losing equity by the minute it seemed. But, I was having a breakout year.
Prior to 2008, I was chasing. I would wake up and try and figure out what to do next. I would drive to the office, make a couple expired calls, chat with the other agents, schedule an Open House. Drive home, send a few weak emails. Work on the marketing brochure. Put together the practice listing agreement. Go to a networking event with other real estate people. Scattered. Chaotic. Not intentional.
One of the reasons (and there were a few) 2008 was my best year was a simple habit a mentor taught me on how to be more effective.
- Invest 20 minutes at the end of each week planning your ideal following week
- Invest 10 minutes at the end of each day fine tuning and planning your ideal tomorrow
I love the simplicity and the effectiveness of this. I use it with clients even today as an entry point into getting highly intentional and increasing daily performance across all categories.
It works. It removes decision fatigue. It keeps us honest to what we ought to be doing and battles the distractions and demands for our attention as each day begins.
This was the 101 level and started my journey from making excuses to making moves.
The 201 level was gaining greater clarity around what actions deliver the greatest ROI on time invested. In my time at Merrill we called them CFOs for Critical Few Objectives. I like that acronym so will use it here. In real estate sales, there are three CFOS, and I became very intentional on stacking my days with these: business development, consultations with qualified buyers and sellers, and negotiating contracts. To this day, I still believe these are the only core activities that drive everything. It just takes some planning to determine what fits into the business development bucket and most importantly, how to maintain consistency with that when the other areas start consuming more time.
And 301 was developing a formula as I coach leaders and sales professionals that they can modify to their world, so that there is a North Star guiding them as they make really important decisions about how they allocate their time. In other words, to make sure 101 and 201 levels are implemented to gain the highest income return per hour worked.
Here we go. I am giving you an example here that is gold. This is one for real estate leadership. It’s called W.E. C.A.R.E.
The Research: Why This Actually Works
Time blocking studies by Cal Newport and others show that workers who plan their days in advance complete 30-40% more meaningful work than those who work reactively. The CFO idea maps directly to Pareto Principle research showing that roughly 80% of results come from 20% of activities. Opportunity cost thinking from behavioral economics supports the notion that top performers explicitly consider what they’re not doing when they choose how to spend time. Studies show most people significantly underweight opportunity costs in daily decisions.
The W.E. C.A.R.E Model:
I won’t give you the entire keynote or workshops here, but enough for you to get the point.
It starts with upholding the entire acronym – truly caring about your people or your clients. If you don’t, this method is not for you. Move along please.
WE CARE is both a mantra and an acronym – Here’s what the mantra might sound like: As a leadership team, we know the lifeblood of our business is the agent population and staff, each as an individual with a story and their own hopes, dreams and fears. We take care of them so they can realize their potential, multiply value to others, take care of our clients to create trust and loyalty across the board.
And the acronym:
W.E.= Work Ethic. Model the behavior you want to see from those on your team. This doesn’t always mean showing up first and leaving last, it depends heavily on your level of leadership. New leader, it certainly does mean that for you. It also means that you treat others with respect, communicate effectively, hold people accountable, do what you say you are going to do, and be honest with yourself and others.
C= Connect with your people, and connect your people. Know them, their families, their goals, their obstacles. Make sure they know the people inside of the organization, where they can turn for resources, and how they can be helpful to others.
A= Add value to your people – make sure they are growing in order to stretch and reach their potential. Provide the appropriate training, coaching, and accountability structure to help them flourish.
R= Recruit. This is the lifeblood of many leadership roles, you must bring in the best talent. Recruit is a proactive verb. I’m not a fan of “talent attraction” to describe this. It simply sounds more passive and I’ve seen it used as an excuse not to do the front-line work that excellence in recruiting requires.
E = Everything else.
So, where would I start with this? Well, it depends on the specific objectives of the organization or particular office, and the resources and staff leaders have available, but a good launchpad would be aiming for 25% weekly time allocation for each C.A.R.E. component. 25% Connecting with your people, 25% Adding value to them, 25% Recruiting, and 25% Everything else.
I can hear the pushback – 25% for everything else?!?!? Impossible!
If you say so.
What was that quote from Henry Ford? “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
Get the concept here, most of your time each week should be spent on your CFOS, the things that matter most, and everything else should be whittled down to the bare minimum.
Once you identify the formula and the percentages that work for you, it’s time to drill down under each category with the specifics. How many lunches or coffees outside of the office to connect? What mechanism do you use to make sure you record the goals and dreams of each of your people? What needs to change with the quality of your business meetings or your one on one feedback process? What systems and guardrails need to be installed to help you stay focused and be consistent here? In the Everything else category, what can we stop doing? What can be done more efficiently? What needs to be delegated?
And then the question, who does what by when to get this thing started?
The Rules:
Then, as a leadership team you can establish some governing rules around this model. The ultimate end goal is a proper description of your culture. Here are some examples from companies with whom I’ve worked:
Resilience is our superpower. We are courageous and understand that big swings come with setbacks. Since we know those setbacks are coming, we are ready for them and understand that the result is a lesson and not a failure.
Managing energy is as important as managing time. We take care of ourselves so we can take care of each other and our clients.
Collaboration elevates us all. We are open and honest about what works and what does not. We are all on the same team, we share across sales teams and across departments. We overcommunicate as a rule.
You get the point.
The Point: Systems. Focus. Discipline.
Here it is again. I may close this way every time.
Last year, our theme was Connection. Differentiation. Repetition.
This year? Systems. Focus. Discipline.
Systems. Focus. Discipline. are about sustainable excellence and scaling up. This is how you stop burning out. This is how you build a business that doesn’t consume your life. This is how you build a foundation that is able to support the growth you envision. Trust me, rapid growth can really cause problems if the foundation isn’t solid. I’ve lived it.
The transformation I get to witness over and over again for those willing to engage is remarkable.
Final Thought
Want to go deeper? I work with leaders, entrepreneurs, salespeople, and marketing professionals who are ready to improve performance. If you’re serious about implementing systems that actually stick, let’s talk.
Email me: [email protected]
Or schedule time using calendar scheduler.
Let’s go!