Perhaps it’s time to remind everyone about the importance of time. All of us talk about time as being one of our precious possessions. The psychological aspect of time is not always pleasant since most of us experience the frustration of having
too little time to do everything that must be done. But is that the real problem or is it our ineptness?
The fact is, all of us have the same 24 hours, yet there is considerable variability among us in terms of how much we can get done. Sometime, calculate the cost per hour to operate your dealership. You might be surprised what the dollars tell you. Here’s another shocker. Researchers tell us we lose at least 25 percent of our working efficiency because people issues steal time.
I’ve been in numerous senior leader meetings where the average hourly salary of participants could easily be $50. The first rule of meeting management is to start on time. Many times I’ve waited at least 20 minutes until everyone was present before starting the meeting. These delays burned through several hundred dollars. But, no one noticed or seemed to care because it’s a customary aspect of the business’s culture… and it can get worse.
Consider the manager who flies around the office like a butterfly stopping to chat with a variety of people for 30-60 minutes per person. Sometimes the conversation is business-related but most of the time it is not. Then the manager complains about not having enough time to do what is needed to facilitate the growth of the company.
The amount of time is not the problem. The culprit is the use of time. The bottom line: Some of us are better managing our time than others. Why? Do they know a secret? Actually it is not a secret. They simply know how to get things done within their eight-hour workday.
Western Equipment Dealer Magazine Spring 2017 Issue
By Larry Cole, PhD
