Managing the Business Hats - One Size Does Not Fit All

by Joan Friedlander

In today's business environment you're likely to find yourself in a continuous juggling act when it comes to managing your behavior in the face of multiple, often competing priorities. An opportunity to talk about "managing the hats in business" with a group of women business owners gave me some insight into how we can use the hat analogy to become better at keeping focused attention on those projects and tasks that "fit best," and for longer periods of time.

Hats are fun. In sports hats are used to brand a team with their colors. In fashion hats are used for practical purposes to provide protection against environmental concerns (think sun or cold), or as statement pieces for fun or stature.

If you've ever tried on hats, you know that one size does not fit all. As in fashion (or sports), so it is in business. The task in business is two-fold. First, the hats need to be defined. Then we have to figure out which hats fit you best, how often you need to wear each one to reach your goals, when it's best for you to wear them, and what to do about the others that don't fit as well.

Rather than use business functions to describe the hats, I used personal qualities and characteristics that would be most helpful to execute a variety of business functions to define just 6 hats, as follows:

Strategic Planner/Forecaster: Wear this hat when you're setting goals, mapping out strategies, or forecasting possible future scenarios. This hat is all about the future and the big picture view of the business. Once the big picture has been forecast, the Manager/Organizer comes in to help map out the details of execution.

Developer: This would be a good hat to wear when developing programs, products or services. It can also fit well when developing people. Although there may be a difference in skills associated with developing people than developing programs, the orientation for each is similar: "What can I create or offer to develop the people I serve?"

Manager/Organizer: You would wear this hat when overseeing processes, coordinating projects or people, or otherwise providing guidance and direction. This hat fits you well if you are good at visualizing flow, orchestrating events and creating order out of chaos. The Manager/Organizer complements the Developer and Strategic Planner.

Promoter/Connector: Wear this hat when making marketing calls, at networking events or trade shows, when posting to social media or preparing marketing copy. Promoter and Connector are different sides of the same coin, so to speak, but they have a very different feel to them. To read more about how they are different, take a look at my recent blog post in Introverts 'N' Business, "Promoter or Connector: Which Hat Fits You Best?"

Responder/Implementer: Wear this hat when responding to needs or inquiries (received through email, your website or on the phone), fulfilling orders and delivering services. Depending on the services delivered, (think coach, therapist, trainer) the Developer may replace the Responder when providing client services.

Administration: Wear this hat when handling the business finances, filing paperwork, word processing and other support-level functions of running a business. Administration handles the details where the Manager/Organizer leaves off.

Here are a few indicators you're wearing hats that don't fit well, or not wearing the most important hats as often as you need to in order to reach your top goals.

1. You often end the day wondering where the time went, and how you managed to do everything but those things you planned to do.
2. You tend to undercut the time it really takes to get something done because you feel the pressure from other things that must also be done.
3. Your to-do list keeps growing, and before you know it you're trying to get 20 things done in the day only to become frustrated when you don't get all 20 things done!
4. You do your "real" work at night in order to get everything you planned or promised done.
5. It's become increasingly difficult to know, recognize and focus on your top priorities. You have way too many distractions and interruptions vying for your time and attention.
6. You are uncomfortable about some of the things you know you have to do, so you procrastinate or distract yourself with other things you enjoy more, or are simply easier for you to do.
7. The urgent takes precedence over what's most important to you. The external world has become your master.

Managing All the Hats in Business is not about giving equal attention to everything you could do and are currently responsible for. It's about understanding which hats you should wear most frequently so that you are able to accomplish your critical business goals and minimize the impact of distractions, those internal and external influences that derail you from your purpose. When you are clear about which hats fit you best you will not feel as out of control and you will be more productive.

We're not looking for balance here; we're looking for focused alignment and integrity, where integrity refers to structural integrity. Everything is working together; the foundation is sound.

The Hats analogy has given me a good way to describe the work I do. I love to work with independent service business owners (many of them introverts), to help them put the "right" hats on, more often than not, so they are more effective, confident and productive each and every day. Once we know which hats fit best, then we get to work on establishing the projects, tasks and systems that enable them to wear those hats most often in service of sustainable, rewarding business growth. All products, programs and services are developed with this purpose in mind.

Are you having difficulty determining which hats you should wear or letting go of some hats (or both)? Put on your Strategic Planner/Forecaster hat and call me for a FREE consultation. Just click here to set it up.

 

 

by Joan Friedlander, © 2010. All rights reserved.