Are interruptions killing your productivity (and your company’s growth)?

How many times a day is your work interrupted by questions or problems brought to you by your employees or clients?

Take a minute to think about it, how many people walk into your office, or call you, or send you a text, email, or Slack message that interrupts your flow, that you take time to think about, and that you have to respond to?

Is it 10? 25? 50? More?

Now, think carefully; how many of those interruptions needed your input? 

When I say they “needed your input,” I mean that you are the only person in the company who could answer the question being asked.

Was it 50% of the questions? I’m guessing it was fewer than that, maybe 20%?

You are welcoming these unnecessary interruptions!

Business owners like being essential, important, and at the center of things. (Why would we start a business otherwise?) But if we turn ourselves into the “answer person,” we hold our business back. 

How do we hold our business growth back?

• It steals our valuable time. If we’re not answering those questions, we could get the budget finished and approve the marketing plan!
• It keeps our team from building confidence in their own decisions. If you don’t answer, they will figure it out and learn that they can figure it out.
• It makes you the bottleneck, and the business can’t grow without more of your time. 

For now, just notice how much time you are giving to answering questions that other people know the answer to…