How to get to the top and stay there – Sinatra didn’t move pianos!

Real Business readers can click here to download the full complementary ebook from which this advice is taken “How to get to the top and stay there”. 

Ninety-five per cent of business owners in any industry will see their results plateau at a certain level, where no amount of working longer or harder seems to help them break through. 

But there’s an upper echelon, the top one per cent who have what I call a “Multiplier Mindset”, enabling them to generate more revenue, act with more freedom and creativity, and actually enjoy being an entrepreneur!

This mindset is about multiplying your results in every area you would like to, whether that’s growing your business ten times, having ten times more free time, or being a great parent whilst also running a thriving business. It’s a way of thinking that means always looking for and finding ways to get bigger and better results from the same or less effort. 

Each entrepreneur has different goals but the fundamentals of what it takes to achieve them are the same. It’s these shared behaviours we focus on at Strategic Coach. Over the past 30 years, more than 14,000 entrepreneurs have tested and proved the effectiveness of these behaviours in their businesses and their personal lives.

One of the first things we teach at Strategic Coach is that Frank Sinatra didn’t move pianos! This encapsulates how business owners can multiply income by focusing on delegation.

Most top performers spend a relatively small percentage of their time achieving the results they’re known for. The very best spend the rest of their time preparing to be the best when they’re “on stage.” Delegation of all the other “stuff” that isn’t contributing to you doing what you do best is essential to be able to take more time off and multiply your results in all the areas important to you.

Does this sound familiar? You compile a list of 15 things you have to do today. You get ten of them done, which should be a good day, but you don‘t feel any sense of accomplishment because you missed five.

Guess what? If you don’t change your approach, tomorrow’s going to be the same. 

How about focusing instead on just three crucial results? If you took off 155 Free Days™, (24-hour periods free from all work) you would have 210 days left on your calendar for working. Multiply that by three important results each day, and you would be aiming to achieve 630 crucial results in a year.

That would be a pretty good year, wouldn’t it?

Try this: Start your day with the intention of getting three important things done. If a fourth gets added, put it on your list for tomorrow. If you finish all three by 1pm, you’re finished for the day.

When you restrict yourself to just three key priorities, your mind focuses – what deserves to be one of them? If you’re not going to do all the other things that don’t make your top three list, who is? That’s how you determine which activities to delegate.

Just one example of this is US Strategic Coach client, Terry Solis, a consultant to the construction management industry who had a team of ten employees yet still ended up managing everything in the business herself. 

By identifying which activities she should and shouldn’t be involved with she could begin teaching her team members how to manage projects and deal with clients themselves. Terry was then able to focus on working directly with clients to transform their problems, the work she loves that adds the most value, whilst her team takes care of all the behind-the-scenes details.

Delegation allows you to have a clear, focused mind which helps you grow, because your standard of what qualifies for your “important” list keeps going up. Your current income will demonstrate the effect that has had on your growth.

If you want your company to grow ten times over the next ten years, you have to focus on doing the three things you do best and delegating the rest. 

To learn more about the Strategic Coach programme, see case studies of some top performing clients, and download your complimentary copy of the full e-book “How to get to the top and stay there” simply click here.

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