From time to time, I have clients ask me if I can do anything to help them with personal time management. The typical reason is that they have put too much on their plate and they can't figure out how to get everything done. So here's my response, and this comes from a lot of personal experience transitioning from a poor time manager to a more effective time manager.

Traction, is a fantastic resource for business owners (one person businesses and up) who want to understand the PROCESS side of their business. The tag line for the book is "get a grip on your business", which is exactly what this book is written to help you do. Guiding you through a process to think through the stages of HOW a business works and apply that to your own business. Like many business books, you are thinking about the parts of your business: vision, marketing, plans, obstacles, etc. But the difference in this book, is thinking about these concepts from a SYSTEMS approach. This is invaluable and the glue that binds many concepts together. Many business owners have many of the ingredients of their business (vision, mission, goals, etc.) but struggle to know how to implement all the elements in a system that is sustainable. The traction concepts help to put it all together in a process that supports the owner to stay focused, clear and positioned to move forward.

Are you growing? If you’re not growing, you’re dying. There’s a very specific process for how you grow. As Dr. David Viscott said, “If you cannot risk, you cannot grow. If you cannot grow, you cannot become your best. If you cannot become your best, you cannot be happy. And if you cannot be happy, what else matters?” Are you a growth-oriented person, or are you more comfortable with the status quo? If this quote resonates with you, you’re probably a growth-oriented person.

My next step forward in this series on developing effective leaders and managers is to address an issue common to almost every leadership team I’ve worked with – indecision.