Transparency In Your Business To Ensure Innovation and Creativity
Transparency
: free from pretense or deceit; easily detected or seen through; readily understood;
: characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices
Transparency is a pillar in my program because it applies at several levels.
You with yourself.
You with Me.
You with your Employees.
When business owners get transparent, things start to move. Often quickly. The maze of work they’ve been trying to navigate suddenly becomes so obvious.
Innovation and creativity become possible again.
That sounds great, but…
HOW!?
Schedule time to step away from the day-to-day grind and build out your company vision. This means identifying core values, where you want to be personally, where you want your business to be and what success would look like to you. This is not a 5-minute process and it should be repeated every 2 years.
It’s easy to get hung up on the unknown. To not outline a vision because we don’t know if it’s possible. To hesitate on that big goal because we don’t know all the steps. Just start with what you do know. Figure the rest out later. With experience, with guidance, and usually, with help.
Ensure your yearly goals align with your vision or they are pointless. If the work you do each day to reach your goal ultimately doesn’t move you towards your vision, then it was a waste of time. Don’t wake up one day and realize you’ve built the business of someone else’s dreams.
Here is the Test
If you had 4 hours to work next week, how would you use it? If you don’t know immediately what those high ticket items are, then you need to keep working on transparency.
If your tasks are prioritized based on goals AND your goals are aligned with your vision, this process will be easy! If you need a little help prioritizing, check out this blog post.
Alight Now What?
Always schedule your week transparently. How much time do you really have to work this next week? Fill in 75% of the available time with the Highest Priority items. This should include time to be creative, not just administrative tasks.
Business owners often start lying to themselves during this process. Either about the total time they actually have or on how long tasks take. Don’t overschedule yourself! That 25% is your buffer for the unexpected sick child, phone call, or client emergency.
Begin delegating the work that doesn’t fit into your weekly schedule. This could be done by setting up an automation that does it for you, hiring a part-time employee or freelancer, and sometimes, you’ll just have to delete it. Or if that idea gives you anxiety, move it to a list that you don’t see and you can circle back in the future.
