The British are still a little suspicious of those with talent while greatly admiring gifted amateurs who seem to take things less seriously. Elsewhere, there is a greater willingness to recognize and reward talented people. In Germany and France, for example, professionally qualified people have a much higher standing in society. But staying ahead of the competition is no longer simply a question of finding a neat niche or making things cheaper than anyone else. Such advantages are unlikely to last long anyway. They depend on having people talented enough to spot the opportunities in the first place.
'Some, perhaps most, organizations are totally dependent on identifying, nurturing and retaining talented people in order to survive,' says Sadler. 'The long-term success of the business in attracting, retaining, developing, motivating and utilizing the best talent in its field is likely to be the biggest single factor in determining its long-term commercial viability.'
The research highlighted ten fundamentals for the successful management of talent:
- Provide a clear sense of direction and purpose
- Develop an appropriate organizational framework
- Understand your culture
- Identify future requirements for talent
- Develop recruitment and selection strategies
- Identify high potential
- Retain your talent
- Set clear objectives and ensure they are met
- Motivate and develop your talent
- Evaluate your talent.
You may also spend a lot of needless time travelling. It is a good idea to meet customers face to face, but in many instances other journeys could well be avoided. Use technology; send someone else; get them to come to you. Obviously sales calls are essential. But there is little point travelling 200 miles to meet someone who is not in a position to buy your product or service. You have to ensure that such visits really count.
- Prioritizing. You need to prioritize your actions. This is worth doing on a daily basis. At the start of the day, write down a list of things you must do today, could do today. And others, which need to be done some time. You will have to continually decide what is the best use of your time. There is no formula. It is down to you to decide whether an hour's filing is better than an hour updating your customer base.
- Telephone calls Telephone calls can be the bane of your life. Every time you sit down to concentrate on something the phone rings and you spend ten minutes sorting something else out. Clearly, you have to take urgent or important calls. But if you work at home, use an answer phone to give you a chance to get some work done. If you are in an office, make it clear when you can't be disturbed and whose calls should be put through. When you are making telephone calls it is a good idea to do them in batches. Making four or five calls one after the other is far more effective than spreading them out through the day.
Gerard Hargreaves, Dorothy Morfett and Geraldine Brown, Making Time, BBC Books, London, 1993
- Setting realistic targets for work and ordinance. Key to all of this is to be realistic about the targets you set yourself. If your 'to do today' list extends to five pages it is unlikely you will ever achieve it in a month, let alone a single day. Your targets need to be reasonable and achievable. Otherwise you will end up perpetually disappointed with your own performance. It is also worth remembering that jobs usually take longer than you anticipate. Build this into the time you plan to take.
- Recording what you do It is helpful, at some stage, to analyze how you spend your time. This could take the form of a diary for a week. This doesn't have to be incredibly detailed. You could just split your work into a number of categories:
- sales calls
- administration
- internal meetings
- finances
- customers.
As your business develops, how you spend your time will change. At the start you are likely to be involved in almost everything. You will deliver products personally, be closely in touch with each and every customer, know where every penny has been spent. As the business grows, this will change. You will find that you spend less and less time directly involved in the nitty-gritty. Instead, your time is likely to be increasingly taken up with administration and finances. Many self-employed people are happy with this. They are probably tired of being the van driver, salesman, stamp buyer and managing director.
For others this change is disturbing. They don't want to be administrators or accountants, they want to get their hands dirty or meet customers. The key to solving this problem must be to identify what you enjoy doing and what you are good at. If you don't have the attention to detail to go through the VAT returns, the likelihood is that you are not doing them as thoroughly as you should. You need to identify where your skills would benefit the organization the most. You might, therefore, need to recruit a book-keeper or finance manager to look after the books while you spend more time with customers.
