Leverage Management for Excellent Productivity

Archimedes, the Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer and inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse once said, “Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, I move the earth.” Imagine you’re lifting a ball weighing 20 000 kilograms. Lifting such weight is impossible and you risk irreparable injury. But you can lift the same object with a device, such as a jack, onto which you will transfer the weight and then lift it. That’s the beauty of leverage management.

The same applies to your business and career. You can accomplish a lot: excellent efficiency, productivity and profitability plus lower risks – when you apply leverage.

Let’s delve into the intricacies of leverage management in time management.

What does leverage in management mean?

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Financial leverage is when an investor borrows capital as a funding source to invest in various assets. An investor uses leverage to increase his buying power in the market. Instead of using bonds and stock to raise capital, the companies use debt to invest in business operations and increase shareholder value.

In management, leverage involves the various methods and techniques that contribute to and yield the best results for the company’s growth and success.

 

 

How can we leverage time management?

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The bottom line of every business venture is to increase output. Every business activity has a value, and the more you increase the value of such an activity, the more you increase business value. Leverage multiplies value.

Thus, leverage management translates to improving the leverage of any activity to multiply its output by a large factor. Hypothetically, if delegation has a value of 10%, leveraging that activity could yield 70% of value.

As an example, to save time and boost productivity, you can regulate the number of subordinates who report to you. As a supervisory manager, to boost the value of leveraging activities, you should have between six and eight subordinates to allow you enough time to manage effectively. The Project Management Institute recommends six-10 team members.

Ensure effective planning and monitoring but do not micromanage your team. Do you have difficulties managing and monitoring your employees who work in shifts? TimeTrack Duty Roster is an innovative shift planning tool to help you automatically create duty roaster based on your preferences.

 

Quick tips

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To leverage time management, focus your time on the things you do best that create the biggest impact. Leverage other people’s time and capabilities for better results and higher productivity. Do the following to effectively leverage your time management:

• Eliminate non-essential activities and focus your attention on completing the most important activities.
• Prioritize critical and urgent tasks to focus your energy on activities that pay the greatest return on investment.
• Setting targets over a long period of time keeps your workforce motivated to achieve results.

Dos and don’ts of leverage management

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 Dos of leverage management

• Do periodic reviews by engaging your team.
• Do work toward becoming a good listener.
• Do foster and reward excellent team results.
• Do make your team understand you care about their interests.
• Do understand that your best resources are the people around you.

Don’ts of leverage management

• Don’t assume what you hear about others is true: always investigate.
• Don’t be defensive when you receive criticism.
• Don’t take credit for other people’s work or allow others to do the same.
• Don’t encourage individualism over team development.
• Don’t compromise your principles or professional ethics.

Time leverage for greater productivity

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Set agile goals

Agile goal-setting means that objectives are measurable and designed to accommodate several iterations. Goals become effective when you have key performance indicators to assess success.

Be clear on key performance indicators

You save more time when you understand the key performance indicators you want to measure upfront. Be specific about results and define the criteria for success.

Leverage specialists

Don’t spend the entire time achieving little when you can employ the help of experts. Outsourcing or delegating gives you time to focus on your areas of strength.

Use technology

Technology makes everything easier. Save time and increase efficiency and productivity with the effective use of the latest technology. Use project management and time-tracking software like TimeTrack. If your company lacks transparency with time-tracking, stop wasting hours on manual transcribing and use TimeTrack Timesheet to monitor your employees’ attendance, breaks and working hours.

Leverage project management

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Avoid being everywhere and ending up doing little or nothing. Understand that your attention, time and decision-making capacity are limited. This means prioritization becomes the key to achieving anything.

With leverage, you can achieve more with minimal efforts.

Plan and delegate

Have you ever tried to juggle a mental to-do list? It is futile, saps energy and could make you miss deadlines. A daily calendar with time slots should be your first plan of action where you can streamline tasks for a better outcome.

Delegation is one of the most leveraged activities because of its ability to multiply influence. It helps you to enhance the output of your employees or subordinates, thereby improving efficiency.

Communicate concisely

Communication is key – is the oft-said phrase. With good reason. Excellent communication can motivate the team, keep everyone on track and quickly and easily solve problems. When you communicate with precision, you alleviate the need for micromanaging.

Connect people

Connect the dots and people in your organization. You know virtually everyone, and as a manager, you know those from one department who are relevant to staff in another department. Bring them together in a team to leverage their knowledge and skills.

Timebox non-essential tasks

Keep your to-do list handy and refer to it often. It will help you assess the time needed to complete a task and if there’s a need for delegation. Where there are low-value activities, block out time for them, especially when the most important tasks are yet to be completed.

Allow levels of control

While you monitor to ensure people do what they are supposed to, allow some levels of freedom. Avoid extremely close supervision because this is just a time thief.

It is good to aspire to be the best but you must not stifle the creativity of your team by falling into the perfectionism trap where you insist on every last detail being exquisite perfection. Strive for excellence but be realistic with time and resources for productive leverage management.

Encourage employees

In a fast-paced workplace, everyone is busy. The problem is that such an environment could hamper innovation. Staff may have ideas but will keep to themselves unless prompted. Encourage them to speak up when they have great ideas.

Conclusion

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Leverage management is the best way to make an impact, especially because your actions affect your team. You can leverage your time or others’ capabilities through outsourcing and delegation to maximize opportunities toward achieving improved results.