The Intrinsic Value of Strategic Work

The concept of Strategic Work is critical to the success of your long-term business development. So what exactly is Strategic Work, and just why is it so important?

At E-Myth, we make a very clear distinction between what we call "Tactical Work" and "Strategic Work." We say that for a business to grow and thrive, and to realize your vision and fuel your larger goals, you must always be focused on Strategic work - which is the work that will result in a transformation of your business, rather than just the maintenance of the status quo.

The point of performing Strategic Work is to allow you to break free from what we call the cycle of just "doing it, doing it, doing it," because being stuck in that cycle will never lead to any business achievements. In other words, performing Strategic Work will lead to sustainable business results, while just performing the technical work won’t.

The Challenges to Performing Strategic Work

Knowing how to do Strategic Work is a key factor in a business leader’s ability to move away from the drudgery of daily Technical Work. Strategic work is the act of formulating, declaring, and maintaining the long-term vision for your business, and understanding that the success of your business depends on your people’s ability to create, maintain, and continuously improve how your business operates. But if Strategic Work is essential to creating a positive change in your business, why is it so difficult to do on a consistent basis?

We are a time challenged society, which you, as business owners and leaders, know only too well. We have so much to do, so many deals to close, so many employees to manage, so many customers to serve, so many emergencies to avert, so many financial statements to review, and so many computer glitches to fix, that it becomes nearly impossible to set aside even one hour per day for Strategic Work. How can this be? How is it possible that we cannot seem to squeeze in the time it takes to do even a little bit of Strategic Work?

Breaking Through the Barriers

Could the reason be that we simply need to change our way of thinking? Or that we have gotten so comfortable in our role as the technician that we feel awkward changing our way of doing things? Whatever the cause, it is crucial to break through any insecurities, fears, or other factors that hold you back, and instead, to strengthen the belief that it is our responsibility as the leaders of our business to do the Strategic Work.

What we can learn from successful business leaders is that almost all of them have felt uncomfortable in performing some aspect of their Strategic Work, yet they all understood the importance of it, and took the time to do it, and to do it well. The lesson is that while technical skill is necessary, it is simply not enough. It is in doing the necessary Strategic Work on your business that you will find the catalyst for sustained innovation and success.

Remember, having a vision is important, but realizing that vision requires the Strategic Work of working ON your business, not just IN it.

Hello,
I am a business owner of a small physio practice. I know exactl where I want my business to go, the thing i find most difficult is (sorry to be boring) Time. If I am not "doing it, doing it" there is reduced income to cover my living costs. What are your views on this challenge? Any suggestions will be most helpful.

Thank You
John
Physotherapist

People won't take the time to fill out a survey on a site that they're not interested in. There could be many reasons why they don't leave. Why do they come in the first place? What is the context of the visit? Are they there because of a google ad? Does it accurately reflect what the visitor will see once they get there? Is your site designed poorly? Nothing will put off your audience faster than bad design.

What's the url? We are a full-serivce website design and marketing company...we might be able to offer some quick suggestions for you to try.

You can see some samples of our work here http://www.pdxdesignlab.com

Troy Stange

Hi there, based on our experience and industry expertise, it takes less than 6 seconds to really captivate your visitor. if the information on the page does not clearly define what you want them to do next you are losing them. Keep things simple and easy to read with the appropriate call to action. Visit our beta site going ive shortly and you will see what we mean...we don't use pop up technology, we don't use banner ads, free give aways, we simply put...humanize the web and get real people to do what we need to do,our old site hdmedia.ca has a very low bounce rate and we generate a lot of traffic and results online. Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Bruno Marsala

president HD Media Creations

www.hdmediacorp.com

You have found out one of the flaws with analytics. It can tell you people are leaving, but not why.

The following is not a "duh" statement. You are not appealing to the needs or emotions of the people who bounce. Surveys are not always effective because people do not always answer them honestly.

I recommend that you get the book "Waiting for the Cat to Bark" by Bryan and Jefferey Eisenberg.

Also, go to this site http://www.grokdotcom.com/ and start reading the blog posts on the link called Improving Conversions, about 1/4 of the way down the page.

Hard to say. Pop-ups are so annoying and suspicious; I NEVER touch them. Could there be a way that you could find out the search words visitors use, and subsequently get directed to your website are? Maybe when they find your website, it isn't what they had in mind. Or maybe your website is unnatractive-- can't hurt to have a marketing specialist or an artist have a look at it and give you some honest feedback.

I couldn't agree more. It's all about taking the time to do the strategic work to move the business forward. I have an appointment set with my "team" every Friday to ensure that I get to the strategic work that will grow my business - looking at what trends my finances are showing, reviewing the results of marketing efforts, distilling client feedback, etc.

As well, most of the work that we do with clients is helping them to take technology out of the "necessary expense" role to a more strategic role.

So, we're surrounded by the strategic mind set. One word of caution though, you don't want to spend too much time on strategy that you're not spending time on actions - getting things done!

Lena L. West
http://www.xynoMedia.com

CURRENTLY I AM THE OWNER/OPERATOR OF A SMALL WATER TREATMENT WATER STORE. I AM STUCK. I WANT TO ORGANIZE AND MOVE INTO A MORE STREAMLINED LOOK AND PROFESSIONAL LOOKING STORE. I AM LOST. I GET OVERWHELMED AND REVERT TO BEING THE TECHNICIAN. I AM SURE I AM AFRAID OF THE ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS REPRESENTATIVE. GOING BUSINESS TO BUSINESS IS WHAT I KNOW I NEED TO DO, BUT AM NOT SURE HOW TO DO IT. HELP

Don't let your fear stop you from doing what you think would be the right thing to do. The worst that can happen is that someone will say no.

Customers understand the role of a public relations representative. You have a right to earn a living. They have a right to say no. And, if no is truely the answer, move along. It's nothing personal. There are a lot of fish in the ocean. Go and get them.

We are in the process of implmenting 2 types of incentives in addition to bonuses.

The first is for the management board. We defined the value of the business as of December 31, 2007. Upon retirement, they will receive a structured payout of their portion of the increased value from that date. 50% of the increased value goes into the boards pool and 50% plus the original value is retained by the owners.

The second is profit sharing that every employee is entitled to. It is given quarterly. The pool of money is calculated by the formula (cash + contracted receivable profits) / (monthly fixed costs). This gives what I call Months Of Viability (MOV), or length of time we can keep the doors open if nothing more came in. If it is higher than a set minimum, the pool of profit sharing = 50% of (actual MOV - minimum MOV) as long as there is at least enough cash to cover 1.5 months fixed costs.

Third is the rather arbitrary bonuses which we are disposing of except to reward specific work above and beyond the call of duty.

We'll see how well this works next year when it is implemented!

i cannot agree more with what you say, yet i am completely guilty. i am a multi-business owner & need to remind myself growth & success is fostered out of being in "my zone" looking forward. looking what i really know needs to be done & actually doing it. otherwise forget it!

best, ali

This is a tough one. To give a good overall suggestion one would have to know how your salary structure works. In any case, here a very broad suggestion: Create a salary structure that will address and maybe encompass travel time. The important thing is, that no matter what you decide, it definitely needs to be laid out in your employee manual in a clear and concise manner.

The first question is: Does the lessor want you to come up with the money upfront. If so, that's alot of money. BTW, as a start-up business I recommend you not to get into a long-term lease. And also, you do have the right to negotiate. An example of a good lease for a start-up would be this: 1 year lease with the option to renew at the same rate. There are so many questions that invovle this process. Be careful for triple-nets.

A good resource for you would be to visit your local Small Business Development Center. It is usually free advise paid for by our tax payer dollars. Hopes this helps some.

Very Exciting topic!

I especially enjoyed the final paragraph where opperations are referred to as a game.

In our business we use a game board with "B-I-N-G-O" typed accross the top. The 5 X 5 board with 25 boxes forms a opperational map.

Each box has a task wich must be performed on a weekly basis. As the employee performs the tasks, she x's out the box. Five in a row earns a "BINGO" and a prize. A blackout wins an additional prize. The first person with a blackout wins an even greater prize. (May I suggest Starbucks gift cards and gasoline gift cards.)

Opperations is an easy aspect of the business when you approach it this way.

Feel free to contact me if you need help creating a system like this. I am not a "consultant" or anything other than a person who enjoys helping others. I have found I also often learn much in the process.

Shem Isaac
shem_isaac@hotmail.com

I can appreciate how difficult it is to accept the concept of starting over. But if you are a business owner and you know you need to make changes you will have to take the risk and move ahead. Some of your employees may quit or you may have to terminate some who have been with your company a long time. I think that if you are open and honest with your employees they will probably stay on and find new way to grow.

I have been working on making changes in our company for over five years. We are a family owned business and I have many times thought my efforts were being wasted. But I keep "preaching" about improving our systems and I have slowly implemented weekly meetings and regular "one-on-one" meetings with all our employees. It has taken some time but we are finally moving in the right direction. Only one person (other than family) is still with us from five years ago. And we are better for it. The crew we have now are better trained and work harder and are receiving better compensation. Soon we will be able to bring on some more people as we grow and our current people will be able to manage more areas of the business.

I have made it clear that we want everyone to buy-in and we are going after a certain type of customer. That requires constant affirmation and a clear vision. We are still formulating our vision as a company, as a family. But this plan of action we have been working out for the last five years has given us direction and a better feeling of teamwork that we ever had before. Our old way wasn't working. It's hard to change, very hard! But change you must!

Sean

I have to agree with the concerns of the other writers. While it seems wonderful in theory to come up with amazing new systems which will make everyone's life easier and increase the productivity of the company (and I do agree with this philosophy wholeheartedly) I do have some questions about how this would actually unfold in the real world.

I am in the process of leaving a company which has HUGE growth potential and some amazing employees. They/we consist of a dozen different people doing the same thing a dozen different ways every day. I can easily see that this is one of the main hinderances to this company moving ahead.

I myself have pushed my department as far as I can in the direction of operating in a systematic way and can go no further without support from management which I have given up on receiving (hence my decision to move on). However when I look at the task of getting buy in from employees who have been doing things "their way" for years and consider how impossible it is to get buy in for even the simplest changes, I can see why my employer is afraid to even attempt such a restructuring and so continues to focus on "managing people" and working "in" his company. (another reason for my decision to move on). I'd love to hear some first hand experiences that other have had. Surely replacing all the employees with new ones is not the answer.

i think your article on management is a terrific motivator. what i would like to hear more about is how you work with employees whlie you are developing the systems in your business to give you the results you desire.

I have experienced that each time i wish to implement improvements to my management systems the employees are very reluctant to accomodate these changes and it usually ends up with that employee moving on and having to start again with someone new who is open to the new system. is this just a part of the adolescent business model or is it s function of my systems approach.?

regards liz

I have exactly the same qestion as Liz.

We have experienced the same results that she mentions, eitehr it is too much for the old employees to"get their head around" so they either don't make the adjustments or leave - leaving you with new ones who are willing to try anything as they don't knoww "the old ways" or the "good old days" when things werer easier for THEM.

I've just started Mastery Impact and am hoping the answers are going to present themselves :-)

Best, Rick

This is a great article. If you are feeling frustration in your business and realize it needs to change then maybe some or most of the 25 employees are feeling it too and secretly are hip hooraying that finally the boss is going to get their act together!

Comments: