Which Hat Makes You The Most Money

You wear a lot of hats, don't you!  Some of those hats are a lot of fun!  You really enjoy putting it in place and sporting it around!  It's your image and makes your feel good! 

There are some hats you probably wish you could throw into the trash!  And others that you would gladly share with someone else!  As a matter of fact you have tried many times to get rid of one of those hats, but the rest of the staff keeps bringing it back and putting it square on your pretty little head!

If you are a business owner, according to Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth, you wear at least three hats;
1. Technician
2. Manager
3. Entrepreneur
That would be great if it was only three hats.  But do you find yourself needing to add sales manager, sales person, HR director, maintenance, marketing director, IT personnel and the list goes on and on and on.

But what if you're not the owner!  You just "work here."  There is still a good chance you are wearing several hats.  OK.. quit laughing!  We all know you ARE wearing hats that your boss doesn't even know about!  His beloved company would go down the toilet if you weren't taking care of some really important things that require a hat!

Did you know the number one employee complaint is unclear job description and expectation?  That's right.  Most employees do not have a clear idea of exactly what their superior expects of them.  They live in a foggy blog of "I think so" job responsibility.

And it goes deeper and costlier!  Because position responsibility is not clear nor tied directly to income producing ramifications, hours upon hours of busy-work, that have no productivity benefit, are charged to the company and it sabotages their profitability.  In English, what I'm saying is you have highly skilled sales professionals or tech experts wearing part time hats as file clerks and paper shufflers.

Here is what you can do about it!

Hats should fall into three categories;
1. Primary Responsibilities - When I have this hat on, I'm the most productive for my company.  My marketable skills are being used at their optimum level.

2. Secondary Support Responsibilities - This hat supports my ability to wear my primary hat.  It has a direct correlation to helping me do what I do best!  But I can take it off in a minute should my primary calling pop up!

3. Ongoing Responsibilities - I ONLY wear this hat after I'm done with the others.  It NEVER or rarely takes time away from Primary or Secondary.

Make sure your staff is clear about where they should be spending their time and priorities.  Ask them to recite back to you what they think you want them to be doing on a daily and weekly basis.  Let them know what is first, second and third on that priority list.  That gives them the tools to make great time management decisions quickly!

The barrenness of busyness (wearing hat number 3) is the number one enemy of a busy professional. 

DON'T EVER let someone just drop a hat on your head!  You CHOOSE the hat you wear!


Scott Carley
Putting YOU in charge of your schedule


We are currently training offices all over Austin and Georgetown with affordable weekly Time Management training.  Contact information is available to verify the remarkable impact it has had on the productivity in each office.  If you are ready to ramp up your production by getting your staff on track with focused work, please contact me for a free 18 question assessment.