How To Guarantee A Constant Pipeline Of Work
Today I want to explore with you why you might be letting go of and not spending enough time in the strategic, big picture thinking parts of your personality and sacrificing this to spend time in the ‘business-as-usual’ day to day activities.
My challenge to my clients who are engineering team leaders, business owners and the big picture thinkers in these organisations, is if you're not consciously creating the space and the time for you to get out of the office or to go somewhere to think big picture and to think strategically, what do you think that's going to do to the pipeline of work? What do you think that's going to do to the team underneath you? Are you ensuring that all of those people have jobs or have work to go on with in six or 12 months’ time?
And when you can reframe it like that, they're like, “Oh, yeah, I get it.”
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Hi everyone, Josh here.
Now today in today's video, I want to explore with you why you might be letting go of and not spending enough time in the strategic, big picture thinking parts of your personality and sacrificing this to spend time in the ‘business-as-usual’ day to day activities.
Now, when I work with leadership teams within engineering businesses and my engineering coaching clients, most of them are team leaders, most of them are market leaders, most of them are client relationship managers, most of them are senior project managers who are all responsible for the day-to-day running of their team.
But they're also responsible for big picture thinking, strategic thinking and looking at forward thinking about where their team's going, where their market sector's going and where the work's coming from. So, these individuals are tasked with not only winning work, bringing work into the business, but also managing the delivery of the day-to-day.
And so many of my clients who are in those quite senior roles, when I start to talk to them or ask them, well, how much time do you do you spend every day or every week in the strategic parts of your personality or in your big picture thinking parts of your personality? You know the answer, it’s zero.
They say - But I've got all this stuff to do. I've got all these emails to answer. I've got my team coming to me. I've got clients harassing me. I get all that. And I know, I've been there in terms of having those constant pressures from these day-to-day business-as-usual tasks. I know what you're going through. I know what you're experiencing.
But my challenge to these leaders and the big picture thinkers in these organisations, in these engineering companies that I'm working with, is if you're not consciously creating the space and the time for you to get out of the office or to go somewhere to think big picture, think strategically, what do you think that's going to do to the pipeline of work? What do you think that's going to do to the team underneath you? Are you ensuring that all of those people have jobs or have work to go on with in six or 12 months’ time?
And when you can reframe it like that, they're like, “Oh, yeah, I get it.”
So, the video today or content today is about - are you sacrificing the longevity of your team or your business and not spending enough time in the strategic, big picture thinking parts of your personality because you're getting bogged down in the day-to-day? And trust me, you can come up with a million different reasons and excuses and justifications for why spending time in the day-to-day business-as-usual tasks are important. And I've heard them all and I get it.
You know, those tasks can be really draining and they can be really important and they need you to act on them right away. But what you also need to do is look at ways you can delegate the business-as-usual day-to-day tasks to other people in your team or other people in your organisation and spend the time consciously thinking big picture, thinking strategically because that's your role.
And, you know, you've got into that role, you've got in that position because it probably actually energises you thinking big picture, thinking strategically. Where's this next package of work going? Where's my market sector going? What would be a really smart thing for me to do or who would I need to go and talk to in that organisation or that client or that government entity for a project that's coming up in 6, 12, 18 months’ time to position myself and my team as the frontrunners for that project. Guarantee no one else out there is doing this.
No one else is thinking like this. And if you wanna be a step ahead of you and your competitors, it's creating the time and the space to think strategically, bringing that big picture thinking back to your team – “Guys, girls, we've got a really good opportunity here, let's pull together a quick proposal, let's go and meet with that client, let's get in front of them and let's get way ahead of the curve.”
If you're having those conversations with your team, you are winning.
So my challenge for you today, out of this video, is if you know that you're not spending enough time in the strategic parts of your personality and you're getting bogged down in business-as-usual, day-to-day, work out ways you can spend at least two to three hours a week strategically thinking, big picture thinking, growing your team, growing your business.
Have an amazing day.
Live Out Loud
Josh Stone
PS: If you’re interested, here are 4 ways I can help you grow your engineering team and business:
- Download our FREE PDF guide – “Your Leadership Style”
Use this guide to unpack your own unique leadership style and to help you understand your team members main personality styles, their strengths, their work-ons and how to lead them more effectively – Click Here
- Book in a 15min Strategy Session
Let's work together to understand how we can help you, your team and your business generate an additional $1M plus in revenue, double your potential project pipeline and build a high performing engineering team through proven strategies, accountability and self-awareness – Click Here
- Join The Leadership Code our 8-week program
If you’re serious about getting real results and want deeper and more rewarding levels of success in your engineering career – I am putting together a new Leadership Code group next month. If you’d like to work with me and my team to hone and develop your winning work, client relationship, leadership and team performance skills… just send me an email at [email protected] and put “Leadership Code” in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.
- Have me work with you and your team privately
If you’d like me to work directly with you and your team and help you add an additional $1m plus in revenue to your business and double your project pipeline ... just send me an email at [email protected] and put “Private” in the subject line... tell me a little about your business, your role and your team and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!
