by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Links to other parts of the miniseries:
Duplicate yourself â Part 1
Duplicate yourself â Part 2
Duplicate yourself â Part 3
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 27 seconds.
TODAYâS IDEA: Duplicate yourself â Part 4
— From Work Less, Make More: Stop Working So Hard and Create the Life You Really Want! By Jennifer White
Welcome to the 4th and last part of this miniseries. So far weâve learned how and what to duplicate, and todaysâ idea will focus on knowing when duplication works.
This is very important, because part of planning for anything is figuring out what success will look like. To address this specifically, Jennifer White the author, writes:
Take a holiday where you cut yourself from the office. [âŚ] It takes courage to trust the folks you put in place. When you get back from your sabbatical, youâll be able to see what falls apart, what doesnât get done correctly, and what is substandard work. Itâll give you insights into where your duplication process works and where it doesnât.
Will you ever be free unless you duplicate who you are? Youâll never know when you are free because youâve been unwilling to test the system. Knowing that the system works gives you a sense of relief when youâre not working. Youâll certainly make more of your life without carrying all that guilt.Â
Most people donât have the courage to test their duplication system. They donât want to feel superfluous. They want to feel as if the whole world would crash around them if they werenât there.
[âŚ] Donât hinder your ability to Work Less, Make More by needing to feel needed. You want to feel superfluous. You want to be taken out of the picture. You want to have such strong people around you that you no longer have to worry that the jobâs getting done.
Itâs the only way to free yourself up to live the life you want to live. Donât worry. Youâll find more interesting, exciting things to propel yourself forward, and you have the space to be the creative force behind your future success. Think duplication.â
This reminds me of the process that lifestyle design guru Tim Ferriss created to be able to let his business work without him. He duplicated himself by creating systems, training a team and setting up the technology(ies) needed to make this happen. You can read all about this in his bestselling book The 4-Hour Workweek. (Here’s a post on productivity from that book.) Ferriss says that if your goal is to âfree your time to focus on bigger and better things [âŚ] itâs not about working smarter. Itâs about building a system to replace yourself. [âŚ] Preparing someone to replace you (even if it never happens) will produce an ultrarefined set of rules that will cut remaining fat and redundancy from your schedule. Lingering unimportant tasks will disappear as soon as someone else is being paid to do them.â
Another entrepreneur who duplicated and âoutsourcedâ himself was Chris Ducker. He did it in about a year. And he did it with a virtual team and systems. As a result of blogging his journey to fulfill his goal of becoming a virtual CEO, he eventually launched Virtual Staff Finder, a company that helps busy people find virtual assistants. You can read about his journey and how to get help from virtual assistants in his book Virtual Freedom.
ACTION
TODAY: Jennifer White suggests doing this great exercise: âDraw a line down the middle of a blank sheet of paper. Write delegate on the left side of the page. Write duplicate on the right side. Evaluate each task you do. Can you delegate this task or should you train someone to duplicate. Donât stop until the entire list is done. Youâve just developed a planâonce you have the right technology and people in placeâto allow yourself to take three months off without losing money. Itâs up to you to put the plan into action.â
FUTURE: If you like this concept of duplicating yourself to work less or simply work on other things that bring you more rewards and satisfaction, give some serious thought to duplicating yourself to free up time and space in your life.
Hope you enjoyed this miniseries! đ Please share it with someone who would like the idea of duplication. You can do so via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Links to other parts of the miniseries:
Duplicate yourself â Part 1
Duplicate yourself â Part 2
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 44 seconds.
TODAYâS IDEA: Duplicate yourself â Part 3
— From Work Less, Make More: Stop Working So Hard and Create the Life You Really Want! By Jennifer White
In this miniseries weâve been talking about the importance of âduplicatingâ parts of yourself, and so far weâve learned what is and is not duplication, as well as what to look for in our âclones.â Today we will determine what to duplicate and how to do so.
While duplicating yourself could possibly entail hiring someone, Jennifer White (the author) says, âthatâs limited thinking.â She explains: âYou can find the right people who will become partners, vendors, suppliers, strategic allies, independent contractors or employees.â
When you hire employees, you naturally have to deal with a lot of other issues: salaries, taxes, vacations, and so much more. White says you shouldnât box yourself into thinking that. Instead, â think about creating a virtual support team. A team you personally select to duplicate parts of who you are.â Technology today enables us to do this and much more.
On Part 1 you answered the questions that enabled you to figure out which qualities in yourself you need/want to duplicate. Now you need to look at the abilities that you need to duplicate. âWhat is it that these folks will do? Look at the three most important things you do, the activities that add the most value. Within each area, a multitude of items must get done.â
White gives the example of connecting with customers. Letâs assume you are a master at that. Then a very important part of building and maintaining those relationships with your customers is the follow up phase (phone, email, etc.) âWhat if you could train someone or something to duplicate your follow up process? It would happen automaticallyâwithout your doing one thingâand the customers will feel cared for because the follow up was way beyond their expectations.”
ATTENTION HERE: weâre talking duplicating and not delegating the follow-up process. âThe difference is that the person/system you create duplicates exactly what you would do if you were to do it. Itâs not about you dictating a letter that your assistant types. In that case youâre still doing the work. Duplication means you do not do anything to generate what needs to get done. Nothing.â
Was that last ânothingâ appealing but sounded too good to be true? Here are some possibilities for duplicating this example of a follow-up process:
- The right person. Someone who could be an employee, independent contractor or customer service rep can follow up for you. âThis person has the exact same personality that you do so the customers feel as if they were talking to you.â
- Hiring a salesperson. This person would handle the contact from first visit to sale. While this normally happens when companies are in the growth stage, White asks, âWhy wait until that happens?â
- An automated system. This sends letters, emails, etc., at specified times as follow up. The system duplicates the process. When we feel overwhelmed or overloaded, it is natural to ask who can help you. White, however, suggests you ask a better question: âHow can I automate this so no one has to do it?â
As you can see, there are many ways in which you can duplicate yourself and what you do. Both technology and manpower exist at very reasonable costs nowadays to be able to do it, even if you are a solopreneur.
ACTION
TODAY: Jot down the areas that you could potentially duplicate. While itâs counterintuitive, those things that nobody does as well as you do, are exactly what you should duplicate to enlarge your reach, grow your practice, have more time, or whatever your goals are. Once youâve found out what you want to duplicate, then come up with at least 3 ways to duplicate that activity. White says, âThink in terms of technology and people. How can you automate the process? Who can you bring to your team to duplicate you?â
TOMORROW: Come back to read Part 4 to learn how to know when duplication works!
FUTURE: Keep jotting down the ideas that come to mind about parts of you that you can duplicate with people, systems and/or technology. Remember that there is no such thing as a shortage of ideas. The more parts you duplicate successfully, the more freedom you will have to spend your time and energy in the pursuit of other (related or unrelated) goals.
Please share Part 3 of “Duplicate yourself” with someone who could use a little duplication, you can do so via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Links to other parts of the miniseries:
Duplicate yourself â Part 1
Duplicate yourself â Part 3
Duplicate yourself â Part 4
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 14 seconds.
TODAYâS IDEA: Duplicate yourself â Part 2
— From Work Less, Make More: Stop Working So Hard and Create the Life You Really Want! By Jennifer White
In yesterdayâs post we learned that we can, and should, âduplicateâ parts of ourselves to increase our output and âmake more,â as the title of the book suggests (Work Less, Make More). This does not only refer to money, but also to time, and to the freedom to make the most out of life for ourselves and our goals and dreams.
So letâs jump right in: How do you go about finding the right people to duplicate you?
Jennifer White, the author, has outlined a few aptitudes and attitudes that people should have in order to substitute you well. Give this some thought as you go about this process. (Note: This will help you figure out WHO will duplicate you if you can go that route. However, donât get discouraged or stop reading this miniseries, since we will also consider WHAT (technology/systems) can duplicate you).
1. Find people who have the right personality for your chemistry. As we saw yesterday, your same chemistry needs to be present in the person that will duplicate you. Find someone with the same characteristics and âdonât downplay the importance of working with folks who have the same chemistry as you.â
2. Find people who have a track record. Peopleâs track records speak for themselves. âSaying you can do something is different from actually doing it. Find people who have already done what you most need. They could bring a new twist or a new idea to what youâve been doing for so long.â
3. Find people who are willing to commit to the long term. âDeveloping a powerful relationship requires that youâre both committed to the same vision and the same long-term plan. The last thing you want to do is to train people to duplicate you, and then they jump ship. Be very clear on what you expect from them, and find a way to determine what they want.â
4. Find people who are coachable. âA vital part of duplicating yourself effectively is training. Select folks who are coachable. Theyâre open to looking at their performances and improving them. Youâll become their coach to ensure theyâll duplicate what you want duplicated. If youâre not willing to coach and train people how to duplicate you, donât bother looking for the right people. Their success does depend on how much time, energy, and passion you invest in them.â
5. Find people who have the right attitude. âMake sure when youâre looking for the right people that they have a positive mental attitude. Thereâs nothing as frustrating as working with people who donât see the positive side of things. No matter how brilliant they are, their bad attitude will wear you down. If you find the right attitude, you can usually teach the rest.â
One final note on this before we move on to Part 3 tomorrow: keep in mind that finding the right people takes time. âDo not rush this process and settle for just anyone. Duplicating a part of who you are is serious stuff. [âŚ] You canât settle for second best.”
ACTION
TODAY: At the end of the chapter in the book, White lists a few exercises to help us succeed at duplicating and at thinking about a few other things. Hereâs an important one that you can do today: âAsk yourself this question: âWhat parts of myself make me the most crazy?â Be clear on your weaknesses so you can identify them in other people as well. When you find the right person to duplicate a part of who you are, donât be surprised if they also duplicate the not-so-good parts. Are you prepared for that?â
TOMORROW: Come back to read Part 3 to learn how to determine what to duplicate, and how.
Please share Part 2 of “Duplicate yourself” with someone who could use a little duplication, you can do so via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Links to other parts of the miniseries:
Duplicate yourself â Part 2
Duplicate yourself â Part 3
Duplicate yourself â Part 4
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 46 seconds.
TODAYâS IDEA: Duplicate yourself â Part 1
— From Work Less, Make More: Stop Working So Hard and Create the Life You Really Want! By Jennifer White
Have you ever been so swamped with work that you wish you could clone yourself to get more done? Well, now you can.
How is this possible?!
In her excellent book Work Less, Make More, business guru and success coach Jennifer White states that you can (and should) duplicate yourself. But first, letâs get this straight: duplication is not delegation. âDelegating hinges on your finding the right person whose strengths are your weaknesses. A bookkeeper, for example, if youâre horrible with numbers. An assistant if you donât have time for filing, copying and computer work.â
Duplication is not âfinding the one person who is the exact replica of you.â Because, very likely, that person does not exist. You and your brilliance are unique, and White would not recommend putting your business or career into one personâs hands. Thatâs not effective, efficient or smart, and that is not duplication.
Duplication, the kind White is describing, is doubling, tripling, quadrupling a part (or several parts) of who you areâand thus your output in that areaâwithout investing more of your time. This will enable you to free up time and space for you to dedicate to other things, whether professional or personal in nature, that you want to pursue.
âIn order to duplicate, you must know yourself very well. You cannot just duplicate your abilities, but also parts of your personality. [âŚ] Successful duplication occurs when you find people who share similar qualities with you. Just as important, they share your brilliance.â
This last point is very important because these people will be taking over for you in certain areas, say, selling. If your clients are used to an upbeat, witty, funny you, then this person needs to share those same traits. You can hire someone who is quiet and knowledgeable, and who will share tons of charts and info with the clients to make a sale, but that is not duplication, that is just hiring another salesperson with a different approach and varied skills from yours. When duplicating yourself, your clients need to feel as is theyâre dealing with you: the same chemistry needs to be there.
What are the parts of yourself that you need to duplicate? White offers the next set of questions to get started in figuring that out:
1. What do you do easily and naturally?
2. What do your customers pay you for?
3. What does your company pay you for?
4. What have other people said youâre really good at?
5. What activities energize you?
6. What consumes you? You know, the stuff that lights your fire.
7. What do you really want to do on your days off?
8. What qualities and skills do you see in other people that you know you have?
White points out that duplication can only be successful when you find people who are as goodâor betterâthan you are. âDuplicating yourself requires that you leave your ego behind. It forces you to look at yourself and know yourself so well that you wonât feel threatened by someone whoâs as good as you are.â
The question that naturally follows after this is: âif they are better than I am, why are they willing to duplicate me?â
To this, White responds with two points. First, âYou bring some other incredible value to their lives that helps them become even better. You provide something they canât get anywhere else.â And second, âYouâre actually one step ahead of them because you understand that duplicating yourself comes down to finding people who are better than you are. So few people truly understand this and can see their own brilliance.â
So, how do you go about finding the right people to duplicate you? That is the topic for tomorrow. Stay tuned for Part 2!
ACTION
TODAY: Take a moment to answer the 8 questions above to figure out the parts of yourself that you need to duplicate. Think about your many personality traits. Think also about the ways and the style in which you approach things. What do you need to successfully duplicate? Preferably write down 10 areas for duplication. (Donât let the thought of 10 areas overwhelm you, and don’t think that youâll have to hire 10 people, in a subsequent post youâll learn that technology can also duplicate you, so if you are not in a position to hire, thatâs no problem, you can still duplicate yourself.)
TOMORROW: Come back to read Part 2 and learn more about the things you need to keep in mind for a successful duplication.
Please share Part 1 of “Duplicate yourself” with someone who could use a little duplication, you can do so via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Planning, Productivity, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 23 seconds.
TODAYâS IDEA: Minimal effort means avoiding work
— From 10-Minute Reflections: One Month Of Daily Exercises That Will Spark Growth In Your Business by Graham Binks
This book is a very quick read of daily exercises to make us think about business in a different way. The author, Graham Binks, is an expert in helping businesses get the best out of their technology investments. He has worked with numerous business leaders, who often ask, âHow do we know weâre doing enough?â To what his answer is, âStart by making sure youâre not doing too much.â
Whaaaaaat?!
Yes. To optimize processes, you and your team need to be doing the minimal effort necessary. But please note that this doesnât mean a mediocre effort at allâon the contraryâit means the best effort without wasting any of it. Thus, avoiding work that turns out to be unnecessary and wasteful, and that could be geared to other productive efforts instead.
Binks shares that when you are planning a successful outcome and think through the steps required in the process, youâll naturally go from start to finish. And when youâre repeating work that someone in your team has done in the past, they can vouch for the steps taken previously.
âBut if you havenât perfected this kind of work (or your team hasnât experienced it at all), thereâll be guesswork in the plan. And with guesswork comes extraneous effort.â In his experience, Binks has seen many plans that specified work that turned out to be detached from the critical outcomes of the project.
Thus, he offers a simple review exercise for you and your team âto make sure your projects arenât wasteful.â This works best with projects when the planning phase is nearly finishedâbefore the actual work startsâor you can apply it as a debriefing exercise on finished projects to see what will work best in the future.
Exercise: Being Minimalist
1. List the 10 project activities that took the most effort to complete in the following way:
#1 _________________ Rank___ Skip?___
#2 _________________ Rank___ Skip?___
Etc.
2. Above, rank these activities by their importance to the project outcomeâhighest contribution to lowest.
3. Starting with the lowest ranked activity, ask whether the project would have been a success if this activity had been skipped.
If the answer is âYes!â, congratulations. Youâve found an activity that is not required on the plan. Take it out and save everyone time and energy. Then repeat the exercise with the next activity up the list.
Sometimes, what seems to be a simple exercise can reveal profound inefficiencies. Hope this helps optimize your projects and simplify your effort for a better outcome!
ACTION
TODAY: Think of a project youâre about to start or one that you repeat often. Go through this exercise to find the optimal path to completion.
FUTURE: As youâre planning for projects, or as you finish them, go through this exercise to make sure youâre not doing too much (avoiding wasteful efforts) and your project is running as optimally and as smoothly as possible!
Know someone who needs to optimize their projects? Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Collaboration, Goals, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Productivity, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 19 seconds.
TODAYâS IDEA: Communication Overhead
â From The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman
Business guru, Josh Kaufman, recalls working at Procter & Gamble on a project that needed the input and approval of dozens of people. He spent three months trying to put together a workable proposal due to juggling different ideas, arguments over different approaches, and people wanting credit without doing much work. And in those three months nothing else got done! Almost all of his time was spent on communicating with other members of the group.
âCommunication overhead is the proportion of time you spend communicating with members of your team instead of getting productive work done.â
Kaufman says, âThereâs a reason high-performing surgical teams, military units, and sports teams tend to be small and focused: too much time spent in communication and coordination can kill a teamâs effectiveness.â
The larger your team, the more you have to communicate with each of its members to coordinate action. âAs the number of people you work with increases, Communication Overhead increases geometrically until the total percentage of time each individual must devote to group communication approaches 100%. After a certain threshold, each additional team member diminishes the capacity of the group to do anything other than communicate.â
Whatâs the solution?
Work with the smallest possible team: âStudies of effective teamwork usually recommend working in groups of three to eight people,â says Kaufman. âYouâll be leaving people out, but thatâs the pointâincluding them is causing more work than itâs creating in benefits. Removing unnecessary people from the team will save everyoneâs time and produce better results.â
Finally, Kaufman shares Derek Sheane’s â8 Symptoms of Bureaucratic Breakdownâ which appear in his book Beyond Bureaucracy. They are indicative of teams suffering from Communication Overhead:
1. The Invisible Decision. No one knows how or where decisions are made, and there is no transparency in the decision-making process.
2. Unfinished Business. Too many tasks are started but very few carried through to the end.
3. Co-ordination Paralysis-Nothing can be done without checking with a host of interconnected units.
4. Nothing New. There are no radical ideas, inventions or lateral thinking-a general lack of initiative.
5. Pseudo-Problems. Minor issues become magnified out of all proportion.
6. Embattled Center. The center battles for consistency and control against local/regional units.
7. Negative Deadlines. The deadlines for work become more important than the quality of the work being done.
8. Input Domination. Individuals react to inputsâi.e. whatever gets put in their in-trayâas opposed to using their own initiative.
ACTION
TODAY: Do you work with a team? How big is it? Take a moment to think how can you break it up into smaller units/teams to be more efficient.
FUTURE: As you embark on new projects that require teamwork, think of ways in which you can make the teams as lean as possible.
Be a good teammate and please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
