Ep#119 Is your business neglecting one of the 4 essential types of work that it needs to thrive?

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There are four types of work that must exist in any business. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a business of one or a business with hundreds of employees. These four types of work are present in all businesses and at all levels within the business.

Your business needs all four types of work in order to thrive and most entrepreneurs are neglecting one or more of the types of work that will help them grow.

Once you know what the five types of work are, you will immediately know which one is getting the most of your attention. Which one you aren’t giving any attention to and how to rebalance. 

How much of what you’re doing in your business right now is feeding your soul? How much if it is fuelling that entrepreneurial fire inside of you?

If we’re spending all our time in the day to day activities, the admin, checking emails, responding to queries, sitting in the line with suppliers for what feels like hours…we lose that spark that drives the entrepreneur inside of us. The visionary that our business needs in order to thrive. Those activities that bring out the best in us and that ultimately makes the biggest impact on moving the business towards our goals.

It’s important to know that there is no one type that is good or bad. They are all equally important in your business. What matters most is that we get ourselves to the ideal mix for our business and then if we have a team, to get everyone on the team into their ideal mix so that you can get into your ideal mix, which will allow you and everyone else to operate only within the areas that provide the most value to the business. Again, if you are the business right now, this is STILL relevant. I would argue that it is especially important if you're a solopreneur right now because operating in the ideal mix of these four work types will help you grow faster..

Let’s dive into the four types of work and what the ideal mix is for each inside your small business.

Doing

The first type of work is one we all know really well, DOING - this is the type of work where the most time is spent. This is where we (and our team) are executing tasks. We need to DO in order to deliver and give value to our customers. 

This is also the type of work where we can waste a lot of time if we’re not clear on what the most important work is. The DOING is also the type of work most business owners trap themselves in because they are the ones doing it all…all the time. With little to no time for the other types of work that are needed for the business to thrive. 

Examples of DOING are delivering to your clients, sending and responding to customer emails, keeping the books up to date, creating those social media posts or going to networking events to market your business. This is how we add value to our potential and current clients and ideally we want to be spending around 80% of our time in this type of work.

If you have a team (even if it is one team member) This doesn’t mean that YOU should be spending 80% of YOUR time as the business owner doing it. That might not be ideal for you. As we grow our team, what our ideal mix looks like for the four types of work will be different. 

Deciding

The Second type of work is DECIDING - we are doing “deciding work” when we have handed over a task but that person is only doing what we're telling them to do. They haven’t been given ownership of the outcome we want them to achieve which means that although they are doing the task, any decisions related to the outcome still falls on your shoulders. They are asking you - should I do this or that. Is it okay if I do it this way or do you want it that way. 

Making decisions is exhausting. It’s probably the highest taxing thing we can ask our brains to do. Staying stuck in this type of work is also the least efficient way of spending time in our business. Because there is usually a lot of wasted time waiting. Where your team is waiting for approval. Waiting for information. Waiting for feedback. Which is exhausting for the one that everyone is waiting on but also really frustrating to those waiting! 

Ideally, the business shouldn’t be spending more than 2% of its time on this type of work.

Delegating

The third type of work is DELEGATING - We are delegating when we assign responsibility for a specific outcome to someone. They own the outcome and any tasks associated with creating the outcome AND they are also responsible for making the decisions that are associated with those tasks. 

Once we have truly delegated something, we have released ourselves as the bottleneck. The more we delegate, the more independent our business becomes of us. 

The delegating type of work is the hardest for us because we believe that no one can do things as well as we can. Or that we won’t be able to find the type of skill needed for that kind of responsibility. It’s important to understand that delegating in itself is a process. We don’t just throw responsibilities at people. We train them, we guide them, and ultimately empower them with the information, authority, and confidence to take ownership.

This is the type of work many business owners aren’t willing to do because it always feels easier and faster to do things ourselves. But this mindset also keeps js stuck inside our businesses which is meant to free us, not imprison us.

We want to be spending about 8% of our time empowering our team, teaching them the skills,  guiding them to take ownership of an outcome.

Designing

The fourth type of work is DESIGNING. This is where we are strategizing and envisioning the future. We’re innovating new ideas and concepts. We are giving our attention and energy to being industry leaders. 

We spend a lot of time here in the beginning phases of our business and this is the first type of work that gets lost amidst the day to day of running the business.

But designing is like cashflow in the business. It’s the lifeblood. It’s the type of work that keeps our business relevant and ensures that we’re always providing our clients with the highest level of service.

We want to spend around 10% of our time DESIGNING.

These four types of work make up the value your business is adding to the marketplace. Someone needs to be functioning in one of these areas. Each type is important.

Let’s Recap

The four types of work and their optimum mix inside a business is

Doing 80%

Deciding 2% 

Delegating 8% and 

Designing 10%

If you want to set your business up to run without you, you have to get the mix right. I do a specific time tracking exercise with my clients so they can see exactly what their current 4D mix is but most business owners know immediately where they are falling short.

The more you are personally involved in the doing, the less free you are from your business. And if you love doing certain activities inside the business then we want to make sure that the things you are doing are making the highest contribution to the business as a whole AND that those things also light up your soul.

What does working in the optimal 4D Mix look like?

Here’s an example of what spending time in each type of work could look like. Let’s assume you’re allocating 30 hours a week to your business. 

If you're working 30 hours per week. You want to aim for spending 24 in the doing. And at least 3 hours designing.

2,5 hours delegating (and if you don’t have a team you can utilise this time to capture and document how you do things in your business so that you make delegating or outsourcing easier on yourself and your new team member in the future.

Reflection Prompt

Now that you know what the four types of work are, Where are you spending your time?

If you recognise that you need to make some shifts, I recommend you start small. Start with 1% shifts towards that ideal 80/2/8/10 mix.

I want to also add that if you’re looking at your workday and the amount of time you are spending in and on your business, make sure that you are also adding downtime into your schedule. You will be more productive and have more energy when you give your brain time off. Remember…there are no medals for working yourself to death. Make time for your life outside of business. If you do…you will be better and happier when you’re behind your desk again.

You can watch the video recording of this episode HERE

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