How to work smarter not harder

Rosie Miller, Founder Director of The Success Group

Ever heard the phrase “work smarter, not harder”, and said through clenched teeth – yes but how? Everyone wants improved productivity and greater job enjoyment, but how do you get it? Our job, as coaches to top business people, is to help them find their own individual way to achieving this. Our “Special Talents” model is an excellent starting point.

So what’s a Special Talent – and will I have any?

Our model suggests all our activities can be placed into four basic categories. The difference between categories is how much energy it takes and how much satisfaction you get.

Our philosophy is when you are engaged in things you love doing and have a special talent for, you feel energised by them, and are highly productive. Conversely, tasks which you are relatively incompetent at will take a disproportionate amount of your time and energy – for only average results. So it follows that you will work smarter if you can focus on activities which play to your special talents.

Imagine you could take the time that you spend on things you are competent or even incompetent at and could swap it for things you have a special talent for and feel energised doing. The time difference is zero but what would the productivity difference be? Then imagine your whole team shifting their activities so that they spent their time focused on the things they are really talented at and enjoy doing. What would productivity and the team working environment be like?

OK – but how do I make this magic swap happen?

Once you are clear about which of the four categories your activities fall into, there are three things you can do:

We’ve all procrastinated when facing tasks we don’t enjoy. At The Success Group we suggest one way to break the activation barrier is to use the Special Talents approach. We encourage our clients to re-examine the skills or talents they are assuming they need to use to get the task done - and then adapt the task itself to capitalise on their own special talents. For example, our coaches are highly skilled at interacting with people through dialogue. Conversely, they usually dislike spending time writing essential things like their biographies. We adapted the process so that someone interviewed each coach about their work instead – in other words we engaged their talent for dialogue. The interviewer then wrote down what he heard and the biographies were produced in a fraction of the time with low frustration and significant buy-in from the coaches.

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Too often we hang on to the task, forgetting that it is the outcome and not the activity for which we are responsible. So next time you face a task you have no energy to start, ask yourself – if not me then who? Who do I know who could do this easily? Then you ask them. You’ll be amazed at the things other people find interesting that you dislike. This approach has the added advantage of providing opportunities to acknowledge others’ special talents as well as producing benefits across the board in terms of individual job satisfaction and overall team productivity. But always remember to appreciate what others find interesting and valuable – avoid diminishing a task you personally don’t like.

We suggested this special talents approach to the Director of European Equities Strategy in a major international bank. He and his new research team wanted to get into the top 3 in the Exel industry ratings – ratings from their clients – within 3 years. They swapped to working in a Special Talents way and they moved to the No 2 position the following year.

And if there is no one to whom you can turn? Well maybe that is a sign that you have a gap in your team… If it’s an essential team task, you’ll need to find a team solution or a new person. If it’s not essential – stop doing it or re-negotiate with the stakeholder.

So how do I find my Special Talents?

Recognising ones own talents can be difficult, as we tend to discount the value of the things we find easy. In our coaching work we have a number of processes and ways of establishing people’s Special Talents.

But you can help yourself work smarter by taking time to consider what things to do and what talent to bring to them. Ask yourself regularly:

• What do I love doing and feel energised by - then do more of it.
• What do I hate doing and struggle to start - then swap it or stop it.
• What do I find boring and de-energising - then change the process to suit your talents.

When is a good time to start working smarter?

Of course the smartest time to start is tomorrow. But other obvious times are; when starting a new job, or a new year, or a new project.

In an ideal world you would be working to your special talents the whole time, and never do tasks for which you have no talent and which give you no pleasure. By operating the Special Talents way you can at least go a long way towards helping yourself and your team work smarter, enhancing your personal satisfaction and bringing business benefits.

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