Stop Procrastination Before It Kills Your Business
In the middle of a recent sample of my “End Procrastination NOW!” workshop one participant responded to my question about the costs of his habit of procrastination being approximately five million dollars over the last 20 years, since he has owned his business.
Many people in the audience were shocked. I was not. This business was a company with annual revenues of $15-20 million, so the habit of procrastination was running about $250,000 each year. I think it may even be an underestimate. The reason for this underestimation is that I don’t believe he was factoring in the part of his business many business leaders procrastinate on most, marketing and sales.
Upon meeting him afterward to discuss how I might help him breakthrough his habit of procrastination I learned that my assumption was true. His estimation related to, among other things, addressing employee performance issues, addressing charges for client work that was done but went unbilled, and delays in pursuing accounts receivables.
It is much tougher to quantify the opportunity costs of inertia, procrastination and avoidance around the issue of marketing and sales because it is hard to estimate what may have been generated by an effort that never took place. But, for this company, I would estimate that another $250,000 a year in lost potential revenues in not unreasonable.
Another recent meeting with the managing partner of a $20 million CPA firm uncovered the fact that an agreed upon “partners’ agreement” was still unfinished ten months after being requested by the firm’s partners at a corporate retreat. I was again amazed at the fact someone who obviously is very successful running a large firm could continue to fall prey to significant procrastination and avoidance issues.
Procrastination is one of the most stealth of all human afflictions. Sometimes we engage in it without even realizing it. This occurs when we continue to be busy doing things, but not necessarily the most important things. We rationalize our activities as being important and fail to prioritize as diligently and seriously as we need to. As such, we continue to default to the path of least resistance dong what is most comfortable and not what is most important.
The reason this is a stealth issue is that the perpetrator really believes the activities they are engaged in are important. And, a strong case could be made for it. But, some of these activities are not moving the business forward and there are serious avoidance issues taking place. Many times, it takes an outside advisor or coach to hold the person accountable and to engage in serious discussion on priorities.
One example of this stealth procrastination can be understood by examining marketing and the ways some small business leaders address this key aspect of ensuring their business generates much needed revenue. One of the important components of marketing a new business is a website and building a database, yet an even more important marketing component is making direct contacts with prospective business customers.
I’ve seen with my own eyes small business leaders investing exorbitant time sitting behind their desk inputting names into a computer database so they will one day soon be ready to do a direct mail marketing campaign. This is classic procrastination, he should have been on the phone and calling these very same prospects to ask for an appointment to discuss the value their business has to offer.
Additionally, managing performance of employees is another vitally important business success strategy that has a high procrastination level in corporate America. I believe that’s why most are only done one time a year at salary adjustment time. The process most companies use for annual performance reviews becomes an easy excuse for procrastination, or not being able to find the time to complete the process. To stop procrastination regarding this issue companies should streamline their performance management system.
Based on the above examples it may be a good idea to look at how you and other leaders in your company are defaulting to the path of least resistance, taking the easy way out and avoiding important priorities that are costing the company real bottom line results. Then, decide to step up and do something about it.
(To get started on breaking through the challenge of procrastination you can download a few sample chapters and an exercise from the End Procrastination NOW! system here.)
