Ask a busy Managing Director what they need more of and there is a good chance the answer will be time.
Another day in the week. A few uninterrupted hours. A month without something unexpected landing on the desk.
It is understandable. Senior leaders are often trying to think about marketing, people, clients, operations, finances and future growth while simultaneously dealing with whatever requires attention today.
But after years of working with businesses, I have come to a different conclusion.
Businesses do not need more time. They need more organisation.
Not bureaucracy. Not another enormous task list. Simply a better way of turning an intention into work that can actually happen.
Why apparently simple work gets delayed
We often describe work as if it involves one action.
“Launch the campaign.” “Update the website.” “Improve our lead generation.” “Delegate this to the team.”
Then we allocate time for the doing and become frustrated when the work takes longer than expected.
The problem is that meaningful work normally involves three stages.
I call them the 3Ps: Plan, Prepare and Perform.
Planning is deciding what needs to happen, why it matters, what the result should be and, at a sensible level, how you will approach it.
Preparation is making delivery possible. That means allocating realistic time, gathering information, involving the right people, obtaining approvals and making sure everyone knows what is expected.
Only then can you perform the work.
This sounds obvious. Yet preparation is where a remarkable amount of business work quietly goes wrong.
We mistake “easy” for “quick”. We think, “I know how to do this”, and assume that means we are ready to do it.
Then the hour we allocated arrives and we discover we need three documents, an answer from a colleague and approval from somebody who is now on holiday. The work moves to next week. Again.
Turning the framework into Business Actions
This thinking became part of the reason we created Business Actions inside Expert Circle.
Business leaders rarely need another list containing 72 worthwhile things they could be doing. They need help identifying which piece of work deserves attention now.
A member starts with a Marketing, Management or Leadership priority and answers three focused questions about the current situation. Expert Circle then identifies one practical Business Action to work on.
The aim is not to produce more tasks. It is to narrow the field.
Once you know what deserves attention, the 3Ps provide a simple way to think about moving it forward. What needs to be planned? What needs to be prepared? What can now be performed?
That action might be completed personally. It might be delegated to a trusted number two or another member of the team. The important thing is that somebody understands what happens next.
Progress feels different when work becomes visible
For hands-on Managing Directors and senior leaders, this can create something more valuable than “productivity”. It creates relief.
You no longer have to solve the whole business problem today. You need to identify the right piece of work and move that piece forward.
And when you return to it, you should be able to see where you left off rather than reconstructing the entire problem from memory.
That is the philosophy behind Expert Circle.
One priority. One meaningful action. Keep showing up.
