Focus? The latest buzz word or the key to successfully scaling your recruitment organisation?

Our evidence working with hundreds of business owners here at Centredexcellence reveals that successful recruitment entrepreneurs master their ability to focus.

You’ll notice this theme across many of our blogs, and that’s because both Katy and I know that business owners without focus won’t have a company in a couple of years.

You are Working with the Wrong Definition

Personally, the dictionary definition of focus in mine and Katy’s opinion is outdated; for completeness, this is what it says.

“Focus is the ability to concentrate effort and direct action towards a goal, outcome or task, for an extended period. You can stick to the task at hand and see it through to completion.”

Yep, we know that don’t we?

We also know that emails and social media can be distracting, and you will need to implement strategies around this. Of course, there will be a myriad of distractions and chaos all around us: Get used to it you are a business owner- this is what happens, if it was easy everyone would run their own business that’s why they don’t!

The real challenge of focus relates to:

  • Where you are using your time ?
  • How much of it are you using and on what tasks?
  • What is your R.O.I. ?

Less=More

Here is something to consider; when you cut down your areas of focus to a few specific things, you will multiply your results.

If you haven’t read Gary Keller’s book called The One Thing, I strongly recommend you do. Gary’s book talks about the many benefits of using our energy to deliver a big goal by focusing on less rather than more.

Let’s explore this more.

I watched a video recently which had Warren Buffet and Bill Gates in conversation about the one word that they both related to their business success and of course, hence this post! It was focus.

Logical really when you consider that as human beings will all have two things; time and energy and they constrain us- we aren’t robots, we are human beings

We can’t make more time unless we outsource or employ people, and we can’t create more energy- we can conserve, protect and channel it towards specific areas that produce results.

A way to look at this is to think about time and energy as units.

In our Centredexcellence RockIt programme, we ask our clients to complete a process where they assess where their time is used and then categorise it according to critical outputs and their growth plan.

It creates many conversations, especially when we suggest people remove 80 % of what they are doing!

Let me explain our reasoning behind this.

Let’s say we are working in 30-minute blocks from 9-5; I know I am being conservative with time and let’s use this as an example.

Let’s assign an hour break through the day, so this gives us 14 units of time each day so 70 during the week.

When most business owners come to us, these 70 units are linked to doing a shed load of tasks! From a bit of billing, market research, to sorting out role descriptions to micromanaging their billers, carrying out bank reconciliations, writing blog posts, resourcing and many other things which could be done by some else to move the business forward; not the business owner.

Time to shift from doing the things someone else should do to things that only you can do to move the needle.

Here is a critical fact: Genuinely successful people focus on one or two things that matter.

Let’s go back to those 70 units of time.

Imagine you are distributing your time across ten different areas in the business. That would mean you are moving the needle up by seven units in each area; in theory sort of OK?

Now, what if you have two key areas? This would mean your results would shift to thirty-five in each area: Wow! What a difference this could and would make as you move forward on the things that matter.

Big Levers, Inputs and Outputs

I sense I have got your attention now….

As a conclusion to this post, let’s talk about leverage.

What if the actions you choose to take had a massive difference in your results? The Centredexcellence definition of focus that we teach our clients does that.

In other words, the inputs result in leverage, which creates a massive output. This is what the big dog recruitment companies are doing.

They focus on specific actions that produce exponential results. It’s how people like Dawn went from a £16k month to £160 k in less than a year.

Dawn focused on her 90-day plan and developing her team to deliver through accountability. You can read more about it here.

Imagine if you were like Dawn? Focused on what matters ? Its possible for anyone reading this post.

Would You Like Our Help?

Knowing and implementing the strategies which work to scale your recruitment business is one thing and then cultivating the mindset which moves you into action, is another.

Here at Centredexcellence, we work on both these areas at the same time, and this is one of the reasons our clients achieve outstanding results.

If you would like to know more, let’s jump on a call together.  Please fill out the application form here and let’s take it from there.

Warm regards

Nicky and Katy

P.S. If you haven’t attended one of our Rockit events, you are missing out! You can find out more about the two days, which can change your recruitment business here.