Preparing For Help At The Office

Last week I wrote about guilt blocking some people from asking for the help they desperately need in their personal and professional lives in “Is Guilt Stressing You Out”.  Another reason people don’t seek the help they need is because they are not prepared and they think it will take too much time to tell someone what they need or they simply don’t know how to hand things over in order to someone for help.  Well you are in luck because today’s topic is just that! Preparing for help at the office can be easy when you have a plan.

Start with your office procedures- You know how things “should” be done in the office or at least you have an idea of how you would like the end result to look.  The first step in asking for help is to get the standard procedures down on “paper”.

Take a moment to think about details that you likely do so naturally it may never have occurred to you to write them down.  For example, what’s your procedure when you pick up the mail?  We’re talking about in an ideal world here.  Ideally you might pick up the mail, open it all right then and sort it, recycling all the “junk mail”, shred all the mail that has confidential information, place bills to be paid in their proper area for action later, incoming checks in their area for action later and periodicals to read in their area for reading later, etc.

You may not do this every time you pick up the mail and you may very well toss it on the table and walk away to deal with it later but if you can get a procedure down, you have taken the first step toward someone helping you with that task if the need ever arises.

You can use this same tool to think out how you handle any procedure in your office at work or at home.  How do you process new client inquiries?  Is there a process for when someone “likes” your business on Facebook? What about processing client contracts?

Large companies tend to have many of their policies and procedures in writing because there is someone looking over their shoulder to ensure that it gets done.  When you are a solopreneur or if you are simply trying to organize the business of running your home, you don’t always have the accountability to ensure that you do this and that can be a big mistake.

If you don’t get it in writing, it is nearly impossible for you or anyone else you hire to consistently follow through on tasks and something is likely to fall through the cracks and become disorganized or forgotten.

How to ensure procedures get written

• Block time in your calendar.  This task is not hard though it takes some concentration.  Blocking time in your calendar to go off-site or close the door to minimize distraction.  Better yet, if you have a business partner, block out time together and hold each other accountable.
• Hire a reputable consultant that will work at a reasonable hourly rate to help you write out your procedures.  When you schedule time for someone to come in it holds you accountable and this person may be able to help you get some of these items done regularly or point you to someone who can.
• Before your meeting begin making a list of all of the items you do each day.  Just get them down to be thought about in depth at your scheduled time.  As you begin checking your email, write “email” down on a list. In your meeting you can write down your procedure for deleting and filing your email.  Now you are off to a meeting with a client and return with notes.  Write, “Client Meeting” on the sheet.  Later you will outline what your process and procedure is for organizing the notes and following up with the client.  You can look at the whole lifecycle of the client and get it all in writing to ensure consistency and that nothing falls through the cracks.
• Once you have your meeting, type it up in a simple document and possibly even print it out for a binder.  Be sure to date the document and update it as your business evolves.  It’s a good idea to revisit it at least once a year but even better if you can re-visit it every 6 months and update it as procedures evolve.

It may seem like a lot of trouble to document your everyday tasks but once it’s in writing it holds you and anyone that works for you, from staff to contractors, accountable to how you want your office run.  Now that you have written out how your office runs, you can easily ask for help with these tasks and hand your “helper” a copy of the procedures and they can be off and running with far less of your time.  And THAT is worth it’s weight in gold.