Take a Management Time Out

I have to say that winery owners and managers are some of the hardest workers I know.  Working hard is important, but it can be overwhelming–leaving winery owners and managers little time to ponder how effective they are working.  As hard as it is, managers need to take a daily time out to ask themselves how they can work more effectively and delegate more tasks.  In this post, I’ll show how successful winery owners and managers use their time outs to break some vicious cycles.

Vicious cycle #1: Management Time Drain

Winery owners and manager have a lot of tasks to manage on a daily basis.  Some of these tasks are unexpected—causing even more work each day.  One very busy winery owner put it to me this way:  “I miss having time to think!”  The preponderance of daily tasks causes a vicious cycle—as one becomes busier, the occurrence of unplanned problems becomes more likely, resulting in a drain on management time.  I call this vicious cycle #1.

 

Vicious cycle #2: The Do-It-Yourself Dilemma

In order to make more time for management, one has to delegate some daily tasks.  This delegation can be one of the hardest tasks for any manager—trusting someone else to do something you know you could do better!  Surely, if you let other people do some of the work, they will mess it up!  If you have hired and trained the right people, then this thought process is an illusion.  If you never give others responsibility for tasks, they will never learn how to do them right.  This can make the management time drain even worse.    

Success Cycle #1:  The 80/20 Rule for Managers

A very efficient manager once told me that the effectiveness of her daily work follows the 80/20 rule: 80% of the meaningful work gets done in 20% of the time.  In her case, 20% of the time was spent organizing and planning, while the remaining 80% of the time she spent doing “busy work” such as answering phone calls and solving small problems.  In order to stay efficient, she made it her primary focus to constantly shave down the busy work (or make it more efficient) so that she could concentrate more on the effective work.   

By taking a time out each day to plan and organize your business, you will reduce the possibility of unplanned problems—reducing the amount of busy work in the long run!  I call this success cycle #1 and it is the opposite of vicious cycle #1.  

    

Success cycle #2:  Effective Delegation

Effective delegation breaks the do-it-yourself vicious cycle.  If you are imaginative, you can also see how effective delegation can also solve the management time drain vicious cycle.  If the opportunity exists to delegate tasks, take it.  This is a critical piece of success cycle #2.

 

How do you take a time out?

The missing key ingredient in many small and mid-sized winery operations is time.  In order to have enough time for management, it has to be a priority and you have to schedule time for it, otherwise it will remain elusive.  However, when you start viewing management problems in cycles, you begin to realize that there are a lot of vicious cycles that exist simply because the solution takes time to implement. 

One of the focuses for the 2010 Winery Benchmark will be work routines and task efficiency.  How long should certain jobs take?  How many personnel are required?  What are industry best management practices?  For more information on this topic, consider becoming a participant in the Winery Benchmark program.

Have comments or questions you would like to share with the group?  Please include your thoughts in the Comments section above.  Want to contact me directly?  Please email me, Steve Richards, at info@wineryprofitability.com.

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