Top brokers are known for working long hours and going beyond the call of duty, but brokers need to start treating their time as a finite resource if they’re going to resist burn-out, say researchers.
Broking is often referred to as a 24/7 job, but brokers need to start treating their time as a finite resource if they’re going to resist burn-out, say researchers.
A new study by Mckinskey Quarterly has found that more than a third of top business executives are “actively dissatisfied” with the way they spend their time.
Researchers Frankki Bevins and Aaron De Smet say that, while these results are concerning, they are arguably a natural consequence of the tendency for business people to treat the time of top managers as a resource that can be drawn upon infinitely.
“The impact of always-on communications, the growing complexity of global organizations, and the pressures imposed by profound economic uncertainty have all added to a feeling among executives that there are simply not enough hours in the day to get things done,” say Bevins and De Smet.
Peter Reber, managing partner of First Point Group, says this kind of situation is very real for mortgage brokers, but insists that being “always on” is not the way to deal with the problem.
“Operating 24/7 is a fallacy and is not required nor expected by clients who want you, as a person, to have a life. Otherwise you will only be experienced in your work and not in your life,” says Reber.
“Clients want balanced people/advisers with balanced views who can holistically provide input to the clients overall life plan. Not just finance!”
Reber suggests brokers working 24/7 employ more support or improve their leadership and delegation skills.
“We should all check-in from time to time and ask ourselves exactly what tasks we are doing and why. You can then sit down at the end and review and decide to remove tasks, delegate, outsource or whatever makes sense for your business.”
Reber also suggests brokers put their hobbies into their weekly planner, look for a mentor with a work/life balance that they admire, and try to get out of the office early two or three times per week if possible.
“Work/life balance is not what it was in the past. These days they tend to blur together, and there is nothing wrong with that, but it still needs to have a balance of activities, not just work!
“Have a core set of personal values that you ground yourself to, so that when you do something you ensure that task is achieving your personal values. If it is not, then ask yourself why you are doing it.”
Bevins and De Smet’s research found that leaders that successfully achieve a positive work/life balance approach the issue as an organization, not just as an individual.
“While executives cannot easily combat the external forces at work, they can treat time as a precious and increasingly scarce resource and tackle the institutional barriers to managing it well.
“Time management isn’t just a personal-productivity issue over which companies have no control; it has increasingly become an organizational issue whose root causes are deeply embedded in corporate structures and cultures.”
Bevins and De Smet suggest five ways that brokers can tackle time management:
1. Have a ‘time leadership’ budget - and a proper process for allocating it
The brokerage as a whole, and not just the leaders and managers, need to take stock of the amount of leadership capacity it really has to ‘finance’ its great ideas, say Bevins and De Smet.
Before taking on anything new, have a clear understanding of the amount of leadership time that will be required and ensure each leader has the capacity to contribute that time. If not, steps need to be taken to lighten the responsibilities of the leader’s other responsibilities.
2.Think about time when you introduce organizational change
“Getting this right is a delicate balancing act. Excessively lean organizations leave managers overwhelmed with more direct reports than they can manage productively. Yet delayering can be a time saver because it strips out redundant managerial roles that add complexity and unnecessary tasks,” say Bevins and De Smet.
3. Ensure that individuals routinely measure and manage their time
Introduce performance reviews that include explicit time-related metrics or targets, suggest Bevins and De Smet, and verbally recognise employees that spend their time wisely.
4. Refine the master calendar
“To create time and space for critical priorities, business leaders must first of all be clear about what they and their teams will stop doing,” say the researchers.
Decide which meetings are for reporting only, which are for cross-unit collaboration, for managing performance or for making decisions. The most successful managers, say Bevins and De Smet, spend 50 per cent of their time in decision-making meetings and less than ten per cent on information-only or reporting meetings, although the majority of managers do the reverse.
“The way people spend their time can be taken for granted, like furniture that nobody notices anymore.”
5. Provide high-quality administrative support
Bevins and De Smet's study found that 85 per cent of effective time managers received strong support in scheduling and allocating time.
Ensure there is someone who is assigned to ensuring the strategic objectives of your brokerage reflect the way you and your employees spend your time, suggest the researchers.
