7-minute read
AdminAssist
December 1, 2020
7-minute read
Agency owners have to make important decisions every day. They must keep in mind the current needs of their internal and external stakeholders, while also looking toward the future. It’s not easy to be an agency owner, that’s for sure. But with the right tools, anyone can become a more confident decision-maker.
You may face decisions about when to scale, when to branch into other industries, or even how to spend a dwindling budget. The three tools below are great ways for agency owners to explore their options and arrive at a solution with conviction. Apply them in your business to help you assess priorities, rank projects, and take your staffing & recruitment agency to the next level.
Confident decision-making is a must-have skill for agency owners
It might seem odd to focus on decision-making as the most essential skills for agency owners. What about having a business school degree? What about years of experience in the industry? These can be helpful assets, but ultimately it is the ability to make good decisions that makes someone a great leader.
Agency owners with minimal experience and no formal training can still make excellent decisions. All they need are the information and the tools to assess the variables. They also need the trust of their team, but this can be gained by constantly making excellent decisions. Top leaders in business like Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffet are smart decision-makers, and that’s why they command so much respect in the industry as leaders and innovators.
1 - Eisenhower Matrix
The first tool agency owners should learn is the Eisenhower Matrix. It was developed by President Eisenhower in the 1950s to reduce chaos and clarify the priorities of the nation. He used this matrix throughout his presidency to assess tasks and guide the country into a new decade.
The matrix itself is actually a very simple tool. Anyone can learn to use it in a matter of minutes, and no special software is required. All you need to begin is a 2x2 grid, or four quadrants. You can divide a sheet of 8.5x11 paper in half both ways. Along the top, label one column “Urgent” and the other column “Not Urgent.” Now along the side, label one row “Important” and the other row “Not Important.”
Now, gather up your to-do lists, requests from staff and clients, and any other action items lying around related to your agency. Your job is to put each task into one of the quadrants: Urgent and Important (1), Urgent and Not Important (2), Not Urgent and Important (3), or Not Urgent and Not Important (4). Can you see how easily this matrix helps surface the right tasks?
Everything in Category 1 must be decided, and quickly. Force yourself to make a decision. Everything in Category 2 should be delegated. Everything in Category 3 is all about doing. It may not be an urgent decision, but it still needs to be done. Schedule these to ensure they get completed. Finally, Category 4 items can be deleted or rejected. They’re not urgent and not important, so why are they on your to-do list?
2 - SWOT Diagram
This is one of the most common tools taught in basic business management courses. A SWOT analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It’s a framework for evaluating new projects so that you can minimize risk and maximize the chances of success.
A SWOT diagram is also fairly simple, but it takes a wise and perceptive agency owner to fill in a SWOT diagram effectively. You must know your business inside and out and have a finger on the pulse of the industry. Take care to fill in the diagram based on data and not guesses.
Let’s say your agency is considering outsourcing your accounting to an external firm. Complete the SWOT analysis for a first time to understand the existing strengths and weaknesses of your company as is. Now pretend you’ve outsourced your accounting and complete the SWOT analysis for a second time. Does this change anything? Are there more opportunities than before?
Due to the incredibly dynamic nature of business, some experts are developing a newer model of SWOT. Regardless of which model you use, agency owners can benefit from applying a SWOT analysis to understand how their company holds up against the competition.
Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/schedule-planning-startup-launching-7376/
3 - Pugh Matrix
Finally, the Pugh Matrix is a tool utilized in many Six Sigma circles. It is a weighted criteria evaluation tool. As an agency owner, you could utilize a Pugh Matrix to assess new hires or even new program initiatives. The beauty of this tool is that it forces you to prioritize between criteria. You must rank each element by desirability, which naturally allows less important criteria to fall by the wayside.
It can be useful to work through a Pugh Matrix with a team made of up department leaders. This cross-section of expertise ensures that no one criterion is underweighted for sheer lack of understanding. For instance, a CEO may not think that Excel skills are a “must-have” for an administrative assistant and would value them less than a college degree. However, project managers could chime in with firsthand experience to argue that Excel skills should be weighted more heavily than a college degree because they’re more essential to completing the work.
The outcome of a Pugh Matrix is a quantifiable solution based on the ranking of various criteria. It’s an excellent tool for justifying decisions to your C-Suite or comparing very similar projects that can only be differentiated when variables are assigned a number.
Every agency owner should have these three tools in their toolkit to help with decision-making. There are plenty of other tools out there, like a break-even analysis or an Ishikawa diagram. Some tools are more specialized for certain industries, but the three tools described above can be easily applied within staffing & recruitment agencies. Agency owners must lead with confidence. If we can help build your team’s capacity for innovation by handling your accounting, please reach out to AdminAssist for more information.