This is how to get it done

This is sure to ring a bell. You wake up early, and while showering, an idea comes to you – the perfect way to do a certain task on the construction site. But you've barely had the chance to get through the door to your business before the telephone starts ringing and an employee calls in sick. As you power up your computer, considering how to make up for one person less in the team today, your cell phone starts buzzing again. One of your tradespeople is texting you. They've run out of spray filler material in the warehouse, even though you need it this week. At the same time, emails start flooding in. A customer wants to know when he can (finally) expect to get that quote from you. All kinds of tasks that need to be done as soon as possible – or even right now – – that's why you wanted to recruit someone else today, because you need another apprentice again, urgently... And of course, now, this morning's idea of how best to tackle the construction site is long gone.

Being the boss of a trade business means bearing a high degree of responsibility and dealing with many different tasks – usually all at the same time. According to a survey on business structures by the Association of German Trades (ZDH), the average size of a company in the trade industry is seven people. While employees can concentrate on the actual job at hand, the bosses of businesses of this size have to take on all the other tasks associated with running such an operation. And there are a lot of them, concludes trained economist Maren Ulbrich. The 41-year-old coaches owners of trade businesses on topics such as employee development and process planning. She knows how bosses end up struggling with "too much all at once" in their everyday lives. In addition to classic management tasks such as costing or strategic alignment, there are also matters such as construction site controlling, purchasing materials, customer acquisition and support, capacity planning and staff management. The extent to which someone feels that this multitude of tasks is a burden, all of which need to be completed at the same time, is certainly partly down to individual personal nature. That said, if you're constantly fire fighting disasters that pop up while at work, then there's a lack of time to deal with the longterm goals of the operation or take a breath and come back with renewed energy.

Only 24 hours

"Without that downtime, it just doesn't work," says Ulbrich. "After all, stress simply means a shortage of time." And because a day only has 24 hours, then it depends on making the best possible use of the time at your disposal. The expert refers to this as structured work. And this style of working can be learned. But the first step of all is recognizing that the current level of stress is simply too high. Many bosses never reach this conclusion, states Ulbrich. And that’s because they just don't have enough time to think about it! People who come to her for coaching have often been encouraged to do so by close contacts or team members, who beg the management team to pay more attention to their own wellbeing. There are also warning signs of when things are becoming "too much", which you should be able to pick up on yourself: If you can't manage to keep a dental appointment, for example, or you're dashing from job to job, without the time to do your accounting. A very profound but valid indication that change is required is also what you have for breakfast. If you're having breakfast at midday, then something is going wrong somewhere along the line!

Get off the hamster wheel

"Stress management is one of the most important key skills of a good boss", says Maren Ulbrich, "and learning how to manage this involves more than just making a sensible meal plan. However, because it's often difficult to recreate one's own routine and structures, while still moving within them, the expert recommends an outside perspective. This can be gained from network meetings of like-minded people, such as those offered by the Chamber of Trade, by speaking to other business owners or through professional support in the form of seminars, webinars or coaching (for example, master painter Edgar Deinböck proved a great help in our report on page 22). You can also find some tips for creating structure and self-management here. They are designed so that you can cut them out and pin them to the wall, giving you a clear overview of your to do list. In order to make handling these even easier, you can add time windows for certain tasks. Our example of a stressful morning shows how helpful professional management can be ...

How could this have been better managed with a forward-looking structure?

That great idea that came up in the morning while showering ... Maybe you would have remembered if you had saved it as a voice memo on your mobile phone as soon as you got out. And if you had a fixed time over the course of the day when such memos are dealt with, then you wouldn't have forgotten it! The unexpected, last minute absence of an employee would be easier to manage with a clear allocation of tasks and a seamlessly managed online calendar. This means it's immediately obvious which customers and tasks would be impacted. With a calendar like this, it's easy to see which employees are on vacation or busy and who, if necessary, has free capacity and can fill in for their team mate while away. The lack of spray filler material could have been avoided by having a meticulously maintained list of materials where minimum stock levels are defined and when the stock drops below a certain level, orders are placed immediately. The long-overdue search for a new apprentice would have been on time, if you'd created an appropriate schedule for the year and therefore advertised at the right point. This can help when recruiting staff too, if the team is kept updated with regular information about the search, for example. Maybe someone already knows the right candidate?

A meeting hour for employees

In our 'morning scenario', everything happens at once. The phone rings, emails start coming in and messages left on 'read' demand a reply. The expert advises resisting the urge to answer everything at once. Instead set clear time frames for when to devote oneself to certain tasks, such as coping with emails or reading mobile phone messages. Ulbrich recommends bundling the tasks into 'communicative' and 'focused' work and setting up meeting hours for the employees and their concerns. "Although most bosses think that won't work, it really does work wonderfully in practice. Ultimately, this is also a way of showing your employees greater appreciation, because you specifically take time for their affairs and then actively listen to and concentrate on them."

Tasks such as preparing a quotation, which (as in our example) is long overdue to a customer, should also be included in a daily schedule by means of a priority list (A) important and urgent, (B) important but not urgent, (C) urgent but not important, (D) neither important nor urgent. This is best done the evening before. Tasks that are high priority and can only be carried out by the boss should then be dealt with in the 'focused' work phases, in a targeted and undisturbed manner (see also: Interview on better delegation, p. 52). Ulbrich advises filling just 60 percent of such a daily schedule with tasks, and reserving 40 percent as unplanned "buffer time", including at least 25 minutes interval between two set appointments or tasks.

Good bosses keep their calm

That may seem a lot at first, but because you are using the scheduled time more effectively, then you get more done in your free time. In addition to the tips on how to plan your time effectively and optimize your working day, Ulbrich says it is important to point out that you shouldn't worry about changing your behavior while in a stressful working situation. Every boss who ever takes the time to deal with the structures has already taken the first step towards improvement. And the expert adds, encouragingly: "Some things you have to do differently 30 times, some things you have to do differently 60 times – just until they become a matter of routine."