Tension between Type A — Sales person and Operations Person
I think there’s an inherent difference between type A sales, aggressive person who is making calls, meeting people, doing all the outside facing stuff in a business, and the other type, say type B personality who has got to sit down to do the work, to do systems and processes, to do accounting and manage spreadsheets or code and perform the core labor. I think there’s an inherent difference in those roles — and task switching is tough.
I am here to explore why task switching is tough.
I have never believed in the right brain, left brain idea, but it does seem as though, those two activities, fundamentally use a different part of your brain. One is analytical and methodical and another is serendipitous and creative.
I believe however, that we can learn to manage these two areas, or at-least we can get better at managing them.
RIGHT BRAIN VS LEFT BRAIN
Right Brain Creative and Serendipitous
These are the moments I think I thrive in. Meeting people, talking, finding out about their business, making connections, both on ideas and also on meetings. I love going out, and being in spaces with a lot of people, I don’t find it awkward striking up random conversations with people, and quite honestly, I would rather do that, than to just sit. So maybe that’s a personality thing. That I love talking. I love talking with people, I love making network and doing sales. It seems like such a lazy man’s job. LOL. Just talking, meeting, and networking and selling, but if you do it long enough, you start seeing that it is valuable and business gets generated through that too. People do business with other people they like, and trust.
I discovered that there’s a sales role called — Account Manager, and basically his or her role is to interface with clients. Visit them, just sort of hang out to get a feel of what they need, and how he or she could best serve their business. If I did not have to figure out money dynamics, this seems like such a job for me.
I find that, I would rather even talk to people than tweet on social media. But, tweeting is an addictive drug.
Then there’s the other part
The Left Brain Analytical and Methodical.
Quite interestingly, I think that I can thrive in this area too. I am however aware that I begin to quickly struggle to get into a rhythm, and when I do, my head is all up in the sky. I even found that doing hard things on my computer was stressful, so I started recording my screen and talking through my process just so that I can focus on the work. It’s a very weird space to be in.
I have found that I create rituals that allow me to do work, like allowing myself to get bored a lot, just sitting by the desk, until I get to start on the work, blocking off social media and sometimes switching off my phone. Recording videos and writing also helps me a great deal.
You know, I think even doing creative work like designing, coding or writing, you need to calm yourself down, and work yourself into a cadence. You start working, struggle through the work until you find your flow. Once you break it, it becomes hard to get it back in.
I get really fascinated by people who are able to embrace the boredom and just do work. I know that it takes me much longer to get into that place.
The analytical, methodical and seemingly boring work is the labor that you eventually sell. It is the driver that creates value for your customers. It is the real money making engine in your business. Therefore, it should be very important that you are on top of this.
It is the driver that creates value for your customers. It is the real money making engine in your business.
To run a business, you need both.
You could potentially hire people to do the things you find boring. But you need to have a feel for what it really means to do the hard boring work of analytical methodical work, or the serendipitous creative work.
Finding Personalities.
With these realizations, I think it is important then to also look for personalities when you are hiring for different roles. Not only experience becomes one of the things that you look for in a team. but also personalities, quirks, and things that come easily to people.
What’s more important? The Sales or the Labor?
If I could pick one over the other, what would I pick?
I have learned over listening to other business owners on podcasts, YouTube and blog posts, that, no one is going to outsell the founder. It’s a crazy idea, and it’s so true. Therefore, it’s something we should be focused about. That if I could only choose one area, maybe I should choose to be the sales, outbound person in the business, and shift the meticulous analytics, and knowledge work to other professionals. But does that mean that Sales is number one in a business? or is there a balance?
I enjoy watching business leaders like Steve Jobs, and I have probably watched 80% of his inspiring videos on the internet. My fascination with him is that he seemed to have such a grasp on the business landscape, his industry, and the efforts that his company made on all areas, from marketing to manufacturing. It is indeed interesting to notice, and it is a method we can build upon.
Our job is to keep learning about our business.
That instead of just sales, we should probably have a system that teaches us about the business that we are in, and how better we can take advantage of the opportunities that exist therein. So maybe the job of an owner is to know, really know about their industry, and have people who can help them take advantage of the opportunities that exist therein. That means, that the job of an owner is to keep learning about his business. Isn’t that fascinating?
I still feel the tension in these roles, because, right now, I am a solo founder, and I have to do all other parts of the business. The lazy man’s job of meeting new people and making connections, and then hard man’s job of doing the knowledge work. I also have to show up and learn about my industry, how best I can contribute and take advantage of the opportunities.
Therefore maybe there’s no finite way to manage the insanity and tension of task switching, unless you truly hire other people to handle tasks that are difficult for you to focus on. Another type of hire could be a software that manages those areas and parts of your business that you don’t want to. I have lately started investing in software subscriptions that help take some of the tension away.
How to task switch and ease the tension of different tasks.
You could also program into your calendar different times or different days to do a different task, so that you don’t entire feel like you are stretching yourself thin. For example you could choose Mondays and some weekends to be your big ideas, big thoughts day, Tuesday be your reading, learning and contributing day, and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday be your down in the weeds days, and keep that cycle going on for a while. No reason why I picked those days, I guessed.
Life is random, building our business is haphazard.
However, life is random, knowledge, problems and solutions come at us haphazardly. Sometimes we can only make connections after our experiences or knowledge has gone through the fire.
Final thoughts.
Who knows, what a great way of managing this tension is? It’s important to acknowledge that it exists, and that we are committed in doing better.
