I was walking my dogs this afternoon.  Frankly, they were excited to be out and not on their best behavior.  They were straining at their leashes a bit and as we walked past someone who was walking in the opposite direction, he paused and said “Are you walking them or are they walking you?”

They were walking me in case you were wondering, but his question got me thinking.  So much of what I do as a part time chief financial officer with B2B CFO® is help owners and CEO’s step back to find a way to take control of their companies.

It’s easy to get caught up in the day to day grind of business operations.  I experience this myself.  I sometimes find myself working crazy hours – but when I take an honest look at what I’m doing, I find that I could do a better job of prioritizing my activities.

There will always be fires to fight, emergencies to address, etc.  The key seems to be in taking a moment to figure out a few things:

1.       Is this truly an emergency and if so, is it MY emergency?  If the answer is yes, you probably need to address it.  This is particularly true if ignoring it could have a negative impact on your revenue, cash flow, or customer/employee satisfaction

2.       Does it need to be addressed RIGHT NOW, or would tomorrow be soon enough?  Prioritizing between competing priorities and letting the occasional problem sit over night may result in a pleasant surprise.  Maybe by tomorrow it will have worked itself out.

3.       Should I address it personally, or could I delegate the problem successfully?  Delegating can free you up to focus on the things you should truly be focused on and it may also instill confidence, accountability and job satisfaction in your employees.

With this in mind, I may take 5 minutes to play fetch in the back yard before my next effort at walking my unruly dogs.  Or maybe I should invest in a trainer?  J