Multitasking the enemy of success?
When your best work turns out to be your competitors worst, you could be a victim of multitasking, it’s never too late to take action so say ‘NO’ to multitasking!
Pubished by Infinity Gaming Magazine, February 2021
Some might say that multitasking is the ultimate ‘must have’ skill in today’s competitive job market because it’s considered productive to answer an email, order a coffee, have a meeting with your boss, fix a slot machine and, all this, while having to meet financial targets and exceed customer expectations! Some CEO’s go even further and proclaim that without multitasking success, fame, fortune and everything that goes with it will remain an illusion. On the other side of the debate, I contest that multitasking is the enemy of success and that a wise leader should banish multitasking from their building allowing their management team to focus on operational priorities that will nurture growth and sustain the kind of success that a multitasker can only dream of. So how can you, the humble slot managers of the world, make sure that multitasking doesn’t creep up on you like a hungry peregrine falcon on an unsuspecting field mouse?
Focus on your number one priority and build success sequentially – Building sequentially relates to building one step at a time in a logical order to maximize results. Focusing on more than one goal at time will yield the same result as the peregrine falcon trying to catch two field mice at the same time while travelling at speeds of up to 390km/h and expecting not to go home hungry! The ‘One step at a time’ concept might be alien to the multitasker but it is frequently reflected in the ‘okay, regular and forever average’ results they achieve. Success, however, means identifying your top priority and identifying the sequence of events that will ensure that you reach your goal, and achieve greatness by breaking down your top priority into smaller, more actionable steps. In real life, the road to success can be bumpy, and it can be really easy to lose focus which is why it’s important to counterbalance the bumps and remain on track. In project management the ultimate project objectives are revisited on a frequent basis in order to assure that focus is maintained, and the project remains aligned with expectations. A great leader knows all about the bumpy road to success but keeps the multitaskers at bay by adapting priorities and making sure that each step they take is laser sharp focused and leading towards their number one priority.
No one succeeds alone – In any business, teamwork is essential and for you to reach your ultimate goal you will need the help of others. A common mistake of the multitasker is to want to claim glory from themselves by doing everything at the same time and, by themselves. I have borne witness to this kind of phenomena; it’s not pretty and rarely results in anything successful. No one is self-made, and all successful people have someone behind them whether it be a friend with a technical skill or a coach who pushed an athlete to their limits. If you’re working on moving half of your slots floor around, you know you’ll need to coordinate with electricians, IT techs, slot techs, Security, suppliers, and the list goes on. The focus is the same, ‘to create a more productive slots floor’ one step at a time so delegating tasks is essential and will give you more time to focus on managing the coordinated effort and increasing your chances of success.
Beware of multitasking lies and thieves of productivity – Some bosses state that everything matters equally and other outrageous, non-productive rants. Multitasking is one of those rants and is a big lie simply because by definition it calls for juggling which, in turn will cause distraction, loss of focus, place limitations on your productivity, and inevitably cause your projects to fail. Multitaskers fail to recognize many of the thieves of productivity such as the ability to ‘say no’ and fail to realize that to be successful you have to justify one thousand ‘no’s’ to defend a single yes, so make sure you know what you’re getting into beforehand. The fear of chaos is another attribute of the multitasker but when you’re busy focusing on your top priority some thing’s will inevitably not get done. Great leaders know that on the path to success, chaos will inevitably make an uninvited appearance and so they counterbalance the effects by blocking out time to focus on their main priority and reduce the chaos factor by becoming more productive.
Don’t fear big and use your time wisely – Some bosses use the word big as much as possible when it comes to projecting success. Big plans, big budget, big benefits, and big risks are enough to send the multitasker into overdrive and force many employees to run for the hills rather than step outside of their comfort zone. The great leader looks at big, embraces it and uses it to their advantage. They are relentless in their pursuit of success so block out time to focus on their one priority instead of constantly putting out fires like our familiar colleague the multitasker. Think about this, we all have the same amount of time in the day so the more you concentrate on what you can do right now to help achieve your number one goal, the more likely you are to achieve it. To be successful it’s important to drown out the noise and concentrate on what’s important, so think big, use your time wisely, start taking action and greatness will become your new best friend.
Are you asking the right questions or are you just multitasking yourself towards the wrong answer? – Part of great success starts by asking the right kind of question and not, as the multitasker might speculate, by asking a thousand random, mostly irrelevant ones where the only goal is to create more clutter. The right kind of slots question might be, “what’s the one priority I can focus on to maximize slots productivity in such a way that by doing so I will add more value to the customer experience and in turn, generate higher revenues?” By first asking the right question you now have a vision of what the ‘big picture’ might look like and when you start by establishing well defined goals, you have already taken the first step towards building a solid foundation for success. By ignoring ‘what’s doable’ and drilling it down to ‘what’s necessary,’ you become more productive and are ready to start building in the right direction and adding true value to the customer experience.
Use purpose, priority, and productivity to achieve extraordinary results – A lot of businesses focus only on profit and productivity without giving any thought to their significantly larger cousins, purpose and priority. The unseen and largest driver behind success is purpose and we all have it. The peregrine falcon’s purpose is to eat in order to survive, and in order to survive you have to set your priorities (this includes saying no!) without which, you won’t have much luck being productive or reaching you revenue targets. A typical slots example might have a choice between changing the power supply in your top performing slot machine and diplomatically telling your boss that he will have to wait for his urgent meeting regarding the AV setup for the office party which is still 3 months away. Together, purpose productivity and priority are the foundations of success. Neglect one of them and multitasking will set in and reaching your goals will become like launching a fishing boat with multiple holes in its hull and expecting it never to sink.
Conclusion – Success remains an illusion to many, but if you ask the right questions, block out the noise and focus on your number one priority, success will no longer be a myth and even the multitasker might find satisfaction in building extraordinary results one ‘focused’ step at a time.
