Running a business is hard; and most entrepreneurs feel like Sisyphus, constantly pushing a boulder uphill. It turns out one thing that can make this work hard is something referred to as “operational drag.” Enter Alex Charfen who is an established business coach and entrepreneur to share some clarity of mind about this process. The following article de-constructs operational drag, why it’s a productivity killer — and how the Charfen family of strategies can help all businesses to get ahead more effortlessly.
What is “Operational Drag”?
The invisible friction in your business that is slowing it down without you even realizing it! It may be inefficient processes, double done work or decisions that drag on forever due to poor communication. That adds up to a lot of extra time and effort that will weigh your business anchor.
Operational drag does not yell for attention; it is more like white noise in the backdrop of ways things have always been done, or work left underutilized. Ultimately this inevitably sets up a barrier to growth, stifling the ability for innovation or adaptability over time. This is where the strategies of Alex Charfen are used.
Who Is Alex Charfen?
Alex Charfen is an entrepreneur, author and coach who has made a career out of helping businesses identify what holds them back. He devised unique strategies to eliminate this hidden resistance, or “operational drag,” so companies could expand quicker and cheaper. His podcasts, books and coaching sessions are aimed to drive business owners closer towards removing the friction hindering them.
Alex Charfen fundamental tenet is that any business can grow fast, if it knows what is slowing them down and they do whatever needed to put the dragless in place. His approach is focused on creating clarity, simplifying processes and establishing a rockstar company culture.
Operational Drag Matters — A Lot
Operational drag is the bane of all businesses. Problems like this can lead to employee dissatisfaction, lowered moral and in the worst case dropping performance. The consequences here can be long in terms of creating the need for incredible talent to leave one company because it is required, again and again.
One is obviously financial — operational drag means money being thrown away on inefficient processes or superfluous tasks. It’s basically like running one of those really long races that track and field runners do, but you have to carry a bunch of extra weight. This can wear down profits with time and makes it difficult for the company to sustain in competition.
The key to reducing operational drag is knowing what it looks like — and Charfen.shares a method that helps spot the problems quickly so they can be resolved.
How Alex Charfen Quiets the Noise of Operatonal Drag
1. Help All of Your Company Communicate Better
Poor as in one of the major operational drags. This can lead to working on the wrong things, mistakes and duplication of efforts for employees who do not have a clear understanding their role or responsibility in relation to others.
Alex Charfen recommends building a predictability in communication. This means having team meetings on a regular basis, ensuring clear responsibilities amongst everyone involved and an open line of communication from the leadership to their staff. Easier understanding for everyone operating on shared goals means less confusion and more streamlined team efforts.
2. Optimize Processes and Systems
This kind of operational drag comes in the form of outdated or clunky processes that slow everything down. Alex Charfen suggests that businesses regularly audit their workflows and systems to see what needs clarification or optimization.
This might involve new technology, automating redundant tasks and/or altering processes to simplify them by cutting out unnecessary steps. It should support to ensure business run at optimal in all part of the website
3. Focus on the Right Goals
DraggingBecause so many businesses are pursuing the wrong targets, they create drag. As an example, a company might over-emphasize skin-deep metrics like social media followers instead of the more valuable measures such as number of customers and sales numbers.
Business owners simply have to determine which of those metrics contain the 80% that gives them world-class results and concentrate every ounce of their energy on improving just those number. If a company knows what success looks like and stays true to those facts, then it can avoid the noise that could potentially waste resources.
4. Foster a positive company culture
A strong company culture can go a long way in eliminating operational drag. Employees tend to do their best work when they are motivated, valued and feel like part of a caring community. Conversely, a negative culture can cause strife and toxicity in the workplace reducing employee engagement.
Alex Charfen stresses the importance of creating a culture that aligns with your organization’s vision and values. This means that you have to do your best in recognizing and acknowledging employee achievements, opening doors for growth opportunities without being biased towards some employees while giving unfair treatment to others and making an establishment where everyone has a chance of expressing their ideas because all are listened at the same level.
5. Empower Team Leaders
Alex Charfen also covers the importance of supporting leaders within an organization. Decision-making is often too centralized, and every choice requires sign off from the top.§ This can lead to bottlenecks and a slower response from the company.
Charfen recommends coaching managers and team leaders to own decisions in their domain. Decisions are made faster — the more people who can make decisions in a company, the quicker you respond to changes in your market-place, customers or other threats. This helps in decreasing drag and faster growth.
How to Implement Charfen’s Thoughts
There are a few steps you can take to lessen the operational drag on your business and help it run more smoothly.
– Review All Divisions: Begin by locating where pull is happening in your industry. Consider communication, processes, systems and culture.
– Define your objectives in reducing Op-Drag – including actionable goals
– Invest in Training: Provide your team with access to proper tools and trainings to optimize them for efficiency That could be a training session, workshop or leadership programs.
– Review and Adjust: Removing operational drag is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Introducing regular touch points and tweaks to keep the flow going.
Conclusion
Eliminating operational drag is one of the major reasons to use Business Process Automation. Well, it exists and by knowing what is exit bias you will be able to canceling its major impact on your company. Through the strategies that Alex Charfen lays out, businesses can take action to end this drag by putting systems in place to better communicate objectives and optimize processes so they focus on meaningful goals instead of stagnating; grow a culture with strong support within their platform for leaders.
If you take action on this strategies your company will turn into a more efficient, agile scenario to new growth. Not only will it make tomorrow better, but these habits are also laying the foundation for a lifetime.
