How I am Helping Coaches Simplify Their Workday
Mar 28, 2022Hi Coach,
I know that these last few months have been really challenging for a lot of us in many ways. I am certainly here to talk if you ever want to run a challenging situation by me to get a different perspective. In my 21 years as a college coach, there really isn’t too much that I haven’t experienced, good and bad.
The other thing I have been trying to help coaches do during this challenging time is to find little ways to simplify their workday.
One of my favorite ways to do this is by simply creating SOPs, or standard operating procedures.
Don’t freak out if this term is new to you. SOP is just a big, fancy phrase, mostly used in the business world, that has a fairly simple meaning once you get to know it and use them.
HOW TO CREATE STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES FOR YOUR PROGRAM
I remember the first time my performance/business coach asked me what my SOP’s were about 10 years ago now… I didn’t even know what that term meant, so clearly I didn’t really have any in place. A standard operating procedure is just the workflow that it takes to complete a larger task. It’s the step-by-step process that you can repeat and do again and again in order to have the same result, no matter who’s working on the task.
Think about how many repeat tasks you do every year as a coach. Or think about how many things you are currently doing that would be amazing to delegate to somebody else. This is what you create a SOP for.
Let’s talk about the easy steps to create SOPs in your program so you can achieve maximum efficiency and less miscommunications with your team, staff, and recruits!
STEP 1: PINPOINT YOUR OVERARCHING TASKS:
The first step is just putting together a list of your biggest tasks. By “biggest,” I mean the ones that make the biggest impact or are infused into your daily or weekly work life. For recruiting, maybe it’s communicating with potential 2021 recruits and their parents. For everyday tasks in the office, it could be booking hotels or it could be telling your story by adding new images or videos to your social media sites. Get a list written down of your needle movers, the broadest and most birds’ eye level work tasks.
STEP 2: LIST THE SUBTASKS NEEDED TO COMPLETE THE LARGER TASKS:
These overarching tasks likely have bunches of littler subtasks it takes to complete them. You might even have multiple people or steps required to get ’em done. I want you to go through the most important large tasks and literally write a list underneath them of every single piece or step it takes to complete the task. And try to put them in order of start to finish. You can do this in a digital document like Google Docs or physically write it down on a big sheet of paper to make it more visual. Fun fact: you just made a process map (aka, a visual representation of your big tasks broken down into the little tasks needed to complete them)!
STEP 3: REVIEW THE WORKFLOW TO LOOK FOR HOLES + OPPORTUNITIES:
I feel like you can live in Step 3 forever, constantly tweaking and refining until everything is running silky smooth. Writing down the detailed steps and order of how to complete important tasks in your program or with your recruiting is powerful. It allows you to see if there’s anything missing, or if there are unnecessary steps that are wasting time or resources. You can also assess whether any parts can be automated or handled by your staff. Watch for trends, repetitive tasks, or unnecessary back and forth that may be stealing away your productivity.
Currently I am testing out a tool called Monday.com to keep track of our SOPs as a team (as well as our individual to-do lists!). It’s a place to visually organize “boards” to hold your big tasks and break them down into little assignments. Whether you’re a one woman/man show or have a bustling staff to work with, a visual organization tool like Monday can help you get organized and stay consistently on track for the long-term. Most coaches just use google docs, Evernote, or have a drop box account. Use whatever is easiest or is most cost effective for you.
AN EXAMPLE OF A STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
For example, one of my tasks in my Busy Coach business is helping coaching staffs come up with their recruiting message content and then a plan to execute it. I believe in the Dan Tudor method of contacting a recruit every 6-9 days using letters, emails, texts, phone calls and social media. That’s a lot of content to keep up with and we don’t want it to be random so it needs to be planned out in advance. So, to break it down, let’s look at the subtasks that make up that larger task of creating your recruiting content:
Deciding on upcoming recruiting topics
Drafting recruiting email or letter copy
Optimizing the message readability
Determining who will be in charge of sending the content out
Selecting photos and videos to use
Editing/reviewing the messages
Scheduling the post
Drafting social media captions to promote the recruiting topic
Scheduling social media posts
This is a pretty simple example (FYI, I left out a lot of the details for this example because it is based on each individual clients wants and needs but you should have enough info to get the idea), but you can see how it’s helpful to know the process from beginning to end for simple and more complicated tasks, too. One way we have streamlined creating recruiting content is by holding brainstorm sessions with my clients to batch-decide the upcoming recruiting topics 1 to 2 months ahead of time. We’ve also utilized scheduling to draft and plan out social posts at the same time as writing the recruiting emails and letters when the content is still fresh. In fact, we batch-work the majority of the recruiting process to keep it as streamlined as possible.
THE TRUE BENEFIT OF SOPS
It helps to know each and every little step because if I were to be unreachable ever (like when I am out doing an on-campus workshop for an athletic department, for example), my clients know the exact protocol to follow to continue producing the same level of work as when I’m there to support. It allows for clear communication and increased efficiency for everyone. So, I would encourage you to drill down into the SOPs in your program and share them with your staff.
And even if you don’t have a staff, it will keep you organized and consistent for when the time comes that you are able to hire an assistant. Until then, it allows your team and recruits to experience the same level of communication and know exactly what to expect from you! When things get super busy during your season, this is what you can fall back on because you know you have systems that work and are reliable and optimized.
If you want my help to create yours, email me at [email protected]. We will set up a call to go over what your needs are, I will share with you what I do for the individual coaches and staff that I work with. Please reach out, I’d love to help.
If you want more ideas for how to work productively from home, follow my video tips on twitter, facebook, or instagram.
Stay safe and healthy!
Mandy Green
