How I am Helping Coaches Simplify Their Workday

Hi 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 mandy@busy.coach.  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

Recruiting Made Simple

P.S. If you found this helpful, please share it with your coaching friends. I want to help eliminate as much coaching office chaos for as many coaches I can this year. If I can save you 1-2 hours a day and get you so you don’t have to bring as much work home with you (besides recruiting calls), you will have more time and energy to spend with your families, friends, and on your hobbies. Happier and more productive coaches have happier and more productive teams!

P.P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are 4 ways that I can help you double your results while working less in 2020.

1. Follow Me on Twitter

Get access to some of my best training and a rapidly growing community of coaches working together to become more organized, efficient, and effective so they can get the results they want quicker and get home to their families sooner — Click Here

2. Set Up a Free Coaching Call

If you would like a free 30-minute coaching call to create a detailed strategy for recruiting or coaching success for this upcoming year. To get on a free 30-minute call with me by using this link http://www.meetme.so/mandygreen.

3. Schedule a Becoming an Organized and Efficient Recruiter On-Campus Workshop

I’ve personally trained hundreds of college coaches individually and as a staff to be smarter, more effective high-level coaches and recruiters. Now it’s your departments turn. I give you a step-by-step blueprints that will teach you how to control your days, conquer the chaos around you, and concentrate on what matters most so that you can spend less time on operational things and more time working with your team on the X’s and O’s. It took me more than a decade of trial and error to discover this formula to how to work more efficiently and effectively as a college coach and I want to share it with you. To get a taste of what the workshop will be about– Click Here. Email me at mandy@busy.coach for more details.

4. Get 12-Months of Coaching from Me

If you would like 12-months of coaching to create a detailed strategy for success and get the accountability you need to succeed as a coach or as a recruiter, set up a call with me by using this link http://www.meetme.so/mandygreen. We can discuss all of the details from there!