Principle #8. Be Effective and Efficient
Effectiveness is doing the things that move you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task (whether it’s important or not) in the most economical manner possible.
Being efficient without considering effectiveness is how most of the world operates.
Let’s look to a gentleman we’ll call Rumi to help us illustrate.
Rumi is the #1 door-to-door salesman at his company.
But does that mean he’s effective, efficient, or both? Let’s find out.
As a top door-to-door salesperson, I’d say Rumi is likely very efficient …
He’s probably polished and practiced in multiple selling frameworks. He’s probably excellent at building rapport and selling door-to-door. And he probably does it all without wasting time…
But as efficient as I’d say our boy Rumi is at selling widgets door-to-door, I’d also say he’s absolutely ineffective at maximizing sales.
Why would I say that?
Because Rumi would sell far more if he used a more effective medium, like email or live-selling on video to hundreds of thousands or millions of people at the same time.
Rumi is efficient, but he’s not effective.
Effective vs Efficient
Effectiveness is doing the right things (focusing on goals and strategic value).
Efficiency is doing things right (optimizing processes and minimizing waste).
Imagine climbing all the way to the top of the corporate ladder, only to realize you’re unfulfilled… Because your ladder was leaning against the wrong wall your entire career.
You might be able to climb the ladder really efficiently. But if you do it all in a line of work that doesn’t engage you fully, it was an ineffective career choice.
That’s the difference.
- Being efficient is checking tasks of your to-do list. Being effective is choosing the highest-leverage tasks to add to your list.
- Being efficient is responding to every email no matter what. Being effective is recognizing most of them won’t matter.
- Being efficient is chasing perfection. Being effective is chasing progress.
By the way, I’m not above any of these myself. I’ve just spent more time thinking about it than most. And here’s what I’ve realized:
Efficiency is still important, but it’s useless unless you apply it to the right things.
To put it another way: There’s a place for both efficiency and effectiveness.
It’s important to do things right.
But it’s also important to do the right things.
So, as we close this out, let me leave you with four things to keep in mind:
- Doing something unimportant really well does not make it important.
- Just because a task requires a significant amount of time doesn’t make it important either.
- What you do is far more important than how you do it.
- Be effective and efficient. Think of it as a one-two combo:
1: To be effective, clarify the outcome you want.
2: To be efficient, find the best way to get there.
So, how do you maximize your effectiveness + efficiency across every domain of your life?
That’s part of what I share in the new Peak Performance Program, which you can learn more about here.
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Hope you found this free course valuable!
—Dean
Dean Bokhari
Author, Speaker, Peak Performance Coach
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