Sharpening the Saw

James and Jamie sit down to talk about "sharpening the saw" but what the hell is that? Taken from the epic book "The 7 habits of highly effective people" sharpening the saw is all about taking the time to upskill yourself to ensure you're the best possible tool for the tasks you're taking on!

Show Notes

Upskilling is pivotal to ensuring you and your team deliver the best for your customers, which will subsequently grow your business! We are often too busy and don't make time for learning and raising our game - this normally doesn't appear to be a problem in the short term but it also isn't smart or effective long term.

In today's episode, it's double trouble with James and Jamie talking about the importance of upskilling, the power of learning and how a better you will result in a better business!

Comment on what your biggest business challenge is right now?

What is Behind The Madness?

A podcast helping companies grow with marketing strategies, automation and time-saving tips and creative solutions.

James: Hello, and welcome to another
episode, number 21 of Behind the Madness.

I'm your host, James Roberts, I am the
owner and founder here at Method HQ.

Today we are talking
about sharpening the saw

So I'm here with Jamie and today we're
talking about sharpening, the saw.

Now, Jamie, this is something
I know nothing about.

I hadn't heard of the concept
until I read Tilly's blog.

So if you wouldn't mind fill me
in and fill the listeners in.

Jamie: Sharpening the saw is a concept
from a fantastic book, one that I would

recommend any business owner or anyone
really who wants to be successful.

And it's all about making sure you are as
efficient and effective at what you do.

The book The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People by Stephen Covey

is a very, very, very good read.

So do pick it up.

But sharpening the saw is all
about the concepts of making

sure you are a sharp tool.

James: I'm sorry.

Jamie: A sharp tool, yeah, not that
kind of tool, James, beneficial one.

That's the kind of lighthearted
stuff we really, really go for it.

But the best way to talk about
this is really go through a story.

So I want you to imagine there's a
guy in the woods and he is cutting

down a tree with his dull tool.

James: Okay.

Jamie: After a few hours, his
neighbor gets bored of this and

he just can't take it anymore.

So he goes over and he says, why
don't you sharpen the saw and this

neighbor turns around and goes.

But that will take me time.

But by taking the time sharpening
the saw, will take him less time

to finish the task he's doing.

We often in life put things behind
what we need to do, we don't

always prioritize correctly.

Sometimes, if we want to become
more educated, we can't take 15

minutes a day to read, or we can't
take the four times a week to go to

the gym to look after our bodies.

And then after a while, these
lack of habits build up.

And then we see the results as
a whole and think, oh my God,

that's happened overnight.

By sharpening the saw on a regular
basis by getting 1% better.

Then you will see huge, huge results.

So the real question we have
is do you have time sharpen

the saw, do you make time?

Because these are the moments that
you've really got to ask yourself if

you want the results and you're going
to have to break down those habits.

Reading 15 minutes a day we can all find,
going for a lunch time walk we can all do.

And these are the moments that make sure
that we are a sharp tool, we are better

business owners, marketing departments.

We are better at branding our products.

Could you go out to the weekend
and speak to 10 customers?

Could you jump on the emails in your
CRM and say, I'm going to send five of

these to see who would want to voucher
code for sending me some feedback.

Would that help your offering Would
that shape your future products?

Yes it would.

But these are the moments that you've
got to take by sharpening what you

do to make sure you do it the best.

So there's a bit long-winded James.

But it is one of those things
that's really, really important.

James: Yeah, and I think it's brilliant
and I do like the term I was reading

a book, which those who know me
know that that is a feat in itself.

It was actually, all about sleep
I can't remember the author.

but I will make sure I get
it down in the show notes.

Try and read a book on how you sleep.

Oh, you know, we should
all be fairly good at it.

We do it quite often, but it was
around naps, it was around basically

making us better human beings through
the right kind of sleep or the right.

It wasn't called sleep.

It was called rest.

There we go.

So it was all about rest.

Jamie: He fell asleep.

James: And I fell asleep and
it was all sleep related.

It was all napping related.

It was all basically about recharging
your batteries, but it comes back

to this, it comes back to certain
times, Winston Churchill for

example, was a very, very big napper.

He's running the country at a pivotal
time and he would make time for sleep

because he knew the decisions that
he would have to make needed his

full capacity to be able to do that.

So he would schedule out time to
actually to rest, recharge to go again.

And I think it's, you know,
a similar concept to this.

In the fact that, you know, you
have to schedule time in to improve

yourself and be that what it is, you
know, it could just be sharpening

the saw so you can go again quicker.

It could be you know, making a
plan of action before just diving

in and doing what you need to do.

All of these things, even down to
scheduling your team and yes, it's going

to take time to do it rather than just let
them sort it out amongst themselves but

they're going to be much better optimized
and, and work at a much better rate.

If you do, just take that
time to start off with.

So, yeah.

I liked the concept.

It's right up there with with my kind
of productivity and optimization that

I like to do within a lot of companies.

Anyway.

So yeah, I think it's a
really really good concept.

And as you said, everybody, can find
time, find 15 minutes to, as you said

to read, or even if you're not very
good reader, like me find time to to

put a podcast on or an audio book.

But time for yourself.

To make you better to learn, you know,
we mentioned in the last podcast around

us and rebranding our website and
the reasons we did it were around our

customers and trying to improve or enrich
the content that we're offering to them.

And we could have not done that we could
have quite happily carried on as we were,

we could have kind of forgotten about them
if you like, and carried on regardless.

But we took a step back, we stopped,
we had a chat about it and realised

that it was the right thing to do.

And we schedule time in to do that.

Now, the time slipped you.

You know I think we're on our third
deadline for our own website, but it

was there, it was worked on constantly
and we finally did release the website.

And I think that's where
you can always find time.

You know, your timescales might,
might shift slightly, but we

realised that we needed to take
that time to focus on ourselves.

Jamie: It's a really interesting one,
James, because something I heard recently

that came on the back of the pandemic
and obviously during that, I think we

can all agree, we had a lot of time.

A lot of people had more time
than they probably ever had in

their adult lives suddenly appear.

And I heard something recently that
said that thing that you've been

wanting to do, it's not a case of
time, it's a case of discipline.

Because whether you wanted to learn
a language or learn the guitar.

Whatever it was, we have had the time,
so if you haven't done it, then it's

case a discipline rather than time.

Finding the time is one thing, making
the time is another, using tactics,

like your calendar to time block.

If you know, you want to lose weight, or
you know you want to be more productive

at work, block out 15 minutes in the day
to read, block out the time in your diary.

When something goes in a diary, we are
programmed in to not want to cancel it.

You don't often cancel a dentist Although
I think we all wish we probably could.

Sorry, dentists.

But when it's in the diary,
people can't book over it.

You're making a commitment to yourself.

If you booked in to read with a client.

You wouldn't cancel it.

So why would you do it to yourself?

You are shortchanging
or self by doing that.

James: I think look at those goals
as well in the same token, you know,

you how to eat an elephant you know,
you do it bit by bit and, and I think

it's exactly the same thing here.

Jamie: Frowned upon that

James: It is.

It is.

Oops.

Same way as it didn't use to be
able to get my taxis as well.

How did you use to get, But anyway,
that's another, another side.

And that finishes off another podcast.

So In summary, by sharpening the saw,
you can keep yourself mentally refreshed.

You're better prepared to deal
with unprecedented curveballs

that life can throw at you.

And the same obviously
applies for your business.

So by constantly ensuring that
this saw remained sharp, your

business will grow and renew.

If you've enjoyed this podcast,
please do share it with people who

you think might find interest in it.

Over the next few weeks.

We've also got some great guests
that we're going to get it involved.

And make sure you do follow along
and also give us some feedback.

Obviously over iTunes is great.

It does help us kind of
go up through the ranks.

So the more feedback you can give
us the more comments positive.

Obviously we don't want the
negative ones, email them to Paul.

All of those positive comments that
you can kind of put on iTunes will

really help us reach more listeners,
which is kind of what we want to do.

So until next time, keep that saw sharp.