It’s Literally Buzzing in Manchester
You can’t have failed to notice the proliferation of bees in Manchester on everything from the brickwork of grand industrial mills to the floor of the town hall, right down to bins and bollards. They are everywhere! Why? Because they are the symbol of Manchester ever since seven bees were incorporated into the city’s coat of arms in 1842.
So it’s not surprising the Queen Bee PA brand was a way for us to, not only be part of the city’s future, but reflect its heritage too. But it’s more than just a logo, it’s what we can actually learn from bees that’s most interesting. As Natalie Bradley summarised so succinctly in her blog; “bees are a well-known byword for industriousness, business, perseverance and team work, and the hierarchical, highly organised social order of the beehive has its similarities with human societies.”
As a virtual PA service these buzz words (excuse the pun) are exactly what we pride ourselves in – industriousness, perseverance, highly organised – all the skills we, the Queen Bees, use to deliver exceptional business solutions for our customers.
So to conclude our short history lesson we’ll now look forward to keeping productivity alive and share our top tips for keeping your hive a happy and efficient place to work!
1. Give the bees their freedom
If you micro-manage you stifle the life out of enthusiasm and dampen initiative. So delegate more and loosen the reigns, this will empower people to do their very best for you and your business. There’s nothing wrong with checking in and having an open door policy, but trust they will think for themselves and perform better.
2. Meeting with the bees
Don’t overdo meetings. It’s another killer of productivity. When you need to get people together, have a solid agenda with a goal that you can make actionable and measure progress. We like the no-rehash rule suggested by Fast Company to stop you making the same decisions over and over again.
3. Don’t keep buzzing
Think twice before writing that email. Email overload hurts productivity. Set up a system that prioritises emails, so you know when to read and action that communication. If you roll this approach out across your business you’ll boost output. Consider other ways of delivering a message too – a phone call or a 30 second walk to your colleague’s desk might be far more effective!
4. Keeping rebuilding the hive
If you want to create a motivating place to work, never settle for same stuff, different day. Times change and if you ever hear “but that’s how we’ve always done things” it might be time to reinvent the wheel! Consider how doing something different might free up your, and your staff’s time. Do you really need that report weekly? Could outsourcing certain tasks allow you to focus on more important things?
5. Have the best bees on standby
‘Flexible resources’ – the buzz word for today’s small companies and sole traders. During busy times have trusted people you can call on; giving you the ability to expand and contract around the delivery of projects. Common services for outsourcing include marketing, administration, HR, IT, accountancy. Could this be right for you? Those first steps can be daunting and take time to get right, but figuring out how to build your business with the help from outside professionals can offer increased efficiencies and economies of scale.
If Queen Bee PA’s virtual administration and marketing services can be of any help to you, then we’d love to hear from you. And next time you’re in Manchester keep a look out for the bees!