In my last post I talked about choosing the tasks that need to be done really well as part of your time management process.

That begs the question, “What do I do well that adds the most value to the business?”

These are the things I should be spending the most time on, both developing and perfecting my skills and the things that I should make sure are done to the best of my abilities.

I decided to share some detail not to be seen as bragging but to make this post more real and relevant.

Based on my own experience, some personality tests I took, and feedback from others this would include:

  • Big picture thinking,
  • Vision, and
  • Creativity.

For me it’s probably the act of creating new things that drives me. The first two items allow the creativity to manifest itself.

Of course the drive for creating then means that action and results are required. Otherwise there is no creation… there is just dreaming… action and results change a dream into reality.

For me creation can be: a painting, music, a new landscape design at home, building a business, a technical architecture or providing the vision for a new piece of software. Of course it’s the last few that our business is focused on at Sunwapta.

Creativity is impacted by a number of internal and external factors. Seth Godin has another thought provoking post on this.  For me, creativity cannot be forced and the wrong environment can wreck any chance of it happening.

I blog because it helps me clarify my thinking and it’s a creative outlet. Often after writing I can realize a creative solution to something that was nagging me even if it’s incidentally related.

Creating in a team environment is more challenging than as an individual… you need to be able to communicate the big picture and the vision to an implementation team in a way that is meaningful to them (and allows additional contribution). This can be harder than it sounds.

There are lots of things to keep you busy when running a business. These can take away from the things that you should be doing more of.

My next trick is to free up more of my time to focus on the three items I listed above. Those are the things that drive me and where I probably add the most value to the business and to our customers.

Part of the prioritizing exercise.

Do you know what you are good at?

P.S. If it’s creating great software and you are looking for work in the Calgary area, drop me a line.