The C-Suite in any company is one of the smartest executive groups. Becoming a C-Suite executive is not an easy task. The task of managing a company is also with the C-Suite executives. A study by Harvard Business Review shows that a CEO attends 37 meetings and works for an average of 62.5 hours (about 2 and a half days). Top executives like the CEO, CFO, and more manage their time using certain simple principles and tactics. They can be compared to commanders who handle all decisions that influence a department or area of the company.
These productivity hacks from the C-Suite executives will helps customer success managers improve their day and get the most from their time.
Plan the day in advance
Plan your day before itself. Schedule activities and challenges to be aware of what you are about to face. Review each day and cross-check with the to-do list. You can also prioritize aspects and handle unchecked items. A CS manager also needs to ensure that items on his plan correspond with the plan of other CS professionals.
Have clarity on what you want
Is it a meeting with a certain team? Is there a training session that is a must? Have clarity on what can be achieved. Do not draw unrealistic plans and goals. Recognize priority tasks and keep them in mind. Use proven techniques and ideas such as the Pomodoro technique, Eisenhower Matrix, and more. You must handle the essentials first, delegate the others, and use technology to simplify the rest.
Choose the right workspace
Choose an office or work environment that you like. It should give you a positive feel and allow for innovation and collaboration. Open office concepts with green spaces are what could make most employees positive. You can choose spaces that optimize your well-being and enhance overall health. Another important thing to do is to maintain effective communication. Productivity can be improved with music breakout sessions, yoga, and other ways.
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Pump your personal energy levels
A good hack for productivity is to notice and organize personal energy levels. You need to organize and increase your own energy around that. Space your tasks to ensure maximum benefit in a day. If mornings are when you feel positive, you can choose priority tasks. Set rewards each time you complete a task.
Divide your time wisely
A C-suite executive always allocates and divides their time specifically. A CSM needs to do the same. This is to ensure that every task gets some time. It is also important to keep some buffer time to produce the best ideas and thoughts. Track how much time you spend on a particular activity and be mindful of spending a lot of time on personal stuff.
Keep your mental health in mind
Mental well-being is important for any human. It has been found that mental well-being is connected with performance. C-suite executives often keep mental health and well-being in mind to stay productive. CS managers also need to look at improving positivity, optimism, and self-care to wade out of challenging times.
Delegate as much as you can
You need to delegate work as much as possible. It is important to involve other team members in tasks if you are looking for success. Hiring the right team or assistant can make that simpler. A customer success manager can meet deadlines without sweating a lot. The delegation also helps you know if the employees and partners are competent or not. You can also know the time frame it takes to meet limits and reduce stress. In areas where automation is not possible, choose delegation to your juniors or subordinates.
Systemize, automate, and build processes
C-suite players also try to use technology as much as possible. It is important to systemize, build, and automate processes as much as possible. If there are certain aspects of your business based on processes and patterns. If the same process needs to be repeated, it is better to build a playbook. This saves time and gives you the flexibility to choose other tasks. For example- customer success managers can choose a customer success playbook that will enhance opportunities to learn and grow. Good customer success software will also help in this regard.
Instead of choosing or scrolling through Instagram or Facebook for non-business reasons, you need to invest in professional media. Be part of communities that will help your career. Your C-Suite executives might be part of some helpful groups and communities. Trends on social media will not be helpful for the career. Instead, it is necessary to look at LinkedIn groups and professional communities.
Evaluate your work and impact
One thing customer success professionals need to learn from C-suite executives is how they evaluate the impact of their work. You need to verify that the tasks are truly productive. Sometimes the 9-5 or more may not yield the right impact. Ask questions about the impact. Can technology simplify work? Will it reduce the concept of burnout? What is the significant impact of the work? Can something be improved? Know all this to evaluate your work. Try to find out the impact of the work through peers and network professionals.
Bottom Line
Productivity hacks for customer success managers can help them ace their communication with peers, managers, and more. Customer success managers can enhance the priority of their tasks and ensure they do not miss out on any activity. Taking a leaf from learning from the C-Suite executives will also help customer success managers prepare for bigger challenges, different territories, and larger communities. Communication and constant learning are the keys to improved personal and professional productivity. C-Suite executives and their strategy can lead to enhanced organization of work life. For customer success professionals, it translates to better customer success outcomes.
Shivani is a talented CS manager with the skillsets to elicit, scope and manage end-to-end B2B SaaS project delivery. She has a keen interest in depicting her learnings in customer success by writing resourceful blogs and articles.
Published May 04, 2022, Updated May 15, 2023
