Thiago Narimatsu Felippe (TJ)

First, understand what is making you stretched thin. Is it possible to delegate the bulk of the tasks to people in your company or do you need new hires? Are these tasks repetitive and simple enough that tech such RPAs, bots or integrations do the work more efficiently? Or are these tasks something that requires strategic thinking and seniority? For the first cases, the solution is simple: delegate or find more talents in the market or implement automations. If your company's financials do not allow for new hires or new tech, work with your team to figure out a smart way to reorganize and handle the tasks more efficiently. For the last case, you need to reflect whether it is the right moment to bring expensive senior hires or add partners.

People have different levels of emotional intelligence. And this creates friction as communication may be hard between people from different levels. It is as if sometimes they are speaking different languages. As leaders, you and your management team have to identify the relationships and behaviors that necessitate a more proactive approach and address them in one-on-ones. It may be hard at first since this is always a sensitive topic as people may not agree that a certain behavior is wrong, but, if you set and regularly repeat the company's values and expected conduct, you can leverage that in your conversation. Also, setting management layers to address the issue helps address the issue without escalating it too quickly to top management.

Your company culture should incentivize open dialogue at the same time that it Tamar’s conflict-seeking individuals. Those individuals who seem to be always complaining or seeking trouble should feel some resistance from others. Open constructive dialogue should be fostered, but mobs, retaliation or evil plots should have no place in the organization. Negative energy removes the oil from a smooth-running engine.

Realize that the conflicts are part of the human nature and how sometimes the company and its culture can improve. Don’t let the feeling of frustration take over when you are dealing with conflicts in your organization. Perceive it as a natural process to improve the company’s maturity and culture. The resolution will certainly produce a better you and a better whole.

All the items above are tools and ways to improve your time management and prioritization skills, but if, as an entrepreneur, does not see the problem and do not reiterate often, you will be left behind. An entrepreneur needs to reflect and assess the circumstances regularly. Market changes, customer needs changes, new way to differentiate change, value perception may skew towards something else.... Same thing applies to your management skills. You need to reassess and perfect them as often as possible.

As with anything in life, there needs to be moderation and balance. Passion is good, obsession is bad. An entrepreneur may repel good talent and opportunities if they become obsessed with themselves or their business. People are not attracted to stubbornness and to the sense of grandeur.