By Mandy Green
2 minute read
The most successful people focus a lot more on high-leverage activities than others.
As Naval Ravikant wrote, “Forget rich versus poor, white-collar versus blue. It’s now leveraged versus un-leveraged.”
I see high-leverage activities as those that create a positive ripple effect that lasts for multiple weeks, months, or even years.
For example, creating a bunch of video testimonials is a form of a high-leverage activity.
It requires a lot of upfront work, but once it’s finished, you can keep using them to build social proof with students and to get past objections without any extra work for multiple years.
The ripple effect of this activity continues for far longer (years) than the time required to build the asset (days/weeks).
Other examples of high-leverage activities are:
- Networking: Each genuine new connection you make could lead to years of opportunities
- Templates: Create templates that answer FAQ’s that you get during phone calls or during campus tours to follow-up with prospective students, and to train new admissions counselors faster.
- Skill-building: Spend 20-100 hours learning a new skill and you’ll possess it for a lifetime
- Continuous Professional Development: Invest time in learning new skills relevant to admissions, such as data analysis, interviewing, application review, better utilizing your CRM, digital marketing, or diversity recruitment strategies. These skills will enhance your effectiveness over the long term.
In other words, high-leverage activities provide a far higher ROI on your time than most other tasks.
“We live in an age of leverage. A leveraged worker can out-produce a non-leveraged worker by a factor of one thousand or ten thousand,” writes Naval Ravikant.
That’s why I ask myself this one question on a regular basis:
Which activities create a positive ripple effect in my life/work that could last for multiple weeks, months, or years?
Take some time to reflect on high-leverage activities that you could put into play in your role, as this can dramatically improve your productivity and results.
If you would like to speak to me about how to use leverage more effectively, email me at mandy@dantudor.com