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Busy Vs. Productive Leadership
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Stop, Reflect, Strategise.
Everyone is busy and it seems like it’s spoken about like a badge of honour. It’s the first thing most people say when you ask them ‘how are you going’? Is it something we should strive for, or should we focus our efforts on outcomes and productivity? Is being busy a great message to lead with when talking to prospective clients, business partners and colleagues? Whilst it may be true, it conveys the message that you’re overloaded or even potentially closed to new opportunities.
So when you are meeting someone, I challenge you to answer that default busyness question differently. Try to answer directly and make yourself more interesting – try ‘we are going well but challenged with some interesting work’ or ‘focused on really executing well with our clients’ or ‘really invested in making our staff more engaged’ or ‘focused on business growth’ as examples. Obviously it goes without saying to be truthful.
How you respond ripples through the organisation from a leadership perspective. How you act also impacts your team. In my experience, there are distinct traits that separates busy versus productive leaders show.
| BUSY LEADERS |
|---|
| Task focused |
| Work harder |
| Rarely say ‘no’ |
| Prioritise simple strategies / actions |
| Frantic |
| Quantity |
| Poor delegation |
| Good at lots of things |
| Everything has to be perfect |
| Makes the easy decisions |
| Talks about change |
| PRODUCTIVE LEADERS |
|---|
| Outcome focused |
| Work smarter |
| Often say ‘no’ |
| Prioritise difficult strategies / actions |
| Purposeful |
| Quality |
| Great delegation |
| Great at specific things |
| Happy to make occasional mistakes |
| Makes the tough decisions |
| Makes change |
To continue this theme, Forbes wrote an article on productivity in 2016 which is completely relevant today. Forbes state there are 15 secrets of productive people which are:
- They focus on minutes, not hours.
- They focus only on one thing.
- They don’t use to-do lists.
- They beat procrastination with time travel.
- They make it home for dinner.
- They use a notebook.
- They process email only a few times a day.
- They avoid meetings at all costs.
- They say “no” to almost everything.
- They follow the 80/20 rule.
- They delegate almost everything.
- They theme days of the week.
- They touch things only once.
- They practice a consistent morning routine.
- Energy is everything.
Your behaviour has an impact on your team.
So I challenge businesspeople to reflect on your own behaviour. Are you productive or busy? Do you openly promote busyness, or should you focus on AND reward those in your team that are productive?
To help create this strategic thinking, check out our last blog which will enable you to have your ‘ideal week’. This enables leaders to move from operational busyness to strategic clarity and creates time for your priorities.
If you need help improving your leadership and strategic direction, get in touch with Purpa for a no obligation assessment.
Chris is a self-confessed business nerd and the brains behind Purpa. He lives for helping businesses and businesspeople find their purpose, uncover their potential, and then provide the systems, processes, and accountability to make it happen.
