In our current environment of VUCA – volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity – leaders are inundated with “stuff”. They receive hundreds of emails each day, most probably the same number of phone calls, don’t forget the back to back meetings and of course the attention being sought by all of their direct reports not to mention those pesky clients or customers!
Let’s not forget we work far more globally now so this means connectivity and demands over much longer time periods on your average day.
Given this kind of status quo I really believe we need to get back to basics when leading and become conscious of two orientations within the overall orientation of limited time:
1. People; and
2. Task.
Keeping it simple allows us to bring rigour and discipline to our focus. Become conscious of the time and energy you invest each day in your limited timeframe to people and to the task. Check if it is serving you well? Remember the more senior you become the more critical it is for you to empower lots of other people to complete tasks – it is the power of leverage!
Putting your head down with a focus on task is easy; deciding to orient yourself to empowering people is far more challenging. Catch yourself when you call people skills the soft skills – reframe this into the challenging conversations that enable the empowerment and ultimately the leverage of people’s potential! It might just help you to reframe the way you lead.
