Take 60 Seconds and Save Yourself Hours

Are your people on target?

These days, no leader has enough time.
Not enough time for work.  For family.  Or for oneself.
Here’s today’s reality for most leaders:
Take your job description from December 2019.
Add 50% more work and responsibility due to COVID-19.
Now try to get it all done in the same amount of time.

Are we doing what needs to be done?
With all that COVID-19 has brought to leaders, it’s enough these days just to keep one’s head above water.
Given that time is so precious, it is doubly critical that a leader’s focus is hyper-focused on the important, on the strategic.
And you can do that well only if you and yourdirect reports are similarly focused.
But how do you get your direct reports to know what that specifically is?  And beyond simply telling them “to be more strategic”.

One question
A question or thought experiment we ask leaders engaged in our Leadership work addresses their ability to know where to focus.
Here’s the thought experiment we ask them to consider: 
“If your manager (or your Board) were to ask you, ‘In 60 seconds, tell me (us) how the allocation of your time moves our organization more quickly to its objectives’, what would you say?”

Keep the focus true
So use the question to ensure your focus remains true.
And use it with your direct reports as well. 
In a non-threatening way, ask them to answer the question. (You may need to change “our organization” to “our team”.  And possibly give them time to think and reflect.)

The purpose is not simply to see if they provide a good answer.  It’s of course to further develop their potential as leaders as well as confirm the effectiveness of your communications (have you made your objectives, priorities, and intent clear to them?)

With leaders’ being responsible for at least 50% more work than in December, now more than ever, ensure you and your direct reports are allocating your respective time to what’s strategic, to what’s important.

None of you have much time for anything else.