You probably think you need to do more now that you are a leader. Many years ago, in my first management gig. I piled on one project after another. I thought I HAD to do it all, all at once in order to be “good enough” to one day become an academic library director.
And then, out of the blue, a dear friend died in her sleep.
The resulting shock made it clear I’d forgotten what really matters. You can achieve far more as a leader by doing less. The quality of your work and the quantity of tasks completed are no longer related. Once you lead better by doing less, you will treat yourself and your team more kindly. This is a road I am still on. However, as a recovering workaholic, I’ve picked up a few tricks that will hopefully help your journey.
We have x number of hours a week (hopefully something vaguely resembling 40) to invest in our work. What is the best use of those hours?
First, I put a maximum limit on my task list. My ceiling is 8-10 items, including meetings. When I’m really on the ball, I keep it to 5 or less. Everything else gets deferred, delegated, or dropped altogether. I can now deal with random surprises and focus deeply on my key tasks and meetings. Most days that leaves me with a little cushion for professional development, a walk around the building, and maybe even a campus event to observe students and chat with a colleague or two.
Second, everything I do must support one of 5 areas: Strategy, People, Processes, Resources, or improving my own effectiveness as a leader. (Well, except when I need to remember to pick up eggs on the way home.)
Leaders can’t do it all, at least not if they want to do any of it well, because above all their job is to observe, think, and occasionally make key decisions with insufficient data at a moment’s notice. Stay tuned this week and next for more ways to make this work.
