My Blog
The busy-ness trap
- Details
- Posted: 01 December 2015
It’s a trap.
We get caught in this busy-ness of doing doing doing. Because we are so caught we don’t have time to think about whether we are doing the right things, or whether we are doing what we should be doing. We don’t have time to develop people to take on the tasks. We think we can do things quicker so we just do them.
In the meantime our teams or others who could or should be doing the work don’t do what they could or should. Most people find something to fill their days and keep busy. At least to look busy or feel like they are achieving something.
We then feel bad about delegating because everyone is busy. So we keep doing what our teams or others should be doing. Then we get frustrated that the team is not stepping up.
Most of us get the insanity of this situation – at a cognitive level. Some of us may have a dreaded sense that it’s likely to get worse, not better, with the increasing amount of information to process and people to engage with. Even then, somehow we still get caught and find it hard to get out of the cycle because we’re too busy to work out a way to get out of it.
If you can relate to this, perhaps it’s time to take 5 minutes to reflect on the following questions:
- Are you working on things you shouldn’t or don’t need to work on right now?
- Are you doing things your team or others should be doing?
- Is your team working on things they shouldn’t or don’t need to work on right now?
- Do you think your team has the potential to step up and achieve more?
- How are you helping or hindering the team’s ability to step up?
Once you have a sense of what you and the team should and could be doing differently, you can start breaking the cycle. Some of the changes may take some effort but others only require small adjustments.
We need to adapt to handle the pressures of today and beyond.
My next webinar “Team leadership tips for time poor leaders” aims to address this challenge. Please join us at 8am 11th December or 12pm 15th December (Australian Eastern Standard Time) to discuss:
- How the pressure to deliver is not easing off anytime soon and we need to adapt
- 5 reasons why your team may not be stepping up – how you may be unintentionally adding to the problem
- 3 things to do to start breaking the cycle
Please register HERE.
