Running to Stand Still

I find myself working with leaders in organisations who seem to have less and less time, and yet more and more pressure to deliver results. The impact of this double bind is all too evident in their approach to work.

This becomes a constant pressure and means that someone wants answers to problems, updates to information, or concerns about dips in performance.  This manifests itself in an almost constant stream of emails, phone calls, and texts fitted in around a constantly changing schedule of meetings. The challenge of time management!

We see people constantly being contacted to be briefed and updated on a range of programmes and projects that form part of this year’s key deliverables.

On top of this comes the inevitable crisis that appears on a regular basis that requires leadership involvement and throws plans into disarray.  Much effort is focused on making sure that plans and programmes are delivered to plan.  The challenge of time management!

Running with the Treadmill

All of this work can be characterised as a seemingly endless stream of activity that gathers pace akin to a treadmill that is running out of control. The ending is almost inevitable; it just depends upon how long you can hang on before you fall off the treadmill.

My own research with leaders would suggest that around 80% of a typical working week is spent in meetings of one sort or another. Many will focus on receiving or giving feedback on progress. The meetings will almost certainly take place either in a formal boardroom style or on a video link making communications even more challenging at times.

The agendas for meetings will be too ambitious in length given the time allowed; leadership expectations of achievement will be high. The more senior the leaders involved the more conflated the detail will be.

The game is obviously: to make everything look as if it is on track.

The reality, of course, is that what is happening in practice at the operational level often has little resemblance to what’s written in the highlight report or the briefing given in the meeting. Typically few people in the room, if any, will know the true picture of progress, but in the game of management, few have time to look outside the confines of the meeting room, before moving on to the next meeting in the diary.

Outside this management cycle of endless meetings lies organisational reality. The challenge of time management!

Operationally front line colleagues battle with an organisational system that conspires on a daily basis to stop them from doing the right thing for customers.  Policies, practices, procedures, and governance arrangements, instituted by managers to make things better,  in practice make matters worse by clogging the system up with processes that add no value to serving the customer.

In one organisation I worked with around 75% of the working week, and 90% of the activities that had to be undertaken by front line teams, and middle managers added no value to the customer. They essentially existed so that management could retain control over cost.  In practice, what leaders went on to learn was that capacity could be redirected into undertaking meaningful, value adding work that helped deliver better outcomes more efficiently.  This caused a challenge to the status quo and required changes to current policies and practices.

Lessons for Leaders

The lesson for leaders who are focused on doing more with less lies not in the meeting room, reading lengthy project update reports on activity against the plan, but out with front line teams gaining a thorough understanding of what is really going on.

Stepping back and asking the right questions to help gain an understanding of what is getting in the way of delivering good outcomes for customers, and then taking leadership responsibility for identifying and tackling the root cause is where real progress can be made.

For some, this may reveal an uncomfortable truth about the comfort zone of managers many of whom may well have been detached from the operational activity for a number of years. However, true leadership in a challengingly business environment requires us to challenge our own preconceptions and face up to our own fears. In the words of Albert Einstein, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”.

Taking Stock

By slowing down, breaking the endless cycle of activity, and pulling our heads up it is possible to take stock. Then we stand a chance of finding a workable solution to meeting the unenviable challenges facing the businesses for the foreseeable future. To find out how we can help you please get in touch.

We help leaders purposefully reflect upon their current challenges, identify practical and pragmatic ways of getting balance back into the demands upon their life, and deliver positive results in life and work.