How are you defining “productive” for yourself as a leader? And how do you define it for the people in your team?
This is not a small or light question. You need a conscious philosophy of productivity.
Productivity is fundamentally a function of input and output. Richard Koch (the famous 80/20 author) points out that the progress of civilization is tied to putting less in and getting more out.
These are true about you with respect to energy and output:
- Efficiency and effectiveness are different measures, and get measured differently in different lines of work
- You can do more than you think you can do
- Rest and re-creation has long-term ROI
- You have the same 168 hours each week as everyone else
- Not every activity contributes equally to your impact and legacy
- There’s a certain amount of regular ‘stuff’ that simply has to be done
- Consumption is less likely to bring you joy than relationships, accomplishments, and creation
- The mental, physical, and relational are interrelated
All these are true of the people your team, too. They watch your behavior to get clues about what’s meaningful and significant.
Easy first step: Avoid bad productivity philosophies which dissipate your resources. Doing everything that hits your inbox, right now, without favoring some than others. Finish every task to the nth degree of perfection. Do everything yourself. Work on stuff until you fall asleep at the keyboard.
Next steps: Know your strengths and work with them. Align your priorities to the things critical to your organization and your boss. Develop the courage to value your time. Be more fearful of failing to deliver your best contributions than occasionally missing on small stuff. Time-box and shrink all administrivia. Pre-decide that sometimes you will be stubborn and more often you will be flexible.
Bottom line: Be consciously principled about productivity.
