We often talk about juggling multiple projects and responsibilities.   In fact, we brag about it.

I know a thing or two about juggling — balls, clubs, torches, machetes, eggs, bowling balls, and yes, even a non-running chain saw.  I never did cats, mice, or hand-grenades.

Smooth juggling depends on muscle memory, consistent throws so you know where to catch a ball, and staying relaxed.  Juggler’s understand that you’re only tossing one item at a time, in a predictable arc, catching in a predictable spot in 3D space, and then moving to the next toss with a predictable arc, and so on.  Toss, catch, toss… Predictable, repeatable, relaxed speed.  You can juggle with your eyes closed.  It looks impressive, even mesmerizing, to someone who doesn’t understand how it’s done. Juggling can be enjoyable and satisfying.

What most of us do when “juggling multiple projects and responsibilities” is more like heaving a bunch of things in the air simultaneously and dealing with the random fall of the objects.  There’s no consistency in your throw arc, muscle memory isn’t helping, and you tighten up rather than relaxing.  Heaving is stressful.  Bystanders are alarmed for their safety.  No one can do it for long. 

Juggling is a possibility when the work is familiar, repetitive, well-encapsulated.  Figure out what portions of your work fit this pattern, and you can become an efficient juggler.  The best leaders always look for ways to pass off that kind of juggling to someone else or eliminate it through automation.

Sometimes we have little choice but to heave stuff in the air and deal with the consequences.  Explore options. Maybe you can allocate the heaving among more people so each person is only heaving one or two items – not ideal but manageable for a time.  The best option is to convert heaving into juggling by giving awkward and unfamiliar work to others who are comfortable and familiar with it. 

In every case, it’s about managing time-slices and energy.  Analyze your situation and decide if you’re juggling or heaving, then take appropriate action.

One of the biggest reasons why your top talent considers leaving your organization is that they perceive they will have better challenges elsewhere.  They’re often frustrated with the type of work they have been assigned.  In a word, they’re bored.

Good leaders are gardeners, paying attention to what each person needs to thrive and produce the best for the organization.  Some people are wired for creating new things, new processes, new business models, new interactions. Others are great at maximizing a process or business, scaling, refining process efficiency. 

You need both types of people in a global economy of evolving expectations and technology options. 

Consider the S-curve way of portraying business operations – new things begin, there is a growth phase, and then it plateaus to a point where you need to transition to a new S-curve to sustain growth:

Match the top talent you have (or need to find) to the phase which is best suited for them.  If they’re the creative inventor type, they’ll be bored out of their skulls in the scale/compete phases where the execution depends on detail and incremental process design.  If they’re the process-oriented type then you aren’t likely to get the breakthrough game-changer input you need in the startup or transition phases. 

You might be saying, “I know people are good at both.”  How fortunate for you!  Many people are reasonably good at contributing in all these phases – but your top talent is exceptionally good in one or the other.

Don’t let your top talent get to “I’m leaving because I’m bored.” Think carefully about the assignments you give them. 

Leaders must be expert in asking excellent questions – it’s how we engage with people, draw them out, and one of the best ways to help them. 

Asking better questions is simply a matter of checking your assumptions and practice. Here are six helps:

1. Rotate your perspective:  What concerns does your customer have? Your boss?  Your peers?  Others in your work team? 
2. Test different timescales:  Near term, longer term.  What new problems will come later?  Once you make a decision and begin to act, what forces will come up as counter?  (As they say in the military, “the enemy gets a vote on your plan.”)
3. Put on your Project Manager hat:  Ask about scope, duration, and resource needs (and what level of focus).
4. Query about options/alternatives:  Compared to what?  What else might be considered?  Inquire about plan B. What assumptions were made?
5. Check the emotions involved: Ask how people feel about it – scary good or scary bad?  It’s not enough to get the facts, ma’am, you should test emotional content.
6. Use the WW___A strategy (“What would ____ ask?”): Pay attention to what other leaders ask, and how they ask.  Become a student of other leaders.  Some people are so good at asking questions they no longer are conscious of why they’re asking.  Observe, and when they ask a particularly good question, ask them why they asked it. 

Don’t be fearful of asking many questions. Conscious practice will lead you to get better at this critical leadership skill.

You’re going to get critical feedback, because you’re not perfect and your boss isn’t perfect, either. 

Yes, sometimes critical feedback is unfair or not entirely true. 

Yes, you’ll remember it longer than you remember praise and commendation.

Yes, sometimes it’s delivered in a poor or unprofessional way.

But… critical feedback is the granola breakfast cereal of champions, chewy and healthy. You don’t have to like it.  The truth is that we all need to be managed, and none of us like it.

Therefore, make it your ambition to get the most out of critical feedback.

It’s a gift, so don’t whine and say Thank You

Think of critical feedback as a condensed review of a complicated situation that is saving you time figuring out things on your own.  No matter the format (verbal or written), express your appreciation.  Recognize that for most people the act of giving critical feedback is hard and unpleasant. 

Let yourself feel some emotion for a few minutes

Any kind of feedback which we don’t instantly and fully agree with is going to generate an emotional response.  You’re human.  It’s ok to be angry, sad, disappointed, frustrated, scared – for a few minutes.  Work through it. Time-box it.  This is an essential step in processing feedback.

Write it out

Get out some paper and pen, and write out what you heard.  Break it down to pull out elements of the criticism.  Don’t trust your memory to deal with all this.  Get it out on paper so you can review it with some detachment and distance. 

Seek kernels of truth in the popcorn fluff

Maybe it’s all true, maybe not, but begin with the assumption is it all correct.  Look at your breakdown of the feedback and decide if there is any part of it you want to discount.  Guard yourself against excuse-making and rationalizations at this stage.  In my family we say, “Excuses are lies we tell ourselves.” 

Plan to improve

Given your analysis, ask, “So what next?” You can’t change the past, but you can make decisions about what will be different next time.  Is there prep work you need?  Better processes or more discipline?  An improved relationship?  Better communication? 

You would not have read this far is you planned to wallow and whine about the unfairness of it all.  So what will you do next?  I especially recommend you go back to the person who gave you the critical feedback and share your plan. 

Remember, reframe critical feedback as an opportunity to accelerate your growth. 

I enjoy pictures of the earth from the International Space Station (ISS).  The earth and atmosphere are gorgeous, and the videos of the Aurora Borealis are spectacular.

From enough distance, everything looks impressive.  Blue oceans.  Desert expanses.  Cities lit up at night.  Snowy mountain ranges.  You can’t see garbage, slums, pollution, crime, starvation or injustice.  No unpleasant smells, flooding, lightning, tornadoes, or earthquakes will affect you.  The air supply and quality is carefully calibrated and filtered.

This can be true of senior leaders in large companies, too.  We insulate them from certain unpleasantries and truths.  They’re far enough from most of the action that they don’t see the yucky stuff.  There is a reason that those CEOs on that “Undercover Boss” reality show are surprised how their company operations “really work.”  Glossy PowerPoint presentations and selective information are the C-suite equivalent of pretty pictures from space; you can’t see the garbage from there.

One of my colleagues referred to company execs as “thin air people.”  He said, “They’re living at high elevations and the hypoxia [lack of oxygen] affects their judgment.”

You don’t have to be a top company exec to be fooled by leadership hypoxia.  It can affect anyone in a leadership role.  You and I are the easiest persons to fool, especially by giving into our preferences to hearing good news and unconsciously creating a culture where it’s not “safe” to share the gritty reality.

Now that you’ve recognized you’re vulnerable, here are three ways you can avoid leadership hypoxia:

1. Insist on being told the full story with raw data.

Bill Gates recognized at one point while CEO of Microsoft that he was hearing about problems and bad news too late.  People were understandably giving him more positive news and shielding him from some of the trouble issues.  So he began insisting that every update opened with the problems and the bad news.  He made it safe to relay this kind of information rather than hiding it.

Talk with the people who regularly give you updates.  Specifically ask about what’s not going well or needs significant improvement.  If the data seems overly-rosy, ask if there is more or another perspective. Reward and praise the people who give you the full story.

2. Get out to the front lines and see for yourself.

Get physically away from the comfortable role of sitting in familiar, comfortable headquarter offices.  There’s no good substitute for on-site visits and re-visits over time.   Watch for the tendency to say, “Well, I went there 5 years ago, so I don’t need to go again.”  Things change, people change, customers and products change.  Plus – your experiences have influenced your ability to understand the on-the-ground situation.

3. Develop ways of listening to people who are close to the business execution.

Senior leaders have a difficult set of roles and simply can’t be on the front lines often enough.  But they can create communication channels for unfiltered news.  Find creative ways to set up “suggestion boxes,” analog or digital.  Engineer sharing events where you can visit with cross-functional groups of people –emphasizing your role as listener, not talker or explainer.  The format is less important than the spirit of the conversation and the openness of the dialog.

Facts-on-the-ground are sometimes smelly and awkward.  Position yourself to hear and act on reality.  That’s real leadership.

The concept of “decision fatigue” is that you only have so much decision capacity in your “tank,” and as you make decisions you run low and then empty. 

Complete bunk.  Horse-hooey. This is fodder to feed your inner whiner and excuse proliferator.

You are making decisions all day, every day.   What you focus your eyes on.  What you do with your hands.  What to do next.  Shifting in your seat.  Flipping pages and channels and jumping between sites.  You saw the headline or picture for this article and decided to look at it more.  From the time you open your eyes in the morning until you drift off into sleepy land you are making decisions.  No one comes to the end of the day and fails to make another few decisions.

I’ll grant you that some decisions are much more difficult.  Some decisions have a higher mental cost or consequence factor. 

Also, it’s true that our energy levels fluctuate through the day.  You have more energy for thinking and careful analysis at some times, and less at others. 

When you find that you’re struggling to make a particular decision, it’s something other than your “decision capacity tank.”  It’s more likely

• You’re fearful of making this decision because of the consequences.
• You aren’t confident of your analysis, or would prefer to have more information.
• You prefer that someone else had responsibility to make the decision.
• You lack the self-confidence to make the decision that you know needs to be made.

If you’re simply physically tired and not at your best, then be honest with others and yourself, and push that decision to a time when you’re energy level is more appropriate. 

But don’t say, “My decision capacity tank is empty.”  That tells people that you’re “full” of something else.

Leadership drives intelligent, wise change.  Change is about people and behaviors. Therefore, leaders must be skilled in influence and persuasion.  Influence and persuasion are often centered on status quo vs. possible future state discussions.

Weak and manipulative leaders try persuasion through straw man arguments.  A straw man approach calls attention to something you covertly substituted into your opponent’s argument, which he didn’t say.  You knock down that straw man, giving the impression you defeated the argument, when in fact you didn’t address the original argument at all.  This is frequently observed when the value of the appearance of vanquishing an opponent is far greater than critical thinking about complex issues. 

Strong, confident leaders know this truth: “We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.” (Lord Acton) The most persuasive leaders will articulate the “other side” arguments even better than they do – and then explain point by point why an alternative approach is better.  This is called the steel man approach.

The steel man approach is especially helpful for major changes with significant consequences. You want to bring people along with you when your organization faces a “no going back” irreversible decision.  Therefore, you must be articulate about all options.  One of the best outcomes of the steel man approach is that people will respect you even if they don’t always agree with your decisions.

Some historical examples:

• Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation by articulating the Pope’s arguments for indulgences and other practices, then demonstrating why they were illogical and inconsistent with the Bible. 

• Charles Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species” broke through historic dogmas because he used the steel man approach.  He laid out the case for alternative explanations of different species far better than others had done, and then systematically showed why those explanations were inferior to evolution. 

• Karl Marx brilliantly documented the inherent consequences of capitalism in “Das Kapital” by partially using a steel man approach – though 100+ million dead demonstrate his recommended alternative proved disastrous.

• Law schools in England and the US (until the mid-20th century) used the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans as the archetypical ancient legal brief.  Paul effectively used the steel man approach to make the case for Christianity rather than the pantheon of Roman gods and traditional understanding of how “the divine” interacted with men.

Develop your leadership capability by making the case for both “sides” or “next actions.” Discipline yourself to articulate ideas and strategies (especially if you think they’re dumb).  You can practice this even in situations where you aren’t making the decision. 

This practice work will be truly helpful when you are put to the leadership test.  Straw man arguments go down badly in history. 

Leaders at every level are vulnerable to chronic stress.  We’re sincere in our desire to burn energy to accomplish our goals and help people.  However, over time, depleted “batteries” mean our decisions are less effective, our creativity drops, our emotional resilience fades, and our endurance becomes pitiful.

Leaders need to recharge.  Your organization and the people you serve need you at your best.  Here are three suggested ways to recharge:

1. Extend your sleep by 30 minutes a night

Many leaders get into seasons of chronic sleep deprivation – not all-nighters, but just a little short each day.  You’ll know this is true for you if you need to sleep more on the weekends to “catch up.”  A typical sleep phase is 20 minutes.  Set your alarm to give yourself an additional 30 minutes of sleep time, which is enough to carry you through another sleep phase.  It only takes a little more discipline to find 30 minutes in your day, and the payoff is enormous. 

2. Breathe deeply for two minutes

When problems are coming in high and hot, or you’ve been switching between many small tasks and conversations, take two minutes and focus on breathing deeply.  Breath in slowly, breathe out slowly.  You don’t need any special program or ritual to do this.  Just focus on your breathing.  Tell your busy, anxious mind that you’ll start on a new problem in only two minutes. Your heart rate will slow down.  You’ll find it easier to concentrate.  Getting more oxygen in your brain will help you make better decisions.  [Bonus: do this two-minute breathing ritual before you go into a difficult meeting or important presentation.]

3 Walk in natural surroundings

There is something – difficult to describe but commonly experienced – uniquely refreshing about walking in a natural setting.  Strolling in a garden and focusing on the sounds, smells, and sights.  Listening to the wind in the leaves of trees.  Relishing the gurgle of a small creek, or the sound of waves lapping on the shoreline.  These do more to recharge you than hours working on gym equipment indoors.  Get outside, no matter the weather, for a few minutes each day. 

There are other ways to recharge, too.  Become a student of yourself, so you develop greater sensitivity to when your energy levels are low.  Try these approaches, and develop others which help you in particular.  (I know one talented leader who gets recharged by sitting in a quiet area and knitting.)

Finally, remember that the reason to recharge is to unselfishly invest that energy in serving others.

Your project went off the rails, and your boss – who doesn’t care about the complexities of the project and only wants to not be embarrassed in front of her boss – is chewing your butt because it looks like lousy planning and execution.  She wants to see the detailed project plan in two days. You know the team had a detailed project plan but it fell apart two weeks after the start.

For the umpteenth time you wonder about how useful planning really is.

Experienced project managers agree with these statements:

• Planning is helpful and important.
• Planning without execution is wasteful of time, energy, and attention.
• Execution without planning can go awry.
• “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” (Helmuth von Moltke)  Also known as “Stuff happens.”

The key question becomes: “What’s the right amount of planning?”

[Note: I am assuming that you have a clear idea of the objective.  You know what success looks like.  You understand the priority outcome. If you don’t know this, no amount of planning helps.] 

If you’re willing to learn from data and experience during the execution phase, you need direction and some way to evaluate “success,” but you need only plan for allocating people and the first set of tasks.   This is what’s behind the maneuver warfare strategy of “Commander’s Intent.”  The objective is clear, but the details evolve. 

Effective project leaders “play chess” and think out possible second and third moves.  The dialogue in your head sounds like this: “We do X and the two most likely responses are Y and Z.  If Y, then we have these options, but if Z we have a different set of options.  And the most unexpected responses are….”

The key is to develop some flexible planning scenarios with contingency plans, coupled with a healthy dose of paying attention.  Leaders must recognize the world is complex and you have imperfect information.  Invest time and energy into “sensing” what is going on with your project or initiative. 

One of the most significant things to anticipate are delays and extensions of work.  A large percentage of project failures happen because some activity on the critical path became significantly delayed.  How will you respond when (not if, when) this happens?  What new options come into play?

If you’re unwilling to learn from data and experience during the execution phase, you’ll need substantial planning coupled with extraordinary luck that your plan will work out exactly as planned.  The consistent failure of 5 year, 3 year, and even 6 month plans should make us sober. 

The Agile Manifesto recommends favoring:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

Avoid these two rookie mistakes:

1. Building the perfect plan, and assuming everything works out exactly like you expect.  
   
2. Saying “We don’t plan.”  Don’t pay that stupidity tax.  Knowing your objective, develop a starting plan, and work through scenarios of how the next steps could unfold.

Bonus leadership tip: Notice how people react to more planning and less planning scenarios for clues about their risk orientation.  Some people are simpler happier staying in the planning phase than taking the risks of action.  Other people are too impatient to do more than cursory planning. Most of us recognize that in a VUCA world we need to be in observe/learn/adapt cycles much more than we need to be in detailed planning for massive projects. But you’ll find that not everyone agrees with that statement.   

A reader asked how to overcome writer’s block. I told her there is no such thing as writer’s block. When we feel like we can’t write anything, the truth is that we don’t think we can write anything good. You don’t have a “writing poorly block,” do you? 

Just write. Get it moving. Expect that as you write you’ll start producing something more worthwhile.

Don’t score yourself on the % of your writing which you like. Score yourself for writing as a process, expecting that a fraction of what you produce is schlock.

(This understanding is not original to me.  C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, and Seth Godin have all described this.)

This is true for every creative venture, not only writing.