Where to aim my Hard Work?
Be strategic with your effort
Can you feel it? Everyone you speak to seems to have zero time for meetings and very long 'to-do lists'. That look of panic you saw on everyone's faces a week before final exams at school are all around us.
At such times we go into survival mode and default to our go-to levers:
Work harder - put the foot to the floor, lift the intensity, and power through everything that needs doing. Aka Beast Mode!
Work longer - pound out the hours and get on top of everything with sheer volume of output.
I call this the Old Paradigm in The Rhythm Effect (detailed in the sample chapter here). I know it well. I use these two levers myself more often than I would like to admit! Its not so much a trap we fall into as much as it is a necessity. It seems to me the best we can do is minimise the damage (fatigue, burnout, stress, frustration, aggravation) by being strategic with our efforts. We can also make sure our efforts set us up to minimise the need for the Old Paradigm next time round.
Plan as you do
Whenever I mention planning eyes tend to roll. What a drag! Who's got time for that!?! I hear you. But there are three methods we can use and adapt to our own environments to make a big difference:
Timeline Management - what's coming up that no one should be surprised about? A deadline within a project. A team mate going on leave. A public holiday. A recurring meeting or report. How many of you got caught out in someway the week after daylight saving begun? The stress and strain caused by these nasty surprises are completely avoidable. It is distracting and a waste of effort. In fact, if we are not ahead of these things we are complicit in the pain we are causing for ourselves and every stake holder. A GANTT Chart, shared digital calendar, yearly planner on the wall... anything that suits your purpose. Simple yet vitally important to make sure we make good decisions with the future in mind while also acting as a communication tool so everyone involved is on the same page. Set it up, use it, and speak to it multiple times a day.
Performance Management - i used to have a palm sized pad and small pencil in my back pocket on me at all times. Every time I observed anything 'good' or 'bad' with a product, process, system, behaviour, or someone's conduct it went into the notebook - time, date, description, and any other thought at the time. Devastatingly effective for having the best feedback conversations and reviews, as well as building ammunition I needed for presenting in meetings to higher ups, board members, or team meetings. This takes next to zero more effort or time while plowing through your daily work. A habit worth forming - your future self will be on their hands and knees thanking you for making their life so much better!
Succession & Delegation Management - every job, task, and challenge is a 'capacity building' opportunity for you and your people. Don't let them go to waste. Delegating to others means you will be working harder in the short term. If that sentence makes no sense to you then we need to talk. Somewhere along the line delegation got confused with 'hand-balling'. It is not and a tight framework it is key for good delegation which leads to excellent succession planning. Every second we spend on building capacity into our people will be repaid in less rework, mistakes, and aggravation. More importantly, there will be a lot less need for us to default to the Old Paradigm.
The Universal Leadership Technical Skills from The Rhythm Effect Leadership Online Course.
We have never worked harder to survive and compete in this crazy and bizarre year. The need to maximise our Return On Effort has therefore never been so relevant. These three Universal Technical Leadership Skills (see the graphic above) are a good start to consciously aim where your hard work goes. Imagine the impact of keeping this up all the way through to this time next year?
Banner Image Source: Tim Evans for Harvard Business Review
