For leaders, “busyness” is often an unavoidable reality and can be seen as a badge of honour.
It’s the constant juggling act of meetings, emails, crisis management, and decision-making that can dominate calendars and where you focus your time.
We have lived in a work culture that has seen busyness as a signal of productivity.
Well, SPOILER ALERT – I call BS, as it generally is not any sign of productivity!
What perpetual busyness does do is hinder you as a leader from pausing to reflect, strategise, and prioritise.
Add to this that you are likely seeing your team as being busy, your colleagues, your leaders – the ‘busy’ environment builds from each piece of the organisation.
Who is lifting their head up and checking that the busyness is truly moving you towards to your outcomes and vision?
At this time of the year, as we try to wrap up all the deliverables on the list to do before team’s head away for a Christmas break, busyness and overwhelm comes to the forefront.
So, if you are wearing your busyness as a badge of honour, here are a few reality checks as to why busyness is absolutely a problem for leaders.
When leaders are perpetually busy, you can develop tunnel vision, focusing on immediate tasks while losing sight of long-term goals. This often prevents you from seeing the bigger picture and identifying and aligning you work to strategic priorities.
Constant busyness often forces leaders into a reactive mode, moving from crises to crisis and immediate issues rather than looking to proactively shaping the future. This reactionary approach will often stifle innovation and strategic thinking.
Being in a state of constant busyness can lead to decision fatigue, where the quality of your decision-making deteriorates as the sheer volume of decisions required daily takes hold. Leaving this unchecked, the accumulation of what seemed like small decisions can result in poor choices and strategic missteps.
Busyness leaves little room for reflection and introspection, critical for personal growth and effective leadership. Reflection time allows you to assess what’s working, what’s not, and make necessary adjustments. This is often seen as a luxury for leaders – to take the time out to reflect and get perspective. Don’t underestimate the power of reflecting on where you are at and what you need to focus on.
Continual busyness without adequate breaks can lead to burnout. Whether you like it or not, is you are not looking after your well-being as a leader you will be affecting yourself and your team. It is time to walk to talk and demonstrate through action how you look after yourself.
In order to help you work through the busyness you are no doubt feeling, here are a few tips and tricks.
- Delegate and Empower: Trust your team with responsibilities.
- Seek Clarity: Identify key priorities and allocate time accordingly.
- Schedule Thinking Time: Block out time in your calendar for reflection and strategic planning.
- Learn to Say No: Recognise that not all tasks are of equal importance. What is on your ‘to do’ list and your ‘stop doing list’?
- Mindfulness and Self-care: Do things that promote your mental clarity and well-being.
Yes, we are in the midst of the silly season.
Yes, there is much to do before you head off for any summer break.
But, if you have CLARITY about what you need to do and when, are INTENTIONAL about how you go about this, and PLAN well for a successful end of year and start of 2025 – then you will cruise into the festive season and know that you are in control for your return in 2025.
This is your chance to show how leaders can transform themselves out of being busy to being truly effective and visionary.
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