Get What's Important Now done.  Get others to willingly do the rest.
 

Are you getting what's important done?  Do you feel like the work that you enjoy and that would be most helpful to your success is often the last to get your attention?  If so, you are not alone.  Leaders everywhere are swamped!  We are in economic times that are being built on the back of one key word: Productivity! 

Productivity is built on getting fewer people to do more work.  Process improvements, outsourcing, cost-cutting - leaner and tougher - like a vise that is unyielding in its slow, perpetual squeeze.  No one feels the impact of this more than managers and leaders.  Staff is reduced.  Secretaries are a luxury of the past.  Training people is the first budget cut.  It's a vicious circle that leads to high stress for leaders who are juggling more balls with fewer resources.

The secret to success is to get other people to do what you want.  The #1 reason leaders are not getting their top priorities done is that they are unable to get other people to do work that rightfully belongs to them.  And it isn't for lack of trying!  It's for lack of succeeding.   When I ask how long they've been trying to get someone to...meet deadlines, take the initiative, improve the quality of their work, stop being so negative etc, etc...I am sometimes shocked to hear the answers:  two years to five years is not uncommon.

The shock to leaders is that huge time savings are buried in small, repetitive daily events.  It's the staff member who calls every day with their problems, looking for you to solve them.  It's the peer who doesn't follow through, leaving you stuck to make it happen.  It's the employee who you continually have to chase down to get what you want done, or nothing happens.  It's the boss who imposes daily work that seems like unnecessary paperwork & meetings. 

Anytime you want action from someone else, you are attempting to lead.  The question is, are they following?  If not, what's the cost to you?  What important stuff aren't you getting done that you would if you could just get them to do what rightfully belongs to them?  What stress and frustration are you living with every day as a result? 

Nothing changes until a leader gets clear on how big these time eaters are, and how unsuccessful they have been at getting rid of work that belongs to others. No time management course, nor process improvement will do it.  Firing is often the final solution chosen, in the hope that someone else will be "better."  But no employee is perfect, and getting others to do what you want is a skill every success-driven leader must master.

Getting others to do what you want is fast if you go slow.  My 12 year old stepdaughter hates bugs and mice.  She will scream in terror and run to me to eliminate any bug she sees in the house.  The other day, I decided to help her get over this (and save myself bug-squashing time).   In less than ten minutes, she had personally squashed a bug with her foot, and taken it in a Kleenex and put in the garbage can.  When my wife came home, she said, "Mom, I put a yukky bug in the garbage all by myself!"  Those last words warmed my heart - "all by myself"  From her point of view, she did it.  I didn't "make" her do it.  Then she said, "I'll never do that again!"  I smiled.  She's moved the first inch.  I'm confident the whole yard will come soon enough.

Have a great weekend,

John Kuypers
 

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