Tag Archive for: time management

Blog on Time Management Isn’t the Real Problem: This Is.

Time Management Isn’t the Real Problem: This Is

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Most leaders come to me thinking they have a time management problem. They have too much on their plates, feel stressed out, and don’t have the bandwidth for strategy, growth, culture, and other matters vital to creating the future.

After a short discussion, you recognize that overload is only a symptom. The core issue: Your leadership strengths often create your biggest challenge: dependency.

No one knows the business as you do. People trust your judgment. They value your approval. Bringing problems to you produces quick answers. Being helpful feels productive and rewarding.

Over time, those well-intentioned interactions create an invisible system of dependence. Eventually, your company outgrows your ability to be the hands-on hero. You become the bottleneck. Everything feels harder. The organization’s pace slows to match your decisions.

When you’re busy helping everyone else do their jobs, who’s doing yours?

What If?

What if your organization could generate momentum on its own?

Imagine a business where people at every level understand the destination, make sound decisions, solve problems, and take disciplined initiative to advance the common good. You go from feeling trapped in day-to-day management to being liberated to focus your best energy on strategy, growth, and the future.

An earlier newsletter discussed the three levels of dependency: problem-solving, decision-making, and strategic. The diagram below helps you diagnose why dependency is showing up.

The lower left is Persistent Paralysis. Strategic Clarity exists mainly in your head, and your team is reluctant to take initiative. Leaders facing this situation typically deal with all three levels of dependency.

Learned Helplessness occurs when you have high Strategic Clarity but low levels of Team Initiative. Servant Leadership often winds up here. People come to you for permission to do things they should be able to do on their own, and you enable the behavior.

Situations with high Team Initiative but low Strategic Clarity lead to Fragmented Efforts. Sometimes it’s a chaotic culture with the office alphas pursuing their own agenda. I’ve also seen this effect in highly uncertain situations where people pursue disparate efforts. This situation can be positive as people experiment, and you quickly determine the best way forward.

Team-Powered Momentum results from clear strategic direction and high team initiative. You become the pilot, guiding a ship that is functioning effectively: solving problems, making routine decisions, and proactively innovating and anticipating your next moves.

What opportunities would that situation provide you?

Graph on time management and dependency.

My Scar Tissue Is Your Short Cut

I’ve walked a mile in your shoes and experienced the costs of dependency firsthand. I’m a recovering “servant leader” who learned that being service-centric is a much healthier place. Over time and after many mistakes, I developed a repeatable process to create disciplined team initiative.

Those lessons shaped how I led 800 paratroopers in one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous regions. The culture we created helped earn the trust of a skeptical population and motivated a major insurgent group to stop fighting and become an ally.

Since then, I’ve advised 4-star generals, cabinet secretaries, NFL teams, CEOs, and senior leaders on building team-powered momentum. I’ve distilled those lessons into the 3-Discipline Leadership System™.

Time Compounds All Things

Dependency invariably leads to drift, and the longer you drift, the harder getting to Team-Powered Momentum becomes. You are as close to achieving that outcome today as you will ever be.

When you replace dependency with team-powered momentum, you gain the time, energy, and confidence to focus on what only you can do: create the future. The 3-Discipline Leadership System™ aligns people around a common playbook, creating unbeatable positioning, an unstoppable workforce, and unwavering inspiration that fuels lasting prosperity.

Prosperity-Builders like you deserve to go from owning a job to owning a business and having the life you desire.

Hold people accountable without being a jerk – 5 action steps

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Accountability is challenging, as you know.

You want to hold people accountable for meeting performance and behavioral standards but don’t want to come across as a jerk.

Here are five action steps to help you do that.

1. Clarify your expectations.

I found that the fault was usually mine whenever one of my subordinates did not meet my expectations.

I did not set clear expectations. My subordinates did what they thought I wanted, but their mind-reading abilities were limited.

I learned to look in the mirror first when my expectations weren’t met.

Clarify your performance expectations using What + So That + When.

What: the task or requirement.

So That: the outcomes or results you expect.

When: the due date.

Let your subordinates figure out how they are going to get the intended results on time.

Adding “so that” forces you to communicate the intended result precisely.

Use this approach with every task, and you will find that people get the outcomes you want on time.

Clarify your behavioral expectations using What + So That + Examples.

Nearly every organization has it’s core values listed, defined, and posted on the walls.

They fail to specify what right looks like, though, so you have a tough time holding people accountable for values.

This problem creates cynicism as people perceive a say-do disconnect. 

When you have made your behavioral expectations obvious, contrary behavior stands out more sharply and is much easier to address.

There is a direct correlation between expectations and results.

2. Get a back-brief.

After you provide the “What + So That + When,” have your subordinates relay that back to you in their own words so that both parties know that you have a mutual understanding. [see the so that at work :0)]

Next, have them provide a brief sketch of how they will go about doing the task to get the desired results on time so that you know their game-plan is heading in the right direction.

This step gives you both the opportunity to check for Task – Result mismatches and provide any additional guidance and coaching.

Having your subordinates develop the how-tos gives them greater ownership and buy-in so that you are more likely to get high levels of engagement and great outcomes.

3. Set the right example.

Accountability works when you apply the expectations equally to everyone.

Accountability starts with you.

When you hold yourself accountable to meet performance and behavioral expectations, everyone will accept being held to the same standards.

4. Don’t play favorites.

Rules are arbitrary if they apply to some people and not others.

Going back to point #1, when the expectations are clear, you reduce the fogginess.

You can have objective conversations about accountability rather than emotional ones.

5. Follow-thru consistently.

With such clear expectations, you can more easily get to the root of problems.

Did someone fail to perform the task? Determine what circumstances led to that shortfall.

Did the task not achieve the intended results? You can determine if the shortcoming was poor performance or if you have a task – outcome mismatch.

Was the task not done on time? You can find out if your priorities are confusing, resources inadequate, or if your subordinate is overloaded.

That’s it!

1. Clarify your expectations.

2. Get a back-brief.

3. Set the right example.

4. Don’t play favorites.

5. Follow-through consistently.

What is your top takeaway from this article? Write a comment, DM, or email me at chris@strategicleadersacademy.com.