Imagine what it would be like to arrive at work and have a manageable number of strategic projects on your to-do list. These projects would be challenging and thought-provoking. Making progress would have a positive impact on your team, your business, and your customers.
This is not the reality for most leaders. According to an Accenture survey of 1,770 frontline, mid-level, and executive-level managers from 14 countries, managers across all levels spend more than half of their time on administrative coordination and control tasks. How do you compare to this survey?
It’s difficult to move away from the tyranny of the urgent. Moving away from administrative and task-related activities can happen with intention on your part.
Below are five practices—employed by successful leaders—that can help you incorporate discipline into your day to step away from your to-do list:
#1. Be Visible – Effective leadership means being in the trenches.
The most effective leaders do not sit in their offices all day; they find time to 'walk the floor.' They step out, interact with their people, ask about their challenges, and take their thoughts and ideas into consideration.
By walking the floor, leaders form a direct line with their teams, seeing firsthand their daily operations. You can gain a more realistic perspective than what comes from reports or meetings. It is from this vantage point, in collaboration with your people, that transformative decisions can be made.
ACTION: Every day for the next week, schedule time to be visible to your people. Document what you learn by talking with your team, listening to their ideas, and observing their challenges.
#2. Give Positive Feedback – Effective leadership means catching your people doing things right and acknowledging them.
Do you remember a time when you received feedback that ignited a spark in you? A time when a leader shared appreciation for your excellent work, dependability, or overall skill? What impact did that have? Did it make you feel capable? believed in? valued?
Do not miss the opportunity to strengthen your team members’ belief in their contributions or their value. Positive feedback has a measurable impact on both employee engagement and performance.
ACTION: During the coming week, identify one or two team members who are overdue for acknowledgement or gratitude from you. Find time to share your feedback with them.
#3. Reflect – Effective leadership means taking time to assess your actions.
Effective leaders are committed to their own self-improvement. Every experience, good or bad, has contributed to their current level of effectiveness, including how they show up to their people.
Impactful leaders reflect on their actions, their decisions, and their growth. They reflect on their successes and failures, particularly how others around them respond.
ACTION: Tonight, when your workday has wrapped up, take a moment of introspection—perhaps on your drive home. As you reflect, what is one thing you feel good about? What is one thing that represents an opportunity for you?
#4. Build Strategy with Your Team – Effective leadership means designing a plan to keep everyone on track, and then involving your team in the process.
Effective leaders keep their team aligned around an agreed-upon plan. Teams often struggle because of confusion and lack of clarity. Days can feel like nothing more than firefighting.
At least once a quarter, bring your team together to assess the good and bad from the past quarter, then prepare for priorities for the future. You bring an understanding of priorities coming from above, and your team brings the experience of their day-in-and-day-out successes and hurdles.
ACTION: Schedule a planning session with your team.
#5. Identify Emerging Leaders Inside Your Organization – Effective leadership means finding the ‘future stars’ for their leadership team from within, and then developing them.
The strength of your team is only as good as its leadership. Effective leaders are secure enough to identify emerging leaders. An emerging leader is a high-performing individual contributor who has not yet moved into a formal leadership role.
Look for those rising stars who are highly engaged and complement the team’s vision and goals. Find people with the right skills, mindset, and values that align with the team's mission.
Nurture the leaders of tomorrow today! Provide them with the mentorship and opportunities they need to thrive.
ACTION: Think about an emerging leader inside your organization who is making a mark. Invite them into an exploratory conversation to learn about their development goals and career aspirations.
Which of the five effective leadership strategies resonates with you most strongly as a starting point? Would you like to take the opportunity right now to be more visible to your team, become more intentional with feedback, or step back to reflect? Perhaps you need to take time to build strategy with your team or recruit the next emerging leader.
According to leadership expert John C. Maxwell, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” In other words, effective leadership is the cornerstone of achieving impactful results.
What strategy will you commit to today to enhance your leadership impact tomorrow?