The inconsistent, unproductive preoccupation with all the things we have to do is the single largest consumer of time and energy. ~Kerry Gleeson

The most common answer I receive to the question “how’s work?” is “busy.” As I’ve become more involved with helping leaders wrangle all that busyness, I’ve discovered that what makes it so consuming is the lack of a system to house and organize all that stuff that’s swirling around in their minds.

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, puts it this way.

Most often, the reason something is on your mind is that you want it to be different than it currently is, and yet:

• you haven’t clarified exactly what the intended outcome is;
• you haven’t decided what the very next physical action step is and/or
• you haven’t put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you trust.

That’s why it’s on your mind. Until those thoughts have been clarified and those decisions made, and the resulting data has been stored in a system that you absolutely know you will access and think about when you need to, your brain can’t give up the job.

Nearly all authors I come across regarding personal productivity (David Allen, Chris Bailey, various FranklinCovey authors, etc.) say the very same thing in their own way. So I think it’s worth repeating, here’s my version.

• what do you want to be different (which is quite dissimilar from what you want to do)
• what’s the action step you need to take, this week, to help make that difference happen
• where are the physical reminders of both the difference you want to make happen and your action steps stored so that you reference them often and rely upon to make decisions how to spend your time

That’s it. It’s both that simple and that challenging. And leaders should be setting the example in their organizations. These are the very basic steps for effective planning, whether it’s on a personal level or an organizational level.

Social psychologist and author Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson says that “When people engage in the right kind of planning, their success rates go up on average between 200 and 300 percent.” That’s really important because, as Dr. Halvorson also said, “Succeeding in something hard is more pleasurable, gives greater satisfaction and happiness, and increases your overall sense of well-being.”

As a leader, are you ready to show others how to shift from an unproductive preoccupation with all you have to do, to planning your priorities and freeing your mind to really lead?

Insecure leaders are like fireworks with a lit fuse.  It’s only a matter of time until they explode, and when they do, they hurt everyone close to them.  ~The John Maxwell Company

Confident or insecure—sometimes it can be a fine line between the two.  But once a leader has crossed over from confident to insecure the dominoes begin to fall, quickly.  Over the years of consulting I’ve observed a pattern.  When some people are elevated into leadership positions, their insecurities take over and while they think they are demonstrating confidence, that’s not what those on the receiving end see or feel.

I took a few minutes to research what others have experienced in comparison to my own encounters with leaders who are insecure.  Here are four questions that seem to be a common perspective.

How do you handle conflict?

Are you going to an extreme?  In other words, are you avoiding conflict by being passive aggressive?  Or, are you going to the other extreme and do you see every scenario as a potential conflict?  As Sam Luce said in his blog post 5 Signs You Might Be an Insecure Leader, “They are either too soft and squishy or harsh and uncaring.  Secure leaders handle conflict with truth and grace working together, because relationships matter more than being right.”

Do you overcompensate?

Jeanne Sahadi in CNNMoney said it well, “Insecurity can be disguised by bullying, arrogance or power-mongering.”   Do you believe that you are superior?  Is your own self-importance taking a priority over building relationships?  Is your title more important to you than letting others see your authentic self?  If you said yes to any of these questions, you may be overcompensating.

Are you hiding in your office?

I like this one because it’s kind of obvious.  I’ve seen leaders almost literally circle their wagons by bringing their direct reports as physically close as possible and even putting up physical walls or doors to make it more difficult for employees to physically reach them.  These leaders always seem to have so much work to do that they just don’t have the time to get out of their office and engage with employees.  This question isn’t metaphorical, it’s literal, are you hiding in your office?

Are you respectful of others?

Respect—I love that word because it can cover so much territory.  Everything from not helping others grow, being a know-it-all, surrounding yourself with people you can control, considering anyone who disagrees with you “disloyal,” etc.  Simply put, the word respect means: admiration, high opinion, reverence, value, esteem.  Respect is not the absence of treating people poorly; it’s a word packed full of intentionality and deliberate behavior.   Are you respectful of others?

Is your confidence on solid ground or are you slipping toward insecurity?  We all slip now and then, but catching yourself is the first step to stop the domino effect of insecurity.

Over-managed organizations have systems and processes with no passion. Over-led organizations have heart with instability and chaos.  ~Dan Rockwell

I so appreciated fellow blogger Dan Rockwell’s post focusing on the tension between leadership and management. It’s a necessary tension, because all organizations need both, they need to be managed and led. I’d take that one step further and argue that all leaders need to spend at least part of their time managing. It’s a rare situation where someone can lead, all the time, without the need to manage.

I really resonated with this challenge especially this week because I’ve lost track how many conversations I’ve had with leaders who really don’t have the patience to manage, and some people who are being asked to step-up and lead who would much rather just manage.

When an organization gets out of balance, you begin to see the consequences.

An organization that is over-managed might look like this.

1. Processes no longer expedite, they actually slow, productivity. It takes five approvals to order more paper for the copier.
2. People are doing their tasks, but there’s no purpose behind that effort.
3. People are only doing their tasks, it’s not safe or encouraged to challenge the status quo or leadership.
4. An abundance of procedures become bureaucracy. As Rockwell says, “You haven’t deleted a procedure since the Great Depression.”
5. Employees aren’t people, they are gears in a machine. Meetings quickly become consumed with details and no one is looking at the big picture.

An organization that is over-led might look like this.

1. High on passion; low on processes and follow-through.
2. Leaders are more like competitive jugglers, the more balls in the air, the better.
3. With all those balls in the air, it’s hard to know who does what.
4. Training takes on a sink or swim approach. “You’ll figure it out.”
5. Systems are too slow, “just get it done.”

Is your scale currently tipping in one direction far more than the other?

Rockwell says you can fix it by “finding some leaders who scare you, or hiring some managers who drive you crazy. Over-managed organizations need disruptors. Over-led organizations need system builders.”

How are you leading? Do you need to gain some balance this week?

Leaders must figure out what values they believe should be manifested in their organizations.  And then put them over the flame of a Bunsen burner by teaching on those values, underscoring them, enforcing them, and making heroes out of the people who are living them out.  ~Bill Hybels

I’ve watched a lot of organizations debate, scrutinize, and pore over creating their values and wordsmith the definitions until each noun, verb and preposition was perfect. And then there they sat. Simply putting values in writing doesn’t make them meaningful or practiced.

Have you ever flown on Southwest Airlines? If you have, you would not be surprised to learn that one of their values is to have a fun-loving attitude. Do flight attendants on any other airline ever tell jokes and laugh at themselves? Not in my experience. What about their value of having a servant’s heart? When I get on a Southwest flight I feel like I’m being genuinely welcomed aboard the plane as opposed to being herded and tolerated.

As Hybels states “Whatever the value, if it’s alive and well in an organization, it’s not by accident.  It’s only there because of intentional, committed, dedicated effort.”

I recently heard a former CEO tell a story about the values at his publishing company. An editor had approved a design for a book cover that the CEO thought was, well, let’s just say not as good as it could have been. He went to the editor and in a slightly raised voice (in an open office environment) began to berate the editor and ask him what he was possibly thinking to approve a cover like that! The conversation was overheard by a co-worker who then went to the CEO and said he didn’t think his behavior represented their value of respect. The CEO agreed; how he chose to address the issue was not respectful. The CEO returned to the editor and apologized for his behavior.

This happened because the CEO had turned up the heat on their values through extensive training, orientation, and dedicated effort. The heat had been turned up so high, that even the CEO couldn’t get away with not modeling their corporate values. That’s the way it’s supposed to work – values so hot that they can’t be missed or swept under the rug even when the CEO slips up.

One way to check the heat level on your values is to honestly ask yourself, if someone were to come to our organization would they see an observable difference between us and another organization in our industry? Would someone be able to identify at least some of our values without going to our Web site and looking up our list of values?

Hybels says “When you heat up a value, you help people change states. Want to jolt people out of business as usual? Heat up innovation. What to untangle confusion?  Heat up clarity. New ‘states’ elicit new attitudes, new aptitudes, and new actions. It’s not rocket science. It’s just plain chemistry. Which is a lot about heat.”

Leaders continuously make space for new ideas to thrive. ~Dr. Kathryn Scanland

I live in a condominium building in downtown Chicago. It’s not unusual to get in the elevator with a neighbor who’s got an armful of boxes or general stuff. I then ask what might seem obvious on the surface: “Are you moving”? The answer to that question most frequently is, “No, just need to make room. I can’t bring in anything new unless I make space for it.” I actually view this as a perk of urban living; you have to constantly make choices about creating space.

That very same concept applies to leaders and organizations. For several years now, I’ve had the desire to shift my client base, from X clients to Y clients. That shift has not occurred at the pace I had hoped. I hadn’t been practicing what I preach. I didn’t “make space” for Y clients. Instead, I operated under the premise that I would decrease my X clients once I had built up my Y clients.

Out of frustration, and some guilt that I wasn’t following my own advice, I started to make space. When I was approached by X clients, who clearly didn’t fit my new desired client mix, I started to say “no.” Initially, creating that space felt like a void. It didn’t feel very smart or even strategic. It felt risky. I hit the pause button and I took a number of steps to reduce the risk of making space. Once the risk had been minimized, it really did start to feel strategic, and even smart.

Now with the space available for the type of client I really desire, those clients are starting to appear, and call, and be referred. Making space is working! Ironic, I realize, that I’m surprised by success with my own advice.

I see this same phenomenon happen in organizations. Leaders get excited about their latest strategic plan, the transformations they hope to see occur. But changes they had hoped for only inch forward with little momentum. If that’s the case, there’s a good possibility that the leaders haven’t made space for those plans or transformations to occur. Making space could mean saying “no” to certain types of programs or projects, it could mean eliminating products or services that are winding down or wearing out, etc.

Getting back to my neighbors needing to make space in their condos, it’s not a one-time occurrence. Living in an urban condo, making space, becomes a way of life. So too, it should be a way of life for leaders in their organizations.

I like this quote by Louise Smith. “You can’t reach for anything new if your hands are still full of yesterday’s junk.” Are you, or those you lead, juggling so much of yesterday’s junk that you can’t make space for anything new?

Allow your organization (or yourself) to thrive; make space for it!