Prioritisation and the Busyness Trap (Part 2)

Last week I wrote about the main causes that contribute to the busyness trap at an organisational level: Business Planning and Budgeting, and KPI setting. This week I would like to touch on the causes that contribute to that busyness in organisations at individual level. Those things that we do to ourselves; us the humans that form part of those organisations.

1. Fear

Following the thread we discussed in part one, if a manager has to decide and put forward a case for all the projects their team need to do next year in order to get the adequate budget; fear may be driving their decision of putting too many projects on the list. This could be fear of relevance; “if I don’t have enough projects, they may give the budget to other managers” or even fear of losing their job “why should my job exists if I don’t have enough things to do”?

Fear can also exist at an organisational level. This shows in the way organisations try to do too many things because they fear “not doing something” may mean they lose relevance as a business, rather than placing small and continuous bets.

2. Dealing with ambiguity

It is much easier to think “we have a clear plan to follow” than to open ourselves to the possibilities that initiatives, budgets, even team compositions could change every 90 days depending on the work we decide to do or the market movements.

Therefore, we try to “predict” what is going to happen over the next 15 months, creating a false sense of security instead of leaning into the ambiguity and discomfort. 

3. Control

The more we want to be across everything, the busier we are going to be. Many managers talk about delegating as the practice to empower their teams and find some space to breathe. But delegating is just passing the “thing to do”to someone else and not the responsibility or mental labour.

What managers should do instead of delegating is deputising. Deputising is not only passing the task but also the responsibility of something. It means, someone can do and decide the best course of action without the manager having to be across it. When we delegate, we are still involved in the decision making or the control of the outcome. When we deputise, we free ourselves of that task / initiative.

4. Constant need for achievement.

Usually, we become leaders because we have been very good at “doing things”at “achieving” in our field. When we become leaders, we need to change this approach and start thinking about how we can set up the right environment for our teams to achieve, rather than how we can continue to achieve. I know it is counterintuitive; but a leader should spend more time thinking than doing.

I always recommend the leaders I coach to have a “to be list” rather than a “to do list” – think about how you are going to show up and help your team rather than what you are going to do today.

5. Ego before the organisation

All these reasons have a common thread too, which is putting our own ego before the organisational gain. If we place our sense of professional identity on our job title, the number of people me manage, how much budget or attention a project we are managing gets by the CEO or how many meetings I am invited too; we are never going to get out of that self-inflicted busyness trap. 

These days we wear the fact that we are constantly “needed” like a “badge of honour”; when leaders are at their best is when they have time to think, see the whole system and make small nudges or interferences into that system that will benefit their team. 
 
Now…I will leave you with this thought. Next time someone asks you how you are; and you answer “I am very busy”; ask yourself, what is the real reason underneath that answer and how can you change it?