With ever-increasing demands at work for both mid-level and senior leaders, the ability to execute and get things done is a key driver of success. But it can ultimately become a leader’s downfall, resulting in unintended costs for the individual, as well as for their teams and organizations.
Why Highly Efficient Leaders Fail
If focusing on your to-do list means you aren’t focusing on your employees, that’s a problem.
February 12, 2019
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Summary.
With ever-increasing demands at work, being able to get things done can be a key driver of success. But, the irony is that it can also deter success, because a focus on tasks often comes at the expense of a focus on people. Things like building relationships, inspiring a team, developing others, and showing empathy can fall by the wayside. If you sense that you may be overly task-focused, talk to your team about what you can do to focus more meaningfully on the people on your team. Seek out the advice of others who are good at balancing task- and people-focus to gain some insight into how they do it. Building greater self-awareness in the moment provides an opportunity to pause and choose a different approach. This might mean choosing not to send a slew of emails about your big project over the weekend, pausing to acknowledge a colleague’s effort, or taking the time to teach a team member something new. To be sure, task-focus and achieving results are vital for any leader, team, or organization to succeed, but without a sufficient balance with people-focus, success will be limited at every level.