3 Steps Leaders Must Take to Elevate Their Impact

A persistent challenge leaders face is the constant feeling that they are spread too thin. The most important career decision a leader will make is how they choose to invest their time and energy. In my work with leaders an all too common theme in their stories is how the urgent day to day issues take up a majority of their energy leaving them struggling to find “extra” time to focus on the strategic aspects of their leadership roles that will evolve and grow the business.

There are many valid reasons why leaders struggle finding time to focus on the strategic aspects of their roles which includes wanting to do great work, not disappointing stakeholders and the negative impact that can come with saying “no” or putting off the daily urgent activities that arise. Given this challenge, what can leaders do to stop the urgent from getting in the way of accomplishing their most important leadership and organizational goals? Below are 3 Steps leaders must take to improve their ability to address their daily workload demands, while also building in sufficient time and energy to accomplish their most important goals.

1.      Understand the On the Business Aspects of Your Leadership Role

A useful way to look at your leadership role is through the lens of In and On the Business. Think of “In the Business” activities as the day to day operational aspects of your leadership role. These are the urgent activities that come to you and, if you let them, will devour all available energy and time. The “On the Business” activities are the more strategic leadership responsibilities of your role and are focused on making sure the organization accomplishes its mission, lives its values, achieves high priority goals, continually grows and evolves to meet future challenges. See examples below.

2.      Define the On the Business Leadership Activities that Must be Done

How a leader should spend their time between the On and In the Business varies from leader to leader. The breadth and depth of leadership responsibilities varies greatly between a CEO, C-suite executive, and front-line manager creating different levels of On the Business responsibilities. Each leader needs to individually assess what activities and percentage of time they need to focus On the Business. The following questions can helpful in answering this question.

• What are the most strategic responsibilities of my leadership role?
• What are the strategically important activities that only I can do for my organization or team?
• What On the Business activities require my leadership influence, attention, and authority for success?
• What are the (leadership) activities that must be done or there will be serious negative impact on the organization or my team achieving its most important strategic goals?

Leaders must be deliberate about building in the necessary time they need to invest in their On the Business activities. Leaders have to be responsive to their urgent and day to day activities that will constantly need attention, it just cannot be at the expense of them moving forward their most important goals. Leaders must build in and protect the time that is needed to succeed with the most strategic aspects of their role because if they don’t, the urgent and day to day operations will eventually steal their best time and energy. Define what must be done, or nothing else you achieve will really that matter much.

What are the On the Business responsibilities for your leadership role and how are you building in time to accomplish these tasks?

3.      Address Behavioral and Environmental Barriers

Leaders need to identify and address both the behavioral and environmental barriers that get in the way of them being able to appropriately elevate their impact. Let’s start with looking at the behavioral aspects. As a leader you must ask yourself, "what is it that I am doing that negatively impacts my ability to elevate my leadership focus?" The answer may come in many different forms. It could uncover areas where the leader needs to develop their skills such as delegating, giving feedback, influencing, coaching, setting goals, and creating accountability. The answer to this question could also highlight behaviors that a leader should stop doing. One common behavior that gets in the way of leaders elevating their impact is taking the lead role in their employees day to day problem solving instead of asking questions, coaching for development and keeping the accountability with the employee for resolving their issues. Others habits that might need to be stopped include saying “yes” to all stakeholder or customer requests or letting go of needing to be the team's primary technical expert.

The other equally important part of this equation is identifying the environmental factors that are impeding the leader’s ability to elevate their impact. Some of the most common environmental factors that stop leaders from focusing on the strategic aspects of their role include gaps in individual and team skill-sets, decision making processes, role design, reward systems, resource allocation, goal and role clarity, accountability, and inability to say “no” when necessary. As a leader, you need to ask yourself, “what is it about my current environment that needs to change so I can better elevate my leader impact?” Once identified, the leader will need to assess how to best influence either directly or indirectly the impeding environmental factor to either lessen or eliminate the issue. 

NOTE: Part of this exercise is also understanding when an environmental factor is beyond the leader’s influence. Examples could include organizational budget constraints, shifting markets, new technologies, changing strategy, new boss, etc. During these situations the leader must focus their time and attention On the Business to adapt and evolve their team to be prepared to succeed within the new context. 

What is getting in the way for you as a leader in elevating your focus and impact?

What are the one or two big things (either behavioral or environmental) that get in the way of you being able to invest the necessary time and focus On the Business? 

Your leadership success will be most defined by your ability to focus the necessary time and energy on accomplishing most strategic aspects of your role while managing the urgent day to day issues. 

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