How Leaders can learn to balance their task - and people - related needs at work ?

With increasing demands on the job, the ability to get the job done can be a key success factor. But the irony is that it can also prevent success, because focusing on the task often comes with a focus on people. Things like building relationships, inspiring a team, developing others, and showing empathy can be overlooked. If you feel you might be too focused on tasks, talk to your team about what you can do to focus more meaningfully on the people on your team. Seek advice from people who know how to balance tasks and people to gain insight into how they do it. Building higher self-awareness in this moment provides an opportunity to pause and choose a different approach. This could mean choosing not to send a bunch of emails about your big project over the weekend, pausing to acknowledge a colleague's efforts, or taking the time to teach something new to a team member. . Sure, focusing on tasks and getting results is essential to the success of any leader, team, or organization, but if there isn't enough balance with focusing on people, , success will be limited at all levels.

With increasing demands on the job for middle and senior managers, the ability to execute and get the job done is a key success factor. But it can ultimately become the downfall of the leader, bringing unforeseen costs to individuals, as well as their teams and organizations.

The high levels of efficiency that allow highly task-focused leaders to be so productive often come at the expense of a more people-based focus. Things like building relationships, inspiring a team, developing others, and showing empathy can fall by the wayside. Highly efficient leaders often lose their focus on people due to a limiting belief that more people-focused activities will slow them down and impede their ability to execute, and to ultimately be successful.

Great leaders strike a balance between being task-focused (getting things done) and people-focused (inspiring, growing, and empowering others). Leaders who are highly task-focused tend to be narrow-minded in their pursuit of results, rather than adopting a broader perspective that acknowledges the need to “go slow to go fast.” Leaders balance a focus on tasks and everyone is equally motivated and equally dedicated to achieving results, but they keep the larger organizational needs in mind. They also recognize that it’s not just about being efficient — it’s about being effective.

Overly task-focused leaders also tend to be more reactive, operating from a position of fear, and often displaying highly directive, controlling, or perfectionist behaviors that can alienate others and be disempowering to their teams.

If you feel that you may be overly task-focused, here are some suggestions to re-set your priorities:

Get feedback:

Ask key stakeholders how well they think you balance focus on tasks and focus on people. Ask them to quantify it: "Out of 100, how would you rate my focus on the task versus the person?" You can also ask, "What can I do to show more focus on the people who mean something to the rest of the team?" If you're concerned about your coworker being upfront with you, a third party, such as an executive coach, can collect that feedback for you.

Identify high-value ways to focus on people:

Combine the feedback you receive to identify a few routines that need to be taken, such as having recurring career development conversations with live reports, eliminating distractions in meetings. chat so you can really focus on the other person or have coffee with a coworker to get to know each other. other than work. These efforts should be sincere and not forced, even if you feel a little uncomfortable at first. Building deeper personal relationships can make others feel valued, not a means to an end.

Engage in self-observation and reflection:

Real-time notifications when you're impatient or moving too fast. This offers the opportunity not only to be more present, but to increase your self-awareness. Ask yourself reflective questions to help you better understand what's driving your behavior, such as "What am I trying to avoid?" or "What are my fears about slowing down?"

Destroy your limiting beliefs:

Create safety tests to gather information that refute the limiting beliefs that drive your behavior. This may include talking to people who know how to balance tasks and people to gain a deeper understanding of how they perform and how that balance has contributed to their success.

Practice self-management:

Building higher self-awareness in this moment provides an opportunity to pause and choose a different approach. This could mean choosing not to send a bunch of emails about your big project over the weekend, pausing to acknowledge a colleague's efforts, or taking the time to teach something new to a team member. .

Certainly, 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..

Author: Rebecca Zucker