Why your 'productivity' may be holding you back

Slow down to speed up...

Hey friend,

Happy International Women's Day! It's a great day to reflect on how grateful I feel to do what I do. I get to play a small role in closing the leadership gender gap, which gets me out of bed every day.

Instead of focusing today's newsletter on IWD specifically, I want to focus on an area that will help all of you...

I help a lot of women land first-time director, VP, and even C-suite roles. And although we're all unique, the truth is that I see the same themes over and over again in terms of how we sometimes hold ourselves back.

Often, they are behaviours based on habits or beliefs that we feel serve us. Because of that, they can be difficult to shift. The first step is self-awareness because we can't create any change until we recognize that a change is necessary.

And that's exactly what I want to dive into today:

• How doing too much, too fast, is sabotaging your career success
• The benefits of slowing down
• How to get started

Let's dive in...

I get a LOT of stuff done. What's wrong with that?

Being productive isn't the problem per se; it's what you may be sacrificing in the name of productivity.

Too often, when we're rushing from meeting to meeting and cranking out work, we're focused on what's urgent instead of what's important. We're not asking ourselves critical questions about the work we're doing.

And in some cases, we're making sloppy mistakes that can impact our leadership brand.

This may seem counterintuitive since you probably ended up in the position you're in because you're a great executor. You get a lot done. People know if they want something done, they can give it to you. And this makes you feel good!

Early in our career, this serves us. But as we move up, expectations change. Instead of expecting you to crank out work, your manager now expects you to be thoughtful about whether the process needs to change. They want you to think critically about the work you're doing and the insights you're able to bring to the table to make things better.

If you stay stuck on the 'get sh!t done' mentality, you'll have a really difficult time being seen as a director or VP... and if you do get there, you'll struggle to thrive in that role.

Why you should slow down

Believe it or not, slowing down will help you be a better leader and even get more done in the long run. Having space to think will allow you to come up with new ideas and insights, which will demonstrate your value to leadership.

The further up you go in a company, the more time you should spend in deep work (analyzing, problem-solving, brainstorming, ideating) and the less time you should spend on execution.

Now, if you're in middle management or at a start-up, you still need to do both. But that's okay - you can time block to ensure you're spending some time on deep work and other time on execution tasks.

Think about it - when you have 2 minutes between Zoom meetings and you're running to grab a water, use the bathroom, and check a Slack message, do you think you're giving yourself an opportunity to come up with a brilliant strategic insight?

There's no way you can do that!

As someone who was once in your shoes, taking time just to 'think' sounded crazy to me. I'm high energy, and I can crank out work like the best of them. But when I finally decided to slow down, I went from struggling as a director to thriving as a VP. It's that powerful.

How to start slowing down to speed up

There are 2 elements of slowing down that are important:

1. Taking breaks throughout the day for lunch, a walk, or just to give your brain a quick break.
2. Spending time in deep work, where you're ideating and analyzing what matters most in your function.

These are both important. The first ensures you're feeling cognitively sharp and not activated and overworked. The second is what gets you the results that will help you thrive as a senior leader.

This is a core topic that I tackle in the Own Your Seat at the Table program, and I see the same two responses. Women either:

• Can't see the value in carving out this time so they don't do it. And they stay stuck in the same spot.
• Give it a shot and start seeing the value quickly, and resolve never to go back. These are the women who end up getting those promotions! In fact, some of them have told me this was key to their promotion to VP!

And I know that at least half of you are thinking, But I don't have time to do this!!

And that's exactly the problem. You don't have time. But... if you slow down and start thinking more intentionally about what you're doing and why, you will actually free up time!

You'll realize that a process is way too cumbersome and time-consuming, and come up with a more efficient way to do it.

You'll spend the time to do a task right the first time, so it requires fewer edits and revisions.

You may even discover that some of what you've been spending your time doing is not worth doing at all! And you'll find a way to either stop, delegate, or automate it.

But if you never give yourself the opportunity to have these insights, you'll keep running on the hamster wheel, wondering why anyone would even want to get promoted to a role that's probably even busier.

So here's my recommendation:

• Start taking a proper lunch break every day, and ensure you take a few mini-breaks to stretch your legs and drink some water.
• Create a single 2hr deep-work block in your calendar every single week. Use this time to think about problems that need to be solved, ways you can make things better, and what the metrics you're reporting really mean.

Try this for a few weeks - you'll see a difference in how you're showing up as a leader. You'll feel more prepared to discuss issues or metrics in meetings, and come up with better ideas to share.

Doors are open for the Own Your Seat at the Table program where I help you go from unsure and stuck to confident and thriving. Learn more here, and book a call to see if it's right for you!

Until next time, friends... ????

Katy