Are you tired of pulling your hair out?

WEDNESDAY - LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

Recently, at a Soundingboard Session with a senior Leader, we discussed how different coming to work felt now that everyone had returned to the office.

This Leader was frustrated to the max - his workloads were huge and his productivity had significantly dropped since everyone returned to the office. He was constantly bombarded by his team with adhoc issues and updates and he was finding that the only time he got any meaningful work done was either early in the mornings, after everyone went home or on weekends. As a result, the Leader was working 12/13 hour days.

I asked what had changed? Had the revenue, risk and complexity of his business changed or was it other factors?

When we paired things back, he recognised that when everyone was working from home, team members preplanned and scheduled meetings in calendars based on priority, urgency and importance. They would bundle matters up and provide forward notice on what was being discussed prior to meeting so that everyone had the opportunity to pre-read and prepare. Everyone was considerate - they knew that people were busy - juggling work and personal commitments in their home environments and they only involved each other in matters when they were a key stakeholder or subject matter expert.

This style of working enabled everyone (including the Leader) to have the headspace they needed to navigate through some pretty tough days. Outcomes were being achieved and everything seamlessly seemed to worked.

Somehow, with everyone returning to the office, those same considerations were no longer being exercised.

While the Leader wanted to be visible to his team, he needed them to respect his time and he needed to protect and control his focus and headspace.

He was exhausted and knew things needed to change.

We discussed the option of developing office protocols which could include an escalation process for high risk matters. The Leader agreed and at a subsequent workshop we:

• redefined and reset his boundaries when it came to his time - including scheduling uninterrupted time for him to focus on priority matters of significance without interruption
• defined the escalation process for urgent and important matters including what was escalated, when and how
• discussed how his team members could access him including holding weekly scheduled meetings to report on progress and raise key issues
• introduced a 1 page weekly highlights report for team members to capture highlights and key issues of concern; and
• defined protocols for sending emails to him and each other (including when to cc).

With new Ways of Working Protocols in hand, the Leader organised a team meeting to communicate them, and obtain feedback from his team. He was frank about how returning to the office environment was impacting his workloads and created space for everyone to share how they were feeling. He found that many team members were feeling the same way.

With feedback from the team incorporated, the Leader communicated the agreed Ways of Working Protocols moving forward - they were included in the Induction process for new starters so that they could also be clear from day one.

While they are still being embedded, the Leaders headspace and frustration levels have vastly improved.

If you'd like to find out more or discuss a leadership challenge in your workplace, book in for a Complimentary Discovery Session on our website: www.governancecollective.com.au.