Discover four common traps that new executives fall into that keep them busy instead of productive, and learn how to avoid them for effective leadership.
Almost Everyone Hits #1 -
It’s the first failure mode a new executive experiences, and it’s pretty common. It’s why we call it the Busyness Trap.
Here are 4 ways new executives trap themselves in the wrong work.
🏃🏼♀️ You actually like the pace.
The biggest issue usually. Your own psychology is trapping you into believing you aren’t working hard if you have time left over. It’s a badge of honor, actually.
Its especially common with people who made their early careers on their own achievements. Being handed challenges by their bosses, adding it a full plate and “getting it done.”
📉 Working down the learning curve until it feels “comfortable.”
Yep, you got that new job and you’re on a steep learning curve, drinking from the “firehose, as they say. When are you not drinking from the firehose? Usually when the workload “feels” comfortable again, say at about 100% utilization. Why do you stop there? (See point one above.)
Consider that you should actually be targeting something like 80% load. Why? Because at 100% you haven’t made room for the *most important part* of your job, the thinking that only you can do, strategy, organization, people… just some of the things that you are now responsible for improving.
📥 Making every decision that’s brought to you and trying too hard to stay informed.
Face it, decision-making feels empowering. You’re the “big boss” now. This is what you’re being paid for, right? To make decisions.
But you should consider every decision brought to you under a couple of intake filters. First, should you even be making this decision. And second, if you should have your people framed up the decision effectively for you.
Same with meetings. You will start to get a feeling in meetings that they are wasting your time. Ask yourself, what information do I need from this meeting, and who else should be able to make the decisions being made here.
⚙️ Not focusing on systems and processes.
So now you want to offload some of those decisions and meetings. But you still need to make sure decisions are being made and you still need to stay informed. It rarely happens by simply giving it to someone else.
“Delegating” isn’t simply about a hand-off. Instead you need to lean into your systems and processes. If you don’t delegate within a system, you’ll find yourself sucked back in every time.
Your first 90 days, while you're learning the business should also be about finding places where you can optimize the systems and processes of your organization.
Most executives who are buried in meetings and decisions don’t have any systems that work for them. It’s far more common than you might think.
Until next week,
Kendall -
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