I had an interesting session with a Senior Leader this past week. She was talking about the challenge that she has dealing with a lot of issues across her organisation. Her staff are pushing to get more flexible work from home time, some of the younger staff have resigned because they were offered jobs with competitors offering them more money and she still has targets that her organisation needs to meet. On top of this, they are preparing budgets, developing their strategy for the next financial year and trying to develop the next generation of leaders. She mentioned it feels like I am stuck in ‘March Madness’.
For many leaders that I have been talking to they have mentioned that they are experiencing a similar thing. The workload feels like it has increased and trying to motivate and focus their people has become more of a challenge. I am finding that this is even more the case for many organisations that have staff still working remotely as their leaders struggle with how to lead when they have people in the office and working at home.
So what can you do to try and stay in front of the ‘March Madness’ that many people are experiencing? I don’t think that there is any one thing that you can do, but here are a few ideas:
- Stay Focused & Active. When leaders feel a bit overwhelmed, they can often lose focus on what the important tasks are. Make sure that the increase in activity around you does not get you to get sidetracked with small tasks.
- Check-in More Often. With people working in the office and remotely, it is important for leaders to check in more often. Take 5 minutes to check in with one of your people and ask them what they think is going well and what could be improved. Also ask them about their workload and what strategies they are using to help stay in front of all of the tasks on their plate.
- Delegate to Future Leaders. Another great strategy when you are feeling overloaded is to delegate tasks to up and coming high potentials that will be the future leaders. Make sure you delegate in a way that allows them to understand what the task is, how to do it and the time-frames and check-ins are clear to help them be successful.
We know that things are cyclical and for many leaders March is a very busy month. The key is to keep working strategically and engage your people in the way to move forward.
I have a new book coming out in July, actually it is the 2nd edition of Leadership Hacks and I have added an entirely new section that provides hybrid workforce hacks, practical strategies for when you have some people in the office and others working from home. I will be providing some of the practical hacks that you can use in the near future, so stay tuned!
If you are looking forward to attending a conference where you can be inspired as well as meet other people, please check out the Future of Leadership, please click here to find out more and join us at one of the events across Australia occurring in May that helps to support Hands Across the Water. Use the Promo code GETINEARLY to receive 10% off.
