Don't have a strategic vision? These are the 5 most common productivity mistakes (and how to solve them) that managers make for not having a correct strategic vision.
A large part of people think that managers are very busy professionals, that they live from meeting to meeting, that they have large amounts of activities to do, a long to-do list and a very tight schedule… Somehow it is true, but not It is the only thing that happens in the day to day of a manager, and it is certainly not the most important thing that should happen. Unfortunately, many forget that the manager, who sets the course for a company, an area or a team of collaborators, in addition to "doing" has to "think". And rarely is that on his "to-do list."
There was a phase in my career as a manager, about two or three months, where having to have a meeting with me was synonymous with getting a number on the door of my office. He ended a meeting and encouraged the next to come with a little chant of "next!" It was funny and it looked like a game. Until it stopped being it. The impacts were not only harmful to my health and my career (what is the true performance of a person who works 12 hours a day, sometimes without even stopping for lunch?) But it was also for my collaborators who were looking for answers that did not they found and saw their day to day also disappear between meetings and pending tasks. What was missing? What was not working? The key is to stop thinking and reacting according to today, and start thinking and acting according to "tomorrow".Having a strategic vision means that you think about what you want tomorrow (medium and long term, from 2 to 5 years) and see what you have to mobilize today for that future to happen. This is accomplished by just "doing" and starting to "think."
These are the 5 most important productivity errors that managers (and many other professionals too!) Make by forgetting that in addition to "doing", they must have time and space to "think":
Mistake # 1 - Not organizing tasks or knowing how to optimize your time
The most basic mistake is living in the middle of meetings, papers, phone calls. Not knowing exactly what is done each day or what for. Be reactive, be an archer who saves penalties, be a firefighter who puts out fires. Of those tasks there are many. The key is what you do when you overcome the fire, save the penalties and end the game. If you go back to zero and the next day you behave the same way, you will live your life with this reality. If instead you stop to think what you can do differently now so that the next time something like this does not take you by surprise, or you stop to think what has happened in the past so that today you are solving in this way and how Modify for next time, you will be exercising more strategic and proactive thinking.
How to solve it?
The key is "stop" and "think". Assembling a strategic planning does not take 2 hours. But neither will you ever do it if you don't start dedicating those 2 hours to it. Start by organizing your tasks so that you can improve on a day-to-day basis, but even if you don't have great results today, still take time to stop and think. It can be an extended lunch, you can lock yourself in your office and ask not to be interrupted or if you can stay away from the office. At least take 2 hours a week to stop and think. Make a list of things that are happening and could have been prevented. Make a list of who could help you with one or the other situation. Start by making lists. The next week try to form conclusions, do some brief root cause analysis. Then, you can move forward to take more actions in each situation.But for nothing in the world do you relegate this time to think. You can make an exception and spend this “moment of reflection” for the next day because something terrible arose. But if you do it systematically, you will return to the starting point and you will never find the time to do strategic planning and change the current situation.
Mistake # 2 - Centralizing all decisions, even the simplest and most operative
For some managers or leaders it is very common at the beginning of their management, or in certain critical circumstances where they feel that, if they do not do it this way, bad results or conflictive situations will happen. You can't guarantee that with your decisions you will have better results, can you? But if there is something you can assure, it is that you are making your collaborators highly dependent and you are not promoting autonomy in them. Perhaps you think that with this you avoid the fall. Maybe you feel that with this you help them not to make mistakes. What you must do is teach them to learn from their mistakes, to measure the impact of their decisions. You can share your techniques or your analysis process and then make the decision. But it is not healthy for any organization that decision making is very centralized.
How to solve it?
Start small. Make a list of the decisions you have to make. Prioritize them. Make 10% of the least priority decisions and delegate them: decentralize them. Without excuses. For some reason they are the least priority. Start by trusting and then go adjusting what you need. Train and train your collaborators. Give them time for your week. Do you have a very tight schedule? One at a time. Choose who to invest your time in, but I assure you that it is not an expense but an investment because tomorrow they will be in better conditions to make decisions and do the same with their own teams and you will have more time to spend thinking and less need to "do" and solve constantly.
Mistake # 3 - Resolving all conflicts and not allowing others to learn to deal with problems
Just like mistake # 2, solving everything or making all the decisions gives no one else room to grow and learn. People sometimes need to reach a level of conflict or problem to find creative solutions that we would not seek if we were in situations of habitual calm.
How to solve it?
Give them space. Share your experiences, your way of solving problems, but let your collaborators make decisions, face problems, deal with them, learn from the daily pressure and learn from interaction with other actors who may be feeling different things, and that they can pursue different goals. Let them be wrong. The best learning comes from realizing that your own decision was not the right one.
Mistake # 4 - Failing to put together a delegation structure according to the responsibilities of the position
Do you have a very important position with many responsibilities and don't have someone to delegate some tasks to? This is something that you must solve as soon as possible, if you do not want your own position and your previous achievements to be dashed by current mismanagement. You have no one to trust? You don't have to do things alone. In the era of organizations, work teams perform better than exceptional individuals. This is called synergy. The result of the parts (what each individual contributes) is multiplied by the interaction between them and is capable of obtaining much more surprising results. So the theory that you have to be an exceptional boss only applies if you have an exceptional team with you.
How to solve it?
Don't have a team? Form it. Choose each individual for their individual contribution and for what they can do together with the team. Do not choose exceptional collaborators who do not have good group characteristics because they will end up isolated by themselves or by others. Or if you think they are critical pieces, help them fit into the group. You need a structure, a team to be able to delegate tasks, initiatives and make your area or organization grow. Practice delegating to both individuals and teams. In this way you will also detect new and potential future leaders.
Mistake # 5 - Leaving continuous improvement for "a better scenario" and not implementing immediately
Well, this is even natural and predictable with the above four points drilling your brain every day. You can hardly think about the future, how to improve the quality of the team, the area or even how to introduce innovations, if the most basic things are not resolved. But the problem is that in today's world, if we are not constantly thinking about how to improve, how to do things faster, more efficiently, with less cost or with greater value, you are slowly destroying your business, your area or your team. People live constantly bombarded with new technology, new advertising, new ways of doing things. It is our world environment today, and that makes us feel that we live in the vertiginous world full of innovations and in constant movement. If we don't feel the same as customers,As team collaborators or as members of an organization, how do we feel? Usually: stagnant. The search for innovations and quality improvements is one of the pillars that keeps that personal feeling of "belonging" to a great team that is at the forefront all the time "on the move".
How to solve it?
The tool to apply is the same "take time" and "delegate". You can separate the tasks that you have to fulfill regularly between "operational" and "strategic". Balance both groups of tasks in your weekly planning. Put a leader at the head of certain quality initiatives and give him autonomy to research, innovate and carry out these initiatives. That is a person with leadership capacity but also someone who cares about continuous process improvement. It depends on you only for political support and to open certain complex doors in the organization, but give it space to create and apply. Quickly implement innovations or improvements and show it to the rest of the team and the organization. That others see and become infected and want to collaborate also in these initiatives.
Which of these mistakes do you make on a daily basis? With which of these situations did you feel identified?
