There’s a leadership anti-pattern that’s been around for a long, long time. I noticed it in the 1980s, and I’m sure it preceded that decade by quite a few more decades. If not being a permanent dysfunctional trap in perpetuity for all leaders.
I’ll call it meeting-itis.
The primary symptom is leaders who measure the quality of their day by—
The # of conversations they have in formal and ad-hoc meetings.
The # of meetings they have scheduled, or better yet, by the number of double-booked, triple-booked, quad-booked slots on their calendars.
The # of times they’re asked to make a major (and minor) decision.
The # of people who want to have (or need to have) a conversation with them, but that they don’t have the time for.
The amount of multitasking and work they can get done at the same time as their meetings.
Have you seen this behavior in your organization? In yourself? I’ve seen it in myself more times than I care to share.
If you’re a leader in today’s VUCA world, I’d guess that you answered yes on both counts. And as an agile coach, I see it all of the time. What bothers me most are two core assumptions (or excuses) that often support the behavior—
The # of meetings is out of the control of the leader. It’s something that’s done “to them” by the culture and their organization.
There is a “badge of honor” associated with it. One of—working hard, feeling important, and measuring their impact and value by the number of meetings.
Of course, both of these are poppycock.
(Bob, did you just say poppycock? Well, yes, I did ;-)
This is equivalent to measuring an agile team's value and impact by their velocity or the number of stories they produce. It’s output or activity-based thinking. And it has nothing to do with leadership. Nothing at all.
So, what does true leadership impact look like? I’m glad you asked.
Real Impact
I would offer you the following sampling of activity that should replace the raw measure of your meetings, activity, decisions, and outputs.
Here I want you to focus on the impacts that you’re having each and every day—
By the # of true connections you establish or solidify each day with people in your organization (relationship building).
By the # of low priority meetings that you avoid in lieu of higher priority investments of your time and focus. With a skew towards coaching growth within your organization.
By the # of Crucial Conversations you have each day; in 360-degree directions. Never avoid the “hard” conversation or providing Radical Candor for everyone.
By the # of hours you allow yourself to recharge, reflect, and consider strategic goals, objectives, and planning for your organization.
By the # of hours, you spend with yourself, your family, and your friends; ensuring that you and they receive as much attention as the most critical workplace initiative.
By entering your role and organization each day and deciding—
What is the most important thing I need to do today to serve my teams and the overarching goals of this organization?
Then, spending all of your time focused on doing just that! Rinsing and repeating each day.
Wrapping up
Full disclosure, this post was inspired by a LinkedIn post by a good friend of mine. In the post, they posed a leadership-centric question that received quite a few replies. The post made me think of leadership priorities and the highest priority we have as a Catalyst Leader as defined in Bill Joiner’s work.
This is my reflective response.
I think today’s leaders need to pivot from caring more about their activity and behaving as if they were a victim to it, toward a more proactive, catalytic, growth-oriented, relationship-oriented, and impact-oriented stance.
And no excuses. They/you can do this. That is if you are self-aware of your behavior AND you simply decide to change. If not for yourself, do it for your teams and your organization!
They will thank you for it.
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.