Leaders commonly are tasked with too many priorities and too many things to deliver. They ask their teams to engage on so many fronts and issues, it is often hard to know what is truly most important.
When everyone is flying around working on multiple projects and assignments, the team looks super busy and productive. But looks can be deceiving. When leaders and teams have an ever-expanding list of priorities and initiatives, they generally deliver mediocre results.
No one can do many things with excellence. The best leaders narrow the priorities and demand the team deliver on a small set of initiatives with excellence. Doing less with higher standards is a recipe for great long-term progress. This requires leaders to reprioritize their own leader’s instructions.
They must decide which of the numerous assignments can be achieved with high excellence and direct their team accordingly. Investing the time and resources on a smaller set of initiatives is what creates great outcomes. This can often be accomplished by engaging the less important priorities with just enough focus and attention to keep them from disappearing or languishing.
They will likely rise to importance later, so making some progress on them is important. But by narrowing the list of initiatives and spending the time to achieve that smaller set with higher excellence, the team actually gets more done. The pride and confidence generated by excellent outcomes also improve the morale necessary to tackle the next slate of projects.
Doing less with excellence is how good leaders think, but they normally don’t announce their choices outside of the team. Organizational success depends on the team getting everything on their plate done. So, informing a more senior leader that you have decided to invest more heavily in some areas over others typically doesn’t go well. Most senior leaders want everything done and then some. Unfortunately, burning out the team and the mediocrity this unquenchable thirst produces doesn’t occur to them until much later.
All leaders and team members must decide for themselves what is achievable with the highest excellence. When they deliver excellence on a smaller set of initiatives without completely ignoring the other projects, they are hailed as top performers.
When those same leaders deliver everything asked of them with mediocrity, they are viewed as average performers with team members on the verge of exhaustion and burnout.
Sometimes less really is more. Good leaders know that is especially true when it comes to deciding what work the team needs to prioritize. Delivering less with excellence is what good leaders do for their teams to prepare them for the marathon of never-ending priorities.
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