Top Management Story

Writen by Leslie Malin

Let's be honest, this is just between us … are you one of the 10% who work purposefully to complete important tasks or one of the 90% that are frenzied and fed-up?

If frenzied and fed-up sounds right, join the 90% of those with responsibility for managing people and/or processes who self-sabotage by busily engaging in non-purposeful activities, procrastinating, detaching from their work and needlessly spinning their wheels.

OK, I'll be the first to admit it…I have been known to scurry around, multi-tasking away and at the end of the day I am horrified at what little I have actually accomplished.

It's called, "Busy Idleness" and it affects most of us. We have an easy and abundant access to knowledge and timesaving resources, yet we spend most of our time "making the inevitable happen". What that means is that all our activity doesn't achieve any measurable level of achievement beyond what would occur if we just sat around with our feet on the desk! What makes a real difference in outcomes is single minded focus on specific activities that can really make a difference.

What's our problem? Is it that we can't tell the difference between competing activities? Are we bereft of creative ideas and strategies? Are we so addicted – yes addicted - to the buzz of busyness that everything other than frazzled feels flat? Or, perhaps it's something even more?

Do you attend to the routine, day-to-day tasks, yet fail to seize opportunities to achieve something significant? This problem is nothing new. Stanford University Management Professors Jeffrey Pfeffer, PhD, and Robert Sutton, PhD, studied this dynamic for their book, "The Knowing-Doing Gap". They asked: "Why do so much education and training, management consulting, and business research…produce so little change in what managers and organizations actually do?...Why [does] knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fail to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge?"

What It Takes to Be on Purpose

People who exhibit purposeful action possess two critical traits: energy and focus. Energy is not what I call "efforting" which equates to all that external activity and scrambling. Rather, energy is defined by your level of involvement in meaningful activities, propelled by both external resources such as technology. knowledge, working with a coach or business consultant and internal resources such as patience, listening , communication skills and business acumen. Purposeful action is self-generated, engaged and self-driven.

Where Do You (and Your Employees) Fit? Profiles of Behaviors

If 90% of managers/entrepreneurs and professionals fail to act purposefully in their everyday work, what exactly are they doing? Heike Bruch's and Sumantra Ghoshal's study, conducted over a 10-year period and published in "A Bias for Action", describes four profiles of managerial behavior that are measured by their levels of energy and action.

Where might you fit?

The Frenzied:

48% of managers are distracted and off-purpose due to the onslaught of tasks that face them each day. They may be highly energetic, but they are unfocused. They were found to be positive about their work as well as strongly identified with their jobs, but "the need for speed" prompts them to be unreflective. It is obvious that much more could be achieved if they consciously concentrated their efforts on what really matters. And, what really matters? Most business owners and managers don't think much beyond the moment and often, when asked, can't answer the question, "What really matters to your business?".

The Procrastinators:

30% percent of managers were observed to procrastinate on doing their organizations' most important work. They lacked both energy and focus, most often spending their time handling minor details in lieu of what could make a real difference to their organizations. I bet you know a few of these folks – maybe even yourself.

The Detached:

20% percent of managers are disengaged or detached from their work. They can be focused, but have no energy. They seem aloof, tense and apathetic. I have worked with many managers of this description and when probed they often acknowledge (upon pledges of secrecy), that they feel depressed, purposeless, stale and disengaged. They look back and long for the days of vitality, excitement and challenge. And, although they know that they are dying on the vine, they often feel helpless to make a change, re-steer their careers or create something new.

The Purposeful:

Only 10% of managers and executives get the job done. That is a startling and frightening statistic, I think. If only 10% are highly focused, energetic, and can appear reflective and calm amid chaos, how does that bode for our future as a country? What does that mean about the future of our economy, of innovation, of adaptability and readiness for change? What are we prepared to do about it? How do we get on purpose?

What does it look like when you are on purpose?

Willpower is the propelling force behind energy and focus, enabling us to execute disciplined action. Willpower is the sibling to commitment and together they energize us to focus on gaining clarity of what needs to be accomplished. They move us towards the accomplishment of the major steps/activities that will achieve results and they fuel our positive attitudes about accomplishing what we are passionate about while helping us to adamantly refuse to give up.

The following action steps are essential for real achievement to occur and they are an antidote to frenzied activity:

1. Design a clear mental picture of your intention or future vision. What is it that you want to create? How does it serve your customers, your organization, your employees, yourself? What are the outcomes you desire? Is your vision or purpose large enough?

2. Make a conscious choice to commit to—and pursue—this intention. This means staying vigilant about your activities and those of others, exercising discipline and committing yourself for the long-term.

3. Develop strategies for protecting this intention against the triple threat of distractions, boredom or frustration. This is perhaps the most challenging aspect because this deadly trio is what derails most people from accomplishing their intention.

You have to be propelled by a vision of what you want to achieve that is unstoppable. Napoleon Hill wrote about this in "Think and Grow Rich" and it is what has separated those who achieve beyond all expectations and those who merely get by. While, you may have success, imagine how much more you are capable of achieving if you were clearly focused; determined to harness your energy and to stay on the track. And, I'd be willing to wager that deep inside, in the quiet times you know this is true.

Leslie Malin, MSW, President of Management by Design is a co-author of "The Essential Coaching Book: Secrets to a Winning Life," and is the author of two forthcoming books: "Meeting Yourself on the Way to Work: Finding Meaning from 9 to 5" and "HireSmart: A Straight Forward How-To Guide for Business Owners & Their Managers".

As an entrepreneur, coach, consultant and therapist, she guides independent professionals, solopreneurs and small business owners who want to create their success by choice, not by chance.

Her expertise in working with people in career transition or seeking their first job provides mastery of the job-search process.

Undue the "default thinking" in your life, get your FREE Copy of "As a Man Thinketh", by James Allen by emailing Leslie at results@lesliemalin.com with your contact information (Full name and email)and be signed up for her ezine, "On the Way". Browse her website at http://www.lesliemalincoach.com

Leslie is available for public speaking engagements, executive retreats and motivational seminars. Contact her at: results@lesliemalin.com