Beware of Busyness

I Am So Busy… How Come I’m Not Getting Very Far?

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? 

According to a 10-year study of managerial behavior across a variety of industries 90 percent of those with responsibility for managing people and/or processes 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…mea culpa.  I have been known to scurry around, look oh, so busy and at the end of the day I am horrified at what little I have actually accomplished.

I know the difference between when I am in the zone and when I am zoned out…how about you?

It’s called, “Busy idleness” and it looks like it affects most of us. Regardless of having easy access to knowledge and timesaving resources, we spend most of our time making the inevitable happen, instead of single mindedly focusing in on specific activities that can really make a difference.

What’s up with that? Is it that we can’t tell the difference between the competing activities?  Are we so addicted – yes addicted - to the buzz of busyness that everything feels dull? Or, perhaps it’s something 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 “efforting”. Energy is defined by involvement in meaningful activities, propelled by both external and internal resources. Purposeful action is self-generated, engaged and self-driven.

Where Do You (and Your Employees) Fit?

Profiles of Behaviors

If 90 percent 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, identifies four profiles of managerial behavior that are defined by their identifiable levels of energy and action: 

The Frenzied: Forty percent of managers are distracted by the onslaught of tasks that face them each day. While highly energetic, they are unfocused; they are positive about their work and identify strongly with their jobs. But “the need for speed” prompts them to be unreflective. They can achieve more if they consciously concentrate their efforts on what really matters.

The Procrastinators: Thirty percent of managers procrastinate on doing their organizations’ most important work. They lack both energy and focus, spending their time handling minor details in lieu of what could make a real difference to their organizations.

The Detached: Twenty percent of managers are disengaged or detached from their work. They can be focused, but have no energy. They seem aloof, tense and apathetic.

The Purposeful: Only 10 percent get the job done. They are highly focused, energetic, and come across as reflective and calm amid chaos.

What Does it Look Like When You Are On Purpose?

Willpower is the force behind energy and focus, enabling us to execute disciplined action. We are committed to achieving results and refuse to give up. There is no willpower without commitment to three action steps:

1. Designing a clear mental picture of your intention.

2. Making a conscious choice to commit to—and pursue—this intention.

3. Developing strategies for protecting this intention against distractions, boredom or frustration.

In other words – 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, but it is not to the heights that you are capable of reaching if you were determined to harness your energy and stay on the track.  And, I’d be willing to wager that deep inside, in the quiet times you know this is true.

In an amazing book  called the Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles (a free download is available to you further down) he states that getting rich is available to everyone if they will train themselves to be fixed on their star and not be thrown off course or into doubt and fear. 

Haven’t you often said, or at least thought to yourself…”I’m smarter than so and so, I have the same or better skills, my product or ideas are equal to, or surpass theirs…so why are they so successful and I often feel like I am struggling and falling short? The answers seem to be in levels of energy and focus.

If you are a business owner or leader and want to make a serious attempt to foster willpower in your self and in your workplace, you must establish three critical working conditions:

1. Create space for autonomous action.

2. Build processes for providing professional, social and emotional support.

3. Develop a culture that celebrates the exercise of responsible willpower.

Based on the innumerable organizations I have worked with and leaders I have coached, these 3 attributes are rare. They may be on the wall in a mission statement but rarely lived on the workplace floor. 

To create willpower you must exemplify willpower – you must examine every aspect of your business or department and build an infrastructure that teaches, coaches, cares and congratulates all efforts that manifest willpower... even the times when the efforts fail.  And, even more importantly- you must begin with yourself – you must become so focused and inspired by your vision of what’s possible that you inspire and motivate those around you. 

How You Can Prime Your Energy Pump…

1. To define your goal and goal-getting quotient , ask yourself:

1. Do I need a mentor who can help me see the big picture? Do I need to research data or strategies that will allow me to make a thoughtful, informed choice about my goals and objectives?

2. Is my goal sufficiently defined, detailed and concrete so that it exists in my mind and heart? Have I considered all of the pieces that need to be in place? Have I have written down what strengths, knowledge, resources and experience I already have to achieve my purpose? Have I written down what I still need to achieve my goal? Have I including the potential obstacles?

3. Do I personally identify with my goal? Is it worthwhile, given my values and those of the organization?

2. Build confidence in your ability to achieve your goals, ask yourself:

1. What experience do I have in achieving comparable goals? What allowed me to be successful? Can I do it again?

2. Which of my role models can help me understand what it takes to achieve my goal?

3. Who can give me feedback to honestly evaluate my capacities to achieve my goal? What must I learn to ensure success?

4. Can I experiment and rehearse critical tasks while pursing my goals?

3. Overcome negativity and develop positive thoughts and feelings by asking yourself the tough questions and trying to answer them truthfully:

1. What unproductive emotions do I harbor—and what triggers them? Should I change my tasks or goals so that work is feels less forced and more in flow? Do I have healthy outlets—hobbies, sports, friends—for my negative feelings?

2. What about my work creates enthusiasm, fun and excitement for me? What do I love doing? Apart from my work, do I have sufficient resources upon which I can regularly draw strength and self-belief?

To Sharpen Your Focus…

In addition to energy, the second critical element of purposeful action is focus: energy channeled toward a specific outcome. Focused people concentrate in spite of the many distractions that interrupt their days.

To sharpen your focus take the following steps:

1. Visualize your intention by asking yourself:

1. What does my intention look like? What simple image can I keep in my mind when I need to connect to my intention? Create an image that triggers your vision and keep it in your sights.

2. How can I accomplish my intention? What specific steps will I need to take to reach it?

2. Make sure you are personally commitment:

1. Does this particular intention feel right? Do I really want it?

2. Does my intention excite me? Is it something for which I can maintain my passion and commitment, even when obstacles arise?

3. Does my intention jibe with my personal values and beliefs? Can I stand behind it with head and heart?

“Our power is in our ability to decide” said Buckminster Fuller.

Decide and see what unfolds.