My new Vistage Member looked uncomfortable, well maybe downright unhappy. I was a brand new Vistage Chair and a little uncertain. I put down my notebook and just looked her in the eye and asked, “What’s wrong? You look pretty unhappy.” She sighed deeply.
Recently promoted from Chief Operating Officer to President, she had handed off her previous duties and found herself staring out the window with no clear idea what she should be doing now. She had no checklist to complete each day, and nothing urgent was jumping up to demand her attention. It was up to her to decide what she should be doing each day.
What an opportunity! We discussed her vision for the company. What she liked and didn’t like about the culture. Who in her current organization would add to the future she wanted to create. What roles were missing. As we went along, she started planning the projects she wanted to begin and who would work with her on them.
I then asked what were the things that only she could do? This gets tricky. So often, we do the work that people in other positions in the organization can/should be doing. Why? Well, maybe we used to do them and they are really easy for us to do. Or they are hard to teach, or honestly, we really like doing them. If you do their jobs, who will do yours? If you have been especially exhausted lately, rethink how many jobs you are doing besides your own.
If you think this is just me talking, read this column from Inc magazine.* If you aren’t sure how much you do that you could delegate, keep track of your activities hourly for a week, then use color highlighters to mark what no one should do, what someone else should do and what you did that only you can do.
Let’s be ruthless. If you aren’t spending 90% of your time doing what only you can do, get to work and change that. Let’s talk again in 3 months about that other 10%.