Hello, hello. It is podcast day. We are back. I hope you guys had a wonderful weekend. We had like the most crazy, but the laziest weekend. It snowed here in Alabama and it snowed like more than a dusting, which does not happen often. Our entire week revolved around the snow that was going to happen on Friday.
Me being from Michigan originally, I was like, it's not happening. I'm a total doubter. It's not happening. My husband was all in, he is from the South and he was strategizing every single day. What are we doing? We need sleds, we need snow gear, we've got, we need plans. He's picking out the perfect hill for sledding in our backyard.
This was like the main topic of conversation. And I was like, Oh, the weather's just going to break your heart. But no, he was right. And it did snow and y'all, it was insane to me. Like sleds, snow gear in Alabama became like the hottest commodity. We don't have any snow gear for our kids. Obviously.
Um, we have some like thicker jackets. That's about it. And so my husband was looking and like, of course the stores don't have it on Facebook marketplace. Like these things would go up like snow bibs for a two year old and they'd be gone in seconds. People were going to Walmart buying stacks of sleds and Facebook marketplace for like a double or triple the price.
Like. It was wild. There is something about snow in Alabama that just makes people go crazy. So anyhow, it ended up being the funnest time we build. multiple snowmans, snow angels, snowball fights. It was an absolute blast. And so it was a lot of playing in the snow and a lot of coming in and warming up and drinking hot chocolate and just having a lazy day.
And. It was just one for the memory books for sure. So, with all of that being said, today we are wrapping up. I say wrapping up, we're wrapping up for now, because I could talk about this topic forever. And that is the topic of your team always being busy, but not productive. Not true, like if you actually look at it and say, are we making a true and meaningful impact?
So we've been breaking it down in this series. We started by talking about what the heck productivity even means and how that word has become so distorted in corporate culture. Last week we talked about productivity termites, all the different ways, corporate culture is eating away at your team's productivity.
And today we're going to be talking about How do you actually keep your team focused in a world of all these distractions, in a world of never ending fire drills, in a world of never ending drive bys, in a world where exec is constantly throwing new requests onto your team's plate every five seconds, and then changing their priorities every five seconds after that?
Like, how do you keep them focused? So that's what we're going to be rounding out this series with today. And like I mentioned, if you have not listened to last week's podcast about limiting distractions that are eating away at your team's productivity, you need to stop right now.
Turn around and listen to that because freeing up capacity and mental bandwidth is really step one. Because once you do that, you're going to have the space to do some of the things we're talking about today. So try and eliminate those distractions first to give yourself, your team, a little bit more capacity, a little bit more space to think clearly on some of the things I'm talking about right now.
Otherwise you're going to go into this episode and you're going to be like, what? I don't got time for this. You actually do. It's just hidden in all of those meetings and drive bys and other things, distracting your team. Okay. So with that, let's dive right in to how do we create that focus for our team?
And the first thing we got to do is we've got to clarify our team's purpose. I talk about it again and again and again, and I'm going to talk about it even more because this is so freaking important. Y'all everything, everything comes back to having a clear strategy for your team.
Here's the thing. Right now, you have an insane workload. It's constantly piling up. There's a million different conflicting priorities. Your team feels like it's being pulled in 70 million directions. And there ain't enough time or resources to get it all done. Yet the work keeps coming. Like a faucet you can't turn off.
So, how do you give your team focus in that kind of environment? Well, here's the thing. If your team doesn't have a clear purpose, a clear reason why they exist, a specific thing they are trying to work towards, they are trying to achieve, your purpose Let me say it again. If you do not give your team a specific purpose that they exist to achieve, that the tasks they do day in and day out all comes back to, their purpose Becomes pleasing others, pleasing executives, pleasing the stakeholders, pleasing their peers, pleasing you.
And let me tell you, that is a dangerous place to be. Because people pleasing is impossible. It's impossible. You cannot please someone to, like, you just can't. You might please them for the moment. You might please one stakeholder. But not the others. You might make one exec member happy, but what about the others?
There's no possible way to make them all happy. And it's exhausting trying to do so. Yet that is where a lot of you guys are right now. Our goal is to say yes to the requests coming down. Our goal is to make everyone happy with what they need. And it's a dangerous place to be, it's an exhausting place to be, it's a defeating place to be, and it's not setting you or your team up for success.
This is when work becomes simply about getting stuff done, checking the boxes, and your team loses direction, it's hard to prioritize or focus in that world. Because, again, everyone has different opinions on what's a priority. So if you leave it up to everyone else to prioritize for your team, of course you're going to be overwhelmed.
Of course the priorities are always changing. Because you have a bunch of people with a bunch of different opinions trying to direct you. And if your team's job is simply about getting stuff done, checking boxes, making people happy, of course they don't feel like their work is fulfilling. Because there's nothing really fulfilling around just like, being the yes man.
So we want to give them purpose, not just because It's going to create focus for your team, because it sure as heck is going to do that. Let me tell you, but also because it's going to give you your sanity back. It's going to give your team a sense of purpose back, and it's going to move you from feeling defeated to more empowered.
So let's dive into this. How do we clarify your team's purpose? So I have a lot of content. Out there on this. So feel free to check out past podcast episodes, check out my Instagram or send me a message and I can direct you. But at a high level, I want you to ask yourself this, why does my team exist?
And if you're like, Whoa, that's a little broad for me. Really think about why was your team created? What do they exist? To do what can only your team do like only your team do. I always like to have my leaders think about all the alternatives to your function. So like, if you're a learning and development function, that's like a shared resource.
Your people can come to you for learning and development, but they also might be able to come to like an HR partner. They also might be able to use an internal learning resource, internal to their specific department. They might be able to use an external, like external to the company, a, some sort of like learning company, some sort of consultant.
Like those are all your quote unquote competitors. And what I want you to think about is what only you can do. Compared to all those other options. Like, what is your team's unique purpose? And if you're like, I don't think I have a unique purpose, then we better find a way to make one.
Like we, and I'm not saying make it up. I want you to dig deeper to figure out what it can be. Like, is there a specific skill set we could be developing? Is there, a specific set of knowledge that only we can have? Like, getting to know our ideal customers. Customers in this situation being the departments so well that, of course, are going to come to us because those external, learning and development companies could never beat what we can do because we know you so well.
Like, you can create. A purpose, a unique purpose and value your team brings. You just have to be intentional about it because here's the thing. We don't want to get into a situation where we're trying to beat out these other people. What we're trying to do is figure out what can only we do. And let's amplify that because that's the value we can provide.
That's the impact we can provide. And that's what this whole series is about. It's about actually making an impact. So first we need to figure out what is the impact we exist to serve. So I want you to do the work. What can only your team do? Another great way to ask this question is if your team disappeared tomorrow, who would notice?
And what would they miss the most? So those are the questions to ask about what is your impact. And then I want you to focus on doing that one thing insanely well. So pick what's that one thing that people would miss the most, the one thing that only you can do, and I want you to focus all your time, energy, and resources on doing that one thing really well, so that that means everything should come back to this.
This is your new filter for every project, every task, every request, every drive by. It comes through this. It either helps us do this one thing, or it doesn't. And if it doesn't, It's not meant for you. It's not meant for your team. And it needs to be handed off or delegated to someone else.
If you are getting distracted by a bunch of tasks, you are neglecting to do the one thing that only your team can do. Tasks that other people could do, and by doing those tasks, you are neglecting the thing that only your team can do.
The thing that people love about your team the most, the thing that makes you guys unique. And that is why day in and day out, you don't feel like your work's actually creating value, actually driving a purpose. Like imagine, imagine if all of that time you took on those low value tasks, on those distractions and put it all towards.
It's like hitting your purpose and doing it so dang well, like imagine what your team would be able to achieve. And we know this is high value work because we asked the question about if our team disappeared tomorrow, who would notice and what would they miss the most? So we know people value this and that's where we should focus is executing that work and finding ways to do it better, faster, easier for those we serve.
That's our focus and everything should go through that lens. So the first thing that you have to do when it comes to creating focus is you have to understand your unique, your team's purpose, why they exist, the impact they're trying to make. And of course, if you want more help with doing that, diving deep into your team's purpose, I break that down way more in depth and teach you how to figure out what the major blockers are to your team's purpose, strategize on pulling together an action plan and a strategy for your team.
All in activating strategy. So I'll link that down below in case you want to dive into that. Okay. So from there, the next thing we need to do in order to create focus is we need to prioritize ruthlessly, ruthlessly, y'all, because here's the thing I just went over having your team's purpose and why that needs to be the number one thing you're focusing on and everything else needs to go out the window and you're like, ah, Holly, that's a beautiful world.
That you're painting, but you don't understand the amount of endless requests and distractions and non negotiable. You must do this kind of things that I'm getting on my team's plate, and so there is no way we can focus on our team's unique purpose. I know that's what just went through your head, and let me tell you, we've got some work to do.
Because we need to be prioritizing ruthlessly, focusing on that purpose.
Here's the thing. Your team's, I say it all the time. Your team's time, talent, and energy are your most precious resources. These are your differentiators. It's how you as a leader utilize these, amplify these, that allows you to make an impact. You need to be treating them like gold, gold. Like absolute precious material.
You have limited time, talent, and energy on your team. How are you using them? Really? Is your team's time right now being stucked up into meetings they don't even need to be in?
Is your team's time being sucked up in meetings that you could even be hosting that like half of them aren't even getting value out of. And we are wasting that time because we aren't valuing it. We see it as an unlimited commodity. That's why so many people are like, I just need more resources. No, you don't.
You need to look at the resources you have, the time, talent, and energy you have, and say, am I treating them like gold? Am I using them wisely? We all need to start there. Is your team's talent? You have brilliant people on your team. Are you drowning their talent in busy work? There are tasks right now that only your team can do, that they are so talented at, yet we have them distracted on low value tasks.
I spent so much of my career just going around and talking to teams, interviewing teams, doing focus groups with teams, and I cannot tell you how many times this one came up. I am capable of so much more. I just want the time, the space. To do the work that I'm capable of yet. I have to come in here every day and do work.
That's like three levels below me, the busy work. Well, the work that I know I could be brilliant at sits and falls to the wayside. We're wasting our team's talent, their precious talent on work. That's busy work or low value work. Your team's energy is a precious resource. And it's fickle.
Are you draining your team's energy, overwhelming them with tasks, with noise that are burning them out before they can even get to the good stuff? I want you to start viewing your team's time, talent, and energy as gold, as money in your bank account. And I want you to be thinking so deeply about how you're exchanging it.
Is that four hour meeting really worth it is doing that report. That's like, Oh, we just got to get it done because so and so requested it, but we know it's going to take two hours of busy work. That's distracting my team from the real things that they could be doing. Is it really worth it is taking on that task that you know, is going to drain your team's collective energy really.
Worth it. Too often y'all leaders are saying yes to tasks simply to avoid disappointing others, to keep stakeholders happy, to avoid conflict because they think those things are more important than their team's time, talent, and energy. And let me tell you, that is backwards. I will go to bat for my team.
I'm okay. Disappointing others. If it means protecting my team's time, talent, and energy for work that I know is going to make a bigger impact because I know they'll get over it. When they see what we're able to achieve, I'm okay making my stakeholder unhappy for a moment. If my team's able to focus on that high value work that I know is going to bring them so much more value,
I'm not just okay. I'm ready to have the hard conversations. If it means protecting my team's time, talent, and energy, some of us are treating those as an expendable resource for us to avoid those things. But every time you say yes to something that doesn't align with your team's purpose, you are sacrificing those precious resources.
And for what? Temporary comfort, avoiding a tough conversation, fear of pushback, like, is the trade off really worth it? And, okay, buckle up, I'm gonna trigger some people, y'all. They don't listen when I say no is not an excuse. It's not an excuse. I hear it all the time. Well, you don't get it. They don't listen when I say no.
You don't get it. I cannot say no to this executive. That is us projecting the problem onto them. Oh, it's not my problem. It's them. There's nothing I can do about it. It's just the way it is. It is our responsibility as leaders to protect our team's time, energy, and resources.
And if that just triggered you, I want you to dig deep and think about this. Is it really about that person? Or is there work that you can be doing to help get them to understand why your team is saying no? Like, there's so many of us who are like, Oh, well, I told them no. , that's just the way it went.
No, that's not enough. Like, do you need to do work on communicating the trade offs clearly? Do you need to do work on showing the real impact of your team's work? Do you need to do work on gaining influence and buy in with that individual, and trust with that individual? Do you need to do work on providing better alternatives that meet the stakeholder's needs without derailing your team?
So I get it, y'all. Like, I know, I know how hard it is to look at an executive who is just used to steamrolling people and getting in their way and to say no. I get how hard it is to have to continuously convince stakeholder after stakeholder that your team needs to be focused on something else. It's exhausting.
I get it. But just like any other skill set, the more you do it, the more you practice it, it's an art. It is truly influencing others. And the more that you master the skill set, the easier it becomes. And just imagine how much easier leading would be if you understood, if you had mastered the art of influencing, of communicating in a way.
That others bought in. It is a skill set. It is a muscle we need to exercise. We need to work. And I know because you are so committed to your team, you are so committed to what they are capable of, that you are capable of mastering this skill set. It just takes time. It takes practice. It takes intentionality.
So like, hear my heart when I say things like this, when that Them telling you or not listening when you say no is just an excuse. It's coming from a place of, I know that you are capable of pushing yourself to reach this next level, to mastering this skillset, and it's going to unlock so much for you and your team.
And I have a full fire. Carousel posts on this over on Instagram that breaks it down even more in depth and talks about the fact that the reason why most executives say, like, don't listen to you when you say we're busy is because they're over the busy excuse.
They have heard time and time again, we're busy. But then they looked at those teams results at the end of the quarter, at the end of the year, and they're not seeing it add up. It's the whole issue that we're talking about in this series of, we're always busy, but not productive.
And so they have been conditioned to no longer accept that as an excuse. You have to gain influence. You have to show you are able to prioritize your team's time, talent, and energy in a way that drives insane results. To get that level of influence and buy in from these individuals. And now, are there some leaders who just like to hear themselves talk and like to give direction and think that their ideas are the right way, and then change their mind five seconds later?
Yes. But again, it's still on us to protect our team's time, talent, and energy. So we're doing the work to say, how can we get through to them? How can we communicate in a way that they will listen? There is. So much power in how you communicate y'all. And at this level of leadership, when you're in senior levels of leadership, it's no longer okay to just like one style of communication works for everyone, like in the game of influencing others.
It's about understanding what they value and how can I speak to what they value. So when they come to you with that request, whatever it is, really get at, why are they asking me for this? What do they value? Is it they're valuing revenue growth, valuing customer experience, valuing having constant data and information at all times?
Like, what do they truly value? Because it's not just about the request. There's something in it that they value. If you can tap into that and speak to that, that is going to get you so much more buy in because so many of us are like, well, we got to do this task because that's on our goals and blah, blah, blah.
And they're like, I don't care. You've lost me. But if we can say we are working on this task right now, which directly contributes to you, like us hitting revenue. Okay. Now I'm listening. How can you bring it back to what they value and how what you're doing and staying focused on it will help move that metric, that thing, that outcome that they're after.
Okay, I've gotten to a complete tangent about how to influence. Not the point. The point here is, your team's time, talent, and energy are absolute gold. And it's not enough to say, well, they don't listen when I say no, we need to be doing the deep work, the inner work.
Building the connections, building the community, whatever you need to protect your team's time. Cause too many of us are out there just being like, I cannot wait for so and so to retire and then everything will get better. That's, that's not a good goal. We got to say, how can we, how can we do the work to protect our team's time, talent, and energy?
Okay, so then the last one. We have a clear understanding of what our team's purpose is. We are ruthlessly prioritizing against that, making sure their time, talent, and energy is 100 percent focused on that. Cause that's, what's going to drive the most impact. The last thing we need to do is reflect, reflect this one simple.
Y'all you can put this one into practice tomorrow at the end of each week. Take time to bring your team together. 10, 15 minutes can do it virtually. The best way to defeat constant busyness that keeps your team from making an impact is to regularly evaluate what's working, what's not, and where small adjustments can make improvements.
Here's the thing, a lot of you guys are like, I want some like magic thing that if I just like do all of this, it'll finally get better. Like I'll quote unquote fix it. We cannot fix teams. Teams are not like a car where there's a manual and it's like, just, I know nothing about cars, fix this one little thing and everything will be better.
Like there is, cars are a specific thing where it's like, if this part is broken, you need to replace the part and it'll work. It's a machine. It's predictable. Teams are not that, teams are systems. They are complex. We are dealing with humans with different perspectives and emotions. We are dealing with a business environment that is constantly changing.
There is no manual. They are not predictable. They are constantly changing. So there is no quote unquote fix. Best thing you can do is reflect, learn, and adjust. That is why I come back to retrospectives, this practice of reflecting, time and time again. It is 1000 percent the best way to change a behavior.
So all it is, is you bringing your team together and asking three questions. What went well this week that helped us stay focused? What helped us stay focused and make a real impact this week? And write it down. Celebrate those. Get excited about those. Even the smallest wins.
Get excited about those and the things that really make a difference, we were like, Whoa, that thing really helped us. I want you to pinpoint point those and say, how can we amplify these? How can we do this more? How can we do this bigger? How can we do this across more teams? That is what you're looking for.
The first couple of weeks is going to be slow. There's probably not going to be a lot here, but it's the doing this practice over and over that you'll start to see those wins. The second thing, is to ask what distracted us or got in the way. So was it unnecessary meetings? Was it unclear priorities?
Was it the same person constantly coming by with last minute requests? We need to recognize those roadblocks and figure out how we can eliminate them. Because those are the things that are pulling our team off track and utilizing their time, talent, and energy. Now, do not let your team give you a laundry list of things that now has overwhelmed you because you feel like you need to go solve it all.
What we're looking for here is patterns. So it's not just because people put sticky notes up that these things distracted us. We now need to go run and solve them all. We're looking for patterns. Okay. I'm seeing multiple people put up drive bys. That's a pattern. That's a theme. So drive bys is likely something we need to solve.
I'm seeing a lot of people put up that they're wasting time in meetings. Okay, that's a pattern or a theme. Let's solve that. I'm seeing multiple people put up that X department is coming at them with a bunch of requests. How can we go talk to them and sort this out? We're looking for patterns or themes, and that's what we're going to solve.
Running after a bunch of things. That distracted us once.
One, one little thing that's, we're going to note it and we're going to let it go. We're looking for patterns and themes here. The last thing we're going to do is say, what will we focus on next week? So looking at what went well this week and what distracted us or got in the way
So we're gonna look at those two columns about what went well and what distracted us and we're gonna say what are one to two things we can do next week to improve. So a good way to do this, you know, is to give everyone on your team just little stickers or dots.
Give them one or two a person and have them vote on the thing that they would like to focus on. If it's a bigger item, then let's just focus on one. And maybe it's going to take us multiple weeks to try and focus on that. That's okay. But the goal here is again, not to get distracted by trying to chase after all of these.
We just want to focus on one or two and we're going to make the improvement there because those are again, the best use of our team's time, talent, and energy. We're not spreading them over across a million different initiatives. We want to focus on what's the biggest use and guess what? All those other things, if they're truly a problem.
They'll come back up next week because if they're truly a problem, there should be a pattern there. So take a deep breath It's not all lost if it really needs your time and attention It will come back up. I think reflection is something that a lot of us write off, but this is the biggest way if you do nothing from this entire series Do this one thing.
Do this one thing. And this is so easy for you to implement tomorrow. You can put this 15 minute meeting on your team's calendar tomorrow. And it is worth those 15 minutes because you're actually going to make some sort of improvement out of it. And I promise you. You're going to start to see results from it.
It is such a simple practice because the worst, the biggest waste of your team's time, talent, and energy is repeating the same mistakes over and over and doing nothing about it. It truly is. If we're able to pinpoint these distractions.
We're actually see which ones are causing the biggest failures, the biggest, waste of our team's time, talent and energy. We can actually address them. If we're able to see what's actually working, what's going well and amplify them, we're able to make progress quicker. Okay, y'all. So now we've got our three things.
We've got our clarifying our purpose, prioritizing ruthlessly and reflecting. So at this point, I want you guys to take one thing. You learned from this episode and go apply it this week, because we know that it is not about what you learn that drives change. It's about what you implement and then go blow me up on Instagram.
Let me know what worked, what didn't, where you got stuck. I want to hear from you guys on how it's working. And as always, if you guys want hands on support in doing this right now, we are getting ready to roll out Unblocked. On January 20th, it is a four week live immersion program. That means I'll be in the community with you.
We'll be having live coaching calls. You'll get my eyes, my ears, my brain all up in your team. And what Unblocked is about is really pinpointing where your team's system is breaking down that's causing them to be dependent on you. And not perform at their fullest potential, what is holding them back to where you're constantly having to step in.
I'm going to teach you how to pinpoint exactly what's happening and how to develop simple small shifts that actually drive meaningful change to address what's holding your team back and get them back on track so you can get the heck out of the weeds. Your team can be fully empowered and feel supported in doing so, so they can reach their full potential.
And so can you as a leader. So if you're interested in joining unblocked, you can grab the link to that below. And if you're listening to this a little bit later on, that will be inside the liberating leader, our six to 12 month coaching program as well. So you can join liberated leader to get access to the replace to that.
Okay, y'all let's go do the work.
