Lessons from Lazy Leaders

“Lazy” almost always has a negative connotation, but for the sake of this article, I am thinking of lazy in the most positive light--the enviable position of having time on your hands to do what you want because of good planning or strong prioritization or smart delegation or practical creativity. One of our “lazy” sons was a master of “getting out of work” in his youth by figuring out the easiest (and often fastest) way to accomplish chores--these are executive traits not to be admonished, but to be admired! Furthermore, a U.S. president was termed lazy (Ronald Reagan), yet many would say that he was one of the most successful presidents (forget about your political leanings) in accomplishing his agenda. With this background in mind, there is something to be said for accomplishing what one wants in eight hours instead of 12. Don’t you think?

Here are a few lessons from lazy leaders that we might all benefit from:

Focus on the Crop, Not the Plow

A natural state of affairs (particularly for those of us who are engineers) is to get caught up in methods and procedures of “how things are done.” This is all well and good when specific projects are necessary to mend procedures, streamline processes, or fix a bad model. You’ll get better results with less effort, however, if you quit micromanaging the tilling and the planting, and just monitor the desired harvest yield. Besides, if you have the right people on your crew, they can do the work better than you anyway. Give your people clear, aggressive goals and the tools to accomplish them. Then get out of the way. This is the first step toward your move to laziness.

Unbridle Your Horses

Every organization (hopefully) has a few stars that you depend on. Let me guess--you reward these top players by assigning them the toughest problems you have. Correct? If so, then you are missing a huge opportunity! To make the biggest gains (and, thus, make your life easier), challenge your mid-level performers to demonstrate their capability by giving them the organization’s problems to fix. Reward your horses by letting them take on the big opportunities that may lead to significant revenue opportunities or create competitive barriers. By doing so, you will unleash their true potential by letting them demonstrate their leadership. In addition, it will free you up for other things--your “one big thing.”

One Big Thing at a Time

Let’s be brutally honest. Except for the occasional genius (e.g., DaVinci, Jefferson), the more things one tries to do, the lower the quality of all attempts. The best organizations limit their critical issues to three, and the best leaders limit their personal focus to one--one area where they can personally contribute the most to their organization, and they stick with this one area for a quarter or for a year…whatever it takes to accomplish it. Then and only then do they take stock, re-evaluate, and come up with one new mission upon which to focus. This is the method of Jack Welch, and he seemed to do OK at GE. This allows you to target all your talents toward what will produce the greatest potential benefit to you, your team, and your organization. It removes the pressure of diversion and the mending and patching that so often occurs with multi-tasking and multi-goaling. A nice reward of this method is time to think and even a little time left over for play.

So learn from lazy leaders by clearing the clutter, delegating your diversions, and targeting your time. You will be very satisfied with the results.

Tags: leadership