Find the full transcript at yourfuturerealized.com/14.
I spoke with a bunch of operations executives not long ago and got a good taste of their impressive work ethic. I have one myself.
Accomplishing big things for a mission is commendable. But doing it single-handedly is neither sufficient nor sustainable.
Many of the operations execs wished for a future where they would spend less time in the day-to-day weeds and more time on strategy and focus so they could orchestrate greater results. Ring any bells?
Many high achievers get caught up in being too hands-on. However, by being self-aware and asking a few simple questions, you can alleviate that feeling of being stuck.
In this episode, I’ll get real about what keeps ops heroes down in the day-to-day weeds. And I’ll share an exercise you can use to jumpstart out of them.
Episode 14 – Why Ops Execs Need to Get Out of the Weeds
I spoke with a bunch of operations executives not long ago and got a good taste of their impressive work ethic. I have one myself.
Accomplishing big things for a mission is commendable. But doing it single-handedly is neither sufficient nor sustainable.
Many of them wished for a future where they spent less time in the day-to-day weeds and more time on strategy and focus so they could orchestrate greater results.
Ring any bells?
Many high achievers get caught up in being too hands-on. However, by being self-aware and asking a few simple questions, you can alleviate that feeling of being stuck.
In this episode, I’ll get real about what keeps ops heroes down in the day-to-day weeds. And I’ll share an exercise you can use to jumpstart out of them.
Find the full transcript at yourfuturerealized.com/14.
Hey Ops Execs!
The struggle is real when you’re leading cross-functional ops in a busy organization. There's so much data to centralize and so many processes to coordinate. There are also so many diverse personalities with unique skills, challenges, and aspirations.
It’s no wonder that the default position is to get stuck down in the detail. There’s simply so much of it. You are never bored. Who has time for strategic planning?
Are You Hoarding Operations Tasks?
But let’s get real here – it’s at least partially an inside job. Blocking off time on your calendar and unplugging from easy access can feel stressful, for three big reasons:
1. A break in connection to the pulse of your team can feel risky, particularly when you’re in such a centralized role.
2. Nothing’s quite as satisfying as clearing off that checklist and clocking those short-term wins in the name of productivity. One exec I spoke with said “Focusing on 1 thing at a time feels like I’m suffocating. I have to keep moving.” And
3. It might rub against your work ethic. It can be tricky to get past the sneaking suspicion that strategic time is a luxury, or considered ‘down time’, to you or others.
So, I often hear this as a workaround m.o.:
“Once I get these four things buttoned up, hopefully, I’ll squeeze in some strategic planning in the evening when it’s quieter.”
But hope is not a plan. And evening strategy sessions are rarely productive or creative enough. Wedging in time for high-level thinking typically has mixed results, at best.
How to Adapt Your Own Mode of Operation
No doubt about it, carving out time for strategic focus requires diligence and discipline. Given your role, I have no doubt you already have both those things in spades. It also may require you to leave behind an assumption that keeps you stuck.
Assumptions like:
- I must give up what’s most important to me to make an impact.
- I should be available to everyone all the time. Or,
- No one will ever do this task as well as I can.
It’s time to make the connection between how you allot your time and the contribution only you can make.
Because maybe the success you’ve been driving so hard at is hidden in the strategic time you’ve been putting off.
4 Coaching Questions to Realign Your Priorities
So I invite you to grab a pen and a notebook and reflect on these 4 questions to set the stage for a breakthrough: (They’re available in the transcript.)
- What are you and only you responsible for at the highest level?
- How much overlap is there between that and how you spent your attention over the last month?
- What opportunities are available if you invest appropriately in strategic planning time? Consider the impact on your stakeholders, the organization, and yourself professionally and personally. And finally,
- What would you need to believe to prioritize strategic time in the next 2 months?
For example, maybe it’s something like believing that one hour of deep planning could save you 10 hours of busy work. Or that three hours of deep planning could help you set your team up to succeed in ways you can’t imagine right now.
Albert Einstein once said that if he only had one hour to solve a problem, he would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and the last 5 minutes solving it.
Maybe that viewpoint seems a bit radical, and a big leap from where you're currently at. Still, there's much to gain if you can move incrementally closer to it.
You can’t stop the chaos, but you can change the game.