Ep 420: Listener questions about leadership (Part 4)

These are some great conversations with some great questions, and I feel like I wish we'd gone through them earlier, but I like that we're getting these answers out to the people who've reached out over the last few months and said that these things are important to them or they're curious about them. On this episode, the first question that I want to kind of get to is this

idea of competing priorities in the workplace. And so a listener reached out to us a few months ago and asked about strategies they can use to keep people engaged and performing and working hard with there's a growing list of distractions and competing priorities. And I think it's a very relevant question because you know, I think a lot

of it is driven by technology. I think in a lot of organizations, the access to technology and the access to communication is allowing employees to be inundated with things that are not work related even while they're at work, and the kind of the kind of meshing or melding of the you talk about work life balance, there is no work life balance anymore. There's just life and work is part of it. And those other things that are going on in a person's life are going on whether

they're at work or not. And so those distractions and competing priorities can absolutely lower employee engagement. If they can lower productivity, they can lower the a person's you know, buy in to doing great work while they're there. But I think a lot of leaders go about this the wrong way because there the actions they take is in the spirit of trying to eliminate those distractions competing priorities, rather than acknowledging their existence and trying to work through them.

And so I think this is it's a great question because it's not going to go away. The distractions and the competing priorities are going to continue to grow over time. They're not going to get less.

work that you have them doing. I think today though, what's different in this space is where there are so many distractions coming from so many different places, and I think the things that are happening around the workforce and just kind of where we're at from a society standpoint in social media and how much time we spend kind of in those spaces discussing those things, Like there's a lot more of that that I've seen now than ever before, where it's just like there's so many things that can

you know, shift our attention. And again not not even not not so not not only just workplace distractions and maybe sometimes like too many strategies or competing priorities at work, or you know, things that are happening that may pull our attention away from a professional work environment, but just the the world and society in general is creating a lot of you know, ways to to pull all of

our attention and it happens to all of us. And I think that you know, in those types of spaces, taking the time to engage human to human, taking the time to not just get to know people, but but talk to people daily, have pieces of your interactions that that that have to do with with them and life and the journey of life that they're on and things

that are going on. Like that element of personal connection I think human human personal connection I think is so important to be able to create space where sometimes like just being at work is a distraction from everything else going on outside of work, right, you know, and like so it's almost kind of like there's a there's a there's a there's a connection here, there's a space here, there's a capability of having a shared goal and work in progress to get something done that can feel you know,

satisfying and it's complete. It can feel you know, maybe tough to get through, but at the same time, you're doing something, and you're doing something with others that are also focused on the same goals. Like I just think that there's a lot of intention to be had now, specifically with with with connecting with people in a very different way that allows them to feel seen and heard

and empowered while they're at work. And I think those are to me, like the pillars of engagement right now and kind of going forward right right.

it's instant. And so this the the kind of the the arrows that are coming in from all over the place, all of which can make an employee feel like everything is the priority. And when and when you feel like everything is the priority, then one of two things happen. Either nothing is the priority, or you try to make everything the priority and you either burn out or you get frustrated, or you end up pathassing everything because you can't put your you know, your all of your efforts

into one thing that you're focusing on. So that's the first part of it. And then workplace distractions, you know it it comes from I'm thinking about the quote from Office Space where he sits down with the bobs and he's like, ah, eight bosses and they go eight eight, Hey Bob, eight bosses, you know, and it's it's there's so much kind of separation of a lot of roles

and support roles within organizations. Now that you might have people, you might have one in most organizations, you're only going to have one straight line to one boss, but you might have dotted lines to five or six other people who each have their own list of priorities. And and if you are feeling this pressure, honestly, that's on your leader.

So if you're thinking about it from the standpoint of you as a leader, because everybody, if you're a leader of people, you also are on a team and you have a leader too, So from your standpoint, your responsibility is to make sure that that doesn't happen as much

as possible for your team. And so if the person who reports directly to you also has several dotted lines to other people who are reaching out to them, it's important that you, as a leader reach out to all of those people, not to the employee directly, but to all the people who might be talking to your employees and make sure that they and you are on the same page with what the priorities are and that nothing

is blindsided. So you know, if you have people reaching out to your people directly, you don't want to stop those those interactions from happening, but you want to make sure that there's absolute clarity between you and your employees on what the priorities are, so that when they hear something from other places and they think, oh, I guess this is a priority now, that their first thought is, you know what, let me let me talk to Lorenzo really quickly first, and let's make sure that this fits

within the structure of the of the priorities. Because then it's on the leader to make that to call. And if if your employee comes to you and they're feeling all these this pressure coming from other places, and you provide them clarity and say no, don't do that right now. This is what you're focusing on. You can't just hang

them out to dry either. Once you've on that, you have to go to the person who's reaching out to your employee and say, hey, I just want to let you know I told them this because I don't want you to think that they drop the ball for you. This was my call to do this because this is what they're focusing on right now and we'll do our best to get that in also, or or they come to you and you say, yeah, I like that idea

that you can focus on that. So either way, you have to have the kind of relationship with all of your people that says that when they hear something that doesn't seem to fit in with the conversation you've had with them about what priorities are, that they want to seek clarity on those issues, as opposed to just thinking, no matter who gives me anything, I guess I have to do it all now, because that's a great way to burn out your employees and so kind of being

that line of defense for them and and you know, taking that weight off of their shoulders I think is the right thing to do.

like help them get what they need. But but by making sure that you're not continually just rolling down those requests to your team constantly and giving them so many other things to think about and to go do, when when you've got them hyper focused on the things that are really really important and so like that that's I think from a lot of leadership standpoints, like where I see leaders have a hard time is like it's it's not it's not tough to keep my team focused and

attuned to the goals that we have. It's what happens when there's other people that are of other areas of authority or a job, you know, like bosses or bosses, bosses or somebody in this part of the work, Like when people are vye for your time and attention and for your team to get things done or to get information or data that ability to navigate those relationships and still make sure that other people in the organization get what they need, you know, in a way that's helpful

so that they can achieve their goals, but not putting your team at risk of being distracted because there's so many things they have to get done. That's where I see a lot of leaders sometimes struggle is that it's tough to you know, they either want to say yes or they want to say no, and then try to figure out how do you say yes absolutely, but no not this way. It's kind of like the magic in figuring out that behave right.

my boss's boss, so clearly that's a priority. That isn't necessarily the case because hopefully your boss came to you first and said, Hey, I'm gonna be talking with your people and this is what I'm gonna tell them, and you and your boss can align on something before those conversations happen. You can't always rely on that happening though, and so you as a as a leader of people, need to feel comfortable going to your own leader to say, hey, I've been hearing this. I just want to make sure

that are you are you? Are you changing what the priority is? Because the how I'm talking to my team is based on the conversation we had two months ago on what these are the priorities are. But they're hearing something different from you directly, So do I need to

change what the what the priorities are? Because and then if if your boss says oh no, no, no, yours yours is fine, and then this is this is this is what's happening too, then at that point you have to say, okay, well let me let me make sure that we're clear on what the bandwidth is of what they're doing and what the realities are of what they can get accomplished versus what they can't get accomplished, and you have a real realistic kind of thumb on the

pulse of what that looks like and and not just saying no for the sake of no, because if they can get something done, that's a great way to strengthen relationships. But if what they're being asked to do is contradictory to something that you put in place, that's where the

problem can happen. Because if employees believe they're being asked to do two things that aren't just competing with each other from a time perspective, but they're competing with each other from an actual outcome perspective, you will have a team of people who starts rolling their eyes at what they're being asked to do and telling their own story about oh, well here, yeah, how do we do this and this at the same time, like you're you're saying

that the most important thing is sell, sell, sell revenue, revenue at all costs, you know, and then somebody else saying, no, no, no, we don't want to discount anything. It's profits, profits, profits at all costs. It's like, well, you don't get both, Like you can't have both. It's one or the other.

And if you want to see that both as a priority, then that's fine, but you have to understand that neither is going to be at the highest level because they're taking into account each other as they're rolling through those priorities.

And that's a very simple, stupid example of it. But it happens all over the place where an employee can think, I've been told to do two different things here, and it's actually not possible to do both because each one is it works against the other, and so I can only focus on one of these two things, even though I have time to do both. It's not a time thing. It's a that the don't. They don't live in the

same universe together because they can't. And so that conversation is different than the one you have about well, how much time do I have and how many things are

being added to the plates of my employees. They both cause problems but want but they require different conversations between you and your leader to make sure that your employees are on the same page and that nothing kind of shakes that foundation of the core of what they are here to do, whatever their job is that needs to maintain, you know, at the top spot is whatever that those core values or core focus areas.

is in spirit of that. If your boss wants to change that, then it's important that you have that information to say, well, this doesn't seem like it aligns with what we talked about before, doesn't need to change and that's fine, and if your boss wants to change that, then they can change that. And then having that communication that says that you're on the same page, that you're aligned, allows you to go to your people to say, this

is what we're supposed to be doing. It's important that you're doing this every single interaction you have, because conversations can get forgotten, and recapping a conversation, especially when it comes to strategic priorities or what the focus is moving forward, it's really important to be able to bring that information up later on and say we're operating under these guidelines that we discussed and agreed upon, and that way, if they do need to change, you can at least say,

you know, what I was doing was in spirit of this conversation that we had, and then we can change it if we need to change it. Having that two way communication, both to your people and to your boss directly is the best way to make sure that your people don't feel like they are on the receiving end of competing priorities. This work is done in advance of

those priorities. If you're if you start from a standpoint of just hoping it works out and then reacting to them when they happen, you're going to be reacting to them all the time. People don't know what they don't know. And if your boss is reaching out to your people, or if you have a peer somewhere else who has a dotted line you know, directly to your people and you haven't spoken to them about what the priorities are, then they think they can just reach out to your

people and start throwing things that they're played. Maybe they can, but it's important that you reach out to them in advance and say, hey, this is what I'm working on with my team right now, this is what the priorities are. If there's something that you need to get done that doesn't align with these priorities, I'd appreciate if you reach out to me first before just throwing something at my team.

And that's a great way to make sure that you that you stop it from running into a potential where the relationship is degraded by having those conversations in advance, and then they are more likely to respect that interaction and then not reach out to your people directly with something that competes with the priorities you've put out to your own team. Yeah.

of this job. Sure of like what are the what are the you know, organizational things that are important and focuses that you want to make sure are getting done. Then what's your what's your boss's preference on how that gets done? Then what's the other partner's you know, preference

on how that gets done. Like a lot of it is navigating these types of things, and to your point in the hack here, like that communication is absolutely critical, right and you have to spend some time saying hey, like i've you know, tell me more about that, or or help me understand what you need specifically and when you need it buy you know, I want to make sure that that my team is you know, fully focused on this thing that we know as a priority that

we're getting done. But I want to get you what you need, So give me some more details, let me know what this looks like when it needs to be done by what information, Like let me really understand what you're asking for, and then let me let me figure out how I'm going to get you that info while keeping my team fully focused on the larger tasks that we've got going on, or the major priorities that we've

already established or whatever that might be. But that that's going to be a critical part of being able to get both things done right.

you know, not just respect. Respect is the wrong word, whether or not people, whether or not you are good at creating disciples or followers in terms of the values that you hold. Is whether or not people want to follow you when they don't have a direct line to you. And so people who are reaching out to your people who don't have a direct line to them, but they have a dotted line to them, throwing out different things

and saying that these are priorities. They have a tough job because they have to get people to get the job done that has to get done without those people reporting directly to them. And that's a tougher thing to do than if they were just that's your team and you're the boss, and you can have them do what

you want them to do. And so being respectful or at least cognizant of that and understanding that you want to preserve not just that person's belief that their role is important in the organization, but preserve the relationship that exists between them and your people, because the more open communication that your people have with everybody in your organization, the better it will be for them because they will they'll strengthen their network, they'll you know, be in in

places where they can get more experience to get more things done. So it's not about hiding them away and

preventing it from happening. It's about making sure that everybody is in agreement with what the core priorities are, whether that has change weekly or monthly or quarterly or annually, but whatever they are, they are and agree upon that so that something has to be contradictory to it or flies in the face of it, that the conversation happens in advance, and you don't set people up for failure by thinking, oh, you know, all Lorenzo's doing is stopping me from getting the stuff that I need to get

done because he's not letting his people do the things that I need to get done. If you've gotten to that point, it means you didn't have the communication to begin with, and you go back a few steps and kind of level set what that looks like and what those interactions don't look like going forward.