Management Matters with Mike Myatt: Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

Unless you enjoy choking, don’t bite off more than you can chew. One of the most common problems facing executives is the lack of ability to remain focused on highest and best use activities. In fact, many executives are their own worst enemy when it comes to taking themselves out of what I like to call the “productivity zone." While we could talk about being better managers of technology, communications, interruptions and various other productivity killers, this week’s column will focus on the number one killer of executive productivity: biting off more than you can chew, or what I like to call initiative overload.

Fact: bright, talented executives with a bias to action will often take on more than they should. Fiction: multitasking accomplishes more than focused effort. The reality is that maximizing results and creating a certainty of execution is all about focus, focus and more focus. An executive can only act in the here and now, so the knowledge and skills required to master any endeavor only happens when we focus on what we’re doing. This is the definition of "presence", and it is only when we operate in the present that innovation, disruption and improvisation occur.

Is your rubber-band stretched so tight that it’s about to snap? Efficiency and productivity are not found working at or even near capacity. Rather, entering the productivity zone is found working at about 50 to 80 percent of capacity. Operating in excess of that threshold will cause increased stress, lack of attention to detail and errant decisioning. In fact, if you can consistently operate in a productive capacity more than 50 percent of your time, you’ll find yourself in the top 10 percent of all executives.

It is important for executives to learn to apply focused leverage to a limited number of highest and best use activities rather than to continually shift gears between multiple initiatives. Resist the temptation to just advance a broad number of disparate initiatives and alternatively focus your efforts on the completion of a few high impact objectives. The simple reality is that if you continue to add new responsibilities to an already full plate, all of your obligations will suffer as a result. Face current challenges head-on by keeping your head down and applying focused leverage to the task at hand.

Don’t delude yourself into thinking that changing direction mid-stream will produce better results as it rarely will. Remember that most people who fail just quit a bit too early in the process. While I’m certainly not recommending blind faith that flies in the face of solid business logic, but neither am I encouraging you to run away by changing focus or tactics when the right thing to do is stay the course regardless of the difficulties that may present themselves.

It is through the accomplishment of current objectives that the victories are won and success is born. The achievement of current goals and objectives free up the time and create the resources to move on to bigger and better things…Trying to do too many things at once will impede progress, dilute effort and energy, add to chaos and lead to burn-out. Bottom line: success equals focus.