Welcome to Friday 411, issue #081. In 4 minutes, with 1 insight and 1 action, you will avoid three common leadership mistakes.
1 Insight
If your go-to solutions are to work longer, harder, or smarter, you’re only creating more problems.
As a leader, you’re no stranger to challenges. When issues arise, your first instinct is to fix them—and fix them fast. After all, unresolved problems can disrupt your team’s progress, sap morale, and even threaten your company’s success.
But the desire to solve problems quickly often leads to simplistic solutions that don’t actually solve anything. In fact, they can make things worse.
Creating More Problems
Roger, a seasoned leader, faced a major setback with a product launch. The rollout, expected to be seamless, was riddled with technical glitches, frustrating customers and damaging the brand’s reputation. As trust eroded, executives lost faith in Roger, and the launch team’s morale plummeted.
Each time a new problem surfaced, Roger pushed the team to fix it quickly, working overtime and staying late into the night. This strategy of working longer, harder, and smarter had propelled his career, but now it backfired. Despite all the extra effort, the problems grew. The team became exhausted, morale sank, and solutions proved temporary.
Roger failed to see that the real issue wasn’t these symptomatic glitches but a deeper problem: a lack of Clarity. The team lacked clear priorities, plans and roles, which led to the ongoing issues.
They spent hours working longer, harder, and smarter but to no avail. They kept failing.
Do you encounter problems, jump into fix-it mode, and get similar results to Roger’s?
If you find yourself saying any of the following phrases, you’ve fallen into common leadership mistakes. Recognize them as red flags, pause, and rethink your approach.
Red Flag #1: “Work Longer”
The Assumption: If we put in more hours, we’ll fix this problem.
The Problem: It’s tempting to think that working longer will magically solve everything. After all, more time should equal more progress, right? That’s the message that hustle culture tries to sell you. Hustle culture tells you if you do well working 40 hours, you’ll do exponentially better if you work 80.
Without a clear understanding of the root cause of the problems, you’ll waste time and increase your frustration. Imagine you’re looking for a buried treasure. You dig and dig. Even though you feel like you’re getting closer to the treasure, you’re unaware you’re holding the map upside down. You’re in the wrong location. No matter how long you shovel, you’ll never find the treasure.
Red Flag #2: “Work Harder”
The Assumption: If we apply more energy, we’ll solve this.
The Problem: While working longer is about the minutes you use, working harder is about the energy you expend. But expending more energy — especially if it’s unfocused — rarely produces better results.
If you’ve spent much time in a gym, you’ve seen this truth. Some people waste energy lifting heavy weights, unfocused on their reps. You hear their grunts as they waste energy throwing the weights around. They won’t get the results they want. The people who get results are those who focus their energy on the right form and resistance.
The same is true in leadership. Pouring more energy into a problem without clearly understanding the root cause can lead to burnout without meaningful progress. Working harder only makes sense if your efforts are laser-focused on the real issue.
Red Flag #3: “Work Smarter”
The Assumption: If we increase our intelligence, we’ll fix this problem.
The Problem: “Work smarter, not harder” has become a popular mantra, and for good reason. But the advice to “work smarter” can be misleading if you don’t first understand the root cause of the problem.
We worked with a leader who was frustrated that his team wasn’t fulfilling orders quickly enough. He spent weeks optimizing processes, shaving minutes off tasks, and implementing new strategies. But none of the changes worked. Only later did he realize he hadn’t been consistent in his expectations and accountability of their original effective processes. He worked smarter but got the same results because he hadn’t identified the root cause of the problem.
What to Do Instead
It wasn’t until Roger slowed down and took time to diagnose the root cause that he was able to develop a sustainable solution. When the team identified their issue as a lack of Clarity, they stopped the product launch for one morning. They met to determine their top three priorities, the plan for actions they needed to take, and each person’s roles and responsibilities in accomplishing those priorities. It took them one week of focus to have the product ready for launch. All they needed to do was stop focusing on the symptoms and concentrate on the real problem.
Slow Down to Speed Up
If you find yourself relying on these quick fixes, it’s a sign that you need to take a more thoughtful approach. Here’s how:
Slow Down. The first step is to recognize when you’re jumping to these red-flag solutions. If you catch yourself doing it, hit the brakes. Fast thinking can lead to fast failures. The Navy Seals say, “Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.”
List the Symptoms. Before diving into a solution, take a moment to list out the symptoms that indicate there’s a problem. What’s actually happening that needs to be addressed? For Roger’s team, he had symptoms that included missed deadlines, mounting problems, lowered team morale, and frustrated customers.
Identify the Root Cause. Dig deeper to determine what’s really at the heart of the problem. According to our research, every problem in your business starts as a problem in your leadership. Seven leadership challenges form the root causes of 95% of your business problems: Character, Competence, Capacity, Clarity, Community, Culture, and Consistency. Which one(s) is at play here?
Develop a Targeted Plan. Once you’ve identified the root cause, create a plan to address it directly. For example, if you discover that the issue is a lack of Clarity, your next step is to develop a plan to unleash your Clarity. This might involve refining your team’s goals, improving communication, or clarifying roles and responsibilities.
Your instinct to fix problems quickly is natural, but it’s essential to ensure that your solutions are thoughtful and effective. The next time you find yourself saying, “Let’s work longer,” “Let’s work harder,” or “Let’s work smarter,” remember that these are red flags. They’re signals that you need to slow down and spend more time understanding the true cause of the problem.
1 Action
Identify one problem you’re experiencing in business right now. Slow down and list out the symptoms, identify the root cause, and develop a plan for addressing it.
