I am starting a personal mission to remove the word “busy” from my standard response when someone asks me how things are going. I have been replying with this overused word for more years than I care to admit. “Oh, you’re the one who is busy?” We are all busy! I have used it as a symbol of awesomeness. After all, people who are worth something are busy, right? People who are worth something have more demands on their time than time in the day. Well, there is another side to this. It could just be that when I say I am busy I am actually saying, “I haven’t prioritized my time well enough.” Prioritization fails happen when we stop wielding the ultimate club – the word “no.” No forces us to make choices. No forces us to keep our promises. No is used to keep us happily producing for the long term. What if we said it more often?
With your teams, don’t get out of the way, do this instead
"Get out of the way!" I often hear some version of this sentiment when talking about building a culture to incentivize high performance teams. "You have to find the right people, equip them, and then get out of the way." People who talk about getting out of the way...