Let’s face it. We live in a time that glorifies the state of “busyness”. It seems that the most common response to, “How are you?” is “Busy”.
With some people, it is all about perception. They confuse busyness with success. They want to feel, and for others to view them as being successful − so they boast about how many hours they worked, or the number of meetings they attended, or the number of projects they are working on.
When someone tells you “I’m so busy” or “I’ve been in back to back meetings all day”, they are signaling that they are valuable, because they are in demand. In reality though, many people waste a lot of time in unproductive or unnecessary meetings and on other low value tasks.
That’s not to say that we shouldn’t be active. Working hard is admirable. Through our leadership coaching and development, however, it has become clear that many leaders confuse being busy with being productive. The truth is, when you’re willing to take an honest assessment of your days, to-do lists and time management, you’ll find that the things keeping you busy often tend to also be the things keeping you from real progress.
Lynn Whitesell provides advanced expertise in leadership solutions, organization and culture transformation and executive coaching. She co-founded Harris Whitesell Consulting, LLC to partner with leaders and organizations to help them achieve measurable improvement and reach their full potential.
