Have you experienced this? You attend a meeting that rambles on for two hours and then everyone walks out without any clear objectives. I’m sure that you have been drained on occasion by someone’s belief that longer meetings deliver better results, but oftentimes all they really do is pull the attendees into a quagmire of indecision and stagnancy. More talk doesn’t always produce more results. Action does. The right action.
MORE often becomes LESS.
In Gapology, we write about the power of Simplicity. This intentional focus on minimizing layers of tasks or objectives provides a much clearer vision of the things we are working toward. Establishing a simple, clear, and compelling purpose give us the focused vision we need, and then wrapping that purpose around the elements of our business brings teams together in a common effort to achieve the things that really matter.
Many organizations over-complicate objectives and establish far too many KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to be effective. Spreading out the focus doesn’t help deliver your purpose, but rather, it is in the narrowing of the focus that you will bring people together.
We suggest analyzing your KPIs to determine which ones really matter and deliver your purpose, and then choosing your top 3-5 to focus on and prioritize. Then make them truly important by building them into all areas of your organization. Wrap them into your hiring and training, blend them into your performance appraisals and compensation conversations, and make them the topics outlined in any of your meetings or internal communications.
Priorities are created by a leader’s behaviors and actions, not by just listing them on a piece of paper.
Here are some tips from a Gapology angle:
Close the Knowledge Gap with simplicity.
Training: Use the Habit Ladder from Gapology to ensure that you have clearly built habits around the behaviors that matter.
Teaching: Grow your team by establishing a rhythm of coaching and mentorship around your top priorities.
Talent: Hire, promote, or reposition people on your team to connect them with your top priorities.
Close the Importance Gap with simplicity.
Expectations: Establish clear behavioral and result expectations that tie to the priorities.
Communication: Wrap the priorities into all your internal communications, hiring processes, and training and feedback elements.
Prioritization: Narrow your leadership behaviors to focus on the things that matter.
Close the Action Gap with simplicity.
Accountability: Provide recognition and coaching around the top priorities. Hold the team to a standard of simplicity in all things.
Commitment: Look for simple ways to build opportunities for engagement. Engagement drives commitment.
Culture: Establish a culture of simplicity. Make it a value that you discuss, measure, and reward.
Give your team a clear, compelling vision of what they need to know, clarify why it matters, and create a narrow focus around the things that they need to do. Keep things simple. With simplicity as a core, foundational element of your leadership rhythm, you will deliver far stronger execution and create engagement like never before. Remember, more often becomes less!
*Listen to our Gapology Radio Podcast episode on this topic: https://www.gapology.org/podcast/episode/1ec0af5b/when-more-is-less