Month: March 2020

I define a “Corporate Exhausted Hero” as a leader who is trying to do it all, and just feeling exhausted.  This leader continues to be overwhelmed with individual contributor work, continues to try to manage and support their team, and spends their “spare time” setting the vision and influencing change.   The Corporate Exhausted Hero is really a fire fighter instead of a fire chief.

I call on all Corporate Exhausted Heroes to use this time to hit the reset button.  In a time when everyone is adjusting to working from home, working at a distance from their boss, and building new routines, it is a great time to build new procedures and expectations as a leader.

• Re-establish Goals:  Clear goals provide your team with the big picture direction and empowers them to deliver successful results.  Many Exhausted Heroes provide daily or weekly task lists to their teams.  Be a Strategic Manager and build clear goals for the month, quarter, or year and ask them how they want to meet their goals.
• Rebuild One-on-Ones:  Corporate Exhausted Heroes rely on reactive drive byes to get work down through their team.  This is a great time to hit the reset button on consistent One-on-Ones by establishing a clear agenda, focus on forward looking projects, and using the time to think together vs. the manager directing tasks.
• Delegation:  A leader needs to focus on what challenges are coming before they arrive.  This enables leaders to mobilize their teams for big fires, instead of running into the fire.  To focus on the future, you need to delegate the present.  Take time to review your to do list and identify who can take on tasks or become the captain on a group of tasks or project. 
• Take a Lunch:  Yes, it is possible, and it is healthy to take a break in the middle of the day.  Corporate Exhausted Heroes either eat at their desks or don’t eat at all.  In this new world where you are working in seclusion, take a lunch break every day.  Eat with your family, take the dog for a walk, or just sit on the back porch and eat.

Corporate Exhausted Heroes have a choice!  The exhaustion doesn’t have to be the way of life.  Take some time now to hit the reset button and aim to be a Strategic Manager focused on the future.  And if you need assistance or suggestions, shoot me an email at mheydt@gameplanleader.com. And look for my book, “Rescuing the Corporate Exhausted Hero” coming out later this year from Advantage/ForbesBooks.

Before an individual becomes an Exhausted Hero, they’re usually someone who’s excelled as a rock star. Their supervisor notices and gives them more responsibility. Then, at some point, as the responsibilities add up their team grows, and their personal growth stalls—due to lack of support or direction from leadership, lack of understanding on how to develop on their part, or both—and they’re unable to move on from being just a rock star. They’ll continue to do double-duty as manager and rock star, but it’s a struggle. And the struggle will continue. If they don’t develop into a strategic manager, then they risk burnout by functioning both as a rock star and as a manager.

We all know this individual. We may be an individual like this, struggling to balance it all. Always playing firefighter and never feeling like they have control of their work, this leader feels the pressure to be strategic, while feeling the pressure to deliver results, while feeling the guilt of the responsibility of being a people manager.

Symptoms include being the first person to work and the last one to leave. Gaining recognition for getting things accomplished—then rewarded with more projects. Running from meeting to meeting and never feeling like they are accomplishing anything. When they are in their office, they are quickly trying to manage their emails while dodging their employees who often stop by with questions. The reason they come in early and leave late is that is the only time they are not bothered and can get their work done. And they are the individuals that senior leaders trust with all the big projects so their workload continues to be over capacity.  These individuals feel stuck and don’t feel there is a choice of another way…but there is another way.

If you are an Exhausted Hero, it isn’t too late.  Hire an executive coach to assist you in improving key leadership behaviors like creating a vision, influencing change, or coaching.  Or work with an executive coach to learn more ways to delegate effectively. Or if you are part of an organization that has an exhausted culture involving countless Exhausted Heros, let me know!  I would love to come facilitate a workshop to assist in elevating the culture. 

Delegation is Essential for Leadership!

A 2015 Gallup study of the entrepreneurial talents of 143 CEOs on the Inc. 500 list showed that companies run by executives who effectively delegate authority grow faster, generate more revenue, and create more jobs.

But why is delegation so important?

I call the role of being a leader and manager a Strategic Manager.  With this role, it is critical to conduct the following behaviors:

• Create a Vision:  Assist your team in seeing the path forward, the end goal.
• Influencing Change: Assisting others in awareness, understanding, and adoption of change.  Using different skills and processes to gain buy in and alignment to change.
• Coaching Others:  Providing guidance to others by helping them think through challenges and identifying a mutually agreed upon path forward to gain positive results.

These are three behaviors that should not be delegated.  These are the key behaviors for the manager/leader. And these behaviors can’t be done in the leaders “spare time.”  We all know that doesn’t work. We must be focused on the vision, the change, and coaching others to be successful.

Therefore, it is critical that leaders learn to delegate any and all tasks that can be handled by their direct reports or teams.

Take some time today to review your to-do list.  What can be delegated to someone else? And what needs to be added to your to do list to help you drive a vision, influence change, and coach others?

According to John C. Maxwell, author of Developing the Leaders Around You, “If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.”