One of your frustrations as a leader, at some point, if not all the time, is not being able to do everything at one go. I hate constraints. Managing and or leading is almost a management of constraints.
I hate that I can’t make everything happen at one go. If only it was that easy. The “no silver bullet reality” is something every leader must make peace with and simultaneously wrestle.
Despite the challenges of constraints in their varied forms and intensity, there is a solution. It may not be the one all would prefer but it is one of, if not the best, solution.
It is one of leaders and their organisations pacing themselves. Reality: you have limited capacity. You can only do certain things in a certain pace at different times of your product development or enterprise life-cycle.
As I think a little more about frustration I realise that leaders can also feel overwhelmed as they look at what needs to be done. The remedy for this is the same…
Focus is about intense attention and energy into particular areas with time factored in [Click to Tweet]
Not to get ahead of yourself and tripping yourself up, remember the step at a time rule. This is nothing new, but we need to remind ourselves often. We can only do so much with what we have. Time is and has its own constraints.
The challenge and work of every leader is establishing where focus is to go and for how long. This requires leaders to be thinkers. It calls for leaders to be comfortable with letting some things fall away, for a season sometimes.
As fast as Usain Bolt is, he can only put one foot in front of the other at a time. Every leader’s capacity has constraints. And, it doesn’t matter how much of a genius they are.
One step at a time. One step in one project at a time, consistently. Soon, what you conceived in your mind, starts to materialise. Lead well, pace yourself.