When my parents had parties, my father used to joke that my mother cleaned so much that she even cleaned the third-floor silver.
My mother took great pride in our home so if someone told her that the house was immaculate, she was thrilled.
I admit that when I have company over, I only clean what they can see.
Working full time and having four cats and a dog, it is always a challenge to keep up with it all.
So what if the house is a bit messy as long as I serve a delicious meal and my guests have fun?
In the business world, I have witnessed too many leaders focusing so much on the third-floor silver that they miss the bigger picture.
They tend to hyper-focus on certain details of a report, strategic plan, etc. that they don’t take into account the people who created it or those that at least tried to provide valuable input.
These leaders may not be micro-managers per se but are super detailed focused versus people focused.
Details are obviously important but when it is a mechanism for stopping or stalling progress that is a big issue.
As an example, I have clients that want to rewrite parts of a position description which is fine but they overthink it so much that the executive search assignment gets delayed by several weeks.
When they finally pull the trigger, they then start to complain that they are not seeing the types of candidates they really want.
They claim they want “visionaries” or “creative/strategic thought partners” but the way the job spec is written it appears that the candidate should be very analytical. So frustrating!!!
When a leader or anyone for that matter is bogged down in such minutiae, they waste valuable time and potential opportunities especially when their competitors are nipping at their heels.
It also can deter others from wanting to work with this person which affects the overall organization.
Leaders should spend their time and energy on what matters.
Do they really need to be copied on every email their team sends out (yes – I have a client that does it and he has a ten-person team) or read the fine details on a contract that the legal team has reviewed several times?
I have standard contracts for my training and executive search businesses.
A few years ago, one client who was one of the executives not only edited my contract but then sent a contract that she prepared.
I mentioned this to a friend of mine who had worked with her before and she said that this executive worked incredibly long hours to the point that it was affecting her personal life.
She spent countless hours reworking documents and contracts when the original version effectively covered all the points.
It did not seem like an ego trip that she knew more than others but more of an insecurity issue, however, anyone that had to deal with her dreaded her edits, etc.
Leaders need to occasionally audit the way they spend their time.
They need to determine if hiding behind closed doors with mounds of reports to review is the best way to run the organization or is it better to be more people focused and leave some of that to others instead.
Not everyone has to be an extrovert but employees need to feel that they matter and face time is the best way to do it.
So what if the report has a “that” versus a “which” or that the font is not modern looking? Does anyone really care?