Marcia's Leadership Q and As: How to Develop Technical Experts into Strategic Leaders (Copy)

Q.  In our pursuit of efficiency, it seems more speed is often not the answer. We end up reducing quality and doing rework. What can we do?

A. Speed isn't the goal. There are six common leadership practices that create more complexity, waste, and slower performance. The myth of speed often dilutes the conversations and planning needed to clarify for all engaged what the purpose of the work is. 

Executives often demand greater speed, as if moving faster automatically improves competitiveness. Yet sustainable performance is rarely achieved by simply asking people to work harder or move quicker. Organizations become faster when unnecessary work is removed, decisions are made where knowledge exists, and systems are designed for smooth flow rather than constant firefighting. 

Speed and efficiency are outcomes of a healthy management system, not the objective itself. Leaders who chase speed without improving the system often create more meetings, reports, approvals, and pressure. The result is complexity, rework, frustration, and declining productivity. 

Managing by Constant Urgency 

A culture of urgency rewards heroics instead of prevention. Employees spend their days responding to crises because underlying causes remain unresolved. Continual interruptions reduce quality, increase mistakes, and create burnout. Effective leaders ask why emergencies occur repeatedly (“what’s happening” and work to understand the process) and improve the system, so problems are prevented rather than repeatedly managed.

Measuring Everything 

Many organizations accumulate dashboards filled with dozens of metrics. People begin optimizing local results instead of improving the whole organization. Excessive measurement also consumes valuable time collecting and reporting data. Leaders should identify a handful of meaningful measures connected to customers, capability, learning, and long-term performance. 

But often there are thousands and millions of charts full of data recorded and chased but never understood. One of the most common and wasteful myths in organizations is, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure!” It’s one of the largest time-wastes in any organizations. 

Here’s a credible example: how many days are wasted quarterly if not monthly for a team to gather and focus days on massaging, guesstimating and changing numbers: forecasts, budgets, quotas, incentives, etc.? Here is some of your greatest waste of people’s time! 

When one of my clients told me they spend one day a month doing this, we pivoted their attention. Instead, they spent two days a month focused on creating systems, processes, plans, communication, and quality products and services to serve their customers. We slashed their focus on the numbers to one hour at the end of Day Two. After a few months, I asked if they wanted to go back to the old agenda. They unanimously and firmly said, “Absolutely not!”

Excessive Approval Layers 

When every decision requires multiple signatures, work slows dramatically. Employees wait for permission rather than solving problems. Too many approvals also communicate a lack of trust. Clear decision rights, capable teams, and appropriate responsibility produce faster and better decisions while maintaining good governance. 

Initiative Overload 

Organizations frequently launch several strategic initiatives simultaneously. Employees are expected to transform processes while maintaining daily operations. Priorities compete, attention fragments, and little is completed well. Successful organizations sequence improvement, understand interdependent actions, complete important work, learn from experience, and then move to the next priority. 

Dysfunctional Managers Who Boss 

Fear discourages innovation and honest communication. People become reluctant to admit problems or challenge assumptions. Leaders who coach, listen, ask thoughtful questions, and encourage experimentation build stronger organizations. Capability grows when people learn how to think rather than simply follow instructions. 

Chasing Management Fads 

Every few months a new management trend promises dramatic improvements. Tools alone rarely solve systemic problems. Without understanding systems thinking, variation, psychology, and learning, organizations merely add another layer of complexity. Lasting improvement comes from developing management capability rather than adopting fashionable terminology, tools, and technology. 

Leaders can ask a different question: 'What prevents work from flowing smoothly?' Eliminating waste, reducing unnecessary complexity, simplifying decision making, and developing people create organizations that naturally become faster. Sustainable competitive advantage comes from designing better systems, not demanding greater speed. When leaders focus on quality, learning, and continual improvement, productivity follows naturally.