Ditch Your inbox & Lead With Energy

I recently asked a business leader, “What are you doing today?”

It was an innocuous question, without agenda. But the response so surprised me that I became curious.

“I don’t know, I need to check my emails.”

Wow! What?

Let’s revisit that for a moment. “I don’t know, I need to check my emails.”

I’m unsure what you think, but to me this statement is alarming on a few levels.

1. Is this person, this leader, generally so unprepared?
2. Does this person, this leader, usually mark their day so flippantly?
3. Why has this person, this leader, not already got a strategy?

Because it sounds to me like this C-suite decision-maker, this influential leader of teams, this person to whom others looked to for direction, advice, captaincy, is reactively operational, which is not a trait we often recognise in high performance leadership.

Paul Polman, Global CEO of Unilever is quoted as saying: “I firmly believe that time management is not important; energy management is.”

And I agree with him.

Why determine your day by what has landed in your inbox? There is scarce merit in defining a day by the contents of our knicker draw.

Yet, many of us do it. Why is that? Shouldn’t we be the influencer, rather than the influenced?

There are, of course, varying traits of a high performing leader, but obsequiousness is rarely one of them. Flattering our mailbox seems foolhardy to me.

So, rather than concerning ourselves with email clutter, let us realign the focus to managing energy. Phone calls; speed meetings; definitive action points; quick wins; ownership & accountability; GETTING THINGS DONE. Because energy doesn’t just fuel us subjectively, it powers those around us, too. Let’s set the pace, not be governed by it.

And there is no question that inbox subservience bears no resemblance to control at all.

Hands up if you often leave a meeting with more items on your ‘to do’ list than before you started. More work to undertake, not less. Pressure increased, not reduced. Hours added on, not taken away. And do you know the person to castigate for this? Yes, you!

Leaving a meeting with the same or more tasks to do is the same as pacifying Outlook.

Because much like email inefficiency, spending too much time on that stuff that slows us down is detrimental to progress. Velocity is a virtue. Not least in a world relentlessness where strength and vitality are so important.

But great leaders also know when to slow down. They set the correct pace at the right time. Sometimes it’s better to decelerate and concentrate on what matters most.

Human behaviour deems us reluctant to countenance habit changes, but if want to seize the moment and reach our goals, whilst inspiring those around us, it’s time to ditch the daily digest, delegate where possible, and generate time for what’s important to YOU and your team.

Create energy.