Too many meetings, too many parallel work streams, too much of information, unable to focus on few priorities, not having enough family time.. As much you would like to believe that you are special, but here it would be a relief to know that you are one of the many who are going through the same phase.Welcome to the world of middle management.
We, as managers, have always been conditioned to think that our job is to solve problems. Think of all the assignments we did in the b-school, all the midnight oil we burnt with our case prep groups solving cases of all kinds. We were always evaluated on how we structured the problem by breaking it down to smaller pieces and how we derived the solution through issue trees, hypothesis, fish-bone analysis etc. This made all of us believe that every situation we face is a problem and can be solved through a logical approach. But what we were never told was there are things which can not be solved, because they are fundamentally not problems. They are paradoxes. One of the biggest paradoxes we face at middle management level is whether to be in the balcony (strategic thinking) or in the dance ( operational work). We can never solve this, all we can do is to learn to juggle between the two. The sooner we get better at this, the quicker becomes the leap to the upper management. We all know it. But how do we practice it.
Jotting down few things below that may save you a bit of time from the dance and get you on the balcony for a while. But getting up on the balcony takes a lot of discipline, operational pressures will always tend to pull you back to the dance. You need to be in a constant evaluative mode of yourself and most important of all - Learn to say NO.
1. Let Go
Not everything is important. There are things that can be delegated. You may argue that when you delegate something, the delivery is not up to the standard and you again have to spend a lot of time in rework. So it's efficient to do it yourself and get it right in the first go. I have two answers to this.One, you get it right in the first go not because it is right, but because you think it is right. Respect and trust the capability of others. Second, even if the output was not up to mark, how the does that matter. It was anyway not important to start with. So why don't you just let it go ?
2. Press the pause button
I am sure you go through a lot of chaos everyday at work and sometimes wish you could just have some time with yourself. Well then why not press the pause button. Block an half an hour slot on your calendar, move away from your laptop to a meeting room or cafe with a pen and notepad, put your phones on silent mode and stop the data sync, grab a cup of coffee and try to not think about work. That's when you would realize it's so difficult not to think about something when you actually are thinking to not to think about it :) First few minutes your mind will be running all over, but if you keep trying in 5-10 minutes you will feel your mind is getting de-cluttered. That's when open up your notepad and try jotting down your big ideas.
2. Keep your eyes and ears open
With the work load you may not find a lot of time to network or have a chat with people beyond your immediate work group. People are source of information. The more people you know, the better equipped you are with information and the better clarity you have on the big picture. Make it a habit to have lunch with other work groups at least once a week. You may not be able to contribute a lot to their discussions to start with, but you are anyway there to listen to them. So don't put undue pressure on yourself to be the centerpiece of the conversation on the table.
Enough of preachy stuff. Just want to leave you with one thought. Problems are to be solved, but paradoxes are to be managed. And as managers we should be more worried about the managing part than solving :)
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