You don’t get to the top by being lazy. It takes a lot of hard, careful work. You need to be thorough and avoid mistakes. At the same time, you need to keep your eye on the big picture so you know when to push back and change course. You also have to be alert to your environment and know who can be relied upon and who needs help or watching.

By the time you’ve earned a long series of promotions, you’ve made ultra competence your habit. That’s great! Congratulations! Now it’s time to stop that. It’s time to be lazier!

I’ve had to tell three executive coaching clients exactly that in just the past few weeks. Since then, numerous additional examples have come to my attention. Here are a few to get you thinking about where you need to be lazier!

If you find yourself carefully writing a detailed email, stop!

If you are the boss, you can’t be doing that. You don’t have the time. You don’t need to dive into the weeds. When you do, you are undoubtedly stepping on someone else’s toes – the person who is responsible for the details in the weeds.

Instead:

1. Step back.
2. Clarify the objectives.
3. Get on the phone or face-to-face if a simple, short email won’t do the trick.
4. Ask probing questions that help others achieve the objectives while simultaneously increasing your confidence in their understanding and approach.

If you find yourself jumping into someone else’s work, stop!

If you are the boss, you can’t be doing that. You are no longer the software engineer, the social media expert, or the purchasing manager. I know this is particularly difficult when the work falls in your area, or former area, of expertise. Your job now is to develop the capabilities of others and help them overcome obstacles, not to take over.

Instead of jumping in:

1. Determine why you are jumping in.
2. If you have faith in the employee, give them honest feedback. Tell them what you saw or heard that makes you feel like you need to jump in and see what they say. Offer clarification, help, and ideas, but be sure they know it’s their job to make things happen and find the help they need.
3. If you’ve got an employee you don’t believe can do their job, you aren’t doing your job. It is your responsibility to ensure a good match between people and positions and to put people in positions where they can succeed so the company can succeed.

I remember a situation where I was promoted and passed my work on to a software engineer who worked for me. He repeatedly came to me with design suggestions. I dove in and then had to tell him why his ideas wouldn’t work. After several iterations, he told me I was micromanaging him and “wouldn’t let go of my baby.” That’s when I realized he was hoping I would bless his suggestions so he wouldn’t have to do the hard work required to convince himself that they would work. He was the lazy one! So I told him that I would let go as soon as he proved he knew the code as well as I did. That was the last time he came to me to bless his ideas and the beginning of his ownership of the product.

If you find yourself preparing detailed plans to share with your Board of Directors, stop!

You need commitment from your board regarding objectives, deadlines, and resources, but you don’t need to involve them in your detailed plans. Too often I hear from leaders who complain that their boards get into the weeds. And then I discover that the board effectively has been invited into the weeds with too much detail. Think through as many details as you like, but don’t pass it all on to your board.

1. Step back.
2. Clarify the objectives and critical decisions.
3. Give your board only as much information as they need to approve your objectives and critical decisions.

By being a little lazier in the new year, you will be more effective at clarifying objectives, delegating responsibility, and getting exactly what you need from others.