Suitcase Sheds Light on Deadly Problem

How about saying “No” to get to the bigger “Yes!”

My Husband, Don, and I learned the hard way that airlines mean business when they set the weight limit for suitcases. We had flown from USA to Scotland on one airline with our baggage (no problems). After a few days in Scotland, we were then flying on to Spain on another airline. That is where we ran into the weight problem. We spent several hours deciding what to leave behind after stepping on and off the scale with many different combinations of our belongings. This was a sobering “reality check.”

Bottom line, even though every thing seemed important to us (we had packed them in the first place after all) we had to leave some things behind. In the end, some things were more important than others.

But what if there were no restrictions? Multiply our overage by the number of passengers and we could potentially have a deadly problem. So, thanks to the safety guidelines of the airlines, there are boundaries set to avoid disaster.

So what, you ask, is the point?

In the past few years, one of the most prevalent complaints of my executive clients is that they are overwhelmed and out of balance regarding their workload. Over time, the kind of stress that this syndrome causes is unhealthy and even deadly. But there doesn’t seem to be anyone setting the “weight limit” so people keep saying “yes” to more and more projects and pieces of projects.

This phenomenon has prompted me to do what I call a “job accountabilites assessment.” Through a proven process, we identify the 3 to 6 key accountabilities in priority order and then list the percentage of time that should ideally be spent on this accountability.

From there we create a scorecard for measuring success for each accountability.

This process is very freeing for the executives. They know clearly the top priorities for the position in question and what “a job well done” looks like. It is educational for those who have been piling on additional responsibilities to see where those responsibilities might fit in the larger context and what it might be costing in terms of focus and results. It sets the stage to either hire additional resources or scale the responsibilities back to what is reasonably achievable.

Without the guidelines of the job accountabilities assessment, the job can get too “heavy” and lead to mistakes, stress, illness, miscommunication, and many other forms of “bad.” I go so far as to say that every job at the executive level needs a reality check to maximize and protect the organization resources.

Will everyone adhere to the new guidelines? No. Some people are hardwired to continually over commit themselves and are destined to be guilty of “scope creep” in their positions causing the same in interdependent positions. It is truly a weight on the organization caused by what appear to be dedicated workers.

The true hero is that person who achieves the critical successes and models balance in the process of doing so.

It requires discipline to adhere to the new reality and the ability to say “no” to what doesn’t fit in the suitcase so they can say “yes” to what matters most.

It is a no brainer to develop this discipline when you think of the cost of NOT doing so.