The “Open Door” Trap

December 2nd, 2008

“The ability to concentrate and use your time well is everything”. Lee Iacocca

Most of the leaders I coach have a challenge with time: how do they get home in time to have a more balanced home life; how do they avoid the overwhelm of today’s chaotic work place. Most of these same people have an open door policy, which has been touted as good leadership practice. The point being that a leader is always accessible to his or her direct reports.

One of the first things I ask these leaders to do is to re-visit the wisdom of this policy. Essentially, with this policy, they are continually “interruptible.” Think about it: how is it to concentrate on a project or task knowing that at any moment you can be interrupted? Isn’t there something in the back of your mind that is always on guard for this interruption?

The challenge of the whitewater workplace─full of chaos and distractions─is focus. While a value in the open door policy is that your people can get help with their issues (or just shoot the breeze) whenever they want, what is absent is the greater discipline of thinking ahead and planning for such meetings.

Most of the leaders I work with have established a period of time when the door is open (a 1 – 1.5 hour period a day). People soon learn to plan their questions and discussions for this period of time. The balance of the time, the leader is doing other key leadership roles such as planning, preparation, trend watching, communicating key business strategies, relationship building, and simple reflection, etc. Obviously, emergencies don’t always fit in a time slot and need to be treated differently.

This gives leaders more control over their schedule and their concentration. The payoff is increased effectiveness─productivity and job satisfaction─all the way around.

Entry Filed under: Insights on OC