Everyone is looking for ways to be more efficient. Ways in which they can get more stuff done in the limited amount of time that they have.

The trouble is that few people focus on being truly effective, and there is a massive difference between a person being effective and a person being efficient.

Effectively vs Efficiently

Efficiency is doing lots of things.

Effectiveness is about doing a few things to an exceptional standard.

It requires a real sense of focus and deep thinking time which is incredibly hard to get in a world filled with distractions.

It requires the ability to turn round to managers and say, ‘I can do that. But which one of these priorities that we agreed last week do you want me to drop?’ This isn’t being unhelpful, it’s challenging managers to think harder about the most important activities they want their people working on and holding them to account for delivering them rather than changing priorities like the wind.

The reason I am writing about this is because it relates to a core leadership principle, ‘leading by example’.

It is not what you say that counts, it’s what you do – it’s about how you behave that is important.

The UK has the second lowest productivity output in the G7. We work really hard but we don’t get much done. As a nation, we are probably efficient but we certainly aren’t effective.

In this article, I want to describe what efficient people look like and contrast them with effective people. I’ve chosen to focus on four key themes that I think stand out the most between them.

Vision for the Future

Efficient people have a sense of what they are working towards but it’s unclear, usually because it is not written down or because they don’t refer to it regularly. This means that they don’t have a clear reference point that they are working towards.

The problem with this is that it’s hard to measure success if you’re not working towards some form of clearly articulated goal. They work hard and they are usually proud of that but ask them what they’re working towards and the answer becomes less clear. They might be working towards a promotion – but why are they doing that? Money might be the usual answer but what’s the point in having money if you’re not happy? The answer to this question doesn’t really matter, everyone is unique and so everyone will probably have a different definition for happiness and success. What matters is that it is written down and reviewed regularly.

Effective people are clear on their vision. They know exactly what they are working towards because they have written it down and regularly refer to it. This means that they can ruthlessly apply the 80:20 principle and focus on the activities that truly make a difference. Their daily decision-making is driven by one question ‘will this take me closer to my vision?’ If not, then they simply don’t do it.

The best example of this is the GB Eight Rowing Team. In 1998, following another disappointing regatta, they realised that they had to do things differently. If they carried on doing what they were doing, they weren’t going to be successful. They refined their approach to decision-making asking one simple question, ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’

This is a great example of focus because ‘if it doesn’t make the boat go faster’ and take us towards our vision, why are we doing it?! Their clarity of focus took them to Sydney where they won Gold in 2000.

Long To-Do Lists

Efficient people have long to-do lists. Effective people have very short ones.

In battle, the fastest way to be defeated is to try and fight everyone. You spread your resources too thinly to be effective. Long to-do lists are the working equivalent of trying to fight everyone. You end up achieving so little because you are spread so thinly.

Efficient people have a tendency to say ‘yes’ to everything because they’re keen to impress and want to be helpful. The problem with this is that ‘saying yes’ isn’t always the most helpful thing to do. It is often helpful to challenge a leader’s thinking and hold them to account for delivering the priorities that they have set. Supporting them by holding them on course is helpful and makes you a valuable member of the team.

Effective people have short to-do lists and are masters of the delegating leadership style. They are ruthlessly focussed on a few activities. In the final year of my job at Urenco, my line manager told me to write the three-bullet points on my CV now as if I had done them already. What did I want to be able to say happened because I drove them to completion? This was extremely helpful in shaping my daily decision-making and focussing me on just a few activities.

High Demand vs Low Demand Tasks

Efficient people just turn up and get to work. They have a list of things to do and they start cracking through them.

Effective people consider the tasks ahead of them. They then think about the ones that require the most effort or the highest amount of cognitive brain power. For example, proof-reading a proposal or report before it gets sent to a client requires a keen eye for detail. If you leave this to the end of the day, you probably won’t do as good a job as if you proof-read it when you are fresh. This article explains the concept in more detail.

Effective people understand this. They divide up tasks in accordance with energy levels. They place demanding, challenging or creative tasks that require maximum energy at the time of day when they are at their best. Efficient people just work through tasks with little thought as to when the best time to do them is. This is why they often start the day by checking their emails. It gives them a sense that they’re getting things done but the reality is that ‘emails are rarely the job’ and that little bit of dopamine that gets released every time you respond to an email is tricking you into thinking you are being productive. Emails are necessary but no one pays you to write more of them – and if it’s taking you ages to write one then perhaps you should pick up the phone!

Reflection

Efficient people don’t have time to reflect. They’re too busy getting things done. They tend to be future focussed and thinking about what needs to be done next week.

Effective people plan in time to think and reflect. They review what is working and what isn’t from time to time, treating it as a fixed rock in the diary. They tend to be present in the moment which makes them appear calmer and more relaxed.

Boundaries

Efficient people blur the boundaries between being at work and being at home. They justify this to themselves claiming that ‘this is how they need to behave’. They’re always on, ready to respond to client or work emails. They’re the ones stood in the playground responding to emails whilst their kids run around. They’re the ones in the gym tapping away between sets of lifts. They are often not in control of their diaries and will attend meetings if requested without any understanding of the context or aims of the conversation. They get round this by bringing in their laptops so they can tap away and respond to emails. They think no one notices this but the reality is everyone knows they might as well not be in the room.

Effective people are present. If they’re at home – they’re spending time with their family. If they’re at work, they are working. They prioritise their families over work and ruthlessly enforce their boundaries. They don’t start the day by checking their emails – why would they wake up and follow an agenda set by someone else? They focus on one thing at a time using their phone as a tool, not as a boss.

Effective people also know the difference between activities you can ‘batch’ and those that you can’t. They create structures and processes to manage these activities.

For example, if you give yourself all morning to read and write emails, you will take all morning. If you give yourself an hour to get through as many as possible, you are forced to prioritise and think differently. You might even be forced to walk to someone’s desk and talk to them or pick up the phone. This is the process of batching and it works well for activities that can lead you to drift, e.g. researching a topic.

But some activities can’t be batched. It’s no good working 20hr days and then running 20 miles on the weekend. That’s not as good as 4×5 mile runs spread over the week. You can’t batch sleep and save it for the weekend and you can’t batch a good diet into two days a week. Some activities just don’t work like that, the trick is to know the difference.

Summary

Efficiency is doing lots of things. Effectiveness is about doing a few things to an exceptional standard.

How you do anything is how you do everything. This relates to work, parenting and leadership.

If you want your people to be successful high-performers, you have to show them the way.

You have to lead by example – it’s not what you say it’s what you do and how you behave that counts.

So what are you – efficient or effective?