‘Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe’
Abraham Lincoln
There are broadly speaking two types of activity that we spend time focussing on.
There are the things that you need to do in order to get the job done today.
At work, these might include sending and receiving e-mails, attending meetings, managing projects, preparing presentations etc. These are the day to day activities that we must do in order to get our job done.
They tend to be prioritised because they are important and if we successfully deliver these tasks, we’ll perform to a good standard, we will ‘do well’ and get promoted/rewarded with bonuses.
These activities can be viewed as ‘cutting down the tree’
The other types of activities are the ones that if we do today, will improve our performance over the long-term. These are the things that are important but rarely become urgent because the payback is less immediate.
These activities include looking after your body, reading and journaling etc. They are the things that if we make sure we do today, and do them consistently over time, will improve us in the long run.
These activities can be viewed as ‘sharpening the axe’
So why is this important as a leader?
Firstly, you lead by example.
Your team’s behaviour and the culture in your organisation is a reflection of your leadership – that can be positive or negative. The quality of your example will set the tone for how your people behave.
Therefore, if you lead by example and spend time sharpening the axe, they will too. This is something that you want to instil in your team.
Why?
Because it helps them improve and perform better and that is a fundamental part of your role.
Secondly, because coaching and developing people always falls into the second category. It is easier to tell someone what to do and how to do it. It’s even easier to just do it yourself.
But if you do it yourself or you’re too directive, you are robbing people of the opportunity to find out how to do something for themselves. You are the person who is cutting down the tree.
Leaders help their teams to cut down trees more effectively. They have a ‘force multiplier’ effect by improving the performance of their people. Ultimately, they end up cutting down more trees because they’ve harnessed the energy of many people which has a greater impact.
Naturally, this process has to be managed. Some of your team will be newer and less experienced than others. They will require more support and a teaching approach. However, others will have been in the team for longer and will require less direction. For these people, give them a clear ‘end state’ – tell them what you want to happen, not how to do it.
For more information on this – have a look at the ‘situational leadership model’.
So how do you balance sharpening the axe with cutting down the tree when you’re measured against the number of trees you’ve cut down?
This is a challenge that every leader faces.
I’ve been studying leadership in an attempt to identify some common themes that great leaders do.
How do they ‘sharpen the axe?’
These are four elements that keep cropping up…
Health
Great leaders look after themselves so that they’re able to perform at a high level. This means regular (but not excessive) exercise, eating well, and getting good quality sleep. Plenty of exercise does not make up for a lack of attention to the other two. Health requires a holistic approach – don’t try and fix a poor diet with plenty of exercise. The body doesn’t work like that.
Reading
Reading exposes you to new ideas. It is a great path to learning and constantly uncovering ‘stuff that you don’t know about’. If you find yourself getting recommended a lot of books, try an app like Blinkist which allows you to read the executive summary before you commit to buying.
Journaling
Writing a journal helps you to train your mind to focus more on positive aspects of life. What are you thankful for? Write down an opportunity that you’re excited about? What happened in the past 24hrs that was great? What could have gone better? By focusing on these questions, we take time to reflect on how we are doing. Reliving positive experiences through journaling changes our mindsets – it gets us to focus on the positive as opposed to what we don’t have. See Shawn Achor’s TED talk for more information on this.
Meditation
This takes time to get right. It takes time to get past the hippie vibe, to learn it and to practice it. Have a look at Ray Dalio who leads Bridgewater, a US Investment Fund – he credits meditation as being one of the key activities that contributes to his success.
http://tmhome.com/experiences/billionaire-ray-dalio-on-benefits-of-meditation/
There are other activities that you can do such as spending time with your family – especially with your children when they’re young – you’ll never get that time again.
How much time you devote to these activities is up to you and it will naturally flex depending on the needs to your job.
This is about achieving balance not perfection
At the end of the day, if you don’t spend time sharpening the axe… it will just get blunt and be ineffective.
Make sure that this doesn’t happen to you.
If you’ve enjoyed this article and found it useful – please like and share, you’ll be doing me a huge favour!
If you’d like to have a conversation about anything I’ve mentioned here or you’re interested in learning how you can ‘sharpen your axe’, please feel free to get in touch via the contact page.