“You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out.  You put your right foot in, and you shake it all about.”

That dance reminds me of the average day of a Technical Lead.  I was constantly jumping between everything that needs to get done right-the-hell-now, like…

(Oh, and if you own the company it doesn’t get better.  You can double the size of that list because now you get fun items like accountingcleaning the bathroom and deciding where to have the Christmas party!)

Not a dance, just a distraction.

There’s a reason you never see the hokey-pokey on Dancing With The Stars.  It’s not a dance; it’s just a way to keep kids busy in a circle while the grown-up take a break.

And when I was doing the hokey-pokey at work, I wasn’t managing well, leading well or coding well.  Each drive home I thought, “What the heck did I get done today?”  I used to think about the missed opportunities to do great work because there just wasn’t enough of me to go around.

No magic pill

I’m not going to feed you some B.S and tell you there’s a simple solution to your problem.  If there was, you’d have found it by now.  You’re treading water as fast and hard as you can.  More effort was never the key for me.

What you might try instead

If this sounds like you, maybe you’ve had an epiphany about your work.  You might try reflecting on what you are doing by:

I’m sure you’ll come up with different reasons, but those were some I wrote.

Now stop dancing.

What did you learn about your recent past and your near future?

Do you see opportunities to invest in your team?

Do you see items that others could be doing?

Can you delegate any decisions?

Final list

The final list is a list of ideas for how to create a team that you can delegate to.  For example, if you noted that “Ron will hate doing that task”, you might make a note to talk to Ron about he actually feels about the task.  Or, if Jane doesn’t pay attention to detail, you should speak with her about how important that skill is, and collaborate on how she can grow into that skill.

Now you have a new list.  A list that will create an independent team, enabling you to focus on the leadership work that only you can do.

It’s not a magic pill, but it’s a list of investments that will pay a great return.

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