Here’s How Bad Bosses Destroy Productivity, According to Research at 150 Companies
It starts with drive-by delegation.
EXPERT OPINION BY MINDA ZETLIN, AUTHOR OF ‘CAREER SELF-CARE: FIND YOUR HAPPINESS, SUCCESS, AND FULFILLMENT AT WORK’ @MINDAZETLIN
Why does it seem so many of your employees or co-workers have low productivity? Why can’t they get much of anything done? The problem may not be the employees, it could be their boss instead. That insight comes from Shawn Vanderhoven, partner at The Wiseman Group. Vanderhoven spent three years interviewing both leaders and employees at 150 companies for his new book Pause: How to Lead Brilliant Work in a Busy World (Simon & Schuster, 2026).
People do their best, most impactful work when they can focus on a few highly important items, and have the uninterrupted time to work deeply on those things, Vanderhoven says. Unfortunately, the society we live in often forces us to do the opposite.
We’re hyper-connected and we can be always on,
“We’re hyper-connected and we can be always on,” he says. “And we’re social people. We want to do a good job for the people we work with. On top of that, we’re not good at estimating how difficult things are.” To make matters worse, most of us, especially entrepreneurs, try to seize as many opportunities as possible. “So if you combine the always-on culture that’s hyper-connected with an expectation of speed wrapped around with doing more with less, and put on top of it a driven culture that’s competitive, the likelihood that you or I are going to naturally go away and focus on a few things deeply is pretty low.”
The most effective leaders take deliberate steps to change this dynamic, Vanderhoven says. Here’s some of what they do differently.
The daily digest for entrepreneurs and business leaders
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
1. They slow things down.
Most entrepreneurs and business leaders do things as fast as they can. They assume success depends on speed. But, Vanderhoven says, the best leaders regularly pause to consider what’s most important. That’s especially true when they’re giving someone an assignment.
The best leaders tune in before they jump
The best leaders tune in before they jump in, he says. “The jump in is like this: ‘Hey, I’ve got this thing. Can you look at it? It’s only going to take five minutes.’ I give it to you and walk away, and you know it’s never going to take five minutes.”
Leaders who tune in employees what they currently have on their plate before assigning something new. They say something like, “I’ve got this thing and I’d like to discuss if it makes sense for you to do this. But let’s ask some questions. Like, if you say yes to this, what will you be saying no to? To do this well, what will it take?”
Source: www.inc.com
