Focusing Your Energy: Being a Purposeful Leader

By Tom Emison, Vice President of Strategy and Innovation, Kraus-Anderson Construction Company

Crazy busy. It is all around us in our personal and professional lives.

It is the manager who says, “Sorry, boss, but I’m too busy to innovate.” It is the friend who spends hours cutting down a tree in the backyard and yells, “I’m too busy cutting the tree to sharpen the saw!”

Most people know someone who is unproductively busy. Especially lately.

A stronger economy, innovation and changing technology are supposed to give people more time, greater efficiency and more personal margin. Instead, people often see more distracted driving, more organizations caught off guard by industry innovators and more executives attempting to solve strategic problems by working longer hours.

During periods of significant growth and change, more is not always the best answer. Being constantly busy can feel exhilarating for a while. Over time, it can lead to physical illness, communication errors, safety incidents, mental-health challenges, addiction, relationship strain and other serious consequences.

Why Is Being “Crazy Busy” a Leadership Problem?

Leaders need to recognize unproductive busyness for what it is: an obstacle to a well-positioned and productive person or organization.

Leadership requires people to look beyond the heroics of being constantly busy, identify the underlying issues and understand the consequences. Then, leaders need to decide not to pay that price.

A few years ago, during an especially demanding U.S. Masters Swimming training season, I logged extensive yardage in the pool. I combined it with weight-room sessions, cycling for cross-training, swim competitions at least twice each month and major diet changes.

I completed two-a-day workouts three days each week and did not take a full day off.

The previous year, I had followed a more modest training and competition plan and had won at national U.S. Masters Swimming meets. So, the next year, I assumed that more training, more pool yardage and more of everything would make me faster.

Instead, I developed a low-back injury, did not taper well and competed more slowly.

Overtraining, like being constantly busy, can feel like the right approach. It can create a rush and make a person appear valuable. But it can also be harmful.

How Can Leaders Respond When They Are Already Overextended?

Most people agree that constant, unproductive busyness is not healthy. The challenge is recognizing it while already in the middle of it.

In CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap!, Dr. Edward Hallowell describes the importance of recognizing a “C State,” calm, cool and collected, and an “F State,” frenzied, frustrated and flustered.

Part of the work is recognizing when an “F State” is approaching and not taking the bait. Pause. Breathe. Regain perspective.

The American Psychological Association offers resources on stress and workplace well-being, including practical context for managing stress and supporting healthier work environments.

How Can Construction Leaders Avoid the “Crazy Busy” Trap?

As vice president of strategy and innovation, I witnessed firsthand how the U.S. construction industry had become extremely busy.

After four difficult years during the Great Recession and more than three years of recovery, backlogs in commercial, industrial, institutional and residential construction were growing rapidly.

During periods like these, smart contractors avoid the constant-busyness trap. They build strong relationships, improve business processes and make thoughtful investments.

The best general contractors, those working in strong markets with capable clients, employees and business partners, prepare before unproductive busyness arrives. They focus on core purpose, core values and strategic business planning. They put the right people and processes in place early.

They have leaders who aim to spend time on purposeful, committed and strategic work rather than letting daily demands consume all available capacity.

An example helps illustrate the difference:

• Crazy Busy Contractor X: Chases work indiscriminately, bids projects at unsustainably low levels, hires too quickly, moves through projects with subcontractors and suppliers without enough planning, and produces little value on the bottom line.
• Strategic Busy Contractor Y: Focuses on core target markets, builds relationships rather than simply completing projects, recruits talent thoughtfully, invests in leadership development and applies lean construction practices along with sound safety and business decisions.

Lean construction and continuous improvement can help teams focus on reducing waste, improving processes and creating more reliable workflows. Strategic growth also depends on leadership development and clear planning.

What Does It Mean to Be Strategically Busy?

During times of rapid growth and change, everyone gets busy. But by slowing down long enough to focus on the right priorities, people and organizations can direct their time toward the initiatives that matter most, whether personal, professional or corporate.

When it comes to the physical spaces Kraus-Anderson helps create with developers, architects, engineers, planners and project partners, the focus is on relationships and outcomes that are strategically busy.

Please tell me that does not sound, well, crazy.

Tom Emison accepted the role of Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Kraus-Anderson Construction Company on Oct. 1, 2015. He was a more than 20-year veteran of strategic business planning and organizational leadership in the U.S. construction industry.

This was the first in a series of articles focused on business strategy and innovation.

In this article, Tom Emison explored how construction leaders can move beyond unproductive busyness by focusing on strategic planning, leadership development, strong relationships, talent investment, lean construction and continuous improvement. Learn more about strategic planning, construction industry outlook and technology innovation in construction.