Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: You gotta be bold. This story gotta be told own your fierceness gon and glow. This is Sonja Empowers show. Stay on go like a lion who on the prowl Sonja Sells help you get it we doing it and doing it now.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Hey Empowered disruptors. Welcome back to the Sonja Empowers show where I ignite your online business and help you own your fierceness, embrace your unique beauty, talents and strengths, rise above fear and step into your destiny as you build empires and shatter expectations together.
Today in our episode titled the Busy Unpacking Executive Overload and Its Impact, we're tackling a phrase that echoes in the halls of leadership. A seemingly simple statement with complex I'm too busy. We'll explore the ripple effects of this common reframe, dissect its various meanings, and offer concrete strategies for breaking free. From the quote unquote busy trap the echo chamber of I'm too busy how often have you heard an executive utter the words I'm too busy when a deadline is looming or a task isn't completed?
It's almost become a standard response.
But what are the true effects of this seemingly simple declaration?
For teams relying on leadership for direction and decisions? I'm too busy can translate to stalled projects, missed opportunities, and a general sense of being undervalued. It can create a bottleneck, hindering progress and breeding frustration.
Decoding I'm Too Busy a Deeper Dive let's really dissect what I'm too busy can mean. It's rarely a straightforward statement.
Here are a few potential definitions lurking beneath the surface.
The overwhelmed state I'm too busy might genuinely reflect a situation where the executive's workload has exceeded their capacity due to unexpected crisis, ambitious growth initiatives, or temporary understaffing.
The Prioritization paradox.
Sometimes it's not about the volume, but a struggle with prioritizing effectively, where less critical tasks consume valuable time.
The delegation deficit.
This points to a leader who struggles to trust their team or effectively delegate, believing they are the only ones capable.
Okay, y'all, so let me just tell you a little tidbit.
So I had like full clientele as an executive assistant for many years, okay, before I switched my business model.
And I would hear all the time from executives who were frustrated with their team not meeting deadlines and would say, like, I don't know what's taking the marketing team so long, you know, I could have been had that done. Like I could have done that, you know, or I don't understand why this or that. And I would just sit back and Listen, and I'm like, wow, you know, they really believed that they were the only ones that was capable of doing that. Not giving in, not taking consideration honestly as to the technology gremlins, right, that can happen, or you know, the in depth research that may occur or whatever the specialty of that particular job was. And it always amazed me, working with many startups, how many executives would think that they knew exactly what it took to do that job, but they had no expertise in it.
They had no processes or maybe lack of processes in place, but they knew exactly the amount of time that it should take. It shouldn't take 30 minutes to create a graphic, but they had no clue how to do it, you know, but at the same time they believe that they are the only ones that's capable of doing it. So it's just amazing when you're, when you have the privilege of being an executive assistant, also known as an ea, it's amazing how you can sit back, right, and you hear some amazing stories and sometimes you just like, huh, okay, so moving on to the next one. The avoidance tactic. It can be a way to sidestep tasks that they find unpleasant, challenging, or outside their comfort zone. Okay. And I would say to executives that take the avoidance tactic, it's okay to not know everything. Okay? It's okay if you know something makes you feel uncomfortable because it's outside your comfort zone. I believe that a comfort zone is nothing more than a self made prison. And so anything that stretches an individual outside of their comfort zone is the perfect breeding ground to grow and to learn.
And lastly, the power play. Sadly for some, being too busy is a subtle way to assert dominance or importance.
Can anyone relate?
Now let's dive into an example, and these are real life examples that can possibly happen.
Consider Sarah, the VP of Sales, navigating a new revenue growth strategy with key clients, a growing team and market shifts. Her I'm too busy might be a genuine reflection of demanding but necessary organizational goals.
Contrast this with Mark, the CEO whose I was busy handling it myself, reveals trust and control issues, leading him to micromanage and bypass his team.
Then there's David, the head of operations, whose I'm too busy stems from poor time management and a failure to delegate, leaving him swamped with low priority tasks. Okay, These examples show that I'm too busy has layers.
The cultural contagion, the frequent use of I'm too busy can infect the entire organization culture.
Look, you know, it's one thing when people are affected, right? You see that as an, as a past ea, like literally, I do very, very seldom do I do like full time EA work anymore. But I still love it. And literally I have like one client right now and it's focused more on operations, management aspect of building out processes and procedures.
But I will tell you, over the years, you know, being an executive assistant, it was so rewarding because I built trust with, you know, my team members. And so oftentimes, because I'm the one, right, that's the closest to the executive, they would come to me, you know, in private and they would express certain things and they knew they could trust me. They knew I knew how to stay neutral and not take sides. And some team members would, you know, express frustration, they would express fear, they would be stressed out, they felt burnout. And so the I'm too busy, you know, can not only affect, but literally infect the entire culture. And you're like sitting there and wondering why, you know, that everyone is not on the same page with the vision that you may have, you know, initially had for your organization.
But falling into the I'm too busy trap, it can normalize overwork, creating a pressure cooker where everyone feels the need to appear constantly swamped or constantly busy. It can stifle collaboration and it literally can lead to burnout, right? And if anyone have experienced burnout, it is not a fun place to be. It is not a pit that you want to try to climb out of.
So reality check. Busy or just saying it. All right, Are these leaders always genuinely swamped or is it a default excuse, perhaps to avoid accountability?
And what about the double standard?
Could a regular employee consistently miss deadlines using the same excuse without consequences?
It's a question of fairness and accountability.
Think about it.
Navigating the bottleneck, approaching an executive who is their own bottleneck, it requires tact, okay? You want to focus on impact of delays, offer solutions for delegation or prioritization, and frame the conversation around team success, not individual shortcomings. Now look, if anybody knows, you know, working with different executives, if anybody knows about, you know, the impact that an executive being their own bottleneck can have, it's me. You know, I've worked with so many organizations since 2017 when I first, you know, entered the self employment world and, and entered the whole virtual assistant industry. And I learned so much and I had amazing mentors that taught me so much. And one thing that one of the mentors taught me was to remain visible and have a voice. All right? And it took me a while to find my voice, but once I found my voice, I Noticed that as an executive assistant, I began to. The executive depended on me more like a thought leader, okay. They picked my brain, you know, I was a part of strategic planning and it was amazing and it opened up other doors, you know, and for me, once I found my voice, you know, I have a gift in where I can kind of sit back and I can look at bottlenecks, I can find the bottlenecks in organizations. I, I can see what's lacking, you know, it's almost like, you know, I have this forward thinking mind and I'm like, okay, like we need to have this in place, you know, for future purposes. And so it requires tact because oftentimes, you know, the executive assistant there are, they are in a place of power, you know, and for me, you know, and my strong personality, once I had that trust, right, I had that rapport with that executive, it was easy for me to go into our one on ones and like, hey, let's talk about this. You know, this is what I see happening across the organization. I would come to the table to eat, right? And what I mean by that is when I come to the table to eat, I'm not, it's not like a complaint, like I'm just dumping on the executive, but I'm literally coming to the table to eat, meaning I'm coming to offer solutions. And so, for example, if an executive have been sharing with me in secret that they're getting ready to fire someone because they're like, look, you know, this person is not performing, you know, they're, they're slacking, they're doing this, they're doing that, they're not meeting their deadlines. I sit and I'm quiet, right? And then I play investigator to see why is this person slacking? Why is this person not meeting their job performance? You know, and then I discovered that the organization has no job descriptions in place, they have no KPIs, so they have no way of measuring this person's performance. And yet you're getting ready to ask that person, you know, being wrongfully fired. When I was in the medical profession, I know the impact and the blow that it takes on a person when all of a sudden you have, you know, a source of income coming and then it's taken away from you, right? And I was wrongfully fired. I was doing my job.
So I can't imagine, you know, so I'm like, okay, if I was in that person's shoes, then all of a sudden the executives come to me and they're like, you're out of here, you know, you're not performing. And then I'm like, I had nothing. Like, what are you measuring that by? What are you measuring my performance by? Outside of like head knowledge of what everyone thinks, you know, it should be.
And so that right there, now you have to go, you fire that person. Now you gotta, you know, half heartedly retrain someone because there's nothing in place. There's no onboarding system, there's no job description, there's no nothing. So when I come to the table to eat, I'm coming and I'm saying, hey, I noticed that I couldn't find any job descriptions, you know, so I created a sample job description, you know, for. I'm just going to say, you know, the operations manager, you know, whenever you get time, take a look at this and see. And then I would have executives say, oh my gosh, this is exactly what I needed. This is exactly what the company needs. Can you create more of those? And so whenever you find that, you know, there are bottlenecks in the organization or the executive is the bottleneck, you know, for example, as an ea, sometimes, you know, the executive love doing tasks that you could be taking off their plate. And so it could be something as simple as, hey, you know, I decided that I played around with your calendar and I decided that I was going to, you know, take a look at it to see how you like it. You know, I've placed some dedicated focus time in there. You know, I noticed that you, you know, never take a lunch and I hear you talking about how you would love to just have some uninterrupted time that you would love to, you know, just have a true lunch break. You know, so when you come to the table, you come to the table to eat. You don't come to the table saying, hey, what are you going to serve me? But you come to the table to eat and to offer solutions to where, number one, you know, they're really going to be appreciative of it if they have the right heart and the right focus. Right.
They're going to appreciate that also. It's going to give you an opportunity to shine. Right? And so sometimes it's easy when an executive has, you know, a lot of team members that they're responsible for and it's easy to become invisible in an organization. So don't be afraid to offer solutions. They may or may not take it, but at least, you know, you offered solutions that can assist them and can assist the team, which can change the whole trajectory and Culture of that organization.
All right. Also, I'm talking to my entrepreneurs now. You know, as you, you know, you may start out being a solo entrepreneur, you know, but I would say in those lean seasons, right, when you're like, oh my gosh, I don't, I didn't meet my revenue this month, you know, I still don't have any clients, start thinking, you know, as a, as a, as a business owner, you may be a just a solo entrepreneur, but start, you know, changing your mindset as a business owner. Like, what type of things do I need in place if I had a team, right? You know, even if I was outsourcing a project, what do I need to have in place? Well, you definitely need some type of onboarding and off boarding. You know, how are you going to get login credentials to that person? How is it going to look when you off board that individual? I mean, so there's constantly something that you can do, right, to where your future business runs smoothly. It's more streamlined. And I promise you that people would appreciate that. For example, I have someone who I hired for a project on my team and that individual is like, oh my gosh, like, I love that you're so organized and you're, you took the time to create training videos. So that makes my job easier and it really allows me to hook into the vision of what you had in mind for this project. You know, even though this person is on a temporary project, I let this person know, hey, these are the days that I have upcoming time off. I don't do peekaboos, you know, and everything. I will not have access to my email. And that person was like, I love that you show so much grace when it comes to the work life balance.
And so start having a forward thinking mindset so that you will not be the bottleneck in your business as it begins to grow and scale.
All right, so moving on to the next point, the silence of the teens.
So why the hesitation to call out executives?
Simply the fear of retaliation is often the elephant in the room. This silence, however, perpetuates the problem and hinders necessary change.
So it's so important for executives, right? It may be hard to hear, but it is so important for executives to be receptive of the feedback that they receive from their team. Okay. And then have healthy conversations concerning possible solutions to make the entire organization better the balance sheet of business.
So while seeming busy might project importance, the cons, decreased productivity, damaged morale, increased stress, and eroded trust far outweigh any perceived benefits.
Now let's Deep dive into some solutions. Okay, so how do we tackle these deeply rooted issues?
For starters, let's say for the genuinely overwhelmed executive, all right, Implement strategic prioritization frameworks, provide temporary support, regularly review workload and offer executive coaching focused on sustainability. Right.
Sometimes you have to invest in yourself as an executive, right.
So that a lot of these issues that creates frustration within the organization can be resolved for the executive with trust and control issues. Focus on leadership development around trust and empowerment. Implement team based decision making, utilize 360 degree feedback and offer mentorship with trusted oriented leaders. All right, so I love, love, love. I remember I was a part of a startup organization and you know, I was like, hey, who is the point of contact and this and that. And it was kind of like all over the place. And as we began to get some some processes and things in place, I was like, hey, as the organization grows, you know, it would be awesome if you could pair a newbie with a season leader as that point of contact or seasoned teammate. Right? And it was implementing that one on one mentorship because those first 30 days is so much that goes on, you know, and by the time 90 days get here, you know, you kind of have gotten into some groove. But at the same time, you want to set the right foundation within that first 30 days.
And if that individual don't have the proper guidance, then the foundation already have cracks in it within that first 30 days. So implementing like a one to one mentorship program, you know, for that first 30, 60, 90 days with clear KPIs, you know, key performance indicators, it could really help really set that individual up for success and it will really help the overall culture of the company.
Lastly, for the executive lacking time management and delegation skills, provide comprehensive training in time management and delegation, implement project management tools, and establish accountability structures for delegated tasks. I've worked with amazing companies and it just blew my mind. You know how just having a project management tool such as Asana really helped structure the organization. Like literally. They had all of their knowledge base information on there, all of their trainings and documents. They really had it set up professionally and it was so cool. And I learned so much of how just a project management software can help keep everyone on the same page.
So the human cost, the constant state of perceived busyness takes a significant personal toll, leading to chronic stress, burnout, decreased energy and a negative impact on mental health for both executives and their teams.
So when is enough is enough? Like when do you just draw the line? Well, if the culture consistently values busyness over results, if leadership resists addressing the underlining issues and if it's significantly impacting your well being, it might be time to consider if your values align with the organization's. Okay.
And I will tell you that if you have not set core values for yourself as an individual, not just for your company, then do so. Because once I got real with myself, I kept finding myself in like, like common patterns with working, when working with, you know, executives. And I was like, what in the world is going on? So I had to do some inner working within myself and I created my core values. So whenever I just totally changed my business model and I was like, I'm not taking on full time clientele doing executive assistant work. I want to get more into, you know, know, helping entrepreneurs, you know, create their strateg strategic framework for their business. I want to help others start their online businesses. I really want to explore my other creative outlets as far as, you know, training programs and writing books and things of that nature.
And I said I need to really sit down and write out my core values because whenever I change my business model, everything has to revolve around my core values.
And I believe that every individual, every company that you contract with, not just as an ea, but as a service based provider, whether you are a coach, a consultant, whether you are a graphic designer, whether you are a sales funnel builder, you need to have your core values in place and see if that aligns with it. And if you start seeing a pattern, right, like where there's constant like, like misalignment, then you need to take a step back because I will tell you that it's nothing worth, you know, something affecting your mental health. And we have too much of that on the rise. And I've seen the stories, I've heard, I've literally seen the stories, I've heard people cry and literally where before they were working with an executive, this is how they was. And then here it is because of the lack of communication, because of the emotional abuse, the verbal abuse, you know, the, the that dominance personality, the, the executive and the blame game or whatever the case may be. And that, and that person who was like, hey, I'm an employee or you know, I'm not in a leadership capacity, that fear has overtaken them, you know, and now they're like, I have to take medication. You know, I'm on depression medication. You know, I'm always on edge. I, I used to enjoy vacations and now I, I can't because I'm always interrupted. That is not a healthy way of living. Like, I believe that work life balance still exists, and there are some people out there that are teaching that it doesn't exist and you can't be successful without it. But work life balance does exist, and it just depends on the, the atmosphere and the stage that you set. And so now with my new business model, you know, I create everything around my core values, and if I see that someone continues to, you know, disrupt that, right, Then it's up to me to take control of it and to decide, okay, do I still want to continue working with this individual? Would this person make a potential client? You know, even in your personal life, you know, if you see someone who continues to, like, you've had the talks with them, you know, you've showed them grace. There's, there's. And they continue to impact your well being, your mental health. You find yourself just constantly stressed, you know, on 10 all the time around this person. Then it's time to, like, take a step back and, and really, like, assess the situation.
And it may be time to part ways. I will say that when it comes to an organization, do all that you can to where if you have to walk away, you have peace of mind that you made the right decision that was right for you at the stage that you're at in your life and your business. Okay?
Addressing the I'm too busy phenomenon, it requires courage, empathy, and a commitment to a healthier, more effective organization culture.
It's about understanding the drivers and providing targeted support for positive change. And that's what you're wanting, positive change. And I believe positive change always begins with, with each individual, not just the executive, but each individual. And the more that we become a better version of ourself, right? The more that we can project, right? And become, you know, more positive and productive members in society. On our jobs, we can show up better for our clients and our customers as well.
Now, now that was a mouthful. Now for this week's fab. You guessed it, your fierce action breakthrough assignment.
Identify one busy task.
Think about a task or responsibility you've been putting off or rushing through because you feel too busy.
Analyze the busy honestly, assess why you feel so busy with this task. Is it truly a time constraint or is there a lack of clarity, fear of failure, or poor prioritization at play?
Breakthrough action this week, dedicate a specific, uninterrupted block of time to either fully complete this task with focused attention or to strategically delegate it or break it down into smaller, manageable steps. Reflect on how this focus approach impacts your productivity and stress levels.
Share your insights and breakthroughs with me on my social media using #busytrapbreakthrough. I'd love to hear what you discover.
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Sonja Empowers Show. I'd love to hear your feedback. Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. Connect with me on social media @Sonja Sells. If you enjoyed this episode, please like, share and subscribe. Also, you know, don't be afraid. Look, I get so many people, honestly, they say, oh my gosh, I enjoyed that episode. It really inspired me. It empowered me. I took away so many nuggets. I get this all the time on social media and I love that feedback. It encourages me. It empowers me to keep going because that's what it's all about. I want to pour into you, and when you pour back into me, it just ignites a new fire within me. However, I would love for you to review it on your favorite podcast platform. You know, and everything we all know social media is based on algorithm. So let's start getting the word out there about the Sonja Empowers Show. Leave those positive reviews so that I can start creeping up, you know, and people can start taking notice and more people can really get a hold of this great content. All right, so for more business empowerment resources, this is sonjasells.com and for additional resources on personal growth and Inspiration, visit chakeletdrappinspired.com until next time Empowered Disruptors Break Free. Be fierce.
