They were ruthless guardians of their team’s time and attention to their work. And they protected their own time from distractions as well.
While other leaders filled calendars with “alignment meetings” and “touch base” sessions, these leaders built fortresses around their people’s deep work time. They discouraged employees from lining up to ask for a decision before the next step in their process. They empowered their employees to make decisions and learn from their mistakes.
They said NO to everything that wasn’t essential.
That vendor demo can wait. That brainstorming session about Q3 can happen in Q2. That “quick sync” rarely needs to happen at all.
They batched interruptions into time blocks.
Two hours in the morning for decisions. One hour after lunch for updates. Everything else waits.
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They made their own availability predictable.
“I’m available for urgent decisions between 2-3pm daily. Everything else goes in the queue.” Their teams learned to solve problems independently.
The result? Their developers actually developed more output – and more efficiently. Their designers actually designed and were more creative. Their salespeople actually sold more.
Meanwhile, their “always available” competitors burned through talent and wondered why little product got shipped.
Your team’s attention is finite.
Guard it like the strategic asset it is. What’s one distraction you could eliminate from your team’s day starting tomorrow?
