Here’s the thing about constant interruptions — something that used to throw my day off instantly.
As a business leader, you have to start taking control of your day. If you have constant interruptions, in many ways it’s because you allow constant interruptions. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be problems that arise, but consider this: Is that something you have to handle immediately?
Most of us aren’t doing open heart surgery. Typically any situation that comes up can wait an hour or two or even until the end of the day.
Of course, there will be things that happen, but if everything becomes an exception, then you’re going to be very reactive and you’re not going to be able to lead your day in the way that you should. If you want to avoid these problems from constantly coming up, here are a couple of ways to manage them:
- Set boundaries
- Get rid of your open-door policy
When it comes to setting boundaries, build your day around certain hours where you’ll need to focus and work hard without any interruptions. Your team should know that from noon to 4:00 PM, you are not available at all — but come after 4:00 PM, you’re available if they desperately need your help.
That brings me to getting rid of your open-door policy: These policies don’t encourage critical thinking in the slightest. If your team knows they can come to you for every little thing that comes up, you’re never going to get any work done, and they’re never going to learn and grow.
That’s when you become a crutch for your team. You enable them to be brain dead because they know they can come to you for anything they need instead of figuring it out on their own.
Control your time. Allow your team to be the best version of themselves. Lose the open-door policy.
