I have so much work to do to grow my practice, but I keep getting sucked into day-to-day stuff. I have employed some good people, but the problem hasn’t gone away.

Time management gets a bad rap because people think it’s all about to-do lists and tasks. In fact, it’s about strategic decision-making: there is never enough time to do everything, so we need to choose. Urgency creates a compelling gravitational pull, and you need to create an alternative centre of gravity by focusing on added-value work. The next time you find yourself sucked into operational issues, reflect on what is missing (for you or your team). Is it:

• Something about relationships? Think about patterns, trust, introductions, network.
• Something about infrastructure? Think about technology, systems, processes, templates, supplies, check-lists.
• Something about development? Think about information, knowledge, skills.
• Something about approach? Think about attitude, planning, reflection, focus.

Spending time in these four areas allows you to build capacity. But we work on them one at a time, so choose one ‘fix’ that is achievable but would make a big difference, such as training your staff or creating a database. When that’s done, choose the next one.

Above all, plan the week ahead on Friday afternoon and look at your week with your ‘capacity building’ glasses on. What opportunities arise?

Overall, I’m happy with my team. They are good performers and we get on well. I have one particularly good person on my team; he’s clever, hard-working, and great with clients. The problem is his relationship with the rest of the team. He seems to look down on them. At team meetings, he is obviously multitasking. He never says anything offensive, but his eye-rolls and head-shakes speak loud and clear. I don’t want to lose him, but he is having an impact on morale.

This is a familiar story: the high performer with poor behaviour, the rest of the team feeling undermined, nobody talking about it. Hoping the behaviour will go away is not going to work. Anybody could walk.

Actually, this guy is clearly communicating with you – just not in words. You need to get curious about why this is happening; it’s great feedback for you. Find a good time to play his behaviour back to him (use “I notice” to describe behaviour and be careful not to judge). Invite him into a conversation with open, solution-focused questions like:

• What might be a more useful response?
• What might be useful for the team to hear?
• What would you like from the team?

Such questions will help him explore the impact of his behaviour and take responsibility for changing it. As time passes, if you notice more supportive behaviour from him, quietly acknowledge it. If the poor behaviour continues, you may need to be more direct and ask him to behave differently.