📬 In This Week’s Issue:
Why high activity often hides low impact
A 3-step check to spot misalignment before it spreads
How to realign your team without micromanaging
Reader Q&A: “How do I help my team focus when everything feels urgent?”
A leadership challenge to trade busyness for clarity
Setting the Stage
When a team feels off, the first place most leaders look is performance.
But here’s what I’ve learned after coaching teams across industries:
If everyone’s busy, no one’s aligned.
It’s easy to mistake motion for momentum.
But high activity with low clarity just creates burnout.
It looks productive on the surface—but underneath, it’s messy.
🔎 THE BIG INSIGHT
Activity ≠ progress.
Busyness feels satisfying in the short term.
You’re responding to Slacks. You’re jumping into meetings. The team is “hustling.”
But if you’re not aligned, all that energy leaks.
People start solving the wrong problems.
Effort is scattered.
And the results don’t match the workload.
You don’t need to slow down.
You need to zoom out and reset the focus.
A Simple Alignment Check for Busy Teams
1. Ask the Right Question
Start with this:
→ “What are the top 1–2 priorities that matter most this week?”
If your team gives five different answers, that’s your signal.
2. Make the Tradeoffs Clear
Not everything gets to be important.
Say:
→ “Here’s what we’re going to say no to in order to focus here.”
Clarity requires constraint.
3. Sync at the Edges
Don’t just align at the top.
Ask your frontline leads:
→ “Where are we duplicating effort?”
→ “What’s unclear right now?”
Alignment isn’t one conversation—it’s a rhythm
Takeaway:
When everything feels urgent, your job as a leader is to protect the signal from the noise. A calm, focused team will always outperform a scattered, busy one.
💬 READER QUESTION
Q: “How do I help my team slow down and focus without killing momentum?”
Start by reframing what momentum actually means. It’s not about constant motion. It’s about consistent progress on the right things.
When your team is spread thin, they’re often leaking energy. The fix isn’t to hit the brakes. It’s to create focus in the right areas:
→ Clarify what matters most
→ Remove the distractions
→ Reinforce it consistently
Focused teams don’t move slower. They move smarter.
~ Chad Todd
This week, pause the noise. Ask your team: “What’s actually moving the needle right now?” Then clear space for that work and protect it.
P.S.
If you’re serious about building a stronger culture and better leadership systems, check out Culture Wheel.
It’s the platform leaders go to hone their skills and build engaged teams and simplify performance reviews.
Want to learn more? Click the link below: