Your team is logging long hours, meetings are packed, and inboxes are overflowing. Everyone is 'busy,' but you're still not hitting your targets. The reason? You’re caught in the productivity myth.

In today's workplace, ‘busy’ or ‘the hustle’ has become a badge of honour, but you see, that’s just a way “they” guilt you into working until you burn out. We confuse constant activity with real progress. And real progress is always the winner. The key is not to manage more tasks, but to manage the right ones and either delegate or bin the rest.

I’d hasten to add that it is always a good idea to review activities regularly and make sure you’re not doing them for the sake of it. (Trust me, I used to have to create a detailed, weekly report about how the change was impacting the team, and all it did was serve as a waste of paper and eventually, a bin filler, but “that was the way they’d always done it. Now that phrase makes me break out in hives.)

This is where the principles of leadership and a deep understanding of the employee journey come in. Real productivity isn't about ticking off a long to-do list; it’s about focusing on the few actions that deliver the most significant results.

This approach, championed by authors like Greg McKeown in Essentialism, is a game-changer. It forces us to ask a crucial question: "Is this activity creating genuine impact?" If the answer is no, it’s just busywork.

Here are three ways to shift your team's mindset from activity to impact:

1️⃣ Define Your 'One Thing': At the start of each week, each team member should identify the single most important task they must complete to move the needle forward. This isn't just about prioritising; it’s about ruthless elimination of the non-essential. If it doesn't align with the 'one thing', it gets binned, delegated, or ignored.

2️⃣ Challenge the Status Quo: Don't accept "that's the way we've always done it." Look critically at your team's regular tasks. Are those daily check-ins truly necessary, or could a simple email suffice? Do all those reports serve a purpose, or are they just legacy activities created by someone who left three years ago? Have a laugh, but then have a serious conversation about what you can cut.

3️⃣ Measure What Matters: If you want to change behaviour, you have to change what you measure. I BEG of you, please, move away from tracking hours worked or tasks completed and start measuring results. Focus on key metrics that directly link to your business goals. When people see that their efforts are directly tied to tangible success, their motivation and performance will soar.

By shifting your team’s focus from a "busy" mindset to one of strategic impact, you empower them to do their best work and, more importantly, to achieve a greater sense of purpose and accomplishment.