Barbara Osterman
Operating at the Margin
By Barbara Osterman
For Business Strategies Magazine
Have you noticed that, more and more, we are operating the margin? Some evidence:
- Our food supply. Increasingly we are finding food products recalled due to potentially harmful effects on people.
- Transportation. Airlines’ performance metrics are declining. Trains seem to derail more frequently. Bus drivers are falling asleep at the wheel.
- Personal health. Obesity and diabetes are at record levels. People are over-taxing their bodies in many ways, resulting in marginal health.
- Financial health. People, organizations and governments are living in precarious financial situations, with high levels of debt and little to no savings.
- Government services. Services we have come to rely on from our government are no longer assured. Emergency services can no longer be counted on. The conditions of our roadways and infrastructure are deteriorating.
What does this have to do with leadership? Everything. More to the point, what does this have to do with you?
Where are you operating at the margin in your business and in your life? Where are you near the edge? On the edge? Over the edge?
At the margin, there are no reserves. So when life happens, we have less capacity to respond effectively. People and organizations are stretched thin, with less capability to overcome whatever is being thrown their way.
On one side of the razor-thin line, we are keeping things together, barely managing to stay afloat. On the other side of that line is breakdown, cessation in usual activity, and failure.
This is not news.
Yet we keep striving, pushing beyond sensible bounds.
What was once occasional (occasionally working around the clock, occasionally relying on credit card debt to weather a tough spot, occasionally deciding to forego investment in important infrastructure), is now routine. And so we find ourselves living at the margin.
Where are you near the edge? On the edge? Over the edge? Where could you benefit from building reserves?
Building Reserves
Where does one begin? Become intentional – about how you spend your time, your attention and your life.
Intentional. Ah, that has something to do with focusing on our intentions – knowing what we are trying to accomplish. Let’s assume you are clear about your purpose, intentions or goals. If this is not a good assumption, take some time to reflect and get clarity; knowing where you’re going is the key to getting there.
So, you know what your intentions are. How do you increase the probability they will actually happen? By focusing on them. Find the time and space to check in with them regularly and assess how you’re doing. Become less reactive to the events and demands around you. Separate the urgent and the important.
Think of this as a split screen. You are fully in the moment of your life and your work, yet you stand outside of it to ask directional questions, like “For what purpose am I doing this? Is this the best use of my time at this moment? What goal does this advance? Am I the person who needs to be doing this?” From inside the situation, these questions will not occur to you; you are totally consumed with getting the situation handled.
Remind yourself that intentionality requires you to step out of the action occasionally to locate where you are, and as importantly, where you are intending to go.
Be where you are. Be fully present to the situation or person before you. This may sound contradictory to the split screen image. It is not. Be where you are. And know where you are. Don’t be in one situation and thinking about all the other situations you have yet to address. You are less than powerful in any situation when you allow this to happen.
Prioritize your health and vitality. Prioritize your key relationships, at home and at work. Prioritize what you want to be known for. Schedule time for all of these, to be sure they happen. You know with certainty that they will not be fit in after everything else is done. Too many of us have lived with that expectation for too long. It’s a contributor to how we got here.
Simple stuff, right? Yes, and it’s not easy. It requires your attention. It requires your discomfort in changing existing patterns – with yourself and with other people. It’s not intuitive. Yet it works.
Don’t just do it. Think first, then move. Intentionally.
Barbara Osterman is founder and president of Human Solutions LLC, a leadership development and executive coaching firm. She can be reached at 585-586-1717 and bosterman@HumanSolutionsLLC.com