Listening, not as easy as it sounds

As a manager, everyday is filled with KPIs and targets chasing you wherever you look. If you meet them this month, that’s great! But on the 1st of a month, we are going to need to meet them again this month, maybe even try to exceed them!  And we have all felt those moments where we know we are going to miss our targets.  But while we spend our days trying to manage upwards, it’s easy to forget to manage your entire team and make sure they are happy and engaged at work.

How often do you find yourself with conflicting priorities in a senior position, trying to manage up, manage down, as well as actually completing your own work to meet those targets? Do you find that managing down is often what you have to leave behind in these situations, because who’s holding you accountable for this other than you?

Sure, we’d love to call a team meeting every day, check in with our team one on one or as a group, ask them how they’re really going and welcome feedback. But if we did that, do we feel like we have the time to listen and then actually implement any changes? And then what’s worse, listening and not having time to do anything about it, or just not listening in the first place?