There’s a big push by some business celebrities promoting just work harder and harder, longer and longer. Don’t have the outcomes you want, put in more hours. Don’t like your life, you’re not working hard enough.

Although I do believe a lot of people don’t understand how hard/long you do have to work to achieve anything of merit, this hustle porn people are addicted to, somewhat misses the point.

It’s not only about doing hard work, it’s about doing the right work hard. I know if I am consistently (not just for the occasional short sprints) working 80+ hour weeks, I’m failing as a leader. I’m either failing at preparing and setting my team up for success or at building and training them. Either way, those long weeks, week after week…my fault. Not my clients, not my employees, not the universe…me.

When I traverse anywhere near the mindset territory of “Do I have to do everything around here?”, I know I’ve got to pull the e-brake and re-evaluate what’s going on around me, and here’s why.

For me to keep the pedal to the floor maintaining those long hours, I’m so focused on doing the thing in front of me, I am never actually able to get out in front..to think, to lead, to align my team in a way to solve problems before they happen, to help empowergize my team to take on more responsibility.

Here’s where a little math also really opened up my eyes on this topic. I have a team of 20 people. For me to go from a 60 hour work week to “hustling” for 80, my hours must increase by 33%. For my team to pick up those same 20 hours, they each would only have to pick up one additional hour. Not to mention that study after study has shown each additional hour after 60 decreases in efficacy. I must leverage my team.

By trying to put the entire company on my back, I was actually depressing the growth of the company and my team. Not giving either the air needed to expand.

By being in a mindset of always doing, I was actually putting the company and my team at risk. Not diversifying institutional knowledge among others and just hoarding it.

As I’m learning when and where to best leverage my team, we are pursuing more ambitious goals without me having to hustle any harder, increasing my output, my productivity, and my fulfillment.

How is a do-first mentality holding you, team, and company back from greater things?

If you had to cut your hours in half, what would come off of your to-do list?