Persons in a leadership role often wonder why their staff are not as productive as they used to be. Some try to find an excuse by saying they have new staff who are still on their learning curve. Others blame customers who are becoming more demanding. Others still blame new social attitudes which seem to promote laziness.

A loss in productivity is also an issue on a personal basis. We wonder why we are less productive than we have been in the past. We believe that in the past we used to do more things than we do now and we were more efficient and effective. Again, we seek to make excuses to ourselves – like not having enough time to think or inefficient staff who use up our time.

One possible answer is bad habits, which have a habit of creeping in without us noticing. Once they have crept in, they become a part of us and we do not recognise the damage they are causing. It is important to undertake a self-awareness exercise every so often to identify which new behaviours we have adopted and what impact these new behaviours have had.

Some of these new behaviours relate to new attitudes that have become evident at the workplace.

For example, some people expect to have their e-mails responded to – even at night. Others expect everyone to multitask.

Responding to e-mails as they arrive is not a productive habit, unless there is a very good reason why that specific e-mail needs to be seen to. Essentially e-mails are an interruption. When there was no e-mail, one would have seen to correspondence in one’s own time. Nowadays the e-mail seems to demand priority over whatever one is doing. Productive people tend to read their e-mails and respond to them according to a predetermined schedule. One soon builds a reputation for e-mails which are not forgotten and are eventually seen to. Thus no chasing would be required.

If one understands the principle at stake in a decision, then one overcomes a lack of decisiveness

Multitasking is another element that reduces productivity, contrary to popular belief. One questions whether the brain has the capacity to multitask and to switch from one task to another in a seamless fashion. This does not mean that one should finish one task before moving to another. It means rather that one needs to focus on one specific task at a time. Research has shown that this helps to focus one’s thoughts and to filter out irrelevant information.

The third element that reduces productivity is indecision. Admittedly one should not rush in where angels fear to tread; but avoiding or postponing a decision is a wrong approach. Indecision does not mean inadequate decision-making skills. One may have the appropriate skills to take a good decision, but one may still suffer from indecision.

In this regard one needs to keep in mind something that Nelson Mandela had said to his friends in the African National Congress: always decide on the basis of principle and not on the basis of strategy. If one understands the principle at stake in a decision, then one overcomes a lack of decisiveness. Focusing on strategy while forgetting the principle leads to indecision.

All such elements are within the control of a person in a leadership position. However, at times we do not recognise that we have such control and lose our way.

The end result is a waste of time and then we complain that time flies, ignoring the fact that we are, in fact, the pilot.