Purva Pandit’s Post

View profile for Purva Pandit, graphic

Vice President Talent at Zenoti | Ex- Microsoft and Amazon | Mental Health Advocate

Are you cultivating a culture of Busy work? In the high-stakes environment that companies today operate in, everything demands attention - customer escalations, revenue pressure, new prospects, and fierce competition. It’s easy to get pulled into a whirlwind of tasks that all seem critical. But here’s the challenge: when everything is a priority, nothing truly is!! This constant state of urgency leads to a culture where busy work thrives. Teams find themselves stretched thin, tackling every task with equal intensity, but without clear focus on what drives the most impact. Leaders/managers, please step back and ask yourselves: Are you aligning your teams with what will truly move the needle? Are you comfortable making tradeoffs? Are you regularly communicating what's most critical and also what can be deprioritized? Are you empowering them to make informed choices about where to focus their efforts? Please stop perpetuating a cycle of relentless activity without clear direction - it eventually leads to burnout, diluted efforts and a decline in both morale and meaningful outcomes. Even your top talent is not immune to this. #Leadership #Prioritization #Culture #ImpactOverActivity #LessButBetter

Purva Pandit

Vice President Talent at Zenoti | Ex- Microsoft and Amazon | Mental Health Advocate

4mo

When I joined Microsoft, I was surprised that we spent a month or even more in planning discussions to arrive at the people strategy & goals. There were multiple discussions, alignment with India teams, COE's, global teams etc. It seemed like a lot! But it helped us move forward with so much clarity, it was easy to collaborate, leverage others' work and get support on cross-team dependencies. I can still recall my first manager Cynthia Per-Lee encouraging us to reduce activity (busy work), and focus on a few, impactful areas :)

Absolutely! As organizations grow, it's crucial to focus teams on core areas to prevent them from becoming overwhelmed with everything. Specialization leads to expertise, reducing feedback loops and the need for constant iterations—especially in marketing. Plus, leveraging automation to its fullest potential ensures that your teams are working smarter,  with more creators and contributors and fewer managers.

Like
Reply
See more comments

To view or add a comment, sign in

Explore topics