Many times, leaders feel overwhelmed in the course of executing their leadership assignment. The reason for this overwhelmingness often times, come as a result of getting ourselves in a myriad of activities that either slows us down, reduce our efficiency, and cramp our leadership. When this is the case, then it only means one thing: It’s time to declutter our leadership. To declutter simply means: to organize and prioritize. it also means to remove mess or clutter from a place. In this podcast, I want to show us four important things we can do to declutter our leadership.

 

• Identify what your priorities are and what are not

Every leader must be able to identify what their real priorities are. Failure to do this will bring about a sense of overwhelmingness on the leadership, and this does not lead to effective leadership. When you have a million things on your mind as a leader, or a million task to accomplish, decluttering begins from the place of picking which ones are priorities and which ones are not. For those that are not priorities, they can be thrown out or better still, delegate to someone else to execute, if they cannot be thrown out. When leaders declutter like regularly like this, it makes them to focus more on the important things, major on the major things, thereby leading to effectiveness in their leadership.   

 

• Scale down on the activities that are not relevant to your leadership

There are certain activities that are not directly related to our leadership. Cutting down on these activities are a great way of decluttering our leadership. Every activity that a leader should get himself or herself involved with has to be the one that has a direct impact and effect on his or her leadership. Every activity that does not should be decluttered. In John 6:15, the Bible says: “Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.” Jesus didn’t beg them to be their earthly king. Jesus’ assignment does not require that He sits on an earthly throne. Based on that fact, Jesus declined their offer. The bottom line of this is that as a leader, you must be able to know what is right for your leadership and what is not right.

 

• Get rid of irrelevant task from your schedule

There is no rule that says a leader should spearhead every task that is needed to move his leadership forward. Certain tasks can simply be delegated. Now, it is not every task within the leader’s leadership structure that may irrelevant though. Certain tasks may be fully relevant to the leader’s leadership; however, this does not mean that they should be done by the leader. An example is in the book of Luke 10:1, the Bible says: “After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.” Now, this task was important to Jesus’ leadership and assignment. But He didn’t wait until when the time was ripe for Him, He delegated the assignment to His disciples to go ahead and sort of prepare the ground in those places. So, part of the fundamentals of decluttering your leadership is your getting rid of irrelevant tasks from your schedule as the leader.

 

• Give your team clear expectations

Another way of decluttering your leadership is in giving your team clear expectations. Let each member of the team understands what is expected of them and how they are meant to deliver on their respective assignments. The reason why this is important is because when you don’t set clear expectations as the leader, the bulk will fall back on your desk, thereby cluttering your leadership. When this is the case, your leadership will not be effective as it ought to. So, setting clear expectations is the way out, as the leader.

 

Don’t forget these points. Decluttering your leadership requires that: you identify what your priorities are, scaled down on activities that are not relevant to your leadership, get rid of irrelevant task from your schedule, and give your team clear expectations. I believe you have learnt a few things that you can apply in your leadership. Please don’t forget to like this, share it with everyone you know can benefit, and also comment in the comment section. God bless you.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

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