Mondays are notorious for madness. Owners, executives, and managers start their week putting out fires. Not literal fires… that’s what firemen do. But whatever didn’t get accomplished last week gets added to this week’s task list. And issues that were not addressed the previous week or arose over the weekend need attention.
Customer complaints need answers.
Problems with infrastructure… plumbing, HVAC, and the like… need to be fixed.
Supply chain breakdowns demand attention. Delayed deliveries need to be rerouted.
Weather that impeded business gets rescheduled.
All of it. It’s the “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” response day. Not to mention a backlog of emails to reply to.
But, “It’s just another Manic Monday,” as the Bangles sang. Leaders are generally well-equipped to handle the mess that a weekend leaves piled up on Monday morning and act on it with urgency and clarity.
What is it about this Monday madness phenomenon that leaders thrive in?
Is it the pressure?
The responsibility?
The expectation that they will deliver solutions?
The best leaders remain calm, cool, and collected. Not only do they assess the situation, but many anticipate it so they are already prepared to put the solution into motion. They trust their employees to take responsibility and manage what they can themselves. They lead with teamwork, knowing the dream only moves when everyone pulls.
The best leaders do not play the blame game. They know the buck stops with them. If there are issues, it’s because leadership has not prepared the team to handle them. In business, as in life, there will always be issues. There will always be a “fire” to put out. But in business, the best leaders are not hoarding the “extinguisher.” They train, teach, and tutor their employees how to use one.
Being in business is solving problems. Products solve problems. Services solve problems. That will inherently create more problems that need to be solved, and great leaders know this and anticipate it. There will be customer complaints, plumbing issues, supply chain breakdowns, weather delays… a plethora of problems to solve.
So great leaders lead with momentum. They keep moving forward. Imperfect action. They do not let a problem get in the way of their motion. They resolve issues quickly so momentum is not lost. They make decisions quickly so they don’t stall on one issue. That’s not to say some decisions don’t require thought, and there may be other things that cause a delay in fixing the issues at hand.
But when a great leader is operating with momentum, the madness falls in line, handled with finesse.
And that is how Monday madness gets squashed… with momentum.
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