If you have missed a deadline or failed to meet expectations using the phrase “I was too busy to get it done,” then you AREN’T leadership material.  Here are some reasons why:

1.  If you are too busy, whose fault is it?  That’s right it is YOURS.  You can choose to say no and you can choose to set your priorities.  If you have too much on your plate, then make some hard choices and scrape some things off.  One thing for sure, leaders do what they say they will do . . . and if you aren’t doing that then guess what?  You aren’t leading.

2.  You are a selfish, narcissistic, egotist whose only thoughts are for themselves.  Hopefully, you are redeemable and can come back from the edge.  Leaders who use this excuse seem to believe that their life and their agenda is far more important than everyone else.  They don’t respect others and demonstrate that by their failure to take the feelings and goals of others into consideration.  This is not leading, it might be what a dictator does,

3.  You are simply too disorganized to meet your responsibilities.  Leaders who haven’t grasped the basics of self-organization need to go back to basic training.  This is a “leadership 101” topic that should have been mastered early on.  If you have gotten into leadership and you can’t organize yourself to get your responsibilities accomplished then you might be a living example of the Peter Principle.  Click the link to learn more.

4.  You are basically lazy and simply don’t care.  God help you . . . and those you lead, not to mention your organization, which is headed for disaster.

Everyone has the same number of hours in their day.  Everyone has pressures on their life, be they personal, social, or professional.  Sometimes those pressures can be intense, throwing life out of balance. The problem isn’t being BUSY – everybody is BUSY.  The problem isn’t even being TOO BUSY, which happens more often than we like.  The problem comes when your being BUSY becomes an excuse for not accomplishing what you have promised.  When you say you are just too busy to fulfill your responsibilities, you are elevating yourself and discounting everyone else.  This is not the behavior of a Christian nor a leader.

Leaders who are able to get results have learned to manage their lives and their time effectively.  One of the best tools for this, especially for new leaders can be found in Stephen Covey’s book The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.  This is a must-read for that chapter alone, not to mention the value of the other six habits.  Add that to your reading list for 2020, you won’t regret it.