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Every week, Chiefs are asked to solve symptoms, often packaged as definitive observations:
We’re doing too much
We’re not doing enough
We’ve lost focus
The team’s stretched too thin
Triggered yet?
Sometimes these statements are true. Often, they’re a red herring. So how do you diagnose the real issue?
I’ve asked y’all for insights into what you’re working on or the challenges you’re facing. After receiving an email that hit close to home, I thought: I could answer this as part of a series. Kind of like Dear Abby.
So this is the inaugural issue of an occasional series I’m calling Diagnosis, where I walk through how I’d find the root cause instead of treating noise.
This week: Focus vs. Quality.
The email that sparked this one was about a CEO convinced the team was doing too much. But the Chief who wrote in wasn’t so sure. (Also, I’m continually in awe of how grounded you all are. I take notes.)
One of the most common leadership misdiagnoses is confusing a focus problem for a quality problem because the symptoms can look similar. Things like busyness, fatigue, underwhelming results, but the treatment is completely different.
Here’s how I’d tell the difference.
Test for a Focus Problem
Get close enough to the team to see the work then make the invisible visible. Capture everything on the team’s plate and map deadlines, dependencies and owners. The goal is less about documentation, but about pattern detection.
Then I’d run a few focus tests:
Signal vs. noise scan
Are we allocating time to true business drivers, or are we getting pulled into busywork disguised as urgency? Have we separated activity from impact? If there’s no forcing mechanism for what gets dropped, it could be indecision in a productivity costume.Decision latency
Where do decisions stall? How often do we revisit the same issues? Who has the final call? Slow decisions create thin focus downstream.Ownership and load
Does the work sit with the right owner, or with whoever is fastest or most willing? False ownership spreads energy across the wrong plate.Definition of done
For each major initiative, is “done” clear and observable? How is done measured (complete or effective)? If the finish line moves, work multiplies without finishing.Cadence and whitespace
Is there a weekly or monthly reset that reorders priorities, or do we roll lists forward forever? If there’s no white space, there’s no focus.
Once the full picture is visible, it’s easier to see where to cut or consolidate. Most teams don’t actually have too much work, they have too many loose ends. A few surgical edits a tuck here and nip there, can work wonders.
Executive read: If the team gasps at the visualized workload, you likely have a focus problem. Your prescription is subtraction and sequencing. Simple scales, fancy fails.
Test for a Quality Problem
Quality is easier to spot if the standard is visible, well known, documented and shared. This one also depends heavily on leadership holding their team accountable to every detail.
I’d run a few quality tests:
Shared standards
Is there a documented definition of “excellent” for core outputs, or does every function use a different ruler? Inconsistent bars look like focus issues from a distance.Rework ratio
How often are deliverables re-done, re-reviewed, or re-clarified? If we touch the same output three times, it’s not a focus problem, it’s a quality one.Upstream clarity
Were inputs clear? Was the brief specific on scope, constraints and audience? Many “quality” failures are set in the first 10% of the work.Craft and rigor checks
Are artifacts crisp--naming, structure, assumptions, sources--or are we shipping fuzzy? Rigor is a habit. You can feel it in the materials.Ground-truth listening
Sit in team meetings, 1:1s, reviews. Ask, “Do you think there might be a quality problem?” Then watch the pauses, hedges, and deflections. The truth often lives in the mannerisms between the words.
Executive read: If goals are clear but outcomes underwhelm, you have a quality problem. Your prescription is raising the bar, improving inputs, and coaching craft.
Quick Read: The Difference Between Focus and Quality Problems
If it’s focus | If it’s quality |
|---|---|
Work feels chaotic & progress is unclear | Work looks busy and results underwhelm |
Priorities compete, nothing finishes | Deliverables finish but lack rigor |
Decisions drag, ownership is unclear | Rework loops multiply; feedback is vague |
No clear “done” line | No shared standard of excellence |
Meetings roll forward without reset | Briefs and inputs are unclear |
Prescription: Subtract, sequence, decide faster and reinstall whitespace | Prescription: Raise the bar, codify standards, tighten inputs, coach craft |
What your CEO actually needs
When a principal says, “We’re doing too much,” it’s rarely about volume. It’s about standards, clarity, or decisions. Your job isn’t to pick a camp, it’s to diagnose the truth then tune the system.
Focus hides quality problems the way fog hides cracks in the road. Simplify until the truth appears.
Because the most expensive mistake in any organization isn’t doing too much or too little, it’s solving the wrong problem.
From the Diagnosis Series… where we find the real problem before solving the wrong one.
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