Where frustration comes from
When hard work doesn't translate to progress
Here’s a lesson I learned the hard way: working hard on the wrong thing leads to frustration, not progress.
The time we spend working hard can often be better spent on finding the bottleneck.
I think this is true for most of us - I’ve certainly experienced it as CEO, but also before that, working as an in-house lawyer and at a law firm.
My most painful lesson was when I spent more than 6 years building a business that didn’t work.
We fortunately had enough investor cash left to buy us some time. To pivot into the Lexoo of today (see the PS below if you’re curious what we do).
Still hurts though.
Why didn’t I spot sooner that the business model didn’t work?
The weird thing is, I think I did spot it… but just decided to work really hard to try to solve all the problems.
I think a lot of us are taught that if we are diligent and work hard, good things will automatically come.
I now think that’s wrong.
Hard work is a lever, but if you apply it in the wrong place, you’re just spinning your wheels.
So all that time I spent working hard. I should’ve spent it finding the bottleneck (in this case: why the business model didn’t work). Not just reactively solving any and all problems in the business.
The process I now use when I feel I’m not moving in the right direction fast enough:
Step 1: Stop. Zoom out. Locate the root cause/ bottleneck.
Step 2: Brainstorm solutions to the bottleneck.
Step 3: Reorganise other work to make time for solving the bottleneck.
Another rough rule of thumb: if most of the work you do is ‘reactive’, then it’s unlikely to be strategic / related to a bottleneck.
Unless whoever is sending it to you has done perfect prioritisation for you as well.
Most of us can’t dodge all reactive work. But it’s worth being aware when it’s starting to make up most of what we do.
Thanks for being here,
Daniel
CEO at Lexoo
P.S. If you need help with any of these things, we’d love to help out :-)
Commercial contract review: fixed fees + fast turnarounds. Work done by our in-house lawyers
Contract playbook solution: get a custom playbook that lives in LexPlay (a smart MS Word plug-in). Train up new and junior lawyers to a high and consistent standard
Multi-country and repapering projects: such as localising T&Cs, employment contracts, answering regulatory questionnaires as well as Data Protection remediation (SCCs etc)