Quick Question: How do we thrive under multiple masters?
Quick Question
Here is today's quick question for you...How do we thrive under multiple masters?
Matrix organisations and industry partnerships are the hunting ground of one of leadership's most exhausting challenges. Your team is constantly pulled in different directions by competing priorities. You're left trying to satisfy everyone while protecting your people from burnout. Choosing sides isn’t an option. But how do you create clarity and focus within a complex environment?
Ask it when you're...
Seeing your team burnout - When people are working harder but feeling less effective because they're constantly switching contexts and priorities.
Feeling like a defender - When you're spending your energy deflecting competing demands rather than developing your team's capabilities.
Missing initiative - When your team’s initiative dissipates because they're unsure whose priorities take precedence.
Listen for...
Try to listen for:
Learned helplessness - when your team stops trying and escalates all decisions to you.
Resentment - if your team begins to see legitimate organisational needs as adversarial rather than interconnected.
Skating - when the pressure to satisfy multiple masters leads to surface-level work that belies the complexity of the challenge.
Follow up with...
Sometimes, the greatest value comes from the one extra question you take the time to ask.
In this situation, you could try…
How might we create a shared definition of success?
Where do we have more influence over this dynamic than we're currently exercising?
Where are we wasting effort?
Ready to go deeper?
Is this question hitting close to home? Let's schedule a time to explore how it applies to your leadership context and what you might do about it.