More Answers... (6/29/25 Newsletter): There's No Such Thing as Doing More with Less Long Term

The "More Answers..."Newsletter

Hi Everyone, 

Here's the blog version of the Sunday Evening "More Answers..." to get a friendly boost to setup your work week! 

Remember to sign up for the newsletter for bonus material!! (https://www.askchrista.com/newsletter/) 

This week’s note is a reminder, a call to action, and a challenge to anyone currently leading or wanting to lead in the future:

Getting the best out of your employees is not the same as getting the most out of them.

In fact, those two things often work in opposition..

Taking from the Well...

If you caught my latest Ask Christa! episode, you heard me talk about the importance of getting the BEST out of employees, not the MOST.

This is the old "quality over quantity" method, and the winning organizations don't use up all an employee has to offer each day, running the wells dry. The winning organizations invest on getting the BEST out of their employees. 

Winning organizations build and maintain a culture that focuses on achieving or exceeding the goals without long, tiresome hours, under-resourced teams, frantic timelines and chaotic / unnecessary changes that seem to come from the whims of leadership.

If you drain every last drop of what your employees can offer, it will take longer than you think to recover, restore, and recharge the team.

During the recovery, restoration, and recharge of the team, quality suffers-- full stop.

The False Belief in More as Better...

Tight economies, softening of markets, and high-risk scenarios place high pressure on top leaders to navigate the choppy waters during intense storms. But it's up to the leaders to navigate properly-- and effectively-- to come out of the storm with a boat in tact and a team that can continue to perform.

I've seen and worked alongside of top leaders who feel that pressure, panic, and load up on a wide blast-radius to fight their way through a storm, and nothing could be more wrong to do.

No organization can "do more with less" over time. Yes, you can absolutely do this while getting through a storm, but top leaders often fall into this trap well past the storm, which kills the pace, the effort, and the quality. The balance of work and resources must actually be balanced over time in order to consistently win. It is GOOD to review your organizational structure and ways to reduce wasteful / unnecessary steps-- and the goal for that is to do what's needed to win, not do more with less.

Rules of business:

• You gain productivity when you reduce waste, not when you overload your employees (use the DOWNTIME acronym from Lean principles)
• There is a limit to time, no matter how many hours you think someone can work-- and this is true even for machines: capacity is finite
• People are variable and powerful. You need them. The shared energy and connections amongst a healthy team and across various teams is where the magic happens. But the magic they make requires rest and refueling to get the best out of them.

Getting the most sounds efficient… but over time, it isn’t. You will lose more than you gain.

BOOSTER FOR YOUR WEEK: TALK ABOUT GETTING THE BEST OUT OF PEOPLE!!!

Is your work environment designed to get the BEST from people?

If your employer has a Most-Not-Best Culture, don’t panic—adjust.

-> If you’re in charge: Redesign expectations, restructure roles, and push back on a "do more" sentiment. There is plenty of business research that will support you: the leaders balance ALL aspects of their work; the laggards think of employee capacity as a final step and squeeze what they can out of employees.

-> If you’re not in charge: Learn what your peak performance windows are, then do what you can to protect them: schedule breaks, say no strategically by consulting with teams that have done the work you're being asked to do: what's the best way to do it?

(and send this newsletter to your manager)

And of course, if you have a business challenge or workplace issue—Ask Christa!

See you next week!!!

With kindness,
Christa

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