06 May Too Busy to Meet with Your Team? It Might Be Time to Rethink That
“I’m too busy to meet with my team.” We hear it all the time, and on one level, it might even make sense. Leaders have significant responsibilities. The higher you go, the more complex the work becomes. There are decisions to make, problems to solve, and constant demands on your time. But here’s a question worth asking: If you’re too busy to meet with your people, what exactly is your job?
Leadership is not just about managing work. It’s about leading the people who do the work. When leaders are overly consumed with their own workload, something changes. One-on-ones become status updates. Team meetings are just project reviews. Conversations are about deliverables, timelines, and issues to resolve. All of that matters, of course. But it’s not the whole job or even the most important part of being a leader.
Without consistent, intentional involvement, your people lose something important from you: perspective, context, challenge, and development. They may still get the work done, but they’re more likely to stall, disengage, or operate below their potential. Over time, that becomes your problem, not theirs. Because your performance is based on the performance of your people.
Many leaders tell themselves they’ll get to it when things slow down. In reality, things almost never slow down. The pace of leadership doesn’t create space for coaching and development. You have to choose it deliberately.
Meeting with your team isn’t about adding more to your plate, although it can feel that way at first. When you do it consistently, however, it pays you back. Your people become more capable and accountable. They bring you better thinking and solve more problems on their own. You spend less time chasing updates and fixing avoidable problems. That’s how both you and your people gain time.
So schedule one-on-ones with your team and keep them. Not as placeholders to move when something “more important” comes up, but as core leadership time. If you regularly cancel or cut them short, your team will notice and adjust their expectations accordingly.
And use the time differently. Yes, talk about the work. But don’t let the meeting become a walkthrough of tasks and updates. If that’s all it is, it’s easy to decide it’s not worth your time, and to cancel it when something else comes up.
But that misses the point. The value of meeting with your team is not just to track progress. It’s to stay connected to how the work is getting done and how your people are growing. That’s not something you can pick up in a status report. And it’s not something you can delegate to anyone else.
So if you’re feeling too busy to meet with your team, take it as a sign. Not that you need to work more hours. But that you may need to lead in a different way.
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