Sept. 4: Playing Defense at Work. Achieving Unity of Command. Weekly Challenge and more

Strategy Tuesday: The Power of Holding Back

Jared R Chaffee, CFA

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4 min readSep 4, 2020

This week’s Tuesday post is the beginning of a periodic series I’m starting on work strategy. This week, I talk about the power of holding back, or playing defense at work- knowing you’ll pursue your agenda later on when it’s more advantageous to do so.

I recently faced a situation at work where my newly reorganized team needed to put our heads together and present our bosses with our core framework. The ball was in our court, so to speak, but we took too long trying to agree on what to present. We wasted our time on offense and in the end, our boss had to make the decision for us (which wasn’t our ideal).

I started thinking a lot about how, in this moment of frustration and relative defeat, it was important for us to drop back into a strong defense. Instead of trying to play offense that’s headed nowhere, it’s better to accept the way things are right now and plan the right time to “attack” with a new proposal for change.

This article also includes some super helpful, practical strategies for how to play great offense at work when the time is right. There is a lot of value in this one, so be sure to check it out.

Journal Prompt of the Day
Building on the theme of workplace strategy, try out this #JournalPromptOTD
What area of work have I been trying to play offense that’s headed nowhere?
How can I shift into defense and plan out the right time to address this later on?

First Principles Friday: Great Leaders Exhibit Unity of Command

I started a new role this year working on a global team. One of the regional heads recently quit the firm, leaving us with only one employee in the region, and they were brand new to the firm. They needed a lot of training and support so other team members starting reaching out to help, offering training, and advice. The problem is, the info was not consistent and ended up making the person feel completely overwhelmed. The effort was well-intentioned, but because there was a clear lack of “unity of command” it just made matters worse.

Unity of command is achieved when all the team members fall under a single manager who has the requisite authority to direct and allocate resources to pursue a common mission or goal. A proper chain of command, with a clear leader at the top, is what brings solid command and control to an organization. Otherwise, you end up with so many conflicting agendas and instructions, no one knows what to do and the team falls into chaos.

This post is crucial if you are leading a team. I encourage any manager to read this post and consider the practical steps I outline for how to achieve proper unity in your organization. It will hopefully inspire you to assess your workplace team structure and make changes to employ effective command and control in your team to get more done.

Journal Prompt of the Day
Building on the theme of achieving a unity of command, try out this #JournalPromptOTD
Is there anywhere in my organization where we lack unity of command (co-leaders or too much decision-making by committee, etc.?)
What is one practical thing I can do now to move the team toward a more unified command structure?

Weekly Challenge

Try scheduling “every minute of your day” one day next week. See Tuesday’s post for a brief rundown of how I do this at work. It’s a real game-changer for focusing on and executing the tasks that are most important. The Eisenhower Decision matrix mentioned in this post will help guide you on how to prioritize your work as you schedule the day and week ahead.