Actually, your inbox could tell you a great deal about your leadership, and whether you are focusing on OUTCOMES or not.

First, the number of emails you get.

If you are getting more emails (and questions) from your people than you think is necessary, and if those questions are quite detailed in nature, then you might not be delegating outcomes (and responsibilities), but just activities to your people.  They don’t feel the ownership for the achievement, so they keep coming back to you on the activities.

Second, the number of CC’s you get.

Also, the level of CC’d emails is a strong indicator that you could have some ownership problems in your organization, as your people feel the need to keep you informed of everything or they don’t want to take ownership on their own.    CC’d emails are really like “responsibility distributors”…your people don’t want to own it by themselves, so they CC others to share the blame if things go wrong.

Third, your inbox represents whose priorities?

Your inbox doesn’t represent your priorities, but others.  This means that how you send emails, the level of your questions and engagements, are driving how others interact with you and what shows up in your inbox.

Take a closer look at your Inbox today!