We’re a few months into many fiscal years, and the macro environment right now is rough. We’re in a cycle where the edict of “do more with less” is back.

Let’s be honest upfront: what “more with less” typically means is a stringent and ruthless reprioritization effort, and taking responsibility and accountability for a revised set of decisions. Often, but not always, with fewer people or increased utilization or both.

This is where your vision, outcomes, and strategies are truly put to the test under stress: can they still work, even when your budget or team looks radically different?

If outcomes or strategies need to shift then they must be, effectively, rescoped. Close out what was important yesterday, validate what matters now. And if your vision is now looking fuzzier, it may be time to recast it. But critically: do this work. Pretending that what was a goal yesterday is still a goal, with a new set of circumstances, will do no one any favors. You will need to be precise and careful on rolling this out. This is change management work, even if you or others don’t call it that.

More with less typically squeezes middle management – no surprise – but when you have leaders doing more of the IC work there’s often a lurking cost: professional growth. Department meetings start to fall to the back burner, conference approvals slope downward, and 1x1s – critical – may be pushed or delayed. Or, your leaders may do all as before and take on multiple workstreams, pushing themselves in a way that may be unhealthy. It’s not a cost that immediately shows up on a loss statement; instead it may linger and fester and contribute negatively to culture and lead to burnout.

This is where strong leaders and managers grow and build resilience. There are instances where this may simply be a “suck it up” moment. The most important skill is to know when it is, and when it is not.

Lastly, let’s talk about what happens when the “less” period ends.

First, be prepared for it to not end. What I’ve experienced in many instances is no recovery at all; team budgets don’t come back, staffing levels remain the same, perks are scrapped for good. This is where your understanding of the cultural cost and retention cost is critical to know.

But let’s take the happy path and say that, after a storm, budgets and priorities shift again – positively. This is the time to revisit old models, certainly, but odds are high you won’t be able to just hit “undo” and make everything like it was before. You should come out of it with a more specific sense of what your teams are capable of. Instead, the conversation becomes: what was good about this lean period, and what was bad about the period prior? How does that align with where we need to invest?

If that sounds like a “more with less” period, you’re right. A new set of priorities emerge, and you’ll be better off having worked through a lean period. I’ve been leading teams and organizations during these lean periods. While it was initially unexpected, it ended up being a clarifying event. I got a sharper and clearer sense of how my leaders best worked and what they needed aid on. And while I’d rather do it in a less stressful scenario, it did force conversations across the board that no one had when resources were plentiful.

What did you and your teams learn by doing more with less? Drop me a line; I read every message.

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Thanks for reading.

Paul