Why ‘Be Accessible’ is a Better Leadership Style Than ‘Open Door’

Lonnie Pacelli is an Accenture/Microsoft veteran with four decades of learnings under his belt. He frequently writes and speaks on leadership, project management, work/life balance, and disability inclusion. Reach him at [email protected] and see more at ProjectManagementAdvisor.com.

  Leadership  

Early in my career as a leader, I adopted the popular phrase, “My door is always open.” These magic words were intended to be a sign of support that, as a leader, I would be available for my team. It just felt so good to say that—to know that if a team member wanted to come in to talk about something important or just shoot the breeze, I would be there for them whenever they wanted.

Then reality struck.

In my quest to be supportive, my team took me up on my open-door policy. In fact, several people who were not on my team felt free to stop by if they were grappling with something. I was happy to be sought out and that I could be helpful…until I found I wasn’t getting my own work done.

My days became laced with interruptions from co-workers coming in needing something, or just wanting to chat. I would drop what I was doing and attempt to engage with the person. Sometimes I was able to devote my attention to them, but many times I was preoccupied with work that I was supposed to be getting done.

The quality of my time with others suffered, I was spending after-hours time trying to get other things done. My overall effectiveness as a leader tanked.

I had to change something because it was affecting me, my performance and my relationships—not just with colleagues, but with friends and loved ones.

Acknowledging that the open-…

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