At this point it should be safe to say it’s common knowledge that multitasking isn’t the best way to get things done. We’ve all heard about the alliterative “multitasking myth,” likening our dreams of being able to do two things at once to the superhuman feats of Hercules or Prometheus.

The ugly truth is that just as it’s impossible for us to physically be in two places at once, we also do not have the ability to focus on two things at the same time. When we think we are managing to accomplish multiple tasks at the same time, in actuality we are simply rapidly shifting our focus back and forth between the two. Rather than help you fit more into your day, switching between tasks takes considerable mental effort, and the lack of sustained focus can result in more errors.

As humans, it is altogether perfectly natural for us to dream of a world in which true multitasking is possible. We are finite beings, and recognizing that it is, in fact, impossible to ever “do it all” is in a way forcing us to recognize our own limitations and mortality. Additionally, modern society has placed a huge emphasis on productivity. We encourage a culture of “hustling” and “the grind,” in which self-worth is determined by output and even our identities are strongly influenced by our external accomplishments.

Task switching makes us feel productive and effective. It creates the illusion for us of getting as many things done as possible, when in reality the opposite is true. For this reason and the ones above, all of us are likely still guilty of multitasking, regardless of the knowledge in front of us plain as day that it doesn’t work. In fact, according to a study by Asana of over 10,000 people globally, 72 percent of employees feel pressure to multitask during the day.

According to Mark Hauser, a private equity investor and managing partner of the private equity fund Hauser Private Equity, it is a leader’s responsibility to discourage multitasking with their organization. With nearly four decades of experience in leadership, Hauser has developed a leadership philosophy that focuses on guiding by example. He served as vice president of Reynolds DeWitt Securities, a merchant banking firm, for over ten years before acquiring a small Cincinnati-based insurance agency and founding HAUSER Inc. (formerly The Hauser Insurance Group). After building the company into a national full-service brokerage firm he founded his second business, Hauser Private Equity as a continuation of the successful strategies he developed for his private equity fund Hauser Capital Partners.

Below, we explore further with him the responsibility he believes leaders hold in keeping multitasking out of the organizations they lead.

Leaders are looked to as a source of guidance and inspiration, and so first and foremost leaders must examine their own habits and identify if they themselves are guilty of multitasking. Because multitasking is really just task switching, which really just means you are doing many things poorly or inefficiently, it is not a skill leaders should actively try to develop. On the contrary, as a leader you should instead be seeking to heighten your ability to focus on one objective. Developing the ability to focus will not only play out in the day to day tasks of leadership, but also when it comes to developing the bigger objectives for your organization as a whole.

For an easy example of how focus can actually improve efficiencies better than task switching, one needs to look no further than the assembly line. With workers only focusing on one aspect of the car rather than the entire vehicle, the time it took to build a car went from more than 12 hours to just over 90 minutes, allowing for mass production and ushering in a world in which motor vehicles were no longer a luxury. Hauser says that as a leader it is crucial to examine your own relationship with multitasking. Employees are looking to you for direction on how they should be operating within the workplace, and if they know you are in the middle of working on a project but also see you answering their emails, these small cues can have a big impact on the culture of the organization as a whole.

The culture of an organization can have more of an impact on an employee’s pressure to multitask than it might seem upon first observation. Just because you are not explicitly telling them to try and do multiple things at once doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways this is being signaled. Hauser recommends starting by simply noting how you approach email responses: is there an expectation of extreme urgency when it comes to answering them? It is natural to want quick responses in order to keep customers happy and prevent bottlenecks, but it is important to also acknowledge that there is sometimes a time and place for urgency in business.

Take the example of an accounting firm. Inevitably, every March and April they must burn the midnight oil, working to complete all of their clients’ tax returns before the deadline. During this period, the expectations for urgency may be higher, but everybody is united toward a common goal with an end date in sight. Companies can run into a similar situation when there is a sudden crisis or project that requires urgent attention.

The important thing to ensure is that these times of urgent productivity are temporary. Leaders must make sure their employees know that while they are grinding away in the present, there will be a time again when the focus will return to the long term goals the company has set in place. Without these assurances, there can be a false feeling of urgency that imbeds in the culture of the organization, pushing people to seek to multitask to fit everything they possibly can imagine into their eight hour work day.

Inevitably, most modern jobs aren’t like working on an assembly line. Workers have multiple responsibilities that properly utilize their many skills, and that often does require them to quickly switch between them. Mark Hauser says that leaders need to work from the inside out to change the culture of their organizations in order to prevent their employees feeling the need to multitask. One of the simple ways this can be done is to change the language within the company itself. Calling the process what it really is – task switching – can take the pressure employees may feel to be doing everything all at once.

In a leadership role, discourage a loss of focus by refraining from pulling people from one job to another. Teaching employees to focus by discouraging switching tasks when it is unnecessary can instantly increase efficiency for a business, resulting in less mistakes and a less stressed workforce. We live in a time when productivity is revered above all else, and as a result we are all convinced that we must have the multitasking superpower in order to do it all. Leaders are responsible for the culture of an organization, and therefore it is them who can make the biggest difference in setting realistic expectations and creating a focused environment in which everybody can thrive.