The very best leaders know what is going on with their time. They are ruthless with it and ensure what they are there to do gets done.
This article has been written by Nick Roud Award Winning Leadership Coach and represents the views of Nick Roud Coaching. All rights reserved (not for AI Training)

“Use your time with as much care as you would want. Once it’s gone it’s gone”. Nick Roud
When was the last time you felt you had time on your side? How did that feel and was it a glimpse into a rare unnatural sense. Do you remember the last time you had space to breathe, to think, to consider, to pause or just to let your mind wonder.
For me it’s walking and being near the water. That lights me up, it slows me and my brain down to a pace where things start to make sense. Time is something you cannot buy, it happens with or without your blessing. Remember that feeling when you were not rushing from meeting to meeting. How did that go for you.
So What Has Changed?
A client let’s call him Jimmy (not his real name) has been working with me 1:1 for the past six months. He has improved his leadership. During a coaching session Jimmy started of by saying Nick I don’t have enough time to do my own work cause I am doing everyone else’s work!
Danger Stranger I thought…..doing everyone else’s work…..hummmmmm lets peel that onion back a bit shall we.
Nick everyone keeps coming to me with their problems and asking me to fix them!
Danger Stranger I thought…………fixing everyone else’s problems………here we go my friend.
Does that sound familiar to you as a leader, not enough time to do your own work and or fixing everyone else’s problems?
Welcome to leadership and now here is the fun part – it is ok to put boundaries in place. During the early stages of our 1:1 leadership coaching we look together at what is your responsibility, what isn’t and how boundaries support you to be an effective leader. I read some time ago a wonderful book called Boundaries for Leaders by Dr Henry Cloud, I particularly enjoyed the chapter titled, The Gatekeeper of Thinking.
You see when it comes to leadership and in particular time, we have got to get ruthless on how and where we invest out time. Like reading this article, there are so many other things you could be doing but you are investing in your professional development with me and I hope learning a thing or two about leadership (thanks by the way of reading this……).
Many of my coaching clients say they are ‘busy’. If I had a dollar for every time I heard that word ‘busy’ then we would all be heading on holiday together. When I hear that word we pull the handbrake right up and talk about that and see if it’s enabling them in the work they do. Typically the answer is no. To be effective in your work we must manage out our time well.
Effective executives I my observations and meetings do not start with a to do list. They start with their time, am’s, midday, afternoon’s and evenings. They do not look to fill those time slots up. The first thing they do is to fully understand where their time actually goes. Only then do they look at the results objectively and get rid of everything that is unproductive on their time. Leaders great leaders make it look easy, this may be the case to the untrained eye but what I witness is a great deal of focus, energy and effort going into the use of his/her time.
Task Focus (monitor your time for a six week period)
- Record everything in your day
- Be brutally honest about your time from breaks, mind wondering, social media, eating, work etc
- Consolidate time into
- Work essentials, Work non-essentials, Friends, rest, etc
One thing I see in Emerging Leaders thru to Senior Executives is the higher up in an organisation you are, the more demands on your time will be made by others. This needs to be addressed.
I coached a wonderful experienced CEO last year and I have never seen a diary so controlled by others. Simply put it was an open book, first in first served. He was swapped and the board were noticing things starting to go astray. During our initial months we looked at a number of things including where his time was going. We set up clear rules & boundaries. Hired an EA who would support him and communicated into the business some changes that would take place with immediate effect. As we reflected on that specific aspect of our coaching work together he confirmed back that his time now was a lot different to how his time was then.
In my own reading and learning I have also experienced the need for executives to use time better. I read Carl Newport’s book Deep Work were he writes about ‘professional activities performed in a state of distraction free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limits. These efforts create new value, improve your skills and are hard to replicate . It’s a hell of an eye opener and has changed how I use my time in particular my writing time. Think about your daily interactions with people – is it that you spend very little time with your key stakeholders? Is that time a ‘review mirror’ where people are just updating what has been and gone. Or, is it forward focused. I get to see executive diaries and far to many of those meeting requests are to discuss ‘issues’. We must look at our language for meetings.
Here’s a recent email.
Nick I look forward to discussing a people ‘issue’ at our coaching session tomorrow.
Boy, do you think I am fizzing to meet that executive tomorrow.
Or
Could the invite be
Nick I look forward to our discussion tomorrow, FYI, I am keen to talk about an opportunity with one of my team members!
Now we are talking…….l can’t wait to attend that meeting.
Most 1:1s are set for an hour. To be clear I am not convinced that 15-30mins is enough time to get to do deep work. Sure you can fool yourself that we are gaining 45m or 30mins back in our day but consider the movement and progress you can make with your time if those 1:1s are a little bit longer and more consistent. How might that allow all parties to speed up effective time.
How an executive uses time isn’t just about the ‘diary’. When reflecting on your energy levels what works best for you. Are you a morning person, an evening person. When do you need quiet time, when should you hold important get togethers? In my research observing leaders if and when we meet with other individuals, small groups, departments and or all of organisations we have to be considerate of what is our message we are trying to deliver. What is the flow, impact and tone we are putting out. I had an experience with a Managing Director he kept cancelling meetings, at the last minute would move meetings due to other commitments. What message was he showing me? Well I stopped going to those meetings and if he wants to speak to me about things he can call me. You see you can only give people your time up to a point then it’s up to you to control your own time. Learning this is a key aspect of ensuring your day turns into your day and not others!
You need to give yourself the space and time when it comes to making important decisions. Very few CE’s who I coach do not take time away from the office to think and consider decisions. A very small handful would make knee jerk decissions on the spur of the moment.
How many of you reading this article are logging your own time? Be honest, I would say very few. How therefore do you know that you are using your time well! Some questions to pose;
- What things waste your time without any results whatever?
- Which aspects or activities or meetings etc, could be done by someone else? (some may call this delegation, I like to call it making sure others are doing what they should be focused in on!)
- Ask people who you lead – What do I do that wastes your time without leading to better outcomes? Don’t be afraid to ask this very critical question – don’t justify or try to turn things around – just listen with an open mind to what the other person is sharing with you.
- Are you bringing the right people into the right room at the right time to get the right outcome?
These are a few questions to get you looking in the mirror about your use of usage of time.
I’d love to hear how you get on, what might you need to work on, what should you stop doing and what must you carry on doing.
Too wrap up this short article I leave you with a quote
Lost time is never found again. Benjamin Franklin