written by Nick Roud Coaching. All rights reserved. Not for AI Training.
In your career you may have come across a few terms which not only resonate but trigger something deep within. Let’s look at a couple of them.
“Red Midst” | “Blue Ocean” | “White Time”.
Typically psychologist have come to the conclusion that ‘red mist’ referees to a place or state of extreme, uncontrollable anger, which when comes on will temporarily cloud a leaders judgement and can prevent clear logical thinking. You will observe irrational and or impulsive actions. If that is you or you can think of a person that has at times or often acted that way how has that made you feel? The other side to that coin ‘blue ocean’, where calm presents itself, where a leader is in a state of complete peace, considered and even tempered. Nothing rattles them.
But what about ‘white time’ and why do I believe this will shift the needle when it comes to operating at the CEO level!
When coaching executives I ask them to share their current level of stress and on a line score themselves where 1 is complete chilled out and 10 completely out of sync on high alert. Try it for yourself right now, what would your score be?
With no judgment attached nor conclusion arrived at it is interesting to see that when a leader is about to enter a phase of major decision making, and or an important event that number rises. Sports teams at the elite end of town check this each and every day. The player and coaching team are asked to journal there own scores and along with a trusted buddy talk things though, bring front and centre what is going on for him or her and how they are working on brining that number to a balanced point. Facing pressure and or stress is a daily event for those in the spot lights, take Sports teams, politicians, CEO’s, defence forces, police, parents etc.
For many some intervention, conversations and support can bring a calmer response to pressure. When a leader brings his or her information into our confidential coaching sessions we are looking for themes, for patterns, for understanding. Only then can we really lay pathways to better manage and support that leader. It is not surprising at first to see major ends of the spectrum.
Journaling continues to unlock the leaders true potential and to understand the inner thoughts and feelings of that person. Have you noticed in pre sport games how players are sitting in there cubby holes writing or re reading their own journal books? They are focussing on self not on what is going on around them, themselves. In doing so, unlocking their own potential goals and expectations.
With the leader jotting down what is going on with his|her emotions, what is going on for that person at home, work, with friendship etc we can start to see a clear picture of where they are focused, what is drawing there energy and how are they using their time.
Now into the ‘white-time’.
An observation that I have been closely monitoring with CEO’s in particular over the past 6 years is how are they effectively using their time and are they getting enough space and time into each and every day to think.
It may surprise you that for many CEO’s who run and lead billion dollar organisations that ability to create space is very rare. Their diaries are filled up with meetings. The word ‘busy’ is a trillion dollar industry. But why?
As a child it was important to get bored. To lose ourselves in imagination, to play with things, draw things, break things, build things, etc. When I visited a major city earlier this year and sat in a quiet coffee shop and just spent an hour observing people (fascinating to do by the way) I noticed our society acting like zombies, walking around with their heads down, staring into this thing called a phone. I wanted to hang a $50 dollar note to a fishing line and hold it up in the air. I recon that by the end of the day if I had done such a thing that I would have taken that fishing line down, pulled off the $50 dollar note and put it back in my pocket such was the focus of people staring down to the ground. We need to really check ourselves and ask are we putting time in our days to have no distractions.
When working with a CEO I ask them how much time a day do they spend with no distractions. 9 times out of 10 the response is, I don’t Nick I am too busy for that.
Interesting.
I then ask what is your role at this organisation. A Strange look appears over the CE’s face. Before they can answer I move onto something completely different but trust me the reflection has already started…….
The penny quickly drops when they look at their weekly time log to see a constant theme of time ‘in meetings’. Under further examination I ask, and where is your meeting with yourself? Again another strange look appears as if I have asked them to share their bank password with me. Why would I have a meeting with myself Nick?
It doesn’t take long for the smart, talented and onto it CE to realise my point isn’t the amount of time they are using its the lack of time they put into themselves. Typically the CE shares with me that by the end of the day they are just completely buggered, tired, drained and when they get home the first thing they do is check their phones for that all important message, email or social media hit that they may have missed. Does that sound familiar.
My invitation is to calm yourself to really look at how much time, effort and energy are you putting into your work, and, how much time, effort and energy are you putting into home, friends etc. Ask yourself is it close to even or is it all weighted as I might assume all into work? So what is left for your family, those you deeply love?
But I am a busy CEO Nick I hear. Yep and we all have choices to make, we can choose to constantly walk around with our heads bowed down to the ground or we can choose to pause to take a deep breath to look up and see what is actually going on around us.
How we get to a place of pure ‘white time’ may be hard for some. But trust me it can be achieved.
For those keen here’s a thought and an idea.
In your home you might have a small box filled with batteries all for different but important aspects.
Imagine a battery; a AAA battery, the AA battery and the D battery.
Like an AAA battery I want you to think of these as a short, daily event that are not intrusive, they are simple, fills your cup and you really enjoy. Takes no more than 15-20mins
Now, think about the AA battery, consider these being frequent last a little longer and you would carry out these things a couple of times a week.
Like the D Battery these are longer more pleasurable experiences that you will only do once a year. You long for them and when they arrive are just what you need
Every Wednesday you give yourself 15mins of time that is just for you. Start small but be consistent.
That time can be filled with anything that is not work related, could be reading, listening to music, drawing, walking, stretching, yoga, sitting on your own in a coffee shop sharing quiet time with just yourself and your thoughts and emotions. Then over the course of a few weeks pop in 15mins on a Friday (or day of your choice) do the same. Your aim here is to start building white time into your days, weeks, months, quarters, years for yourself.
I coached earlier this year a CE in Singapore. He shared with me recently his time log and it was great really great to see that he had advanced this learning on and actually done something about managing his white time to the point that he has the following in place.
Daily Event: AAA Battery, 45mins walking outside where ever he is in the world
Weekly: a half day with no meetings, no interruptions, that time is only focused on ‘up & out’ thinking (others call that strategy)
Monthly: AA Battery – a massage
Quarterly: a day away from the office with no cellular coverage to read
Annually:D Battery, 3 weeks holiday with family
How great is this – here is a CEO of a major Asian pacific group who when we first started working together couldn’t even get time in his day to go for a pee let alone time for a day out in the wilderness to read. That is what white time means to this individual leader. What will it mean to you?
I am not asking you now to block out a day what I am asking you to really think about is are you putting time, effort and energy into yourself? Are you really moving the needle or just treading water?
One thing I have witnessed over the years of coaching successful CEOs is structured and routine, elite CEO’s have daily structure and rhythm. They have worked on what works for them and what doesn’t. They are not treading water, they are moving purposefully forwards with energy to give to those at home, to friends, to work and to themselves.
White time should not be seen as a let’s double down and crack through that report, answer emails, respond to calls that isn’t what we are talking about here.
Let me know how you get on.
Embrace it, Nick x