More time for the essentials: strategic leadership

Why time management tools are not always enough

Despite modern time management tools and a well-organised secretariat, many managing directors find themselves repeatedly caught up in operational tasks. Why is that? The problem often lies deeper. Tools structure time, but they do not solve the core problems, such as

• Setting the wrong priorities: Urgent but unimportant tasks take up valuable time. One Harvard Business Review-The study showed that managers spend up to 41 % of their time on such tasks.

• Reactive way of working: Investigations of McKinsey show that CEOs spend up to 60 % of their time reactively - "putting out fires" rather than taking a strategic approach.

• Blocking personality patterns: The main reasons why time management tools do not work in the long term are blocking personality patterns that prevent us from trusting and letting go, or that cause us to misjudge the time we need and our own performance.

Impulses: 

• Reserve fixed time slots for strategic work in your diary and protect them from external disruptions. Ask your secretary for support.
• Use the David Allen method "Getting things done"to manage tasks in calendar entries instead of To Do lists. This gives you an overview of what you can do in the time available and what you should hand in or cancel.
• Use our Executive Coachingto release their blocking personality patterns.

Trust your team - delegate more.

Some managing directors are reluctant to hand over operational tasks because they believe that nobody can do it as well as they can. However, effective delegation is the key to more time for strategic work.

• A study by McKinsey found that CEOs who focus on delegation achieve 33 % more revenue growth.

Questions for you: 

• Do you trust your team enough to hand over operational decisions? If not, the next step could be to invest in confidence building.
• Are objectives and decision-making competences clearly defined and communicated? If not, a joint definition of objectives and the creation of a decision matrix would be the first steps.
• Does your personality prevent you from trusting? In this case, our Managing director coaching the framework for resolving these personality patterns in the long term.

Put an end to constant availability - time for focus work

Constant availability is another time waster. Studies show that it takes an average of 23 minutes to get back into focus after an interruption. These constant interruptions prevent you from concentrating on a topic that is important to you and thinking it through to the end.

Tip: Create "focus time" during which you will not be disturbed. Switch off notifications and communicate to your team that you are not available during this time - except for absolute emergencies.

Avoid the feeling of indispensability

Many managing directors believe they have to be involved in every decision. However, the feeling of being indispensable leads to them getting caught up in operational details.

Solution: Use our Managing director coachingto change the underlying personality pattern.

Increase your meeting productivity

Meetings are a real time waster in many companies. And it is not uncommon for managers to overload their calendars with meetings that are often inefficient. Studies show that many meetings deliver too few concrete results and are often considered too long or unnecessary.

According to a study by the Harvard Business Review managers spend an average of 23 hours per week in meetings, with managing directors spending up to 90% of their working time in meetings. Many of these meetings are unproductive.

• InefficiencyStudies show that 71 % of managers consider meetings to be inefficient. The reasons for this are a lack of structure, unclear objectives and superfluous participants.
• Waste of timeAccording to a Microsoft study 69 % of employees state that meetings waste time and distract them from their actual work.

Impulses:

• Structured meetingsReduce the number and duration of meetings. Set clear agendas and define goals in advance.
• Conscious selection of participants: Think about who you need to achieve the defined meeting objectives. Make sure that the participants prepare themselves. This increases efficiency and ensures that decisions are made more quickly.
• Standing meetingsStudies show that short stand-up meetings increase efficiency and can often be completed in half the time.
• Moderate the meetings: Actively moderate the meetings. Use steering questions such as: "What else is needed so that we can make a decision on this point?"
• No meeting zonesBlock certain days or times of the week when no meetings are scheduled. This creates space for undisturbed, strategic work.

Conduct meetings

How to turn time wasters into productive meetings

Conclusion: Your time is the most important resource of managing directors

Time is a managing director's most valuable asset. Without conscious demarcation, clear prioritisation and trust in the team, there is a risk that the really important, strategic tasks will fall by the wayside. Use the approaches presented in this article to manage your time so that you have more room for the essentials.