How to Reclaim Valuable Time in 2024
You will often hear me talk about an overbooked calendar as one of the most common symptoms of the problem I call “leadership shock.” A schedule filled with meetings from morning to evening will make a leader feel overwhelmed and stressed out. They feel like they’re constantly fighting fires and getting tied up in urgent issues that demand their attention. The leader doesn’t have any time left in their day to move the organization forward in the way they had planned when they accepted their role. They are stuck in a state of shock.
When I work with a new client experiencing leadership shock, there are a few “tricks” that I use to help them get on top of their workload in the short-term. I call them tricks because they are not a part of the leadership model. Once we have created an Authentic Leadership Model, and we have a leader’s purpose, vision, values, and all the other elements firmly in place, then their real priorities will be clear to them and none of these tricks will be necessary.
But we can’t even begin to talk about leadership models until the client has cleared a bit of space in their calendar. Many of us forget that time is a nonrenewable resource. Time is one of the most valuable things we have, and it must be treated that way. If your calendar is completely out of control, and you wish you had more time in your day, try these tricks…
Trick #1: “The Shotgun Approach”
One of the first exercises I do with a new client experiencing leadership shock is sitting down to look at their calendar and analyze how they are spending their time. We’ll download it, code each meeting, and categorize them into buckets: regular meetings, ongoing projects, emergencies, etc. With the lens of time as a valuable resource, we identify which meetings they did not need to be in. For a recent client, it was about a third.
Then, we “take a shotgun” to their calendar. It’s harsh language because it is a harsh process! We block out things in their calendar that they decided are absolutely essential—we “bullet-proof” those. Then, we blast through the rest of the calendar that is not bullet-proofed. The leader goes through, week by week, and cancels every meeting that is not essential.
Most of us have an attitude to time that is a bit warped. Our near schedule (this week) is always crazy busy and there is very little flexibility. A leader would only add an absolutely critical meeting to this coming week. A month from now, the schedule looks more open, so we often add non-critical meetings. That’ll be fine, we tell ourselves. We’ll have time on our hands by then. But that non-critical stuff that was booked weeks ago has now clogged up our calendar. It can actually be blasted without much damage being done.
This is a challenging task for many leaders. Their presence in a new, more senior role is a hard transition. They have to stop doing things that they did before. They may have to say “no” to long-term colleagues that want to speak with them or to people they’ve mentored because they now have a different decision-making matrix about where they need to spend their time.
Trick #2: The Firefighting Matrix
So how do you decide which meetings are urgent and important and which ones aren’t?
People who are experiencing leadership shock often find themselves fighting fires. These are the impromptu meetings that come up last-minute to talk about an issue that needs to be fixed right now. Constantly fires can be both a time and an energy drain for new leaders.
The second exercise that I walk a new client through is this two-by-two grid, with the axes being urgent and important. In the top right-hand corner, there’s a large wildfire. It’s ablaze—it’s urgent and important. So you have to go there to put it out, right now. Bullet-proof those meetings.
In the top left-hand corner, there’s a small bit of grassland with flames. This is urgent but not important. That’s something you could send someone else there to check it out. Delegate it to another colleague or team member. Bottom right-hand corner, it's smoldering; it’s smoking, but there are no flames—important but not urgent. You need to keep an eye on that.
The bottom left-hand corner is a patch of land you’re worried about in the longer term. You need to do a safety check on that sometime to be on the safe side. But it’s not important and not urgent. These are the meetings you can take off your calendar for now, or push them back by a quarter to check on them then.
One client I worked with phrased how they determine which meetings are “wildfires”: “If the meeting does not impact our stock price, I’m not there. I should not be in a meeting to make ideas 2% better. I should be in a meeting where there are BIG issues on the table.” I challenge you, too, to let go of the 2%. Focus on fighting the big fires.
TIME is the Key to Getting Out of Leadership Shock
Follow these two tricks, and I guarantee you that you’ll feel a massive weight lifted off your shoulders. It will help you get clear on how you should be spending your time in 2024. By freeing up your calendar, you can free up space in your mind to think about your role, reflect on actions and outcomes, and determine what kind of leader you want to be.
The number one way to get out of leadership shock is to give leaders time back in their schedule. They can then use this time to do the hard work of defining their leadership model. If you do this, you’ll eliminate the need to constantly monitor your calendar. It will naturally fill with only the priorities you have determined for your time.
Pete Steinberg is an elite rugby coach, leadership consultant, and author who can help you and your organization overcome challenges and achieve unparalleled success. This article is based on an excerpt from Pete’s soon-to-be published book, Leadership Shock. You can connect with Pete on LinkedIn and at PeteSteinberg.com.