Time Management Tips for Leaders

Today, I'm challenging you as to whether or not your people are truly your number one asset. And the reason why I say that is I work with clients all around the world who have teams of 2 to hundreds. And yet, when you start digging in and having conversations with their employees, whether that's through 360 assessments or through focus groups or some other form of communication, all of a sudden they're voicing a whole different take on whether or not they feel that they are the company's number one asset, whether they are treated as the company's number one asset and given the opportunities as the company's number one asset. So today I'm going to really have you think about what can you be doing to manage your time in such a way that you can indeed put your people first. We're going to talk all about the tips and the strategies and tools you could be using in order for you to really be the powerhouse time manager for your people, for your company, and for your own success. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms female corporate executives into powerhouse leaders by showing them how to shed the challenges and overwhelm along with any fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity holding them back. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Fall of Fire Coaching, bringing you powerhouse discussions each week to share tips, advice, and sometimes tough love so you create the riches in your work and life you deserve. Let's do this! So what is it that makes it so hard for company leaders to really put their people first? Well, ask that question to any corporate or entrepreneurial leader and they'll basically tell you time. My immediate response to that, however, is, well, you make time for what is important to you. And at first, their reaction will then be, no, no, I'm in meetings all day. I have, you know, a to-do list pages long. I have people, you know, calling and barking at me all day long. I don't have the time. Well, let me ask you this. If there was something that you really, really, really wanted, say it was, you know, that new beautiful just released souped-up car that, you know, that was— that just rolled off the dealer showroom floor. And, you know, that starts beckoning you to purchase it and to be that first or one of the first people to have it. What steps and what actions do you take to make that happen? You probably will start saving. You'll probably start sacrificing and compromising on where you are spending your money so you can put away, you know, the monies for this new toy, whether it's a car or a big trip or a big adventure that you want to go on. When you really truly want something, when something's really important to you, you make it a priority. You find the time, you rework whatever you need to rework in your life in order to achieve it, don't you? Think about it for yourself. It could have been a diet in the past, it could have been a car or a new toy, you know, a new house that you wanted, um, even, even a new relationship, a new career opportunity. And the minute you made the decision that that's what you wanted you all of a sudden started getting very active in putting together a plan for how you were going to achieve it. What sacrifices, what compromises, what time schedule, what, um, you know, what, uh, form of coordination needed to go in to you actually being able to pursue and eventually accomplishing that goal and objective that you had for yourself. Same thing that you do at work, right? Same thing that you do at work. You're given a task, given a goal, and especially if it has incentive around it, and you get very laser-focused on being able to, to achieve it. Well, think about if your goal of making people being your number one asset a reality— just think of what you actually might be able to all of a sudden put into motion in order to make it happen. And that's where the conversation around time management and time management specifically for leaders came to me, because I've been having a lot of conversations with a lot of my, my corporate executive clients over the last several months. And it all centers around their people, both from an employee engagement perspective to a manager effectiveness perspective. And the number one key issue and challenge that is coming up is employees don't feel connected and engaged and valued and included. And yet their managers just don't have the cycles. They don't have the time. They don't have the, the white space on their calendars in order to, to provide the employees what it is that they really need. But without their employees the manager's never going to— you are never going to accomplish the goals and the dreams and the metrics that you've set out for yourself. And I'm going to say both personally and professionally, because obviously, you know, you're working your tail off in the workspace so you can have what you want in your home space. So what we as leaders need to then do is figure out, okay, so then what do I need to do in order to raise up the focus on my people, in order to then raise up the, the success chance that I have in getting and achieving the goals that I have for myself, my team, my family, my whole life. And so I want to share some tips and strategies for you in order to be able to do, to do that. All right. And the first one would really center around making it a goal. I'd like to say, tell you the second tip first, which is priority. But I think priority only comes when someone really puts laser focus on a goal. So we're going to start there. So you as a leader have the choice to make people a goal of yours. Officially, non-officially, on paper, not on paper, uh, communicated to a group or not communicated and just kept for yourself. But that is the goal that you set your— for yourself is, I want to make my people the number one asset of my team and of the business. It's a win-win for everyone after all, right? You know, you make yourself— you make the people and put the attention to the people, um, as their number one asset, the people thrive and you thrive. Serving others serves you. That is, that is a mantra, or, or just saying, actually a quote from the, from the Bible, uh, that I all of a sudden clung on to 7 or 8 years ago. Didn't understand it at first, thought it was very selfish. Wait a minute, I'm not going to serve others to serve me. But then realize that no, Take care of those around you, those that are in more need, those that have wants and desires of their own, and you'll be taken care of too. So the first thing would be to— let's define a goal around your people. And if that goal is, you know, I want, you know, to make my people the number one asset on my team, then, you know, you can get even more specific around that. And we talk a lot about SMART goals here in the Shedding the Corporate Bitch community and in my work in Ball of Fire coaching. And I call it SMARTY because I add Y at the end, which is you. So make your goals really centered around what you want. And in this case, it's to make your people the number one asset of your team. Make it as specific as possible. Determine how you're going to measure yourself in doing that. There's a lot of ways. Of course, we have employee retention, engagement, satisfaction. But even make it more personal. Make it about the fact that you're having better relationships with them. You're really empathetic and compassionate and a good listener for them. You're there for them. You have their back. You can listen to their ideas. You consider them. You even implement them. There's a lot of different ways that you can measure your success making your people your number one asset. All right. Then, of course, you need some actions as part of the SMART, SMARTIE methodology. You need some actions against it. So what can you be doing differently with your people in order for them to feel more engaged, to feel more included, to feel more valued, to contribute more, which will elevate their productivity and effectiveness, which will ultimately be a win-win for everybody. All right. So define the actions to go with those goals. And then, of course, make them realistic and make them time-bound. Now, these goals that you set, there could be multiple goals. I want to— I want to be a mentor and a coach and develop my people to where they are elevated, you know, themselves in their own career. I want to see my people, you know, climb the ladder and, and, and succeed and achieve as well. I don't need them just to be a taskmaster for me. I do want them to, you know, have their own path that they take. So the goal— my goal is to be a mentor and a coach. My goal is to be I'm not going to be just someone who listens so I can respond and tell them what to do or what not to do, or what's a good idea, what isn't a good idea. It's to really listen, understand them, walk in their shoes, and really, you know, experience them for who they are. So come up with whatever those people goals are. And even you can share them with, you know, with your team, or you can— again, you can keep them to yourself. You can put them in your personal or professional goals for your development plan or your performance plan, or you can keep them to yourself. As a coach, especially to executives, I always strongly advocate that team leaders for themselves, their peers, and their own people actually put them into their yearly performance goals. Make it measurable, make it accountable, make them, you know, have to, you know, be responsible and to report out on it and to be ultimately compensated for it. But, you know, taking this on for yourself, you can, you know, take it on formally, so to speak, or you can just take it on for yourself. Then find yourself an accountability partner. Now, this can come in two ways when it comes to accountability partners and your goals. If you shared them with your team, for instance, then ask your team to hold you accountable to them. If you said that you were going to be meeting with them once a month, you were going to make sure that you had some face time with each one of them. Well, ask them to hold you accountable to that. Um, you know, ask them to, you know, um, to follow up with you that you are, you know, taking the actions that you stated that you were going to be taking. Again, serving others serves you, and therefore it's a win-win for everybody. But the other form of accountability partner could be that you do ask a peer or a manager or a friend to hold you accountable to following through on what it is that you said. Now, I will, you know, advise as well is not many business functional leaders really leverage strategically their HR partners. And when it comes to your personal professional development leadership type of goals, such as your people goals, they make great, great partners, as you know, they should all the time anyway, in, in you building and establishing and managing and, um, and achieving your business goals. But at the same time, when you have something to where, okay, I have these goals, uh, for, for myself, and I'd like to kind of lean on you as an accountability partner to ensure that I'm I'm, you know, doing— taking the steps that I've committed to and I'm following through. So they make great accountability partners. But find someone that, again, you can share your goals with, how you're going to measure, what actions you're going to take, what timeline you put to them. And, you know, that individual can then be there to kind of challenge you, ask, you know, how things are going. They could even go as far as providing tips or advice. For, you know, whatever you might be dealing with or you're challenged with. But find someone that can ensure that you're following through on what it is that you need. Because just like outside of work, you know, if you do go on a diet plan or a fitness program or whatnot, you know, you always are like, oh, I wish I had somebody that was kind of over me telling me, you know, to get out of bed or to get off the couch or, you Don't open that refrigerator door. Yes, I'm talking about myself. But, you know, so look at having accountability partner even for your business goals. All right. So, you know, get your SMART goals in place and, you know, and just put the focus on making your people their number one asset. Now, add a layer to this. And when it gets complicated for many leaders, and I totally appreciate and understand it, is then when life comes in, it comes into play, which it always does, but especially work life and work demands and the demands of your people, the demands of your bosses, the demands of your customers, the demands of HR, whatever the case might be, the demands of the marketplace and the economy. Puts a lot, a lot, a lot of pressure on managers. And, you know, tactically that can look like where all of these, you know, people, all these tenants are coming in and they're demanding your time. And the next thing you know, your calendar white space is now completely full, sometimes even overlapped with meetings and obligations, and you can't even open up a space for any people time that you then all had already laid out as goals to have people time. Well, this comes down to priority. This comes down to priority. And so many, you know, managers/leaders that I, that I talk and meet with, whether one-on-one or in a group, will raise up the challenge. That they have as far as being able to follow through on, you know, making their people their number one asset. And they'll say, I just don't have the time. Look at my calendar, look at my to-do list. And I'll remind them, if it is a priority for you, you'll make the time. Because like anything else, if it's a priority and really important to you and you truly believe that, in every cell of your being, then you will do whatever it takes to follow through on that goal that you set for yourself. And, and if you don't believe me, think outside the workplace, uh, of other goals and dreams that you have and aspirations that you have for yourself, how far you will go to achieve them. And they— it could be even the workplace if it has anything to do with a raise or a promotion or a new business opportunity. When you're starting to question or doubt or make excuses, which is, you know, the challenge that I then put back onto the executives is, are you sure they're not excuses? Then think about other times and places, even currently, that maybe you're, you know, you're kind of being hypocritical almost. And you're contradicting yourself because you certainly put the priority and the emphasis and the sacrifices and the compromises elsewhere. And yet, you know, in this particular situation that we're talking about, they are bubbling up as more excuses than anything. So making something a priority takes a daily practice and discipline for anything. You know, looking at your goals, looking at your, your tasks, looking at that, you know, that calendar of meetings and really ensuring that you have a very laser-focused clarity around where the priority lies. That's not something that could be looked at, you know, once a week, once a month, once a year. It has to be on a daily basis. What can I, you know, doing and what do I need to be doing in order to keep, you know, my focus and attention on the goal. It might slip a day or two, it might slip even a week, yet I'm not losing focus and I'm not losing the priority that I have for this particular goal. In this, in this instance, it's around people. So you look at it daily, okay? Question it daily, challenge it daily. Which brings me to my next point around priority. And that is too many leaders have a very difficult time saying no. No to that meeting. No to that extra task. No to that, you know, that new project or new initiative or new workload that's not even coming to you. Maybe it's coming down to your people. And they have a hard time saying no. Well, it's my boss. Well, I have to. Well, it's coming from, you know, you know, a different function and I have to do it. Well, do you? Is the challenge that I would give you to be thinking about. Do you need to go to that meeting? What will happen if you don't go to that meeting? Do you even need to have this particular meeting? Maybe you're adding to your own pressure when it comes to not having that time. Do you need to, you know, fill this time block with something that isn't as priority as something else or as this people goal that you've set for yourself? So learning to say no is absolutely critical for anyone from floor level to, you know, the CEO office. And yet it's even more and more and more important for people leaders to be able to find those places where you can say no. And so you can always open up or keep white space on your calendar for your people. It's absolutely critical. And if you truly believe people are your number one asset and they're going to be the ones that— and are the ones that you know, help you and get you to achieve your goals, then you need to prioritize finding how you can keep them engaged, included, valued, and with the opportunities that they're looking for. So you have to look at saying no. Now, another, another little formula I use with my clients as well, whether that be, you know, corporate or entrepreneurial, quite honestly, is what I call my 4 Ds. So you're looking at your list, list of to-dos, you're looking at your list of meetings, you're looking at your list of other obligations that you have, and you get laser-focused on making a decision around is there a way to delete— I'm sorry, is there a way to delegate, delay, delete, or I have to do it. So let's break these 4 down: delegate, delay, delete, or do. So delegate— it's shocking to me, um, how many things are on many, many managers' to-do lists that could be delegated out. And the reasons that they don't are many. One is, I don't have time to teach them. Two is, you know, I, you know, I don't want to give it up. I like doing it. It's easy. It's simple. It doesn't take a lot of time. To the extreme of that person, you know, kind of identifying themselves as controlling. Job security. That, you know, intimidation and fear of you know, that person that they delegate to does a better job than they do. A lot of reasons why they don't delegate and very few reasons why they do. And I'm telling you, if you could, as a powerhouse leader, what will differentiate you from anybody else is ensuring that you can not dump— that's another D, but I don't like to use it— not dump, But delegate activities, initiatives, whole projects that are on your plate, delegate them to somebody else. Because again, if you want a surefire way of elevating employee engagement and employee satisfaction and retention, it's to provide them opportunities to actually contribute, do something new, do something different, even if there's a risk that they could fail at it or not do a good job. But that's your job as a leader. Your job as a leader is to develop others regardless if they're ready for it or not. Give them the opportunities to challenge themselves, push themselves, stretch themselves, even fail so they can then learn and then move on. So delegate. And then there is delete. You know, I could have a laundry list of to-dos that, you know, my manager, you know, will show me, my client manager will show me, and I can easily go through and in a conversation with them, we can get 20% of those things off their list that is on their list. But they just, one, automatically think they have to do it, or two, that you could go back to delegate. And they, you know, they keep it on the list. And again, there's a lot of different reasons for, you know, for that. And but yet what you want to do as a powerhouse leader and as someone who's putting your people first is you really want to open up that white space for your people, make that time for your people, and therefore you have to be able to delete things off. Now, there's also the other D, which is delay. You know, again, this is an area where many of my clients struggle with the fact that people just throw work at them and everything's a priority to everybody. Oh, it needs to be done immediately. Oh, it needs to be done by the end of the day. Oh, it needs to be done by tomorrow. And yet, if you as a leader would challenge them to say, Couple things. Challenge them to say, or ask them, is this really a priority for today? Do you absolutely, you know, need it today? And if so, for what reason? And how is it going to be used, you know, if I was to take time today to get it done? You'd be surprised that all of a sudden somebody will be like, once they're challenged, will be like, oh no, no, no, I don't need it for a few days, or I don't need it even till next week. So that's one thing, is to challenge whether or not the priority or the timeline, uh, that they've put on a, you know, task or, or an activity they need you to do is actually real. Because in a lot of cases it is not. Okay, the other one would be— the other angle to take with this is show them your to-do list. And I— this goes to your boss, this goes to anyone that comes to you with something. Show them your to-do list and say, okay, so if you want me to get this done today, what do you suggest I not get done? Because they all say that they need it today, tomorrow, by the end of the week. So what, which one of these should be deprioritized so I can tell them that you had, you know, a higher priority item? You ask them that question and it's not a question that anybody should feel intimidated by. If all of a sudden you're like, I'm not going to say that to my boss. Why not? You're engaging them. And actually, you're also kind of passing accountability to them of this is all the work that I have to do. And they all have high priority. And you're just simply asking me to do something. And I'm just trying to understand what's going to have to give in order for me to then bring in and do what you need me to do. You will be surprised 99% of the time, and I am not exaggerating, someone will say to you, oh no, no, no, I don't need it right away. Oh no, no, no, those are— you're right, those are more important. Or they may say, okay, no, it, you know, this is more important than this one, and I'll, I'll talk to them and I'll get you a delay, an extension on, on, on that activity, on that initiative, whatever the case might be. So, you know, you're just engaging them in your priority setting. And it's absolutely— if you could learn that one skill that will elevate your productivity, elevate your success in accomplishing your goals, whether it's your people goal or any other goal, is if you could learn that discipline. One, saying no. To using the delegate, delete, or delay, and, and, or, and challenging the priorities people are giving you. And then the last D is do. There are going to be things that you absolutely must do. And those, if you absolutely must do them and you can't delegate, delay, or delete, then they then go into that priority process that you're looking at on a daily basis that then could take precedence to you having any white space for your people. But still, there's going to be other, you know, overlapping schedule, overlapping meetings, meetings you really don't need to be at and meetings you shouldn't be at, even though you might be feeling, oh, well, I want to stay in the know or, you know, I want to be part of it. You again, if you want something really, really bad, you will make the sacrifices and the compromises to achieve it, won't you? And therefore, treat your goal around your people the same way. Don't make it as, as an excuse that, oh, I have too much to do. If people are that important, and they should be, then that's what you want to do. Okay. All right. So we talked about goals, we talked about priority. The last one would be time blocking. And this is a specific tool you could be using around time management. Okay. Is time blocking. And I've been doing this probably for 15 years now, and trust me when I say, for myself and for my clients, it has been a booster to productivity, to achievement, to sanity, to breath, to peace and calm, uh, to opening up tons of white space personally, let alone, you know, from a work perspective. Is time blocking. Now, what is it? Time blocking basically means that you treat— and we're just going to be talking about your work calendar right now— but you're going to treat your work calendar as seriously as you treat your personal calendar. Now, I'm going to sound almost contradictory because there's going to be some personal things that all of a sudden get into your calendar, your work calendar, but What I'm talking about is your 9 to 5. Assume 9 to 5 is your work hours. That calendar is what we're talking about from you time blocking it. Okay. So there's typically from time blocking, it simply means create the blocks of time and put them on your calendar of those things that are a priority that you've just determined based on the goals that you have. And the goals again could be business, you know, and personal. Personal being like your people, leadership development, personal business goals, and making sure your calendar is reflective of you being able to put time toward any goals that you've set for yourself or others have set for you. And so in this calendar, the first, the easiest things to do is to put like standard meetings that you have on your you know, that you have on your calendar, but the must-attend meetings, not the meetings that you're optional or you're even on the list, but you know what, it has nothing to do with you, but you never say no to it. I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about the must, must, must meetings that you have to have, whether, you know, you're hosting them or you're a participant. So you put— lay those out on your calendar first. Then I would move to, all right, what are those time blocks that I want to put toward a specific goal, such as your people goal? So I do this very, very similarly with my administrative, like, office day. I have my own business, so I have to take care of my clients, you know, in the main blocks of time. But then I need time to get all my other stuff done. And I do work to where I want— I want my personal time to be completely free of any business activity. So to do that, I got— I have to get very, very focused on when I plan my time and how I plan my time. So I put certain blocks of time for administrative office work, clean out the desk, so to speak. Before I would be able to freshly go off into my personal life. And you want to do the same as well. You want to look at your calendar as well and say, what must, must— that goes back to priority— must I do, you know, to accomplish this day or this week so I can end my day and go and play pickleball like I do, or go with the family, meet some friends out, or ensure that Friday at 4 I can take off and and have my weekend without being disruptive, other than what I call 911s with my clients. But you might have 911s with work to where they might, you know, interrupt your weekend. But you've done everything in those— that goal setting and that daily prioritization to ensure. And now you've blocked your calendar to where you can ensure that by the end of the week, you've done what you need to do and you can go off and have life. Okay. So, time blocking, you know, literally means blocking periods of time. Now, let's break it down. It could be 15 minutes of your daily prioritization or goal setting. Okay. You can have a block of time for 15 minutes. It could be where you put 20-minute walk. Maybe you need to get out of the office and just, you know, get some fresh air, whether you work in an office or at home. Maybe it is where you have a critical, you know, doctor's appointment or some other personal appointment that cannot— not because you choose not to, but cannot be scheduled outside of the work time. But, you know, because— well, let me finish this first. And so you also then fill your calendar with blocks of time for those things that you, you know, you have to do. Um, and then you would have that white space for things that come up at the last minute or things that are added, um, especially by others. And now they can see that you do have some white space. But I would ensure that you have that— those blocks of time of your goals, especially when it comes to people, that if you should decide that, okay, Fridays between 12 and 4, I'm gonna block it out and it's just going to be for you know, touching base with my people, whether that's face-to-face or via phone call. But you're ensuring that— excuse me— you're ensuring that you have all of those blocks of time put on your calendar. Again, if you want it and it's important to you, you'll prioritize it and you'll do it. Okay, so consider that for your people are your number one asset goal. Now, going back to what I was saying, too often I find that, you know, even corporate, let alone entrepreneurial, but corporate leaders will put appointments on their calendar, personal appointments on their calendar that they could have scheduled outside the work time. Now, they often do that. I will do that because they want a break. They want to do it on business time, work time, as opposed to their own personal time. But again, I'm going to go take you back to priority. If you don't have time in your calendar and yet you have this people asset goal for yourself, but you're filling up your work calendar with personal appointments, well, you're losing the opportunity to use those blocks of time just like you prioritize them for your doctor's appointment or your personal appointment, for your people. And so when clients tell me they don't have time for their people, I, I, you know, I, I do it with some clients, not all my clients, but I just want to say, I want to see your calendar for the next, you know, 3 months and the past 6 months, because I'm gonna rip it apart and find all of those spaces, those blocks that were put toward things that could have been done outside of the availability of their people to where they actually did have time for their people. And I challenge you as to whether or not that's true for you as well. So consider your, your calendar of time blocks appointments that you take as seriously outside of work and use some for inside people appointments. And then when you are, you know, kind of time blocking, another key aspect of that as well is to set expectations with those around you, whether that's your team members, your peers, your bosses. Not only about your goals, but more so the expectations around, you know, your calendar, your appointments. So when it comes to meetings, set the expectations that you're going to come if it's absolutely mandatory. You know, if you specifically have a piece of the agenda, you know, set the expectation. But I'm not going to come if I'm just optional. Just so you know, if you don't see me in these meetings, that I'm CC'd, Not sent as a to, but I'm CC'd. I'm not gonna be there. So set also the expectation. So then, they're not questioning or kind of disappointed when you don't show up because you've set the expectations. Set expectations with everyone around you around how you want to manage your time because you do have this goal that you want, you need to make time for your people. So communicate that out. We talked about the sharing of your goals. When it comes to your time blocking, share that as well. There are times I'm putting on my calendar for my people and my team that I, you know, I will not and cannot compromise on. Now, if all of a sudden you have, you know, people, even your boss, challenging you on that or disrespecting that by planning meetings or that— well, that just tells you a lot about other people. But stay true to what your goal is if it's that important to you. So when it comes to overall time management for leaders, you have the time if you want the time for anything. So define those goals, set those priorities, look at them daily because they will change. And then time block your calendar and stay true to it. Now I'm making it sound really easy, you know, and making it sound just so general without all the noise that is, you know, bombarded around you. And I understand that, and I totally get that. Trust me, I do. So if you are having challenges, if you do have questions, if you are curious as to really how you could be implementing any of these tips or strategies, then be sure to book a call with me and let's talk about it. You can go to coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall and let's have a conversation about it. Let me give you some tips and strategies. Let me look at your calendar. Let me, you know, kind of challenge you on various things because again, if it's important to you, you know you'll do it. So it's just making the decision as to where do your people fit into what it is you're trying to accomplish. All right, I am so grateful that you were here with me this week on this particular episode, and I'll look forward to having you on our next episode. I'll talk to you soon. Bye!