Mike Irwin argues leaders need solitude to think clearly, but phones and constant notifications have killed it. He recommends blocking 60-90 minute thinking periods daily, designating no-meeting days, and checking email intermittently, even if some messages wait hours.
Questions this episode answers
Mike Irwin, co-author of the book Lead Yourself First.
Block 60 or 90 minutes each day for time set aside to think.
Perhaps a third of a leader's time.
You're listening to optimize with brian johnson more wisdom in less time.
My name is Mike Irwin, co author of the book Lead Yourself First Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude. Solitude has been instrumental to the effectiveness of leaders throughout history. Before the Information Age, which one could also call the Input age, leaders naturally found solitude anytime they were physically alone, when they were walking from one place to another, or while standing in line. Like a great wave that saturates everything in its path, however, handheld devices deliver immeasurable quantities of information and entertainment that now have virtually everyone staring down at their phones instead of being alone with their thoughts. Society did not make a considered choice to surrender the bulk of its time for reflection in favor of time spent reading texts and tweets. Yet with an awareness of what we have lost, each of us can choose to reclaim it. And leaders in particular, whose actions by definition affect not only themselves, have more than a choice they have an obligation. A leader has not only permission but but responsibility to seek out periods of solitude. The assumption, unless the leader says otherwise, is that she is constantly accessible, if not in person, then electronically. But the task of changing that assumption requires only an act of will. A leader can designate a certain number of workdays per month as no meeting days. A leader can mark off 60 or 90 minutes on his calendar each day for time set aside to think. A leader can make it known that she does not text and checks her email only intermittently and at certain points in the day. One really has to wonder what leaders who make a point of responding to emails all day long within minutes are otherwise doing with their time. There is, of course, a certain price to be paid for changes like these, especially in the world today. Emails will go unanswered for hours rather than minutes. Subordinates might have to wait an hour to speak to a leader rather than to do so immediately, and meetings about whatever the office tends to meet about might get pushed back a day. So be it. Scheduling a leader's time is a zero sum game, and fundamentally what a leader must decide is whether reflection and hard analytical work are important enough to warrant perhaps a third of a leader's time, or whether instead those things deserve none of it left unexplained. These changes will lead others to say that the leader is arrogant, aloof, unapproachable. But there is no reason to leave those reasons for solitude unexplained. The leader can simply make it clear in as much or as little detail as he sees fit, that doing the organization's work requires time to think, and he can bear that out and that explanation during the times when he is accessible. By providing subordinates with clear comments upon their work rather than vague ones, thoughtful answers rather than platitudes, and otherwise performing like a leader who has thought through his guiding principles rather than made them up on the fly, this course is going to be a deep dive in what does it mean to lead yourself first and how you can do so more effectively.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optymyze with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.
