There are many reasons and excuses that people give for not being able to lead effectively. A common one is lack of time. Yes, leading takes time, lots of it. It is a challenge when most of us are busy doing what is urgent and important. Most ‘leadership’ issues are important, but due to their relative lack of urgency, many are put off until there is more time. And, you guessed it, there is never ‘more time’ so leadership stuff doesn’t get done, and before we know it we have big problems.
What if I said to you that making time to lead is one of the most important responsibilities of a leader? What I mean by that is that it is vitally important that leaders are superb at managing their time so they can do all of the urgent and important things as well as the leadership stuff. Great leaders make sure that they are great time managers, leaving time and head space to think about, and do, leading.
How well do you manage your time? In my experience as a consultant, 100% of people say that they wish they were better at it! They realise how important it is, but still lack the ability to fit everything they want to get done in the day, week, month or quarter.
One answer is – have a system. Here’s a simple one that works and will ‘make time’ for your leadership duties. It’s called BOPAD.
Braindump – everything in you head onto a blank sheet.
Organise – what you have written into logical groups, specifying a task or action for each point.
Prioritise – list the tasks in order of priority.
Allocate – time in your diary for when you will do each task – be realistic with your estimate of time required.
Do – take action, don’t procrastinate.
Isn’t it time you made time to lead?