By Teresa Lowry

How many times have we heard ourselves or others say there aren’t enough hours in the day? We all seem so busy. But being busy does not mean we are productive. We are often absorbed in low level tasks or worse yet nonproductive behavior falling victim to a self-engineered lack of time. However, when we have a plan, know what is important and focus on our priorities it is amazing how much we can accomplish.

IF IT IS NOT ON THE LIST IT WILL NOT GET DONE

Good leaders have a daily plan. Even if the plan is interrupted or we have one of those days where the unexpected takes over there is still significant value in the planning process. Everything needs to go on the daily plan. It all needs to be in one place. Eliminate using multiple systems, choosing instead a single system that is easy to use.

The plan must include tasks, projects, appointments, meetings, notes and other pertinent information for all facets of life. If an event, meeting, or task is not planned prepare for it not to occur. Tip: Perform least favorite task first to avoid procrastination.

BE SINGLE MINDED AND FOCUS

Good time management requires discipline, the creation of good habits and the elimination of bad habits. Patterns of thought and action develop over the course of a lifetime. They impact our quality of life and interactions. Once we become conscious of the patterns we have formed we can revisit them and make new choices. Just as we have power to create patterns of thought and action we have the power to change them.

Time mastery involves adding new habits and dropping nonproductive ones. Identify a few new habits to control and master that would give more time each day to engage in critical leadership activities like coaching, visioning and mentoring. Tip: When the task requires deep concentration alternate your focus in 30-minute increments, shifting to a lighter easier task for a mental break.

ELIMINATE TIME PARASITES

A time parasite is any event or activity that saps productive time. They can be personal, part of the everyday workday, or single events. They sap valuable and productive time. They cause interruptions requiring restarts of thought. They can become habitual and expected. Most are ones we control or are behaviors of others that we have accepted or reinforced or occur due to lack of established boundaries.

The key to managing a time parasite is to identify, diagnose and apply a strategy to it. For every time parasite there is a strategy for reduction or elimination. Some of the common time parasites are meetings, personal calls, correcting other people’ s mistakes, failing to delegate, email and web surfing.

MEA CULPA AND LESSONS LEARNED

I am going to focus on a couple of time parasites that challenged me as new leader. These fall under the adage of when I know better I do better.

Meetings. Personal confession: When I promoted into a leadership role I became responsible for convening and conducting meetings. I naively gave little thought to the art and skill of facilitating management meetings. Just set a time, place, invite people and then talk. Right? Wrong! My meetings were marathon feats of endurance that tested the attention span, patience and bladder of even the heartiest team member. Participants adjourned wondering what had been accomplished. Tips: Keep meetings to an hour. Always have an agenda and defined purpose. At the end recap and review critical items and next steps.

Personal Calls. This time parasite showed up for me under the guise of being a good parent and spouse. Calls from my child that he forgot his lunch, his math homework, his gym uniform. Calls to my spouse: what do you want for dinner, do you have a grocery list for me? A couple of these interruptions each day can add up to over an hour of lost productivity and impacted focus. In hindsight these calls were unnecessary. Leaders set the boundaries for friend and family calls at work. They control whether they respond. Added bonus. Not responding to every challenge your child has created increases the likelihood of their taking responsibility and problem solving. I remember growing up in a house where the rule was that we did not call mom or dad at work unless the house was on fire. There are positive outcomes possible if we stop taking every phone call or text from our children. In addition to increased productivity for the parent there is increased self-reliance for the child. We train our family by the behaviors we accept and the boundaries we set. Let them know that you will make uninterrupted time for them when you get home.

Productive leaders have a daily plan, focus and make good use of time at work. This in turn reduces stress and gives them more hours in the day to engage in high level leadership activities such as mentoring, team engagement, and visioning.

By Teresa Lowry

I love books and I love to read. As a child weekly trips to the library were greeted with anticipation and delight. Such a place of abundance. All those books. Later, every house I lived in contained bookshelves with stacks of books, read and unread. Bought, borrowed or gifted, each shows up at the right time. There are books on my iPad although nothing can replace the touch and feel of a book in my hands. Cracking the spine, the fresh pages, the anticipation of what’s ahead. About those fresh pages. This won’t last long. Invariably there will be smudges of chocolate on the pages. I also love chocolate.

If I really enjoy a book I want to share it with you. Books educate, entertain, and take us away. My personal favorites are the biographies of great leaders, historical novels, and all things inspirational. I am excited to combine my two passions leadership training and reading, and share with you our Aegis Learning friends, what I’m reading this month.

THE GAMBLER: HOW PENNILESS DROPOUT KIRK KERKORIAN BECAME THE
GREATEST DEAL MAKER IN CAPALIST HISTORY

The Gambler by William C. Rempel is the biography of Kirk Kerkorian the business tycoon and humanitarian. This is the rags-to-riches story of the visionary self-made billionaire who transformed the leisure industry and Las Vegas. Kerkorian exemplified so many of the attributes we teach at Aegis Learning. He was a humble leader. Described time and again as low key and unpretentious he traveled without an entourage. He drove a Ford Taurus and always paid his own way even in his hotels and casinos. He relished his personal anonymity. A generous benefactor, you will not find his name on buildings or statutes. Requesting anonymity was often one of the requirements of accepting a donation or gift from him.

Another key leadership quality was his practice of delegating to his trusted executive team. He relied on the judgment of his key people. Rempel writes that Kerkorian had come to appreciate how much more he could accomplish by delegating management decisions. As delegator in chief Kirk trusted his team to manage the details. That meant no muddied chain of command, no interference from above.

KERKORIAN AS RISK TAKER AND COURAGEOUS LEADER

The key leadership principal that appears time and again when reading about Kerkorian is that he was a fearless risk taker. Three times in twenty-five years he would build the world’s largest resort hotel in Las Vegas. His first record breaker, the International Hotel opened on July 2, 1969. The naysayers and pundits expected a flop. Kerkorian persevered. On a personal note, the progress of the International Hotel was watched closely by my family. My dad, a carpenter, was fortunate to obtain work on the construction of the International. He would come home from the site and regale us with stories about the magnitude of the project and all the fancy amenities. At 30 stories tall we could see the hotel from our nearby neighborhood. Kerkorian went on to break records and build the largest, literally “Grandest” hotels in Las Vegas two more times.

Risk taking, and risk tolerance are important leadership characteristics and skills. Effective leaders must challenge paradigms, confront difficult situations and take risks on a daily basis. Calculated risks. With each action, the leader must determine the desired outcome, identify the potential negative consequences of the action and then choose if the risk justifies the reward.

KNOW WHEN TO HOLD EM, KNOW WHEN TO FOLD EM

Effective leaders understand that all applications for courage need to be considered in a broader and more global perspective. Simply put, there are times to fight and times to keep quiet and acquiesce. Giving ground tactically on a single issue or event is not a sign of weakness. Rather it is a sign that the leader has exercised the good judgment to maintain power and credibility to use courage another day.

As the story goes, Kerkorian waged a tremendous campaign to buy Chrysler Corporation. Rempel reports Kerkorian had one of the most audacious strategies ever floated over Detroit: a buyout that would take the nation’s number three automaker private. The company fought him. Ultimately, he did not get the takeover he had hoped for. One of Kirk’s most enduring and endearing qualities was his limited capacity for grudges. He didn’t collect them. “Its business” he would say and move on.

SO MUCH MORE

I highly recommend The Gambler. Yes, much of the story involves my home city of Las Vegas but there is so much more. Kerkorian’s humble beginnings, years as a World War II pilot and airline owner provide the backdrop for the development of a courageous leader and entrepreneur. His interactions with Howard Hughes, Ted Turner, Lee Iacocca and other visionaries make for a fascinating and educational read.