How you use your time as an executive working your business will seriously impact how you relate to your business.
Without putting intentional time towards strategic work, the daily maintenance of the business will always take precedent. This is why using your time to do both is so vitally important.
We often hear from executives that they don’t have time to spend strategically on the business and it’s often one of their biggest pain points, striking the balance between working IN and ON the business.
Great leaders spend time planning for what comes next not just what’s right in front of them. The answer is simple but not easy. In today’s video, Jaci walks you through how to make time for strategy and transform your calendar from a series of to-dos to opportunities for business growth.
Hi, I’m Jaci, an executive coach with Transcend, and I’m here to talk to you about how you can make the biggest impact with your time within your business.
We often hear from executives that they don’t have time to spend strategically on the business. We know that one of the biggest pain points for executives is finding that balance of working in the business and on the business, and that’s because, quite frankly, the daily maintenance of the business will always take precedence unless we intentionally plan time to be strategic.
We know that spending that time intentionally looking forward and planning for the future of the business is going to be one of the most beneficial tasks that you do as an executive. We know that the answer is simple, but it’s not easy to set recurring times on your calendar. I know that might seem like a no-brainer and you probably are already doing that or some of are already doing that, but I’m going to make a bet that often that time is overrun by other meetings or interrupted by someone coming into your office or calling you on the phone or we just don’t honor it. We know that when we’re not honoring that time, we’re actually cheating the business and our team from important things, right?
We want to make sure that they have the necessary information to drive in and maintain engagement, to help sustain the organization well into the future, to ensure that we are becoming innovative and creative, and viable and so we want to make sure that we’re spending that time and honoring that time. Remember, the bottom line is that this time isn’t for you. This time is for the business and for your team. Treat it like it would be a meeting with another executive or a CEO or an important client. That’s how important this time is.
So how do we do this? Well, it’s simple, but we often don’t do it, right? So again, set some blocked, recurring time on your calendar. Make sure that it’s in there as a meeting, just like any other meeting would be. If you have to move it because of priorities within the business, that’s fine, but just make sure that you don’t let it go and delete it. Also, make sure that you’re spending some time reflecting and planning in your week. So we recommend to our clients that they spend time either on Sunday night or Monday morning to reflect back on the week and for the week ahead. This helps you to become more intentional with the strategic time that you already have placed on your calendar. Then lastly, make sure that whatever time you’re spending strategically is super intentional about what it is you’re going to be doing. What I mean by that is, are you going to be analyzing the current strategy and determining where you can shore up some weaknesses or take advantage of some opportunities? Are you going to be analyzing your talent and assessing talent for the future of the organization? Are you going to be looking at how you can brainstorm new innovations or look at processes and procedures to make sure that there’s more efficiency and effectiveness within your business? Whatever it is, this time is super valuable. It’s super-valuable to you, super valuable to the business, and also to your team, and it’s also sure to be inspiring.
