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“Being a Productive Leader”

-One Leader’s Perspective

By Greg L. Thomas

The phone rings again, emails constantly arrive, voicemail messages are waiting, associates ask for some of our time, meetings are scheduled, memos need to be written, messages need to be answered, our family needs our time, our friends ask for our assistance and at the end of the day we hope to have a little bit of time left for ourselves! We are being “pulled” in many directions and time is considered by many as “a precious commodity”. Or is it? In this article, I would like to discuss how we can become a more productive leader. In many surveys, the following activities are commonly listed by business people as their greatest time wasters.

telephone trying do too much crisis management

unclear objectives meetings being disorganized

lack of priorities can’t seem to say “no” poor planning

procrastination too much email voicemail

drop-in visitors a messy desk ineffective delegation

paperwork the Internet office politics

The very first thing we must do is to realize and accept a harsh reality…

“There is not now enough time, nor will there ever be enough time to do all the valuable and worthwhile things in your life.”

This is a fact we must accept! Think about all the books you would like to read, places to travel, things to experience, skills you would like to develop and hobbies you would like to expand. It is virtually impossible to do them all in one lifetime. And it is for this reason that we must stop feeling guilty about not doing certain tasks and take the time to sort through our real priorities in life. We are responsible for our own success and personal achievement and part of this responsibility includes how we manage our time. If we don’t take control of our schedule and time, it will take control of us. We must take the lead in how we are using the 24 hours of a day. All of us have too many “targets” we are aiming for, and this causes various problems. Allow me to tell you about an old fable…

A wise and aged archer was training two young warriors in his trade. High above them in a tree was a bull’s-eye target. Each young warrior took an arrow from his quiver, steadied it in his bow and aimed. They were then asked to describe everything they could see. The first said, “I see the sky, clouds, tree, leaves, branches and the target.” The wise old archer told him to put down his bow. The second said, “I see only the target.” He was told to shoot and his arrow struck the center of the bull’s-eye. The first lad had too many targets in his mind and he was not focused on what was important. The second lad had a single target and his focus was intense and accurate. Yes, our lives are far too complicated to have only one target or even a few. However, most of us have lost our focus on what we consider the significant things of life because we have mentally established too many targets! How do we focus on the valuable things that we treasure the most since our precious time is limited?

There are basically two main activities that consume most of our time. I call these the “HIPAYS” and the “LOPAYS”. The HIPAYS are the high payoff activities we perform that are directly related to our major life goals. These often risky activities may be difficult or unpleasant to perform and typically can’t be delegated to others. On the other hand, LOPAYS are the low payoff activities we perform that are not directly related to our major life goals. We may consider them somewhat important but they offer a small payoff for the amount of time we spend on them. LOPAYS tend to be comfortable and routine activities that eat up a lot of time and can often be delegated to others. We continue to do them because we think they are necessary for us to do and perhaps they have become an obsolete habit. Since we are “creatures of habit”, we have a tendency to do wasteful things perpetually without questioning why we do them, or if they are even effective.

The first step in reclaiming the valuable and limited amount of time we have is separating the HIPAYS from the LOPAYS in our daily routine. You may say…I don’t have enough time now and you want me to spend a few hours doing this? Believe me, this is time well spent! Consider how much time even a little refocusing of what we do can save. Let’s say you discover that a LOPAY or two can be delegated or eliminated and will save you only 15 minutes per day, seven days per week. That action will save you a total of 5,475 minutes in a year and that equals over 91 hours, or 2 ¼ forty-hour work weeks per year! What could you do if you had 2 extra weeks per year to do the things you really want to do? Here are some other examples of how much time we can reclaim…

Saving only 30 minutes per day would achieve the equivalent of 4 ½ forty-hour work weeks per year extra!

Saving only 60 minutes per day would achieve the equivalent of 9 forty-hour work weeks per year extra!

So you see that separating the HIPAY from the LOPAY activities can quickly equal a lot of redeemed time for the truly important things in life. But before you begin your evaluation, please don’t confuse effectiveness with efficiency! We may be highly efficient people who do accurate work right the first time! However, that doesn’t mean it is important to our major goals or even a HIPAY activity. On the other hand, effectiveness isn’t merely doing things right, it is doing the important things right! This is why we should occasionally be asking ourselves, “is what I am doing right now the most effective way to use this time?”

When you want to get something essential done, you usually schedule an appointment or place it at the top of your “to-do” list. You set up appointments with your doctor, auto mechanic, child’s teacher, dentist, clients or customers. An appointment is simply an agreement to meet with someone at a certain time. You probably write it down or mark it on a calendar. The next time you see a need to get an essential HIPAY activity started or completed, make an appointment with yourself! Write it on your calendar and when the time arrives, keep the appointment with yourself as you would any other and get the job done. Give yourself enough time to do it. As consultant Jeffrey Mayer writes, “Most of us have a tendency to underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete something that seems easy, and to overestimate how much time it will take to complete something that looks difficult.” Mayer also advises, “Give yourself more time than you think you’ll need to finish the work. If you estimate it will take fifteen minutes, allocate a half hour; if you need an hour, give yourself two. It’ll make your life much easier, less hectic and will take the pressure off.”

Is there a risk to separate the HIPAY from the LOPAY activities and begin to delegate or eliminate the LOPAYS? You bet there is, but that is the price we pay for leadership! As humans, we are motivated by a desire to be liked, needed and respected. This is a good trait in the right balance. Again, the harsh reality is that we can’t do everything or be there for everyone so we must learn to say “no” to certain activities and not be manipulated by guilt. To say “no” to LOPAYS could offend some people and they may not like you. I can assure you that some of them will attempt to make you feel guilty for not doing what they want to do with your time. However, remember that if you do all the LOPAYS, there is not much time left for your HIPAYS and then we are in a proverbial “rut”. The answer lies in who are the most important people in our life! Who are those we don’t want to overlook like our family, loved ones, closest friends or working associates? We can’t please everybody but we can please the ones who are most important to us. We can reduce the number of targets we have mentally established and reclaim time for the significant things that bring us fulfillment.

In conclusion, remember the leader’s credo regarding time. “There is not now enough time, nor will there ever be enough time to do all the valuable and worthwhile things in your life. Time is indeed precious and limited. Once it is gone we can’t get it back. It is our own personal goals and values that should prod us to use our time wisely and effectively. It has been said that people without goals are used by those who have them. This is certainly true of how we use our time. Focus your thinking on the HIPAYS and hit the important targets!

Comments to: editor@leadingtoday.org

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About the author:

Greg has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience within the electrical manufacturing industry. Some of his positions have included being a National Sales Manager, National Marketing Manager and Regional Sales Manager. He also has an extensive 35 years experience in public speaking and has written articles for various publications. Greg has a Master of Arts degree in Leadership from Bellevue University, where he has served as an adjunct professor. He is the founder of weLEAD Incorporated, a nonprofit organization chartered to promote personal and organizational leadership. Greg's personal site is located at http://www.greglthomas.info

References:

Mayer, J. (1990). If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over? New York: Fireside (Simon & Schuster).