My morning ritual consists of a really good cup of coffee and a really good book. And I’m typically reading on the topics of communication, leadership, executive presence, and it’s all to continue to better myself, bring new ideas to my clients, and to you. And that’s what I’ve got today.
Out of the book “The Daily Drucker” there was a statement that resonated, and it was, “all effective executives have one thing in common – they get the right things done.” And I thought, I want to be an effective executive. Am I getting the right things done? How do I do that?
It went on to share five different practices, two of which I want to share with you. The first one was that effective executives know where they spend their time. I learned that way back, 30 plus years ago, when I think I was a junior in college. I remember was getting close to finals week and I was in panic mode; I was taking 18 units, I had a part-time job, an internship, and I was executive board on a sorority.
And I’m thinking, I don’t have enough time to get all of this done. But I sat down and that was the first time I ever went through the exercise of writing out and penciling out the calendar, my week – how much time was it going to take me to write this paper, study for this exam, work, go volunteer, whatever those things were. And after I sat down and did that exercise, I saw I had enough time.
In fact, there were spots where I had more time than I realized. So I have carried that practice on, even until literally right now. At the end of every week, I look ahead to the week and to the following week, and I write into my calendar all the things for my task list, all the projects that I need to be working on, times when I’m going to be away, times when I’m going to be doing personal things. It all gets put in there. So at the end of every day, I can see exactly where I spent my time and know how to adjust accordingly for the next day.
But the second thing, and I want to read it, is, “they concentrate on performance that moves the needle.” That’s a big one for me. That was the extra little push that I needed. Because even if I’m calendaring things in, even if I know where I spend my time, am I spending my time on the right things, the things are going to actually move my business or my personal endeavors forward?
We can have plenty of things on our task list, but if we’re not penciling in and calendaring the things that are really going to make a difference, we may be efficient, but how effective are we?
And that’s the key to being an effective executive. It’s not about spending the most time, it’s about spending the time on things that work. So as you look ahead on how to finish strong, whether it’s the month, the quarter, the year, wherever you’re at, start to eliminate what’s unnecessary.
Get rid of those things that may not need to be there, that might be wasting some time for you, know where your time is being spent, eliminate what you don’t need, and then double down on what is absolutely necessary to move things forward in the direction that you choose!