Every day, leaders make informed decisions about how to allocate resources so their organization can achieve its goals.
They do this with the information they have on-hand, previous experience in similar situations, the recommendations of colleagues, and their ability to prioritize what needs attention based on a project’s deadline, level of importance, and amount of impact it has on the business.
One thing leaders can overlook, though, is that time—specifically their time—is as valuable of a resource as people, money, and other business assets.
To not get trapped in an endless cycle of activities that aren’t aligned to desired results, leaders have to know themselves and how they can bring the most value to their organization. Through this heightened sense of self-awareness, leaders can develop tailored strategies to work smarter, not harder, to be the most productive and effective version of themselves.
So how can leaders be their most productive? Here’s what works for me.
Lead by example: When you consistently lead with authenticity, you garner trust and respect because people know what to expect from you. It’s important for leaders to model and embody the behavior they expect from others because it shows you’re a person of your word and provides an example for team members to follow. For instance, if you expect prompt responsiveness by e-mail, don’t let your hectic travel schedule and intense series of strategy meetings keep you from responding promptly.
Productivity Tip: Reflect on the interpersonal challenges you experience in your leadership role and be sure you don’t fall victim to the same pitfalls you warn your team against. If you show them how you do it, they’ll work hard to give you the same courtesy.
Remember that what you do today enables your plans for tomorrow: If leaders waited until all their “ducks were in a row” before making a decision or moving an initiative forward, nothing would get done. As leaders, you’re not always afforded the luxury of your strategy being crystal clear and approved before needing to implement some aspect of it or making a decision that affects your bottom line. It’s important to remember that while you’re planning for the future, you still have to maintain a bias toward action and pursue streams of work that can help your business that day, and every day.
Productivity Tip: Keep an inventory of how you spend your time in the categories of thinking/weighing options, planning, and doing/making decisions. You must have a good mix of all three.
Replicate what’s working, learn from what’s not: There’s a reason no one likes to reinvent the wheel—the wheel already works! Coming up with the next big idea can take a lot of work and doesn’t leverage what you already know is working. Just as businesses have to scale their product or services to be successful, leaders have to scale what’s already working within their scope of responsibility, too.
Productivity Tip: Try not to take on the role of researcher and decision-maker. Get the data to come to you by dividing the workload among your team. Then use your big picture skills to synthesize the compiled data and create a clear plan moving forward.
Share and celebrate success: We all work hard and we all have the same number of hours in the day. Even with the leadership pressures of making your numbers and meeting your objectives, it’s important for leaders to do things for themselves and their teams that will keep productivity going strong. Periodically, we have to remind ourselves and our people why the work we do is important, recognize exemplary performance, and celebrate group success.
Productivity Tip: In addition to monthly business updates, think about holding quarterly “all-hands” meetings. These can be a combination of informative and celebratory, and are a great way to bring people together for public recognition.
Never stop learning: Author Dan Gilbert said, “Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished.” With each step of the corporate ladder, leaders can rise to the new expectations and challenges they face by dedicating themselves to their personal and professional development. Ultimately, the more leaders develop their understanding of themselves and others, the more effective and productive they will be.
Productivity Tip: Avoid thinking about continuing education opportunities in terms of just your industry or discipline. Seek out opportunities that assess your emotional, cognitive, and behavioral preferences and explore how these manifest in various business constructs such as teams and leadership.
Contrary to popular belief, to be an effective and productive leader you don’t need to have mastered a certain set of management skills. Rather, leadership effectiveness is about acknowledging what matters to you as a person and leading in alignment with those values.
Basically, who you are and how you lead go hand-in-hand.
Similarly, understanding your capabilities, the areas where we excel and those where we are less strong, helps us to develop strategies for our personal and professional growth. From there, we can develop strategies that enable our leadership skills to meet the demands of our environment and be our most productive selves.
As an innovative leader and 25-year veteran of the Learning and Development industry, Lisa Fagan has designed and executed alliance programs and client advisory boards, built and managed global sales teams, and revamped alternate distribution channels. Previously, Fagan was president of the Board of Directors of ISA – The Association of Learning Providers. At Insights, Fagan is the Global Head of Learning Experience and enables outstanding learning experiences for individuals, teams, leaders, and organizations.
