Do you sometimes find your self being consumed by busy work? Or a runaway schedule that keeps you from spending time on high-impact leadership activities? Activities that you know will move the performance needle, but you just can’t get too? If you have been following my content over the years, I’m sure you’ve picked up on a common theme – one of the biggest leadership challenges is making time to reinforce fundamentals. Having been a busy CEO I know how difficult it can be to make time for activities that we know are important to develop a high-performing organization. But in the real-world time can get away from us. Our hyper busy days are filled with meetings, massive amounts of digital communication, and constantly shifting priorities that consume a lot of our leadership capacity – our time.
When working with leaders on time management I often suggest that we think about our time as leadership capital. Making decisions about how best to invest the firm’s capital requires a thoughtful approach to maximize the return. Our time is no different, like capital we only have so much of it, and we want to invest it in as many high-impact activities as possible. So that brings us to the title of this Fundamental Focus – How Are You Investing Your Leadership Capital?
Although making capital decisions and leadership decisions are similar in wanting to optimize returns, executing them is very different. Capital decisions require time, data, and collaboration with others. But leadership decisions are often made in the moment with changing dynamics and adversity. It makes focusing on fundamentals more challenging. For example, we may start the quarter with good intentions to stick to a strategic plan or form new habits, but the strong magnetic forces of day-to-day activities pull us onto the “rails of chaos”. Then, as the quarter comes to end, we realize how much time we spent on low-impact activities, and how little time we spent doing the things that really move the needle – the fundamentals that anchor our organizations.
Every leader’s situation is different, and as such the fundamentals that are important to drive success are different. But for the sake of providing some examples, I have identified three fundamentals that tend to be under-invested even though we know how important they are. These three high-impact activities, if consistently reinforced, will deliver huge returns!
This is an obvious one, but leaders often get squeezed and find it hard to fit in. Staying connected to your team is really, really, important. It enables leaders to keep a pulse on their organizations, and it helps the team connect with your vision and priorities. A few suggestions on how to make sure you are consistently investing in time with your people:
Progress and transformation come from a well-thought out strategy. But having a strategy is one thing, executing is another. Much time and effort goes into developing a strategic plan, but then somewhere between planning and execution things tend to get off track. Keeping a strategy on track requires consistent investment of leadership time. Some suggestions how to do that:
Leadership is a lifelong learning process – plain and simple. The environments we lead in our very dynamic and evolving, and there is always more to learn. Investing time in your own professional growth will deliver incremental returns and prepare you for what is to come. Some suggestions on how to invest your time in professional development:
A suggestion – make time to think about how you are investing your leadership capital? What activities are you over and under investing in? What are the 2-3 fundamentals that are critical to your success? With awareness, good planning, and discipline we can develop better leadership habits. Habits that reinforce the fundamentals that will help us be the best leaders we can be.
Good luck improving your return on Leadership Capital! Cheers to your continued success!
As a Leadership Advisor Joe Corona partners with executives to expand their capacity to develop high performing teams and cultures. Learn more about advisory services at: