How Do You Ensure Effective Time Management Within a Leadership Team?
Navigating the vast ocean of leadership can often feel as intricate as mastering a sophisticated clockwork mechanism, where every cog demands precise attention and synchronization. Insights from an Executive Coach and an Executive Director form the cornerstone of this article. Opening with a strategy to share weekly priorities, and concluding with an evaluation of meeting culture, explore six critical insights to sharpen your time management toolkit.
- Share Weekly Priorities
- Operate From a Strategic Standpoint
- Break Down Large Projects
- Focus On The Three Ps
- Hire The Right People
- Evaluate Meeting Culture
Share Weekly Priorities
As an executive coach, having worked with many team leaders, the one method that has been most successful regardless of industry or organization size has been the habit of sharing weekly priorities. When a leader shares his or her Top 3 Priorities for the week and asks each team member to also share their own with the group, it not only creates positive accountability but also ensures the alignment of goals and priorities. Shared documentation amongst the group keeps each team member focused and committed to the stated tasks and initiatives, and also provides visibility for the leader to ensure the team is prioritizing the highest-value work.
Operate From a Strategic Standpoint
It is easy for senior leaders in most organizations to feel as though they are often in defense mode vs. operating from a strategic standpoint. One method I have used successfully is to ask each member of the leadership team to share their top five priorities at the beginning of each week—basically, one for each day—and what they need from other team members or me to accomplish each. At the end of the week, I ask them to share their progress on these five items, any that are still outstanding, and if so, what is standing in the way of accomplishing these goals. The impact on time management is that by articulating specific priorities, each leader will work to manage their time effectively to solve a set of strategic goals vs. wading through a week of firefighting.
Break Down Large Projects
One effective method I use for ensuring time management within a leadership team is breaking down large projects into smaller, actionable tasks, with clear ownership and accountability for each step. This helps the team stay focused and prevents feeling overwhelmed.
Regular check-ins are critical to review progress, address any roadblocks, and allow for necessary re-prioritization.
I also encourage setting realistic deadlines to maintain momentum without overburdening the team. Clear communication ensures everyone is aligned, reducing unnecessary delays.
Finally, celebrating small wins along the way keeps the team motivated and engaged.
Focus On The Three Ps
All of our staff work from home, so time management is not only important—it's also challenging with all of the distractions that come with being in your home. Being a good steward of our time and resources is also important, especially working in a non-profit. I like to focus on the 3 P's of time management: Plan, Prioritize, and Perform. Plan out your week, in general, and the upcoming day(s) specifically. Clump together meetings, especially in-person meetings, by geography. Prioritize what's most important and give priority to being mission-focused. Performance is key! Focus on the task at hand and reduce distractions until the task is completed. Allocate the appropriate time needed to produce the best results.
Hire The Right People
It all begins with hiring the right person—someone with a solid work ethic and a passion for the mission or the business. Of course, most of us can get caught up in "water cooler" conversation. We've employed a codeword ("Pumpkin!") that someone will use to signal it's time to get back to work. The occasional closed-office door is effective when one needs to focus and make significant progress on a project or to-do list. Our team realizes that our personal lives are important and constantly changing, and our availability for work can be in flux. We've maintained that if we can trust our team to continue with a high level of professionalism and ongoing communication, then they can have the flexibility to be present in the other areas of their lives as needed. Trust, transparency, and accountability are essential to our successful time-management practices.
Evaluate Meeting Culture
It can be helpful to take a look at your organizational culture, especially as it relates to staff meetings. Did you inherit a meeting structure that just isn't working anymore? Try creating an anonymous feedback survey for your team, focusing specifically on improving staff meetings. Look for common themes that emerge from the survey and try to implement a new agenda that addresses the most important points. Even better, try to bring staff along in the process and encourage continual feedback and experimentation.
