Maximizing your time as a leader is vital to long-term growth and success. You can NOT beat time, but you CAN cheat it; finding a pathway to empower yourself and others along the way and still have room for consistent growth.
It Starts with Clarity.
Clearing out the thousands of daily emails into folders, and clicking the unsubscribe button to emails that don’t serve us is a physical representation of clearing out the mental clutter. We have to do this across the board with our daily tasks. Prioritize and set routines that help us focus on consistency and give us a daily roadmap.
Hiring leaders that live our core 4 values helps focus energy toward our priorities so each of us don’t have to be aware of every single little detail that is going on in the organization. Having a team that buys into the culture and values is pivotal, because we know the things we don’t directly interact with will still be handled in a way that is consistent with our mission and vision as a whole. There is no need to waste your time micromanaging because you have a trusted team that clears a path for you to focus on better use of your time.
As a leader with ADHD, I don’t see it as a hindrance, I recognize it as a gift. ADHD enables me to recognize what systems work with the way that my brain is wired so that I can function efficiently on a daily basis. That starts with a clear structure and routines. Having a plan in place is priority one for every task throughout the day. And having a regiment that I follow consistently from my early morning workouts to my daily checklists, to scheduling 7-8 hours of sleep at night gives me the fundamental clarity I need to grow and be better every day.
Self Improvement.
This is a huge one! So many people put in the bare minimum. They invest just enough. So it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to push yourself towards excellence. Break it down and take small steps every day. Putting in an extra hour a day means, over time, you’re pulling so far ahead of the rest of the pack.
Taking an hour or two to yourself and prioritizing self improvement every day is a game-changer. Start with taking time to read and journal every day. We read to think and grow, not to retain information. And we write to get clarity. When we put those two things into our daily routines, it’s one of the strongest mindfulness practices that enable us to lead with consistency and have the energy to make strong leadership decisions.
Unlearning to Relearn.
Just because you’re profitable doesn’t mean you’re running a good enterprise. For those of us who have spent time in the same industry for a decade or more, we have been taught things that don’t work anymore. If we don’t evolve because we are stuck in the comfortable ways of the past, we’re just wasting our time, and the time of those we serve.
Things make sense until there’s a crisis. And then we have to adapt to change. Think of the national crises we’ve faced as a country; whether fiscal, political, social or health related. If we don’t grow and learn as an organization, we die.
There are great things that have come from times of crisis. We’ve learned the value of social responsibility, growing people, developing people, and getting them to engage.
50% of people in the US were born in 1981 or after. That means the old guard is faced with new thinking and new challenges. Bring people with new thoughts and perspectives to the table. Lean into the things you don’t understand or don’t like so you can understand them more. Be open to things that make you uncomfortable. Because then you are functioning in the opportunity zone, instead of the comfort zone. And the comfort zone is a waste of time.