Recently I was meeting with a group of high potential leaders who, over the past few months, have devoted a considerable amount of time to their leadership development.  They’ve learned about and applied some of the best concepts, models and tools that those who have studied leadership have to offer.  The results they have achieved reflect the success they’ve had in this most recent leg of their leadership journey.   But while they continue to hone their newly acquired skills and grow their knowledge what will be their focus for the next year?   To jump start their thinking, I asked them a question that Stephen Covey asks in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; i.e., “What one thing could you do (that you aren’t doing now) that if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your business and professional life?” 

Now the answers to this question were as varied as there are individuals in this group.   Their responses ranged from building more effective relationships to working more strategically.  These varied responses, however, all had one thing in common.  In order to make this positive difference, each one was going to have to make the time to devote to these important tasks and not give in to the demands of the frequent crises or “fires” that keep cropping up and stealing their time. It also meant that they must eliminate activities that are not important and not really urgent.

The discussion naturally led to figuring out some strategies for freeing-up time to focus on what’s really important, but somehow keeps getting put off because it doesn’t seem urgent.  Here are a few time management strategies this group has decided to implement:

• Make sure to clarify your most important goals and the expectations of your manager
• Minimize/eliminate time spent on those tasks that will not contribute to attaining those goals
• Develop your people and delegate more
• Carve out a specific time everyday when you can devote time to work on the important, but not-urgent tasks without interruption

Now certainly this isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s a good start.  Perhaps you could add to this list.  What time management strategies have you employed to stay focused on what’s most important and maximize the contributions you make to your organization.

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