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Good Leaders Respect Others’ Time
By Richard Hadden and Bill Catlette
“No man can tether time or tide”, wrote Scottish poet Robert Burns more than two hundred years ago. Today, Burns no doubt would have included women in his maxim, but we get the idea.
Of all the resources available to us in life, including our lives at work, none is more precious than time. The sad reality is that we have all the time there is – they’re not making any more of it. This is not, however, an article on time management. Asking us to comment on time management would be akin to asking former American Airlines chief Don Carty to comment on executive compensation. If we were better at managing our own time, this article would have been out three weeks ago.
Instead, it’s about how good leaders respect (and avoid wasting) the time of others.
Let’s start with everyone’s favorite workplace activity – meetings. You know the drill. The boss has a weekly staff meeting, same day, same time, needed or not, kind of like ten-year-olds view taking a bath. The boss arrives late, (apologizes, of course, but something came up), allows others to do the same, repeats key points for the benefit of those equally inconsiderate latecomers, prepares inadequately, fails to manage the time (there’s that word again), and spends half an hour relating an illustration he heard told in less than five minutes at his last Toastmaster’s meeting. (We’re not knocking Toastmasters – it’s a great organization. In fact, if you want to learn more about communicating, you should consider joining a chapter.) The staff meeting ends by spawning a series of other meetings to discuss other really important stuff.
By contrast, leaders who care about their team members, and want to enable them to do their best work, take a different view of meetings. If you want to be identified with this group, do a self-assessment of your own meeting habits, and see how you stack up against those who do it well. These folks:
- Arrive on time, start on time (no matter what) and make it abundantly clear that others are expected to do the same.
- Prepare clear objectives and if necessary, a written agenda.
- Adopt an acronym we use in our leadership seminars – PAC (for point absolutely clear). Anyone in the room may stick a fork in an overdone conversation by uttering this term.
- Keep the discussion on track, using the objectives and agenda as a guide.
- Sometimes they enlist the help of a facilitator, someone on the team who’s especially good at keeping things moving ahead and on track. They often rotate this responsibility to develop the skill among everyone in the group.
- And, they finish on time, if not a smidgeon early.
They also ask if a meeting is even needed. I sit on the board of a nonprofit organization whose chair has earned appreciation points by notifying us, on a few occasions, well in advance of a scheduled meeting, that there was simply no need to meet this time. And he’s never called a special meeting without a real need. So far, no one’s heard any objections to his respecting our time.
Training.
Good leaders don’t waste people’s time by asking them to attend training that’s anything less than top-notch. They make sure that whether the training is conducted in-house or out, by a company trainer, or an external one, it provides the necessary skill and information transfer in the best way, in the least amount of time practical, and in an environment that makes the most of everyone’s time. (For more on this, see our February, 2002 article, “Training – Your Place or Mine?”).
Coaching and performance discussions.
Harvard’s Harry Levinson has said that coaching and counseling are the most uncomfortable, avoided, and mishandled of all leadership responsibilities. And he’s right. Among the reasons – it takes time. But skilled coaches cut the time significantly, while getting more from the time they spend. Coaching is not synonymous with chatting. Good coaches prepare ahead of time by having a clear idea of the topic of the discussion, and a general idea of what they’d like to accomplish. They also “contract for time” with their coaching partner. Rather than calling someone in for what might be an interminable period of time, try this: “I know you’re busy. Do you have, say, twenty minutes, to talk about Project X? I promise that at 3:30, we’ll be finished. If we still have more to talk about, we’ll pick it up later. Can we do that?”
Tasks and Priorities
We’ve all seen the cartoon of the character doubled over in laughter, with the caption, “You want it when?” Skilled leaders recognize that most people don’t come to work and think, “Gee, I hope my boss has something for me to do today.” If they do, they probably need a new boss…or a new job. Yet every day, managers approach people with tasks they failed to plan for, as though their people had nothing else to do.
Similarly, good leaders don’t keep their people standing around waiting. As Maj. General Melvin Zais put it, “…the only reason soldiers (employees) stand around and wait is because some dumb jerk officer (manager) didn’t plan it right.”
Some managers change their “top priorities” as often as they do their underwear, and expect everyone else to cheerfully adapt, while still producing high quality work. Sure, things come up. Which is why credible leaders are especially scrupulous and considerate in making sure that, as a rule, their way of working allows people a reasonable shot at finishing one set of objectives before moving on to something else. Then, when the unexpected necessitates a sudden shift of priorities, people recognize it as the exception that it is, not the modus operandi.
Setting an example
Good leaders keep appointments, and expect others to do the same. They have a discipline about it, and usually some mechanism for recording commitments, be it a PDA, old-fashioned paper calendar, a helpful assistant, or some combination of the above. And they certainly don’t expect a pass just because they’re the boss. Remember the last time your physician was running late, and how tempted you were to send the doc a bill for wasting your time? The doctor I used to see – his appointments were nothing more than rumors. The practice I visit now is actually run like a business. Amazing.
Guarding others’ time
The best leaders we’ve seen teach and encourage others to take responsibility for guarding and managing their own time. They also serve as advocates when someone needs a little help. A manager can “go to bat” for an employee when another manager wants too much of that employee’s time. We’ve probably all benefited from a little protection from time to time, while learning the political ropes.
Taking the stage
How often have you wished a shepherd’s crook would appear from backstage to spirit away the executive who didn’t quite know when to leave the podium? Respected leaders know how to tell time when asked to speak before a group. Large meetings, with multiple speakers can easily stray from the schedule. When we’re asked to speak, we make it a practice to ask the meeting planner this simple question – If the meeting gets off schedule before our time to speak, would you prefer we speak for the allotted time, or finish at the appointed time? We would far rather leave people longing for more of what they just heard than wishing we had shut up twenty minutes sooner.
Down time
Finally, good leaders recognize that time off makes for more productive ‘time on.’ These days, when many are doing the work of more than one, it helps for managers to recognize the need to take a breather. An extra Friday afternoon off, a few days R&R, or some time to rejuvenate may be the most productive time any of us can spend.
Speaking of productive time, we’ve said enough, and you do have better things to do, don’t you? Go have a great week!
Please print the following attribution for this article: Bill Catlette and Richard Hadden, co-authors of Contented Cows Give Better Milk, help clients clobber the competition by having a focused, fired up, and capably led workforce. They deliver powerful conference keynotes and leadership training. They can be reached at 800-940-7006 (+1-904-720-0870 from outside North America) or www.ContentedCows.com.