My eighth Key to an “A” is allocation, specifically the allocation of a leader’s most precious resource, time. Time management is a major challenge for leaders. Too few realize time is both a leader’s most valuable resource and a leader’s scarcest resource. In reading this sentence, time passed; it can’t be regained.
Many people spend their time; too few invest it. Leaders must invest and do so wisely. Before they can do so, they need to know how they use their time. If detailed records were kept, leaders would be astonished at how little time is spent leading versus the amount of time spent on ceremonial, urgent but unimportant, and trivial matters.
If you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself playing Whac-A-Mole at a carnival. As soon as you complete one task, three more will appear on your to do list. And the number of people adding things to your list will grow exponentially over time. Many times you’ll feel like screaming, “Time out!” However, time’s flying by; there’s no stopping it; there aren’t time outs in leadership. It’s 24/7/365.25. Often you’ll identify with Sisyphus, from Greek mythology, who was condemned to repeat forever a meaningless task, pushing a huge boulder up a mountain, only to watch it roll down again. Leadership isn’t meaningless, but it is never ending. So, cinch up your belt and get on with the climb.
How do you maximize the return on your investment of time? Be disciplined and learn when and how to decline invitations and requests. Warren Buffett said, “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”[i] Prioritize! Don’t let urgent things crowd out important things.
The adage, “No good deed goes unpunished,” applies to how you allocate your time. If, at the outset, you are available to meet with everyone, then when you learn to say no, you’ll come across as inconsistent, insensitive, and insincere.
I wish I’d followed Theodore Roosevelt’s approach: “In Albany, Roosevelt scheduled every moment of his day with quick military precision, allotting the scores of daily petitioners specific time slots of five or ten minutes. No sooner had the visitor entered the room than the governor jumped up from behind his desk to greet him. ‘I am delighted to see you,’ he began, warmly clasping the visitor’s hand. During these sessions, Roosevelt remained ‘ever on his feet,’ pacing restlessly back and forth, encouraging immediate discussion of ‘the meat’ of the subject. Listening intently, he rapidly absorbed whether he would accede to the request, take it ‘under advisement,’ or regret that he had to say no. Once the decision was rendered, the visitor was gently ushered out of the office with hardly a slack moment before the next visitor entered.”[ii]
You must be realistic regarding what you can accomplish in a given time frame. People who are newly appointed to positions of leadership believe they should increase the pace of the organization. Guilty as charged! When I became UA’s chancellor. I wanted to speed things up. I should have been careful and remembered that haste makes waste. Don’t become a leader who moves too quickly, outpaces followers, looks back and cannot even see them. Heifetz and Linsky pointed out the need to pace change at a rate followers can stand.[iii]
An organization needs to learn to crawl before it can walk, walk before it can jog, jog before it can run, and run before it can race. Take it from me. I needed to be patient and realistic. Take time to do it right the first time and avoid wasting time re-doing what you did in haste. After all, the tortoise won the race, not the hare.
In addition to preparing a “To Do” list, prepare a “Don’t Do” list. When it was announced that I’d be UA’s chancellor, friends who were university presidents or chancellors contacted me and congratulated me. Several suggested something to include in my “Don’t Do” list: don’t get involved in campus parking issues. Nothing good will come of a leader getting involved in doing things others in the organization are paid to handle. Regarding parking, there’ll be no shortage of complaints from students, faculty, trustees, donors, parents, and campus visitors. Let someone else handle them.
To maximize productivity, leaders need to be Archimedean and leverage everything they do. Make time count for more than one thing. As chancellor, I leveraged my associations with students. In speeches and meetings with prospective donors, I shared students’ stories. Everyone loved hearing stories about students. Getting to know students not only led to stories I shared in speeches and one-on-one interactions, they also shaped my priorities as chancellor.
A better word than allocation for my eighth Key to an “A” is prioritize, but it begins with “P”. Know your priorities and stick to them until conditions change, then revise the priorities. The key to this Key is discipline—tough-minded, stubborn, persistent discipline.
In my second year as chancellor, my executive assistant, who worked with Bill Clinton when he was governor, said, “I’ve never seen anyone stay on message the way you do. Bill Clinton was good, but you’re better.” My response was, “It’s easy. I have only one message: make the State of Arkansas great by making the University of Arkansas great.”
Next: Keys to “A”s in Leadership–Part VI (Affirmation)
[i] See https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-says-no-more-210000835.html.
[ii] Doris Kearns Goodwin, Leadership in Turbulent Times, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 2018, p. 155.
[iii] Ronald A. Heifetz and Martin Linsky, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Change, Harvard Business Review Press, Boston, MA, 2017, pp. 116-120.
