How Managers Can Make Time for More Strategic Work
As we get more senior in our career we have the opportunity to shift from executing to strategizing a bit more. For some, this is a welcome opportunity to flex their big picture strengths. For others, it’s new territory as they are a master “doer”. In either case, I constantly see clients who struggle to figure out how to make the time to get this important strategic thinking work done. Instead they get stuck doing the same executional tasks they always have which becomes frustration and eats at their motivation.
One of the frameworks I share that can help you overcome these challenges is The Eisenhower Matrix. And yes it’s named after that Eisenhower (President Eisenhower).
The Eisenhower Matrix is a 2-by-2 chart that breaks down our work into two labels: Urgency vs. Importance. An urgent task is one with an imminent deadline. A non-urgent task either has a longer deadline or no specified deadline. An important task is one that either has a big impact or requires your unique skill set. An unimportant task has a small impact or doesn’t require your specific skills. Based on the Eisenhower Matrix, tasks can be broken down into 4 categories: Do it, Schedule it, Delegate it, Skip it.
So what gets in the way of people trying to make space for this higher level work? There are a few different challenges that crop up.
DELEGATE IT OR SKIP IT
The first challenge is that people are spending too much time on less value-add work that could be either deprioritized or delegated. Time is a finite resource and that means we can’t follow every whim and idea simultaneously. As a manager or senior leader, your job is to ruthlessly prioritize and stay focused on the tasks that are going to move the needle on your most important goals. When you or your team members are working on tasks that have little impact or require little specialized skill, you are wasting resources. This work should be delegated to those with less specialized skills either in-house or outsourced or it should be deprioritized altogether.
A common challenge that stems from the first, is that people lack the time and focus needed to train others so the task can be delegated. In order to delegate and move things off your plate you first need to invest upfront time to train a person so they can take on the new task. This is where many folks get stuck because they take too much of a short term lens. Yes, it will not save you time initially to delegate a task than if you did it yourself. The goal is to save you time long term.
When it comes time to train someone on a new task, think about what you actually need to train them. There are some new approaches to training that will cost you way less time to get the ball rolling. Try using Loom to film yourself screen sharing and going through the task so they have a video they can reference. You can also use Scribe which will record your screen as you walk through the task and then translate that into a written SOP with screenshots. Alternatively, I had a client who had their team member create the written SOP as part of their training which was a win-win for both of them. The team member took a stab at the first draft, and then the manager was able to edit and revise which was a quicker process for them.
SCHEDULE IT
Another challenge that prevents people from engaging in higher level strategic work is that they lack dedicated time to focus on that task. Per the Eisenhower Matrix, this is work that needs to be scheduled because it often lacks an urgent deadline thus resulting in it always getting bumped like Matt Damon on Jimmy Kimmel.
To rectify this, I encourage my clients to proactively block out time on their calendar so there is a more firm intention to do the work. To ensure that this blocked work time gets prioritized it helps to do a few more things. First, identify the time of day you are most likely to have the energy to focus on a task like this. If this is a difficult task and you keep scheduling time at a point in your day when you have the least amount of energy and or attention, it's no wonder the work doesn’t get done. I see this often with clients who try to assign an hour at the very end of their day for this work and then feel too tired, a meeting runs over, or emails in their inbox call their name and then “poof”, time disappears.
Once you have set aside the right time of day to work on the task, the next thing you should do to set yourself up for success is to spend 5 minutes thinking through what your goal is for that time. Often, a lack of clarity around what the end result should look like results in an unproductive session or engaging in procrastination. It’s harder to begin when you don’t have a destination in mind. Additionally, sometimes the whole process is a bit amorphous which can make it difficult to figure out where to start. To overcome that obstacle, spend a few minutes breaking down the task into smaller parts and give yourself a clear place to start. Once you address these barriers, you will find you are more successful in carving out the time and productively using that time.
Your success as you move up the career ladder increasingly will depend on your ability to engage in more strategic thinking. By using the Eisenhower Matrix and the associated techniques to make more intentional space for this type of work, you will be more successful in your role.
If you or your team could use more support in navigating how to Delegate more effectively, reach out to learn more about both my coaching programs and signature workshops for leaders & teams.
