{"id":4255,"date":"2014-11-27T17:19:27","date_gmt":"2014-11-27T23:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=4255"},"modified":"2014-11-28T07:01:47","modified_gmt":"2014-11-28T13:01:47","slug":"for-leaders-its-not-about-time-its-about-how-you-think-about-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2014\/11\/27\/for-leaders-its-not-about-time-its-about-how-you-think-about-time\/","title":{"rendered":"For Leaders, It\u2019s Not About Time; It\u2019s About How You Think About Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

When people ask me about the biggest leadership lesson I\u2019ve learned, my mind quickly races back to a critical moment fairly early in my leadership.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was when I learned that the effectiveness of my leadership was tied to how I think about time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had recently been moved up into my first middle manager position in a medium-sized company.<\/p>\n

Those early days overwhelmed me. I couldn\u2019t seem to get anything done on time.<\/p>\n

Everyone was upset with me. The sales department was upset with me. The clients were upset with me. My staff was upset with me.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, one person who was not<\/em> upset with me, was my boss. Taking me aside one day, he told me that if I was going to find success I would need to start thinking about time the way a leader does.<\/p>\n

He would instill in me three crucial ways leaders think about time:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Time is the great equalizer; we all receive the same 24 hours every day<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cScott, you might not have the same talent as all other leaders,\u201d he would say, \u201cYou might not have the same level of financial resources. But I can guarantee that you started today with the same 24 hours as every other leader in the world. Learn to master your time.\u201d<\/p>\n

That simple, but profound starting point, was huge.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Leaders don\u2019t merely manage time; they invest it<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s what great leaders know, Scott,\u201d he would go on. \u201cTime is not something to be managed. It\u2019s a precious resource to be invested.\u201d<\/p>\n

That took my thinking from \u201cmanagement\u201d to \u201cleadership\u201d.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Leaders align time with values and priorities<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOne reason you\u2019ve been struggling is that you\u2019ve bought into the \u2018first things first\u2019 mindset,\u201d he would say. \u201cLeader don\u2019t think that way. They think, \u2018IMPORTANT things first.\u201d<\/p>\n

I learned that leaders must be crystal clear on values and strategic priorities, and then drive their time investments through those priorities.<\/p>\n

If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by all that\u2019s on your plate, perhaps it\u2019s not about your time. It could be how you think about your time.<\/p>\n

Develop leadership thinking habits about time.<\/p>\n

Because the effectiveness of your leadership is tied to how you think about time.<\/p>\n

What have you learned about how leaders think about time?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When people ask me about the biggest leadership lesson I\u2019ve learned, my mind quickly races back to a critical moment fairly early in my leadership. It was when I learned that the effectiveness of my leadership was tied to how I think about time. I had recently been moved up into my first middle manager…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,738,478,7,581],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership","category-self-assessment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4255"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4260,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions\/4260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}