In a recent session with a group of leaders, I spoke about LEADING and LEVERAGING your time.
Several people were surprised by our approach. They expected a session filled with tips, tactics, and strategies. All of which ARE very important and needful.
However, the thing about our approach to time management is we first peel the layers of the onion to the CORE to make sure we are working on the RIGHT and BEST things.
Time is our greatest RESOURCE. Is it also a great EQUALIZER. We all have 24 hours in a day, whether a senior executive, a mid-level manager, or an individual contributor.
During the recent session, I started by laying the foundation with a tool called the “3Ms of Leading and Leveraging Time.”
I want you to have them too…here’s the high level summary:
MINDSET—What do you believe about time? Do you have enough? Is it abundant? Scarce? What you believe about time determines whether it will work in your favor, or work against you.
METHODOLOGY—Are you beginning with the end in mind? How do you determine priorities in your life? Your work? How do you make a decision about where and how will you invest, or spend, your time?
MECHANICS—Tactically, what tools and resources do you use to plan, calendar, and manage your projects, tasks, and time for relationships, etc.?
We then took a deep dive into the 3M’s to equip the leaders with the mindset and skillet to better lead and leverage time.
After we finished the session with these leaders, I received feedback that confirmed once again for me how important this topic really is.
They said… “I’ve never thought of time management in this way before.”
“I have a new perspective and a new way to think about time and how I make decisions about time.”
“I went home and discussed these things with my 16-year-old daughter so that, as a family, we can make better decisions about how to invest and budget our time.”
Time management is one of the most popular topics as it relates to leadership. And for good reason. A lot of people struggle with time management, but they still haven’t found the MINDSET, STRATEGIES or TOOLS that they can apply to their own work context.
Much of time management advice seems to “work for them, but not for me.” I’ve found, from the many sessions I’ve facilitated on time management, that the 3Ms are UNIVERSAL.
If you’re interested in this training for your leaders, let’s talk!