By Michael Holland –
While on your way to a meeting, you get word that the meeting is being rescheduled. You now have 45 minutes of found time.
Found time is like winning a small lottery. You smile like when you walk outside on the first really nice day of spring.
Great leaders are prepared for found time. They already have two lists of the things they can do to leverage that time.
- List One is from their daily planning. They already know what tasks they can complete.
- List Two is the Leading Well Great Leadership List. It contains the things that normal leaders either don’t consider or don’t know about.
Here are some of the things you’d find on List Two.
Thinking
List Two leaders go sit down somewhere comfortable, put their feet up and simply think. They let their ever-powerful brain take a few moments to work on the puzzles that exist and to reflect.
One of the greatest mistakes leaders make is not spending time just thinking.
Strategic Walking Around
List Two leaders know where they need to invest some people time with their team. They already know who they should see next in a causal drop by. They also know the one thing they will say to each of the people they talk with.
This is spreading goodwill and energy while also ensuring that employees are comfortable having the boss around.
Solve X for Y
List Two leaders invest the time working on a particular problem or situation which is in the Quad 2 area. It could be a people situation, or an operational problem or maybe a product opportunity. They literally pull out the package from the back of their head, bring it to the forefront and let their brains go into action.
List Two, that’s the list you need to create. List One is the easy one, it’s driven by your healthy leadership rituals.
List Two, that’s the hard one but the one that has the biggest payoff.
Coaching Thoughts – For You and Your Peers
- How would you force rank the suggested items on List Two?
- Where would you keep your List Two?
- Which of the List Two items would you wish your boss would spend their found time on?
