News & Articles

Human Resource Management
Published in the Rochester Business Journal
June 10, 2005
© 2005 HR Works, Inc.

How effective CEOs manage their most precious resource: Time

By Candace Walters

“Time is an inelastic resource. No matter how high the demand, we cannot rent, hire or buy more of it.”
--Peter Drucker

Nowhere is the careful use of a leader’s time more important than in a growing organization. As a company transitions from startup to a more mature phase, the founder/CEO -- already struggling with an excessive workload –- typically faces serious growing pains that create endless distractions and demands.

And it’s those very distractions –- and the CEO’s time-intensive attempts to manage them –- that threaten to derail a company’s progress. Research shows that the success or failure of an operation depends largely on how effectively CEOs and senior managers use their time, and how well they maintain their focus on a few major priorities.

It’s not that CEOs are stingy when it comes to commitment. Research conducted by Mark Helow and Kirk Aubry of The CEO Project -- a business laboratory for fast-growing, middle-market companies -- found that 93 percent of surveyed CEOs work more than 50 hours per week, and more than half put in 60-plus hours.

Ask any CEO whether he or she is spending those long hours wisely, and he or she will likely say yes. Yet, Helow and Aubry found results to the contrary: Fewer than 20 percent of the hours put in by the CEOs studied were spent on “significant priorities” linked to long-term business results.

Research published in the Harvard Business Review illustrates a similar picture: Of the managers observed in 12 large companies over a decade, only 10 percent were found to spend their time on work that would have a long-term positive impact on the business. The findings, developed by Heike Bruch and Sumantra Shoshal, were published in a 2002 HBR article, “Beware the Busy Manager.”

If only 10 percent are spending their time strategically, it seems to follow that 90 percent of managers are getting caught up in the time wasters -- attending endless meetings, putting out fires, mediating disputes, micromanaging talent issues, and devoting time to other matters that would be better delegated, outsourced or ignored. While the HBR research focused on managers, one might reasonably conclude that CEOs function similarly.

Why such a widespread misuse of time? At least part of the disconnect, researchers contend, stems from the average CEO’s poor understanding of his or her role in the organization. A CEO’s job is not merely to make the obvious happen. Instead, he or she is paid to push the business to new heights, to move it forward in innovative ways. With minimal CEO input, most businesses will continue along a well-worn path. Only well-placed senior management attention will push any endeavor to a new level.

Degrees of engagement

CEOs and other executives who effectively bring very ambitious goals to fruition, Bruch and Shoshal write, have two traits in common: focus and energy.

Focus refers to clarity of purpose and the ability to see a task through to completion. Focused managers are not reactive, the researchers contend. They don’t respond to every issue that crops up nor are they distracted by e-mails and other interruptions. They hold tight to their clear understanding of what they want to accomplish each day.

Energy, on the other hand, stems from an intense personal commitment that drives the executive to push harder when coping with a heavy workload or meeting tight timelines.

Bruch and Shoshal contend that every manager fits into one of the following characterizations, based on the levels of energy and focus that he or she exhibits:

Distracted. Forty percent of the managers studied showed a blend of high energy and low focus. These are the well-intentioned, highly active people who lack sufficient focus. Because they are easily distracted, they tend to overcommit. They are always busy -- even frantic -- but they often confuse activity with results.

Procrastinators. The researchers found 30 percent of managers exhibited both low focus and low energy. These are the managers who attend meetings and follow up on phone calls and e-mails, but rarely take initiative and often miss deadlines.

Disengaged. Leaders who are highly focused but who lack passion and interest fell into this category, Bruch and Shoshal report. Disengaged managers view their jobs as merely a paycheck. Such managers may be burned out, or their jobs may hold little meaning for them.

Purposeful. Ten percent of managers were found to be highly energetic and highly focused, the researchers conclude. These managers select their goals carefully, and arrange the external environment to support those goals. They do not let other people or organizational constraints set their agendas. To maximize the value of their time, they may corral e-mails, phone calls and visitors into certain times of the day. When challenges mount, they slow down and reflect on what they most want to achieve. They choose their battles carefully. They’re skilled at reducing stress, typically through physical exercise, hobbies, avoiding unnecessary battles and/or discussing concerns with a colleague, friend or partner.

Common traps

Of course, every CEO thinks he or she is being effective and managing time well. But discerning the difference between activities that will result in long-term positives and those that merely create an air of busyness while draining energy can be extremely difficult. That’s why many companies don’t make it.

Consider certain feel-good concepts that, while culturally popular, thwart a CEO’s effectiveness.

Championing an initiative. While the CEO is paid to identify and leverage new products and markets, it’s critical that he or she delegate responsibility of major projects to trusted managers. By forgoing the champion role, the CEO frees up time to maintain a more global focus, and junior people gain valuable opportunities to develop their own skills. It also moves the organization away from the dangerous thinking that the CEO is needed on a daily basis to get things done.

“Open-door” policies. Is being available to respond to your employees’ every whim –- particularly when it interrupts the block of time you’d set aside to work on high-priority plans -- really a valuable use of your attention? One cannot fully contemplate high-level decisions using only snippets of time scattered through the day or week; focusing on important decisions requires a solid block of quiet time.

Responding to urgent needs. While our culture rewards the hero who can be relied upon in a crisis, think about the cost of that heroism. Stepping into every employee dispute or being available to answer every question is not the CEO’s job, and it drains valuable time away from strategic, high-impact thinking and decision-making. Peter Drucker suggests that CEOs do their companies a favor when they deliberately make themselves unavailable to staff, perhaps for one full day per week or month, during which time they focus exclusively on higher-level planning.

Rolling up your sleeves. How many articles have we read that praise a CEO’s willingness to be “just plain folk,” pitching in to wash dishes, load boxes or make coffee? While such stories may make for good reading, squandering CEO time in the interest of “teamwork” is a misguided strategy.

Conclusion

Using time effectively to achieve winning results is hardly easy. If it were, everyone would do it well all the time, and far fewer companies would fail.

The CEO Project suggests that leaders regularly ask themselves the following questions:

• As a CEO, what am I paid to do?
• Is my CEO effectiveness increasing, decreasing or staying the same? How do I know?
• What are my three most important CEO priorities?
• Will what I’m planning to do today move the organization closer to our goals? Will what I do today matter in three years?

Drucker reminds us to avoid the common tendencies that repeatedly derail senior managers. Meetings should be the exception rather than the rule; too many meetings signify that an organization is taking too long to get something done. Identify and eliminate things that need not be done at all. Sidestep internal politics and choose external battles with great caution. And, of course, delegate, delegate, delegate!

Candace Walters is president and CEO of HR Works, Inc., an HR management outsourcing and consulting firm serving more than 600 clients in the Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and Baltimore/Washington areas. HR Works provides HR Department outsourcing, part-time and interim HR managers, affirmative action plans, HR*Stars recruitment services, legally reviewed employee handbooks and supervisor manuals, compensation programs, training and more. To offer comments, write walters@hrworks-inc.com

Top

HR Works
345 Woodcliff Drive
Fairport, NY 14450
1-877-219-9062
(Toll Free)