Hamsters on Wheels

“Time Management” is a myth. No matter how slowly time seemed to drag in the meeting you just attended, no matter how quickly a deadline appears to be thundering down on you, time passes at a constant rate. We cannot manage the passage of time any more than we can influence the phases of the moon.

What we can do is make decisions about how we fill the 24 hours we have in each day. Time management is really decision making on how we spend our time.

Yet most of the advice on time management available to businesses and individuals tacitly assumes that these decisions have already been made. Type “time management” into any search engine and scan the results. You will find tips on making to do lists, prioritising activities, and putting those activities in a diary. There is information on stopping procrastinating, filing documents so you can find them quickly and motivating yourself to press on and achieve your goals.

The question is how did you arrive at those goals? When you stop procrastinating, what exactly are you going to do? After all, the major decision is not to pursue a certain goal between three and five o’clock, but to work towards that goal at all. The available information on goal setting mainly revolves around how we should formulate and subsequently achieve them. In other words, traditional time management does not cover what you do, merely when you do it.

Imagine everybody in your department improves their time management. They choose goals, focus on them, and stick to their schedules scrupulously. Unless major decisions had been taken about the department’s strategic aims and how they will be distributed and achieved on a team and individual basis, everyone will simply get better at doing what they were already doing. The status quo will be maintained even more efficiently than before, like hamsters taking steroids so that they can run on their wheels for an extra hour every night.

In the second half of 2009 sound decisions around our time usage are more important than ever before. The recession has inspired a new more frugal attitude to what we really need: businesses have slashed costs and profligate practices, over-staffing is a thing of the past and in its place is a hard focus on what investment actually produces profit.

Kevin Yates, Managing Director of Mitchell Phoenix, sounds a warning note about our appetite for time management, “as we creep out of the recession, everyone is over-stretched. Clever diarising doesn’t help staff who are covering more than one position, or teams operating at half the strength they had two years ago. This is a problem for senior management. Only informed, strategic decisions about time usage from the top of organisations will create the conditions for more profitable behaviour throughout the business and ultimately secure the future.”

The 'will' to lead

I was recently asked what I considered to be the most important attribute of a leader. It's a challenging question since we all seem to have our own idea about this and quite a few of these ideas are not shared. Perhaps it is not possible for all the people to share the same description all of the time. But if we take a step back and ask what could a leader become proficient at, given the will to do so? The answer is surprising; most leaders could learn almost all the skills of leadership you care to come up with. Charisma may escape this concept, but it would not have been on my list in the first place as it is a product of application. Other qualities deliver charisma (or not) through their use.

So I believe now, and have done so for some time, that the most important characteristic of leadership is the 'will' to do so, all the important other skills can be learned. While all else can be learned, not all is learned and I believe this dichotomy has a bearing on the quality of leadership and is a complex mix of the the same will to learn and the sense to guess that there is more to learn. This sounds a little absolute but I am interested to open up this area, our modern society needs new type of leadership as followers are much better informed and become sceptical of those they perceive as charlatans.
The will to lead is the most important attribute of a leader, the will to learn follows quickly.
Kevin Yates
Mitchell Phoenix London

Phoenix or Leopard?

This morning the New York Times made the most promising noises yet, that the recession may be about to end. Unemployment is down, house prices are rising, productivity is up; all positive indications that things are improving. President Obama gave a stirring speech in Cairo committing to greater efforts for peace. GM’s Chief has told Congress “it’s our obligation to be open and transparent in all we do to reinvent G.M.”

It seems that we are on the brink of a new era. New thinking, new goals, new plans….change. A chance for us all to make that ‘New Year’s resolution”. Who of us has consistently stuck to their resolutions?

So there is the rub. What has business learned over the last 18 months and what will be the commitment to be different in the future?

The meaning of the phoenix in Mitchell Phoenix is derived from ancient mythology; the sacred firebird. The phoenix is a bird with beautiful gold and red plumage. At the end of its life-cycle the phoenix builds itself a nest of cinnamon twigs that it then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix arises. The bird was also said to regenerate when hurt or wounded by a foe, thus being almost immortal and invincible. The phoenix is a symbol of rebirth, regeneration and renewal.

If we view the recent past as a cathartic experience, emerging purged and refreshed, we have tremendous opportunities to be even stronger as a business. We can seize the moment to Govern Change, pro-actively operating in different ways at higher levels. It is also possible to let out a huge sigh of relief as we emerge from the bunker into watery sunlight, hand shielding the eyes, squinting at the sky. “Right! Where were we?” is the first phrase spoken on the road ahead.

What is the old saying about a leopard and spots? Be a phoenix instead.