4 Types of Time Wasting Bosses
McKinsey outlines popular ways
managers misuse their time. Do you recognize yourself in any of these four
types?
Do you feel that you're working
longer and longer hours but not having a commensurately large impact on your business?
If you answered yes, know that at
least you're not alone. That's according to a new report from McKinsey on
executive time use, which is also illuminating for entrepreneurs and small
business owners. The report is based on a survey of 1,500 global executives and
uncovered deep unease about how folks at the top of companies use their time.
McKinsey Quarterly reports: "Only 9 percent of the respondents deemed themselves
'very satisfied' with their current [time] allocation. Less than half were
'somewhat satisfied,”' and about one-third were 'actively dissatisfied.' What’s
more, only 52 percent said that the way they spent their time largely matched
their organizations’ strategic priorities."
At least you now know you're in the
same, crowded boat as a full third of top bosses. But that's cold comfort if
you don't also have some sense of what you're doing wrong and how to set a
course towards a better allocation of your time.
Helpfully, McKinsey goes further,
outlining the four main ways that bosses become unbalanced and dissatisfied
with their time use. Take a hard look in this mirror and see if you are guilty
of falling into any of these time-wasting traps.
Online
Junkies
This type "spends a majority of
time in their office communicating by email, occasionally by phone," Aaron
De Smet, a principal in the consultancy's Houston office explains in a graphic
outlining the four types. You might think new technology is to blame the
cheerleader's woes, but De Smet says that the online junkie, ironically,
precedes the internet. Previously, this time-wasting type would spend all their
time writing memos. Their key characteristic isn't fundamentally an email
addiction, but overreliance on lower quality "asynchronous
communication" and an unwillingness to actually get out and meet folks
face to face.
Schmoozers
"The quintessential
extrovert," says De Smet. A love of networking may sound like a great
quality for a business leader, but De Smet explains that though schmoozers feel
plugged in, "people who are not part of the circle of stakeholders who
they spend time with have a very hard time getting in touch with them because
they're not very responsive to email and they're usually booked up in
meetings." Being unavailable is part of the problem, but so is the
schmoozer’s intense focus on sociability rather than strategy. "The
company can be left adrift" without a leader.
Cheerleaders
This is "the executive whose
time allocation is tilted more toward face-to-face communication with their
organization and with their direct reports," explains De Smet. Motivating
your team is great, but "the problem is when they spend so much time working
directly with their people, they don't have enough time to work with clients,
with customers." Rather than look for new blood or fresh ideas, the
cheerleader relies too heavily on rallying their existing team.
Firefighters
Firefighters want more time to work
on big, strategic plans, "but they end up spending the vast majority of
time dealing with the latest unexpected issue that demands their immediate
attention. The immediate result is a messy calendar full of cancellations, but
the underlying issue is often a failure to delegate. Firefighters have a
tendency to want to deal with every issue, even if a team member could handle
the problem.
McKinsey's in-depth report has much
more detail on the survey findings, the day-to-day mistakes of the four time-wasting
types, and how to correct these time allocation inbalances.
Jessica StillmanJan 22, 2013
http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/the-4-types-of-time-wasting-bosses.html?cid=em010
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