The foghorn-like alarm goes off at 3:00 AM waking up her husband.
“Why did you set an alarm for 3:00 AM? The baby is going to wake up in an hour anyways!” he grumbled.
“I’m just going to send a couple of quick emails. The new CEO needs to see how hard I am working on this product launch.”
This story is no exaggeration. We have heard from multiple clients that they will save work until the wee hours of the night so that they can create the illusion of burning the midnght oil. Why? Because in our world today we glamorize and glorify busyness. We marvel at Marissa Mayer taking only two weeks of maternity leave before returning to work as the CEO of Yahoo. We give praise to the full-time lawyer who found a way to make his daughter’s Barbie shaped birthday cake from scratch and redo their backyard in time for the event. We give awards to the college student who has a 4.0, works two jobs, and still has time for community service. We celebrate the busyness of work.
Over glamorized or not, we know that the life of an executive leader is truly exhausting. Recent studies (What CEOs Do, and How They Can Do It Better – Harvard Business School) show that the average executive works 55 hours a week. That may seem low to you! We know those hours are relationally, emotionally, and mentally taxing. Pair this with other studies that say two-thirds of CEOs don’t receive any outside advice on their leadership skills and spend less than four hours a week alone, it is easy to see that executive burnout is a real possibility.
We hear from many burnt out leaders that they feel disillusioned, helpless, and avoidant. What does burnout feel like to you?
Author Parker Palmer says that burnout is not simply exhaustion, but it is the giving of something that you never had. We must have something in our tank to expend. In other words, time on personal development does not take away from the busyness of leadership, it’s what makes leading possible.
We hear constantly from executives about the dearth of time they have to “see the big picture” or think about their futures. When we ask when executives have time to consider their own leadership or personal development, they are dumbfounded – it’s most often something that has never occurred to them to even want much less prioritize and pursue. But in nearly all cases they say that they are too busy to do that kind of work.
Often times this busyness excuse is just a hedge against the difficult work of personal transformation.
So how does one find the capacity to do the deep work of personal transformation?
Visa founder, Dee Hock, invites us to reimagine how we spend our time individually and corporately when he says:
“If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself – your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you and 15% managing your peers.”
Can you imagine how different your calendar would look if you took what Dee Hock says to heart? Can you imagine how different and engaged your employees would be if everyone took their own development seriously?
Personal transformation takes time. Real minutes, hours, days, and weeks. Giving it lip service or using the busyness excuse ensures that you will be burnt out – giving your teammates, organization, and customers what you don’t have to give. Getting significant time on your calendar for yourself may feel self-indulgent at first, but soon you will see that it is just the opposite – it is a key to your organization’s success.
TAKING TIME TODAY
First, assess your capacity for reflection and thought…
- Notice where and how much white space you have on your calendar for thought and reflection.
- Are there places in your schedule currently (commute, lunch, etc.) that you could use to give yourself space for reflection?
Then you can add structure to support the time required to develop…
- Plan: Generally you will need to find several 2-3 hour blocks per week to do this work on yourself. Work with your administrators to ensure that “white space” remains on your calendar. Notice what happens to white space you reserve and what you do in that time.
- Pause: Time off is healing. That is not hyperbole. Studies show that vacations and retreats are as important as watching your cholesterol or getting exercise. An annual 7-21 day holiday can cut the risk of heart attack in men by 30% and in women by 50%. Look ahead at your next six months. Pencil in time for a significant break.
- Partner: Not all CEO’s are interested in an “executive coach”, but all executives acknowledge the need for an impartial, third party to help them better understand their organization and their leadership within it. Find some kind of coach or executive peer who can ensure you prioritize this work. Make sure that it is someone that gets you excited about self-improvement, not someone who will make you feel badly about yourself. Write down the name of someone you could ask to do this with you.