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How Top Executives Really Manage Their Time
More articles and books are talking about how executives spend their days. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson begins his with a sunrise swim. Warren Buffett drinks several Coca-Colas throughout his workday. Oprah Winfrey swears by a morning meditation session before anything else. Most of us probably think the rest of the day is packed to the brim with meetings and more meetings, maximizing the time spent commuting from one to the other until the executive drops from exhaustion.
The truth is far more surprising.
Author and Harvard Business Review editor John P. Kotter got dozens of executives to allow him to shadow them for a while and see how their average days are conducted. In his article (that became a book) called What Leaders Really Do outlines some almost shocking results.
Executives always listen for opportunity knocking.
Leadership is about coping with change. How well someone adjusts on the fly and makes quick decisions is crucial. Kotter found that, by and large, executives did not stick to a hard and fast regimen of scheduled phone calls or in-person meetings. Kotter found that on average, an executive spends only 25% of his/her time alone, and that alone time is spent largely at home, on airplanes, or while commuting. The remaining 75% of the workday is interacting with everyone from the security guard to other top executives. Informal interactions yield a lot more…
