How should I focus my time as a Leader?

As a leader it can feel like a constant juggle between tasks. You want to think about your people but are also worrying about operational delivery and running a business. Having worked closely with lots of leaders over the years I know most leaders want to make sure they do the best for their teams but sometimes just aren’t quite sure what they need to do to achieve a great working environment. We all have a natural inclination towards our preferred tasks and will tend to focus in these areas.

The Leadership T is a really handy tool to help you categorise and plan where you need to focus your energy.

The bottom part of the T acknowledges that there are functional/operational things you need to do to ensure delivery. The top part of the T is all about ensuring you have a great team of people who can support you with getting stuff done:

• Developing great people - it should go without saying that if you have the right skills in your team then they’ll be able to deliver great results.
• Giving vision & clarity - if your team understands your wider purpose, gets where you’re trying to go and can identify your priorities then you’re less likely to get sucked into the small details. They'll have awareness of what’s important and can make the decisions needed to move the business forward, leaving you free to focus on other things.
• Being a role model - want to see great behaviours and attitudes in your team? The place to start is yourself and your managers. As a leader you can influence the culture and how people act through what they see you doing.

So what does this all mean for you and how can you use it?

1. Think about the % of time you would like to spend / should spend in each area
2. Does your ideal picture match the reality? How much time are you spending on each area in practice? Be really honest with yourself. We all lean towards our preferred things. Which areas are you not doing enough in?
3. Feeling brave? Get feedback from those around you - how do they view you in each area? Are your actions translating into results in the eyes of your team?
4. Review through each area of the Leadership T - what would you like to change, what actions can you take to improve an area?
5. Act and repeat!

We can help you work through this planning and also look at what actions may make a difference within your business. Our focus is on getting to know your business and identifying the things that are right for you rather than a one size fits all approach. We are passionate about making work a great place to be and want to help you in achieving this in your business. Get in touch, we'd be interested in hearing your story, what are your challenges?