Always Doing Something, Accomplishing Nothing
Being a great strategic leader requires a calendar that is strategic.
Unfortunately, our mindsets and environments often collude to prevent that from occurring—for starters, by providing a constant roar of meetings and to-dos that keeps us from regular, dedicated reflection time.
If one does not create the time and space to look up, out, and around the corner, there’s little chance they’ll have novel insights about where their team or organization needs to head.
Obviously, scheduling reflection time is the first step to making it happen, but actually using the time effectively often requires a shift in mindset.
The first is to accept that if we’re always doing something, there’s a greater risk that we’re really accomplishing nothing.
The second mindset shift is in how much time good strategic reflection takes. In my experience, leaders often think it takes too little time and too much time to do effectively.
Here’s what I mean. For some, a good reflection routine might just be jotting down notes at the end of the day.
What did I learn that was important? What do I need to pay more attention to? What’s lurking around the corner?
That kind of reflection needn’t take more than a few minutes, but it can be a critical step back from the endless series of meetings and interactions—and the first step to synthesizing what it all means.
On the other hand, actually doing something with one’s reflections does take time. It’s very difficult to simply drop into creative, expansive thinking mode for an hour between a budget meeting and an operations meeting.
Hence, strategic leaders should ensure that when they dedicate time for strategic thinking, it can be almost ridiculously long (e.g., at least half a day) and occur at a time where the mind is firing (e.g., not on Friday afternoons).
Recently, I read David Ogilvy’s Confessions of an Advertising Man. He vividly described his approach for switching into creative thinking mode thusly: “I have developed techniques for keeping open the telephone line to my unconscious, in case that disorderly repository has anything to tell me. I hear a great deal of music. [...] I take long hot baths. I garden. I go into retreat among the Amish. I watch birds. I go for long walks in the country.”
That sounds about right!
It may feel like a sacrifice to find time to reflect, but the investment can bring returns in the form of important new ideas—ideas that are way more valuable than what usually comes out of the Tuesday morning budget meeting.