The Time Leader
Here’s a thought
“One day you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run you missed the starting gun”
I first heard “Time” Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd in 1974 when I was 14 …..
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
Sue my wife is running a “Time” themed art exhibition in Newcastle this week so naturally we have been talking about time quite a bit lately. Time, or lack of it, is also a recurrent conversation in my work with executives and teams as they attempt to balance the ever increasing demands being made of them.
Here’s my view on time and the busy executive – forget time management, that pseudo-science of fitting in dozens of tasks and stuff into a fixed 24 hour day. All the lists and clever protocols for handling paper and e mails are just adding to the risk that you ‘fritter and waste your hours in an off hand way’.
The Time Leader knows you can’t manage time, it’s fixed. S/he is focused on what is important and what needs to get done.
Identify what is important to you, your family, your organisation, your project – prioritise and work on that. Yes, listen to what others want and make sure they know you have heard them and that you care for them though you decide what is important and dedicate yourself to that with clarity and focus.
Time is your only irreplaceable resource.
Inspired by Sue’s Time exhibition (visit www.upandcomingart.co.uk ) I recently listened to Dark Side of the Moon and realised forty years have suddenly got behind me, in the blink of an eye. I have few regrets though am even more determined to work on the important and leave the trivial time wasting stuff. My choice might not conform to someone else’s agenda or a particular regulation, though so what. I may only have another blink of an eye left.
The next Leader will be with you on Tuesday the 4th of November.