As a leader I'm stuck after taking on too much day-to-day/hands-on responsibilities and maintenance (meetings, training staff, compiling reports + managing up) - I went to far in on that part of my job. What are ways I can get back the time and energy I need to think strategically and in order to innovate?
Sort by:
Of all the tasks that you do today, categorize them as:
Important & urgent: Do them now.
Important not urgent: Plan them and set up a bucket in your calendar.
Not important & urgent: Delegate them.
Not important & not urgent: Finish them later.
By doing this, you will free space for you to do strategic tasks.
I’ll add that whenever you can, take a small walk to free up your mind a little bit.
That's a common problem for the likes of senior management folks. The way I have dealt with it is to keep 2-3 hours daily for creating applications, reading books, writing articles, and doing whatever it takes to keep pace with the innovations happening around the globe. Working from home helps a lot to achieve this, a manager sitting in a cabin finds it hard to say no to his teammates for any help they need, however, a manager working remotely can often put him in DnD and allow those precious self-building hours. One thing is for sure, if we don't do this we will soon be history, our management experience is useful but not at the cost of us losing the edge in innovation in tech.
This is a common pitfall that we can fall into, so you're not alone. One approach that can help is to block off time on your calendar (perhaps earlier in the day before things heat up, so to speak) to plan and strategize. Secondly, be on the lookout for others in your organization that you can delegate to - this can help them grow and free up your time.
Good reading material that may help, "Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast – What it Means and How to Leverage it ? (naveed.blog)".
Are you managing up and down? Could you get your direct reports to manage up? Show them what you expect, daily, explain how you make decisions? Then they might only report when the work is done.
As others have said, do all the meetings, reports add value? Could they be dropped or given to others to do/attend? Mark
In a very similar situation, as another respondent stated, you have to empower the team. I would suggest level setting with your stakeholders letting them know there may be some adjustments in the workflow, but it's part of a strategic initiative to empower your reports.