As leaders, we have many demands on our time, energy and attention. In order to maximize our impact, we should consider: What is my highest and best use?
Our highest and best use is the work that leverages our strengths, skills and perspectives, where we’re creating the most value and the most meaningful impact. We can also think of this as the work that only we can do – so that others are freed to do the work that only they can do.
The following strategies can support us in operating at our highest and best.
Focus on the Pareto Principle, otherwise known as the 80/20 rule.
This allows us to identify whether we are spending our time on the right things, and if any of the wrong things are depleting our time and our energy.
What are our 20% efforts that create 80% of our results?
Do we have any instances of the reverse, where we are spending 80% of our time on our lowest-impact projects, or the most difficult but lowest revenue-generating clients?
Consider the “2 Hours” question, inspired by Tim Ferriss.
This is often one of the quickest pathways to identifying the activities that fall into our highest and best use.
If we could only work two hours per day, what would we spend our time on?
And if we could only work two hours per week, what would we spend our time on then?
Schedule at least 15 minutes each week to zoom up and check in on our key strategic priorities.
This is focused, scheduled time outside of the whirlwind of everyday issues, to focus on key strategic priorities and “big rocks” that we want to move forward. During this time, we can consider:
What are my top 1-3 priorities for this year? For this quarter?
What am I doing this week to make progress on my key priorities?
What are our “big rocks” as an organization? And what specific actions are we taking to move these forward?
Schedule at least 15 minutes each week to zoom up and check in on our key leadership-related priorities.
In addition to carving out intentional time for our strategic priorities, this involves carving out dedicated time specifically for our leadership-related priorities, considering:
What is my leadership focus area for this year? For example: clear communication or coach and develop others.
What specifically am I doing to implement this leadership focus area?
Have I taken time to share feedback and appreciation with the leaders around me —today, this week, this month?
Who are the high-performing individuals that I’d like to spend more time with through coaching, mentoring and development? What is my plan to do so?
What gaps in roles/hires or skills do we have that may be holding us back in achieving our goals or that may be creating risk?
Consider: are you owning your schedule or is your schedule owning you?
This is one of the greatest challenges we observe across leaders we work with. More often than not, it feels like our schedule is owning us. This leaves us with very little time for strategic, focused work, often leaving us feeling depleted, overwhelmed and frustrated by the end of the day. To chip away at our schedule, we can consider:
What is my highest and best use?
Have I scheduled time each day (at best) and each week (at minimum) for this work?
What is my optimal time of day? And how can I align my most important work with my most productive time(s) of the day?
Where am I experiencing “calendar issues” as a symptom of a deeper problem? (For example: multiple meetings instead of one due to a lack of clear ownership and accountability) How can I work with others to address the root cause?
What do I need to perform at my best (for example: exercise, morning reflection, family time) and how can I block out (and honor) time for these things on my schedule?
Name and openly talk about (what is often) the elephant in the room —succession planning.
As leaders, we won’t be in our roles forever. If we’re a senior-level leader in the later stage of our career, have we considered the topic of succession planning? Questions to consider include:
How much longer do I plan to work for?
What structure will serve us best in the future, and what changes do we need to make today, in order to create it?
What are we doing to actively coach, develop, mentor and teach our up-and-coming leaders?
Operating at our highest and best allows us to leverage our strengths, maximize our impact and empower others around us to do the same. What is one small action you can take, this week, to spend more time on your highest and best use and to remove one barrier that is getting in the way of doing so?
Contributed content by Sarah Young, the CEO of Zing Collaborative, a leadership development and executive coaching company founded in 2013. She is grateful to partner with forward-looking leaders and teams across industries and geographies to strengthen their leadership capacity as they navigate growth, transition and change.
