When we think of ourselves as role-models in an organisation, we think about our behaviour, our ethics, the way we treat others, how we behave in public etc.
But have you considered how you might be role-modelling something as simple as how you spend your time?
How we spend our time can speak volumes about what we consider important. It must be aligned with our aims and with our expectations of others.
If you want your team members to be superb collaborators, you have to lead by example and spend more time with them than at your desk managing by e-mail. (For more on the importance of face-to-face interactions at work, see Want your Team to be productive? Get them talking.)
If you want your people to take their health seriously, you can’t have lunch at your desk every day, holding your mouse in one hand and a sandwhich in the other.
If you are passionate about your team understanding their role in the organisation, you have to spend your time talking to people in other parts of the business.
Stop for a moment.
Consider how you are spending your time.
Then consider your own objectives and the aims of the organisation.
Are you spending most of your time pursuing those aims or are you still pursuing those set three years ago?
Chances are that your organisation has changed in the last three years.
Has the focus shifted from chasing up new business to nurturing current client relationships?
Has your team shrunk considerably and so the communication processes are now overcomplicated and time consuming?
Have you created new roles in your team but you still spend your own time in the same way as before you created them?
We often give our attention to adapting our budget or shaping our strategy as things change around us, but do you seroiusly consider how change in your organisation affects how you need to spend your time?
And do you ever stop to consider what the way in which you spend your time signals to others?
Make sure the way in which you allocate your time suits the organisation NOW and not how it operated three years ago.
Leadership through Change 