Time Management: Why Only 10% of Leaders Excel

A personal story

For the first 15 years of my career I thought I was reasonably good at time management. I understood the importance of prioritising tasks and scheduling, and had learned a set of basic techniques through a one day ‘time management course’ in my 20s. Later in my career I learnt more about the topic as I started to research, design, build and deliver time management workshops for leaders to help them build a broad set of self-leadership abilities. To my surprise, I realised I had previously seen only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and had not fully understood many of the most important elements of exemplary time management. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of working with hundreds of leaders on this topic as a leadership coach and facilitator, and have repeatedly heard expressions like: “I thought I was a ‘9 out of 10’ at time management until I did the self-assessment task, and I now realise I am only a 6. That’s good news - I can see plenty of opportunities to improve”. It seems that I was not the only person to have missed or misunderstood some fundamental and important aspects of time management.

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to identify three common misunderstandings (‘traps’) relating to time management which help to explain why only 10% of leader-managers excel at time management (see Bruch & Ghoshal, 2002). In my experience, these misunderstandings can significantly impede a leader’s ability to engage in exemplary time management which can lead to a broad range of adverse outcomes, including:

• damaging relationships and one’s credibility as a leader (e.g. by failing to meet commitments, or not returning phone calls or emails promptly);
• leading dysfunctional teams (e.g. by frequently rescheduling important meetings and not communicating priorities to members);
• failing to get the most benefit from professional development and career planning activities (e.g. by not prioritising these important but non-urgent activities); and
• producing significant stress and burnout.

In addition to exploring these three misunderstandings, this article provides some suggestions on what can be done to improve in these areas (i.e. what exemplary time managers do).

Misunderstanding #1: The practice of ‘time management’ is primarily about managing time

Unless we can find a way to travel near the speed of light, there is little we can do to ‘manage time’. There is, however, a lot we can do to manage ourselves. Fundamentally, time management is an element of self-management (self-leadership). As Dr Stephen R Covey, author of the bestselling book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, stated “Time management is a misnomer, the challenge is to manage ourselves” (Covey, 2004).

Why is this distinction important? Exemplary time managers believe they are in control of where they spend their time and energy. They have the mindset of ‘being their own CEO’, irrespective of where they are working and the role they play. They believe they are in the front seat, driving the car, making decisions about where to go. Poor time managers often believe they are in the back seat with someone else driving. They believe they have little control over the tasks that are stacking up in front of them. This difference in mindset is often seen in the language that leaders use.

Exemplary time managers use language that illustrates their agency and clarity with respect to what is important, such as “I can’t make that meeting on Friday, I need to prioritise another activity”. Poor time managers use language that illustrates their lack of control and unclear priorities such as “I will try to make that meeting, but am very busy at the moment. I’ll see what I can do”.

Understanding that time management is an important self-leadership mindset, language and skill set can also lead to it being prioritised in professional development activities. In leadership development programs, we usually start by building a strong foundation of self-leadership ability which includes elements such as clarifying our purpose and values (‘True North’), and building self-awareness, emotional intelligence and resilience. In a large, ten-month, leadership development program I coordinate each year, we deliver a comprehensive time management workshop at the start of the program (as one of several self-leadership workshops), as we have repeatedly found that program participants who excel at this ability get greater value from the whole program.

So, what are some positive steps leaders can take in this area? Such steps include:

• Adopt the mindset of ‘being your own CEO’, who chooses where to work, which roles to play, and where to prioritise their time and energy each day.
• Use positive language that reflects this mindset (e.g. “Let’s meet on Monday. I will prioritise that in my schedule”).
• Build awareness of your strengths and weaknesses in relation to time management (e.g. conduct self-assessments, and seek feedback from others).
• Prioritise learning about time management techniques as part of the broader topic of self-leadership. As Professor Peter Drucker (1966) once stated, “Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.”

Misunderstanding #2: The practice of ‘time management’ is primarily about learning to work faster

Dr Stephen R Covey uses the analogy of climbing a ladder that is resting against a wall to symbolise where we spend our time and energy. Many leaders I work with mistakenly believe that time management is about learning to climb the ladder faster (i.e. process work more quickly). They are looking for new tips, ‘hacks’, apps and tools to get more work done in a fixed amount of time. Whilst this is useful, it is not where the big gains in time management can be made.

Rather than just focusing on climbing the ladder faster, leaders who excel at time management frequently reflect on whether their ladder is leaning against the right wall, and if not, they move their ladder. As Covey (2004) stated, “It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it is leaning against the wrong wall.”

Consider Steph, a talented stormwater engineer who manages capital works projects. Her manager loves working with Steph. Steph is highly conscientious and always meets her work deadlines. Her colleagues refer to Steph as a ‘machine’ who get through an amazing amount of work each day. She is unusually good at meeting deadlines. Her colleagues think her time management ability is 10 out of 10. What do you think?

Whilst Steph is very good at quickly climbing the ladder of tasks that her manager puts in front of her, her real passion is overseas developmental work. Steph dreams of working for Engineers Without Borders to work directly on the problem that one in four people in the world do not have safe access to drinking water. She has been putting off learning more about developmental work, getting a mentor who can help her make a career transition, and applying for jobs that come up. She has been too busy at work. Added to that, Steph’s health has been declining in recent years. Her doctor advised her to go to the gym more regularly. Again, she hasn’t got around to following her doctor’s advice. She is fully focused on doing all the work that her manager gives her and not missing any deadlines. She has also found that the faster she processes her work, the more work she receives, so she has been spending increasingly more time at work.

Given this additional information, what rating would you give Steph’s time management ability out of 10? She is very good at quickly climbing the ever-lengthening ladder that her manager has put in front of her, but unfortunately that ladder is not leaning against the walls that are most important to Steph.

So, what can we do to avoid falling into this common trap? Steps include:

• Schedule time to frequently and deeply reflect what is truly important to you, your family and your boss/work. Think about priorities in different categories such as work, mental health, physical health, family, friends, financial, etc. Recognise that these priorities will change over time, so such reflection needs to be frequent and involve discussions with other people.
• Think about which walls you should be leaning your ladder against, and which ones you should not. If you can identify some ladders that you are climbing that are not a good use of your time and energy, it can free up a substantial amount of time to work on things that are truly important to you that have been neglected.
• Make sure you have clarity on what is truly important to you, your family and your boss/organisation this year and this week (i.e. in the longer and shorter term). If you don’t have this clarity, you won’t be able to use some of the popular and powerful time management tools like the Eisenhower Decision Matrix (also known as the Covey time management matrix).

Misunderstanding #3: Being busy is the same as being productive

In their thought-provoking Harvard Business Review (HBR) paper titled ‘Beware the busy manager’, Professors Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal (2002) reported the outcomes of studying the habits of people over 10 years in a variety of organisations. They found that only 10% of these leader-managers were ‘purposeful action takers’ (i.e. exemplary time managers), meaning that they were able to “spend their time in a committed, purposeful, and reflective manner” (high focus and high energy). In contrast, 20% were ‘disengaged managers’ (high focus and low energy), 30% were ‘procrastinators’ (low focus and low energy), and 40% were busy but unproductive ‘distracted managers’ (low focus and high energy).

Their key conclusion was that “90% of managers squander their time in all sorts of ineffective activities. In other words, a mere 10% of managers spend their time in a committed, purposeful, and reflective manner.” Dr Stephen R Covey (2004) came to a similar conclusion, stating that “It is possible to be busy - very busy - without being very effective”.

This ‘busyness trap’ is very easy to fall into and stems from a number of factors, such as:

• Not being clear on what is truly important to you, your family and your boss/organisation so that you’re not clear which ladders to climb. Without such clarity all tasks that come across your desk become equally important. Poor time managers respond by just working harder (being busy) to try to address all of them, even though some of them are not important and could be deleted, delegated, diminished or deferred.
• Not knowing how to use basic time management techniques and tools such as the Eisenhower Decision Matrix to decide which tasks are:

- important and urgent and should be done straight away;

- important and not urgent, and need to be scheduled and prioritised over all non-important tasks;

- urgent and not important, which need to be delegated, diminished (i.e. apply the ‘80-20 rule’ / ‘Pareto Principle’ – i.e. spend 20% of your time to get 80% of the outcomes; see Pareto, 1897) or deferred (e.g. renegotiate deadlines); and

- not urgent and not important, which need to be deleted (i.e. avoid spending time on any of these tasks).

• Believing that ‘being busy’ is a way to build one’s status, with status being a strong driver of behaviour. Dr David Rock’s (2008 & 2009) SCARF model, which is based on neuroscience, highlights that status is one of five domains in our brains that can strongly triggered if it is threatened, or opportunities exist to enhance it. This point is worth reflecting on - if your colleagues see you being ‘very busy’, are they likely to be impressed by this activity, or do they think you struggle at managing your time and leading yourself?
• Not being a reflective leader, or not knowing how to reflect productively (see Porter, 2017). Reflection is needed to consider whether we are currently putting our ladders against the right walls (i.e. using our time and energy productively to work on things that are most important). Many leaders I work with are not naturally reflective people, don’t enjoy the process at first, and don’t know how to do it. Some use methods of reflection that do more harm than good as these methods involve rumination which generates anxiety and drains confidence.
• Valuing and rewarding process over outcomes. If organisations acknowledge or reward leaders and their teams for process-related activities, rather than outcomes, it encourages people to be busy working on established processes even if the outcomes are poor and the processes are inefficient.

So, what can be done to address this misunderstanding. Steps include:

• Recognise that being busy is not the same as being productive, and the latter is far more important.
• Recognise that many of your colleagues will not be impressed by you being ‘busy’ as it is often an indicator of leaders who struggle with a critical self-leadership skill set. Hence the title of the aforementioned HBR paper “Beware the busy manager” (Bruch & Ghoshal, 2002).
• Adjust your language to reinforce this new mindset. Avoid using the ‘b word’ (busy). In my experience, the best time managers rarely use this word. When asked how their day is going, they will typically say something like “Productive. My team and I have been making excellent progress on an important project”.
• Set goals and rewards that involve outcomes (i.e. being productive) rather than processes (i.e. being busy).
• Become a reflective practitioner. Frequently reflect on what is important and learn how to reflect in ways that avoid rumination, learn from the past, plan for the future, reduce anxiety and build confidence.
• Learn how to use time management tools (like the Eisenhower Decision Matrix, time budgets and schedules) that enable you to prioritise and schedule important work on a daily basis that draws on an up-to-date understanding of what is really important to you, your family and your boss/organisation.
• Recognise that exemplary time managers allocate both their time and energy to important tasks. As you schedule important activities, think about how much energy each task needs (as well as time) and when in the day you typically have the required amount of energy. As you get older, this consideration is likely to become more important.
• Recognise that exemplary leaders ‘model the way’ for others (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). If you lead people, model the behaviours of 10% of leader-managers who are ‘purposeful action takers’ - people who avoid falling into the ‘busyness trap’ and focus their time and energy on things that are truly important, including those that are both urgent and non-urgent.

Conclusion

Time management is a critical self-leadership ability. It is an ability that enables leaders to be productive, enhance their leadership credibility, be more influential, lead high performing teams, accelerate their growth and produce a deeper sense of fulfilment. If you recognise the value of working on your time management ability, where should you start?

Firstly, deeply reflect on your strengths and weaknesses as a time manager. This paper should help this process. Getting some constructive feedback from a few ‘truth tellers’ in your network may also be helpful (i.e. people who work with you closely and whose opinion you respect). Next, work with a mentor and/or coach to explore opportunities for improvement, whether they are overcoming mindset barriers, addressing the misunderstandings we have explored in this paper, or learning how to use a variety of time management techniques and tools (e.g. time audits, time budgets, scheduling, ‘time boxing’, the Eisenhower Decision Matrix, effective delegation, learn to say ‘no’, overcoming perfectionism or procrastination, learning to reflect properly, managing one’s boss, etc.). Build a simple action plan that enables you to experiment with new behaviours and techniques, as well as frequently reflect on what you are learning, get feedback from others where possible, and celebrate positive progress with small, joyful activities to entrench new habits.

Sadly, none of us have unlimited time on this planet. Our time, energy and health are precious resources that we can choose to spend on the things that matter most to us. To do this, we need to understand the three important concepts relating to time management (self-leadership) that we explored in this article, namely:

• Time management is really about self-leadership. It’s about leading ourselves so that we can spend our precious time on things that are most important.
• Time management includes deeply and frequently reflecting on whether we are ‘leaning our ladders against the right walls’ (i.e. spending our time on things that are most important to us, our family and our boss/organisation) or whether we are just trying to climb the ladder that someone else put in front of us more quickly.
• Time management involves a mindset that doesn’t confuse being busy with being productive. Good time management involves avoiding the ‘busyness trap’, and choosing to spend our time and energy in a purposeful, reflective and productive manner.

André Taylor

February 2025

Dr André Taylor is a leadership development specialist and coach who designs, delivers and evaluates customised leadership-related courses and programs for emerging and executive leaders. His professional purpose is to use his knowledge and experience in leadership development to help build the leadership capacity of enthusiastic, self-motivated people to enable them to fulfil their purpose, and drive positive change to create healthier communities and environments.

References and further reading

Allen, D. (2001). How to get things done: The art of stress free productivity. Camberwell, Victoria: Penguin Books.

Billington, J. (1997). Fairly timeless insights on how to manage your time. Harvard management update article reprint. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Birkinshaw, J., & Cohen, J. (2013). Making time for the work that matters. Harvard Business Review online article. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2013/09/make-time-for-the-work-that-matters (2 January 2025).

Blanchard, K., Zigarmi, P., & Zigarmi, D. (1985). Leadership and the one minute manager: Increasing effectiveness through situational leadership. New York, New York: William Morrow.

Boyes, A. (2020). Don’t let perfection be the enemy of productivity. Harvard Business Review online article. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2020/03/dont-let-perfection-be-the-enemy-of-productivity (2 January 2025).

Boyes, A. (2022). Resisting the pressure to overwork. Harvard Business Review online article. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2022/05/resisting-the-pressure-to-overwork (6 December 2022).

Bruch, H., & Ghoshal, S. (2002). Beware the busy manager. Harvard Business Review, February 2002, 1–8. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2002/02/beware-the-busy-manager (2 January 2025).

Covey, S. (2004). The seven habits of highly effective people. Revised edition. New York, New York: Free Press.

Dierdorff, E. (2020). Time management is about more than life hacks. Harvard Business Review online article. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2020/01/time-management-is-about-more-than-life-hacks (2 January 2025).

Drucker, P. (1966). The effective executive: The definitive guide to getting the right things done. New York: Harper & Row.

Ferriss, T. (2009). The four hour work week. New York, New York: Crown Archetype.

Gabarro, J., & Kotter, J. (2005). Managing your boss, Harvard Business Review, January 2005, 92–99.

Harvard Business School Press (2014). Pocket mentor: Managing time - focus on what matters, avoid distractions, get things done. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation (2006). Pocket mentor: Managing time. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Imber, A. (2021). 4 ways to get more done in less time. Harvard Business Review online article. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2021/02/4-ways-to-get-more-done-in-less-time (2 January 2025).

Imber, A. (2022). Stop trying to manage your time. Harvard Business Review online article. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2022/04/stop-trying-to-manage-your-time (2 January 2025).

Jensen, D. (2021). Time management won’t save you. Harvard Business Review online article. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2021/06/time-management-wont-save-you (2 January 2025).

Koch, R. (1997). The 80/20 principle. London, United Kingdom: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2012). The leadership challenge. Fifth edition. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.

MindTools (2021). Time management. A collection of online time management tools. Accessed at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_HTE.htm (2 January 2025).

Morgenstern, J. (2004). Time management from the inside out. Second edition. New York, New York: St Martin’s Press.

Oncken, W., & Wass, D. (1999). Management time: Who’s got the Monkey? Harvard Business Review, November-December 1999, 3–7. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/1999/11/management-time-whos-got-the-monkey (2 January 2025).

Pareto, V. (1897). Cours d'économie politique. 2nd ed. London: Macmillan.

Porter, J. (2017). Why you should make time for self-reflection (even if you hate doing it). Harvard Business Review online article. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2017/03/why-you-should-make-time-for-self-reflection-even-if-you-hate-doing-it (6 February 2025).

Rock, D. (2008). SCARF: A brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others. NeuroLeadership, 1(2008), 1–9. Accessed at: https://web.archive.org/web/20100705024057/https://www.your-brain-at-work.com/files/NLJ_SCARFUS.pdf (3 December 2024).

Rock, D. (2009). Managing with the brain in mind. Strategy + Business, Autumn 2009. Online article. Accessed at: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/09306 (3 December 2024).

Ross, R. (2012). Just let it go: Managing perfectionism in the workplace. Online article. Hogan Assessments. Accessed at: https://www.hoganassessments.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/JustLetItGo.pdf (2 January 2025).

Schwartz, T., & McCarthy, C. (2007). Manage your energy, not your time. Harvard Business Review online article. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2007/10/manage-your-energy-not-your-time (2 January 2025).

Tracy, B. (2004). Time power. New York, New York: AMACOM.

Zao-Sanders, M. (2018). How time boxing works and why it will make you more productive. Harvard Business Review online article. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2018/12/how-timeboxing-works-and-why-it-will-make-you-more-productive (2 January 2025).