A big part of what I do is work one-to-one with senior leaders, supporting them as their ‘sounding board’.
They work with me because when you’re at top or the organisation, it can be lonely and sometimes, especially when you are a new kid on the block, it can be a bit disorientating navigating the important from the urgent.
We create ‘CEO time’ at least twice per month (even when you’re not the actual CEO, you’re still CEO of your thing!), ‘CEO time’ is totally focused on what’s important, totally focused in seeing the wood and not the trees, focussed on objectivity, being impartial and 100% focussed on them as a leader and their business impact.
CEO time is a place where you voice out thoughts, ideas, and challenges and actually creates real clarity on your next move. Usually the move you’ve been subconsciously avoiding and leaving on the ‘too big, too difficult’ pile.
Blocking out 2-3 hours a month exclusively as ‘CEO’ time where you get to think actively with a partner creates massive value for CEOs and their businesses.
It’s totally normal to get bogged down in the day-to-day and distract ourselves from the important with the urgent. CEO time dedicates energy to consciously focus on the important, to work ‘on’ and not ‘in’ the business. Doing this, only for a couple of hours a month, moves the needle for these leaders.
It’s a practice that I have in my own business, creating an hour every week for myself to step back and work out what working smart actually means; working out where is the biggest bang for my buck and where should my focus go this week.
A top tip that I find really helpful is asking myself the question every morning ‘ what does my business need today’ – simple but effective in prioritizing the important over the urgent every time.