Loving People’s Time (Revisited)
“How much time do you have?” “Do you have a second?” I hear these statements or something along those lines quite often as a leader. As the days pass, I think about it more and more because the truth is we do not know how much time we have, and yet we still live like there is time to kill.
As a leader, are you guilty of mismanaging your time or your subordinate’s time? Do you often show up late to your meetings? Do you let those meetings get off-topic? I have, and I realize in hindsight that the people waiting on me could have been doing something more constructive with their time. It is egotistical to believe that your time is more important than their time. Yes, you have more responsibilities and things to do, but why does that make your time more important than anyone else’s? The truth is it doesn’t.
One of the biggest pet peeves I had as a First Sergeant was seeing Soldiers sitting around and not knowing what was happening. Then at 1630, when they were still hanging around, I’d ask what they were waiting on. Many times, the four most annoying words came out of their mouths…” waiting on the word.” That phrase is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I absolutely despise it. That’s because I have heard it for years, and it seems like one thing that is getting passed on to the next generation of leaders and Soldiers. Just because we are on a set pay scale in the military does not mean we can abuse people’s limited time.
Now, I know that many of you think that those Soldiers could have been training after completing their tasks for the day, and I wholeheartedly agree. The more significant issue is that leaders don’t recognize that everyone’s time is as valuable as the next persons. We don’t emphasize the importance of time to our junior leaders because most of our leaders didn’t emphasize it. We need to change that cycle.
There are a few things you need to do to love your subordinate’s time as a leader. The first is you need to stick to your schedules as much as possible. This gives them predictability and allows them to plan their days and weeks around those schedules. I know a few Soldiers that wanted to complete college courses but said they couldn’t find the time after work because their schedules were unpredictable. Yet, they were just hanging around the company area during the duty day “waiting on the word.” The time is there; it’s just being mismanaged.
The second thing leaders need to do is commit to spending uninterrupted time with their subordinates. Your knowledge as a leader needs to go to the next generation. Your lessons learned and experiences can give them so much value. All this knowledge goes with them to their next position. You aren’t just investing time in one person; you’re investing time in everyone they will come to influence in the future.
Finally, have a plan for what you want to teach them, so you aren’t wasting time asking, “what do you want to learn?” Some people have an idea of what they want to learn, but you should know what they need to learn as a leader. Don’t squander the time you have together because you didn’t prepare yourself. Have a plan and build on it for future engagements.
People and time are your greatest resources as leaders. To love people, you also must love their time. To love their time, you need to be aware of how you manage your time. These are all challenging things to do, but I can assure you that it is worth it. As a starting point, my challenge to you is to examine how you spend your time and your subordinate’s time; all of it. Is it doing meaningless things, or does is bring value to your life and the lives of others? Remember, you do not have time to kill.
~Rey