I’ve never met an Executive Director that complained about too much free time.
Instead, I often work with Executive Directors/CEO’s who are feeling pulled in too many directions. When we sit down and look at their schedule, they realize the same thing – spending too much time on putting out fires and not enough time on the work that actually matters.
The strategic work that moves the organization forward.
The “big picture” work that everyone keeps talking about is your job.
So then why do so many leaders end up falling into the same patterns despite all the warnings to do so?
What is firefighting?
This is probably the easiest to define – it’s the focus on the urgent and in-your-face emergencies that crop up:
– How to handle a disciplinary issue with a frontline staff
– Program decisions around a course of action
– A conflict between two frontline managers or supervisors
– Giving feedback to a manager
In isolation, none of that may seem necessarily “bad”, but what if it takes up half your day?
What if trying to get an answer for someone takes up multiple days and meetings you never should have been in?
Harvard Business Review estimated that Executive Directors can spend up to 72% of their time putting out these fires or spending time in meetings that go over operational details. Meaning you’re only left with a little over 11 hours to do your actual work.
What is this costing you?
11 hours doesn’t sound great. But what it really means?
You’re stuck working weekends and evenings to play catch up (and getting more burnt out and resentful as time goes on).
Every day you feel like you got nothing accomplished.
You miss emails, lose track of important donors or partnerships, and/or miss out on opportunities for advocacy.
And over time?
You disempower the directors you oversee because no one goes to them, and you make yourself the bottleneck if everyone is waiting for you to make a decision.
Not good for anyone.
And one thing that’s true from the leaders I’ve worked with – no one has ever done it with malicious intent. They’ve never felt they were the most important or most knowledgeable person. And it certainly wasn’t ego driven.
Rather, I saw a few similar patterns emerging:
– The need to feel wanted/included
– There were unskilled leaders/managers who they didn’t trust to make decisions
– They weren’t sure how else to fill their time if they didn’t have to do the operational stuff
– They had just been in the loop for so long, they didn’t know how to get themselves out
In fact, I’ve seen multiple Reddit posts from managers that had built high performing teams that now felt almost useless since they didn’t have any tactical things to do anymore.
So how can you break the cycle?
How to get out of the firefighting cycle
Getting out of firefighting isn’t just about time management (though yes, you need to do that too).
I want to instead focus on the actual structural and relationship pieces that you’ll need to get out of doing everyone else’s job:
1. Clarify roles and reporting structure
Sometimes, it can also be due to unclear reporting and decision-making processes. Start by ensuring that everyone is clear on who reports to who, and who has decision making authority. Where are areas that you do need to make a decision? Where are areas that you just need to be informed (either before or after a decision)? Who makes which decisions? Clarify that for everyone and start empowering those folks to take the lead. Which leads to the second point:
2. Don’t answer questions you’re not supposed to
If it’s clear what everyone is responsible for, stop answering questions that you’re not supposed to. Full stop. Redirect them to the right place and push it back to the right person or level. It will feel weird at first, but it’s part of the process to empower the leaders below you. Even if you know how to fix it or it will be a quick 10 second solve – resist the urge and set that boundary.
It’ll feel weird at first, almost like you’re slowing the whole process down or that you’re not being helpful anymore. That’s normal. Just lean into it and stay the course to make sure you have the time to focus on what you need to.
3. Train your leaders to actually lead
For some, it’s unclear whether the people you oversee actually have the capability to make the right decisions. For others, you know you can’t always trust their judgement. For both, the answer’s the same – give them training and coaching. Give them feedback and coach them through how to be better leaders. Give them training to shore up their skills and give them more tools.
Accidental leaders are expected to just figure things out. The chances of that approach succeeding are no better odds than playing roulette at the casino. You can do better than that.
Give them a real chance to succeed, not just prayers and well wishes.
4. Design your perfect week
Ok – one time management tip. Take some time to reflect and design what your ideal week should look like. What tasks should you be working on? What strategic priorities will move forward? What things WON’T you be doing?
Take that ideal week and work backwards, take one thing off your plate and delegate it or stop doing it altogether and see how if it gets you closer to your ideal week. Then take another low value thing off and see how it goes. It’s ok to go slow. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Where to go from here
If this article spoke to you, you’re not alone.
You’re doing it the way lots of caring, committed leaders do it. It’s not a character flaw.
The problem is it’s only helpful in the short term. You’re only hurting the organization in the long term.
So take 1 hour this week and just spend it thinking through your time and energy and whether you’re actually spending it on what truly matters or if you’re stuck doing everyone else’s job.
Leadership doesn’t have to mean exhaustion. The work is important. Your people are important.
You are also important. Now go design your week.
What’s one thing you need to get off your plate for good?
PS – Here are some additional ways I can help you:
- Want to read a case study of how the imPACT Leadership Academy helped The Women’s Center leadership team function at a higher level? Download it here: https://www.tinyurl.com/twccase
- If you’re a human-services nonprofit that’s under 100 people ready to stop using prayers and hopes as your leadership development strategy, I specifically help whole leadership teams develop the skills to lead effectively and delegate. Interested? Let’s talk about it, find some time here: https://leadership-potential2.neetocal.com/hive
- Struggling with communication? On June 24, I’m doing a webinar on the “10 Communication Mistakes Leaders Make – and How to Fix Them” It’s completely free! Check it out here – I’d love to see you there.
