Great Leaders Take Time To THINK: Got Thoughts?

By Laurie Sorensen, HTG Peer Groups

IT solutions providers can benefit from learning and using Steven Covey’s four quadrants — and recognizing Quadrant II, which includes important, but not necessarily urgent, tasks like planning and relationship building, should not be overlooked but rather considered an investment of time in your business’ success.

Lately I have heard more and more leaders talk about their struggle with busyness. They share that they feel as though they do not have time to learn and grow as leaders. I get to rub shoulders with many of the top leaders in the IT industry within our HTG Peer Group community, and my observation is that the most effective leaders are those who make a discipline of setting aside time from their daily tasks to think strategically and continue growing professionally.

One of our executive coaches on staff with HTG is well-known within our peer group community for touting Steven Covey’s four quadrants. Covey draws an intersection of lines for things that are urgent and those that are important. 

• Quadrant I is the one that is always screaming for our attention — it is where the things that are both important and urgent are demanding our attention. We all spend a great deal of time in this quadrant as the crises and pressing problems of the day are often top of mind. In this quadrant, we can grow as leaders by learning to delegate and train up others within our organizations to capably respond to crises so that the number of things that are truly necessary to escalate become fewer and far between, thus freeing our time for other things.
• Quadrant III contains those tasks that are urgent but not important. Interruptions from colleagues or an unexpected phone call would fit into this category. A notification that you received an e-mail would be another example. These are tasks that distract our attention and appear to need an immediate response, when in fact they should not receive prioritization on our task list when compared with strategic tasks that fit within our unique Highest and Best Use of time. In this quadrant, we can grow as leaders by doing what we can to minimize or avoid interruptions. One effective way to do this is to use your Outlook calendar to schedule tasks. This helps colleagues to know when you are available and when you aren’t.
• Quadrant IV is the quadrant with things that are truly time-wasters or busy work. We may defend the time we spend on Facebook as “networking,” but in reality the things that fall into this quadrant are those we go to for an escape or for entertainment. They serve to minimize stress but may not help us work toward our professional goals and make us more productive.

The clever among you have noticed that I neglected to reference one quadrant. It is this quadrant around which Rich Anderson, our HTG coach, is frequently exhorting his coaches.

• Quadrant II contains tasks that are not urgent but are important. These are the things that require us to be intentional in taking time to pursue them. Things like planning, relationship building, and even exercise fall in this quadrant. This is the time we spend focusing on opportunities, on strategic thinking, on our values.

As I listen to busy leaders lament their full schedules, I wonder if the answer to their issue is not to have more time but to intentionally slow down and focus on the things that are most important, doing less but achieving better results. Quadrant II seems to imply that effective time management is a matter of knowing which things are most important to spend time on, not just doing tasks more quickly or having more time available in which to schedule additional tasks.

Great leaders intentionally take time to think. When was the last time you scheduled some time to focus on things that are important to your business? Give it a try and then let me know how it goes. Just don’t be offended if you reach out on a Thursday morning, and I don’t answer right away. That’s my Quadrant II time.

In HTG we have created a planning methodology and Planning for Success workbook to guide people through the planning process for Business, Leadership, Life, and Legacy. To learn more visit HTG Peer Groups.com.

Laurie Sorensen is part of the team at HTG Peer Groups where she is energized by thinking, planning, and writing on topics to help HTG members grow their leadership. She is the author of the Planning for Success workbook which guides people through Business, Leadership, Life, and Legacy planning the HTG Way. Prior to her affiliation with HTG, Sorensen was a first grade teacher who specialized in teaching children to read. She also spent several years in Asia studying language and culture. Her favorite Quadrant II spot is her office in Omaha, where you can find her strategizing most Thursday mornings.  You can reach her at lsorensen@htgpeergroups.com.