IT Leadership

Time management can be a tricky topic. There are many books, courses, and seminars you can spend hours attending to understand it better. I am not going to pretend I can explain everything there is to know about time management in this one article. However, what I can do is share my story and the lessons I have learned about how effective time management can help you lead yourself and, in turn, lead a team.

I was always good at time management. I prided myself on my ability to juggle multiple tasks and thrive in high-pressure situations. In university, I took a variety of courses, worked part-time, played on a soccer team, and was highly involved in student council. I loved having a full calendar, scheduling every minute of my day, and the sense of accomplishment I felt at the end of each day.

Through these experiences, I learned a lot about time management. I learned how to prioritize, delegate, and say no. I learned how to schedule my time effectively and how to be creative in the face of constraints. But the biggest lesson I learned was that it all starts with you. You must lead yourself before you can lead a team.

I realized this when I entered the workforce and transitioned from an individual contributor to a manager of a team of engineers. Despite my prior experiences, I struggled when I had to transition from managing myself to managing a team. Having technical expertise does not automatically make you a good leader. In this article, I will explain how I learned to lead a team and how I learned to manage my time in the process by focusing on three main areas: effectiveness, delegation, and communication.

Effectiveness

Being effective is one of the most important aspects of time management. In the context of time management, effectiveness can be defined as achieving the desired outcome without wasting time. To be effective, you must be focused, disciplined, and organized.

When I started my first full-time job, I had to adjust to working a full eight-hour day. In university, I was used to having classes and assignments that filled up my day and gave me a sense of urgency. Now that I was working, I had longer periods of time to complete projects and it was up to me to structure my time wisely in order to be effective.

Early on, I realized that the key to effectiveness is prioritizing your time. It is impossible to give equal attention to every task and still have time left over to do other things. The reality is, some tasks are more important than others and it is essential that you prioritize these tasks first. I quickly learned how to prioritize my tasks based on deadlines, importance, and the amount of work required.

Prioritization requires discipline because it often means putting off less important tasks in favor of more important ones, regardless of whether the less important task is more enjoyable or gives you a quick sense of accomplishment. For me, the key to maintaining this discipline was scheduling my week ahead of time. I would sit down at the end of each week and schedule time for each of my tasks the following week. By doing this, I never had an empty schedule, and I never felt lost about what I should be working on because everything was already planned out.

Another way I stayed disciplined was by grouping similar tasks together to maximize my focus. For example, all of my engineering tasks required deep focus and an uninterrupted workflow, so I would group these tasks together and complete them one after the other. This allowed me to get into a rhythm and stay in the zone without having to change gears. Conversely, I would batch answer emails and slack messages together so that I could quickly respond to them all at once. While this approach may seem counterintuitive because it sometimes results in you sending a bunch of emails in a short period of time, it actually helps maintain a steady flow and prevents interruptions throughout the day.

To be effective, you also need to be organized. This means having a system for storing information, being able to find things quickly, and being organized with your time. Find a calendar and a task system that work for you and use them. Whether it is a physical planner or a digital calendar, get in the habit of using it and keeping it up to date. For me, transitioning to a digital calendar and task system was the best option given the amount of time I spent in front of a computer. I also found it useful to sync my calendar across all my devices so that I was never without it.

Effectiveness is an important skill for an individual contributor and for a team leader. However, the concept of effectiveness expands when you begin to lead a team. Not only do you need to effective in your own work, but you are also responsible for the effectiveness of your team. This is why it is important to lead yourself effectively before you lead a team.

Delegation

Delegation is one of the most challenging aspects of managing a team. It can also be a difficult concept to grasp because delegation is often seen as a privilege of leadership, something you do once you reach a certain level in an organization. However, I argue that delegation is a skill that you need to develop early on, especially if you want to be an effective leader.

I learned the importance of delegation early in my career when I started managing a team of engineers. Despite my previous experience with time management and prioritizing tasks, I struggled to keep up with my own workload on top of managing my team. I was going through the motions of breaking down my tasks into smaller and smaller chunks, scheduling them, and trying to complete them all. But it became apparent that I couldn’t keep up this pace forever. I was burnt out and I wasn’t being effective.

It was at this point that I realized I needed to delegate some of my work to my team. As a leader, it is your job to ensure the work gets done, not do it all yourself. This was a tough pill to swallow because I am a perfectionist and I like to do things myself. However, I knew that I couldn’t be an effective leader if I didn’t learn to trust my team and delegate work to them.

Delegation requires a huge amount of trust, not only in your team but also in yourself. You need to trust that your team is capable of doing the work and that they will deliver on expectations. This means giving up some control and not micromanaging, which can be hard for perfectionists to do.

I struggled with this initially because I wanted everything to be perfect. I had spent years perfecting my craft and it was hard to let go of that control. However, I quickly learned that my team did not produce the same work as I did because they were different people with different experiences and perspectives. This was a good thing! It forced me to grow and change my perspective on how I viewed my work.

I also learned that delegation goes both ways. Just as I needed to trust my team, they needed to trust me. This meant that I sometimes had to defend my team to higher-ups when they missed a deadline or delivered work that wasn’t quite perfect. It also meant giving them the freedom to take ownership of their work and supporting them when they needed help.

Delegation also requires open and honest communication, especially when something is not going according to plan. This can be challenging when you are under pressure and facing deadlines. However, it is these moments when open communication is most important.

Ultimately, learning to delegate was one of the most important lessons I learned in time management and leadership. It taught me the importance of trust and communication, and it helped me become a more well-rounded leader.

Communication

Effective communication is one of the most important skills for any leader. However, it is often overlooked. Poor communication can lead to missed deadlines, misaligned expectations, and frustrated employees. It is imperative that as a leader, you communicate effectively with your team and with other stakeholders.

Effective communication starts with being open and honest. This means being open to feedback, both giving and receiving it. It also means being open to new ideas and perspectives and not just from your own team, but from other teams and individuals as well. This can be a difficult adjustment to make because as a leader, people will often look to you for direction and approval. However, great leaders are open to new ideas and different approaches, even if they disagree.

Another aspect of open communication is letting go of perfectionism. I already mentioned how I struggled with this because I am a perfectionist and I like to do everything myself. However, perfectionism and leadership do not mix well. You need to be open to the ideas and work of others, even if it is not perfect. This is not to say that you should accept low-quality work or that you shouldn’t set high standards for your team. Rather, it is about understanding that perfection is a subjective concept and setting realistic expectations given the context.

Effective communication is about providing feedback on that work in a constructive and positive way. As a leader, it is your job to provide guidance and mentorship to your team. This means that when you give feedback, it should be done in a way that is helpful and actionable.

Lastly, effective communication requires active listening. This is an important but often overlooked skill. Active listening means focusing on the person completely and not interrupting them. It means listening to understand, not to reply. I learned the importance of active listening when I first started leading a team. I would listen to my team members, but only to respond. I wanted to show my team that I was engaged and that I knew the answers to their questions. What I failed to realize was that my team didn’t need me to always have the answers. They needed me to listen and support them, and this required active listening.

I learned this skill by actively practicing it with my team. I would focus intently on them when they were speaking and not interrupt them, even if I knew the answer. I would jot down notes and ask them to clarify if I didn’t understand something. This helped build trust with my team and made them feel heard.

Active listening also helps you identify the root cause of a problem, rather than just treating the symptoms. For example, if an engineer on my team was struggling to meet a deadline, I would listen to them and try to understand why they were behind schedule. It might be that they were stuck on a particular bug and needed help, but they were too proud to ask. Or it could be that they were overwhelmed by the scope of the project and needed help prioritizing tasks. By listening intently and understanding the root cause, I could better support my team and provide the right solutions.

Effective communication is critical for leadership and time management. It allows you to build trust and foster a collaborative environment with your team. It also helps you identify and resolve issues before they become problems.

Conclusion

Effective time management is a critical skill for any leader. For me, learning how to manage my time effectively came down to three main skills: effectiveness, delegation, and communication. However, learning these skills took time and practice, and I still have areas where I can improve. Regardless of where you are on your leadership journey, remember that leadership starts with leading yourself first. By developing these skills, you can not only improve your own productivity but also effectively lead a team.