Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Leadership & Time Management

If there is one thing I believe any leader needs to manage appropriately it is time! Time is a huge competitive advantage. Be it learning and gathering skills; developing talent; managing and building teams; practicing, demonstrating and delivering success. Time is the only sustainable competitive advantage! I have argued with friends, colleagues and partners over numerous cups of coffee only to confirm my hypothesis.

Time can influence everything from where you studied, what you studied, how well you learnt, what you absorbed and what if all bounced off, where you worked, who you know and how well you know them. Infact I believe in the event we had infinite amount of time leadership would be unnecessary. Each one could just practice to perfection. The entire idea of strategizing based on hypothesis, prioritizing and succeeding would be lost in time.

I believe strong leaders are born (just luck!) and those that are made have prudent time management skills. Although I don’t disagree, “It is better to be lucky then to be good”… the lucky ones are wired to manage time to their advantage. For those mathematically inclined time is not a sufficient but a necessary ingredient for leadership.