 AT WORK

Bosses Struggle With Time Management, Too

By Leslie Kwoh

Jan 14, 2013 11:00 am ET

If there's one thing executives lack, it's time. And many of them, it turns out, aren't happy
with how they're managing this limited resource.

In an online survey of nearly 1,400 senior executives  -- including 668 CEOs and 557
other C-level execs  -- just 52% said they were spending their time in a way that matched
their companies' strategic priorities.

Respondents were further divided in their satisfaction of how they utilized their time at
work: 32%  said they were somewhat or very dissatisfied, 48% were somewhat satisfied,
and only 9% were highly satisfied. The rest said they were neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied, or did not know.  The study will be released Monday by consulting firm
McKinsey & Co.
When compared with the highly satisfied group, executives who were dissatisfied
exhibited remarkably similar time-use habits, which McKinsey grouped into four
categories:

“Online junkies” spent on average 38% of their time using email or voicemail, leaving
little time for personal interaction.

“Schmoozers,” represented well by CEOs and sales directors, interacted heavily with
external stakeholders like clients and customers, at the risk of neglecting their own
employees.

Meanwhile, “cheerleaders,” often C-suite executives, spent a big chunk of their schedules
meeting and managing employees, but considerably less time with outsiders.

“Firefighters,” usually general managers, were often preoccupied with resolving short-
term and unexpected issues.
The findings indicate that methods of time management are a crucial yet overlooked issue
at many companies, says Aaron De Smet, a principal at McKinsey's Houston office and
co-author of the report. Executives generally don’t track how they spend their time, he
says, and many companies don’t offer guidance in this area.

“Time is one of the most precious and undermanaged resources at a company, and it
seems to be getting more so,” De Smet says. “We’re just piling on more and more and
more.”

Executives who were fully satisfied with their time management were generally more
consistent and balanced in the way they budgeted their time. They spent on average 38%
of their time in face-to-face interactions, 28% using email or voice mail, and 21% on the
phone. They were more likely to be found working alone (24% of time), than with clients
and customers (17%) or direct reports (15%).

CEOs, perhaps unsurprisingly, comprised more than one-third of the 124 executives in
the "fully-satisfied" group. De Smet theorizes that they are more efficient with their time
because they have executive assistants who manage their calendars. These top bosses also
have more discretion when it comes to how they choose to budget their time, he adds.

Overall De Smet argues that companies need to address time management as an

organizational initiative, not an individual one. He says firms should  set "time budgets"
for certain projects and tasks, and limit the introduction of new initiatives that might
overwhelm executives.

The survey, conducted in late 2011, polled executives from a mix of public and private
companies around the world.