5 Things CEOs Should Not Be Spending Time Doing

Running your own business and trying to keep things profitable, running smoothly and keeping things to a high standard should be at the top of any CEO’s priorities. However, it’s not uncommon to hear executives complaining that they’re struggling with their workloads and that they’re finding it difficult to catch up and actually get things done.

The real issue here, isn’t an overloaded diary…it’s the fact that the diary is filled with all the wrong things. Here are the top 5 things that CEO’s should not be spending time doing.

The minor details

For a business to run smoothly and successfully, it’s important that as an executive you have your head in the game and you’re putting the right things in place to ensure success and vital business fundamentals such as employee and customer safety. While health and safety overviews, equipment and training falls at your door, the minor details should be the responsibility of trusted employees. Trivial issues such as where the water cooler is positioned and arranging stop signs in the company car park should certainly NOT be your priority as a CEO.

Meetings

Or more specifically, the meetings that you don’t really need to attend. As a leader, you have to viciously protect your time and only attend meetings that are crucial to the operations side of your business. A meeting about what kind of coffee should be supplied in the break room isn’t a meeting you need to be in. However, you should be keen to keep yourself in the loop with what’s happening on the “floor” and keep well-informed of all employee queries and issues, so send someone to represent you and they can brief you with the details later.

Answering questions

Of course as a CEO it’s well within your remit to answer any questions or queries your employees might have. It’s no good hiding in a posh office somewhere, out of reach and out of touch with your workforce. However, if you allow your day to be filled with constant questions, then you’re simply going to do their work for them. Let your employees find out the answers for themselves – it will allow them to grow, get better at their jobs and even have the potential to become leaders themselves.

Changes in your tech department

As with any business, technology is a fundamental part of your every day working life. However, when you’re hoping to scale up, or upgrade to a much better process or technology it can often mean that everything else gets neglected. When you try and implement the changes yourself, then the rest of the business including your customers are going to get left behind. Hire the right people instead!

Mollycoddling their employees

If you spend too much time sympathising and trying to push a certain level of employee, then you’re going to start neglecting your highflyers. Trying to “fix” a particular lower level employee is a near impossible task. And it’s a much better venture to coach and invest in employees that want to excel in your business.

Have you read?

# Don’t Play The Busy-ness Game. Here’s Why More Effort Doesn’t Equal Better Results by Lynne Cazaly.
# Connection Before Content: How The Process Communication Model Can Help Your Team Thrive by Jeff King.
# Engage Your Stakeholders Through Sustainability Efforts by Alon Geva.
# Top 5 Places In The World For Heavenly Coffee Experience.