The Biggest Time Wasters for CEOS

Work like a CEO without the distractions, Jim Alampi offers his time-saving tips.

I constantly hear from executives that they have way too much work to do and can never seem to catch up and actually do their jobs. After years of watching this behavior and analyzing the root causes, I’ve found that there’s plenty of time to get things done if people would stop doing the wrong things!

Here are the most common “CEO Time Wasters” and how to avoid getting stuck doing them.

Meetings. Specifically, meetings that you don’t need to be in. I would often get up and exit a meeting that I found I did not need to attend. Leaders need to jealously protect their time and only attend the meetings they really need to be in. Instead, have someone else attend and brief you on what you need to know.

Power Point Presentations. Unfortunately this application has become imbedded in corporate America and too many executives have fallen victim to extensive slide presentations which are a terrible waste for executive teams. The purpose of presentations to executives should be discussion, brain storming, and collective intelligence. If you can’t muster the strength to banish PP altogether, I developed “Alampi’s Rule of 5s”.

If you must – here are some guidelines for using Power Point:

Anything to be presented at an executive team meeting has to be sent out 5 days in advance. No more than 5 slides in any presentation.
No more than 5 bullet points on a slide.
If you are asking for people, money, or other resources – this MUST be stated on the first slide (I don’t want to have to wait until the last slide to know what the request was).
If you ever start reading the slides you will be excused from the meeting; we have all read the slides ahead of time and it is an insult to read slides to us.

Answering Questions. It’s not the CEOs job to give their employees all the answers. As an executive, if you allow your employees to ask you questions every time they don’t know the answer you’ll end up spending a chunk of your day doing your employees’ work for them. Plus, having your employees find the answers themselves allows them to think more deeply, grow, and become leaders themselves. My rule, for every 20 questions, I answer 1 — and the best answer when asked a question by a subordinate is this, “I don’t know; what do you think?”

Coddling Employees. Executives spend too much time trying to “fix” all the “C” players in their companies. The brutal fact is that it’s almost impossible to fix a “C” player in their current job. There is a much better ROI coaching a “B-“ to become a “B+” or a “B+” to become an “A” than trying to fix all the “C” players in the world. The bigger problem is that “A” players don’t want to work with “C” players. By wasting time trying to fix the “Cs” you may lose your “As”.

Technology Changes. Most entrepreneurial companies (and even larger ones) spend way too much time trying to implement technology systems. Often, small to mid-size companies don’t have the experienced talent at the executive level, like a CIO, who has led multiple system integration projects in the past. CEOs try to make these critical changes with a current staff that may have little experience with technology, processes and change management.

Unfortunately, large technology projects can be a “you bet the company” phase of evolution. The world is littered with companies that started ERP projects and failed, even going out of business or CRM systems that cost substantial dollars only to be abandoned. And of course, during these implementations who is paying attention to customers? Usually very few people since everyone is focused internally, trying to learn how to operate with the new software.

Virtually every company I have ever met with has plenty of time to run the business if they would just stop doing the things that no longer add value. In my opinion, a “stop doing” list is more important than any “to do” list. At least once a quarter, come up with a “stop doing list”, it’ll help you identify unnecessary tasks, delegate, and uncover hidden time that could be re-deployed into productive and relevant activities.

From fledgling startups to massive corporate entities, Jim Alampi has spent 30 years helping companies overcome the barriers to business growth. Jim is the Founder of Alampi & Associates, a Detroit-based executive leadership firm whose clients include several Fortune 500 companies. Jim is the author of “Great to Excellent; It’s the Execution!” (2013) and speaks frequently to CEO’s and executive teams on the topics of business strategy, human capital, and executive leadership.

Jim Alampi has served as a high level executive for several global companies. He was the President & CEO of e-Chemicals, a $1.5 billion chemical distribution company, President & CEO for Insurance Auto Auctions (NASDAQ: IAAI), a $325 million company, and was a senior executive with Univar Corporation (NYSE: UVX), a leading global distributor of specialty chemicals.