1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:05,480 It is not that we have little time, it is that we waste so much of it. That is a Seneca quote. So 2 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:11,240 Seneca is just a stoic Greek philosopher, and I am not going to do a Molly way. I know we all have 3 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:16,600 different amounts of time in a day. I know we all don't have the same 24 hours. It very much varies, 4 00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:20,480 like if you've got kids that's already going to play a huge part in the time that you can spend 5 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:25,439 within your day. However, for the purpose of this episode, what we are going to talk about is those, 6 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:31,600 let's say, for argument's sake, seven hours, seven working hours that you have within your day and 7 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:38,119 the fact that more than ever, managers are disengaging. We're showing that we hate our jobs. 8 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:43,080 We are disengaged from our jobs. We don't like it. There's too much emotional labour. We're going to 9 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:50,080 really explore the facets of how to make sure that those seven hours per day are not miserable 10 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:54,560 or not horrible, make sure that we use them well. Time is your most valuable resource. It's 11 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:58,320 literally the only one that we cannot make more of. We can make more friends. We can make more 12 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:02,549 money, we can gain more status, but time is the one thing that you will never get back. And it's also 13 00:01:02,590 --> 00:01:06,749 the one thing that will allow you to build all of the other things. And the older I get, like the 14 00:01:06,750 --> 00:01:11,949 more experienced I become with in leadership, the more I respect the people who aren't constantly 15 00:01:11,949 --> 00:01:17,789 busy and who have the ability to build boundaries around and protect their time. So that's what this 16 00:01:17,790 --> 00:01:22,189 episode is going to do. It's going to give you the strategies, the plan of exactly how I have really 17 00:01:22,190 --> 00:01:25,949 gone on this journey over the last few years of protecting my own time, why that's been so 18 00:01:25,949 --> 00:01:29,909 important, but also the things that I've found difficult in doing it, because it's not all been 19 00:01:29,910 --> 00:01:36,069 plain sailing. I want you to get familiar with this idea of buying back your time, buying it back. 20 00:01:36,069 --> 00:01:41,589 And I don't always mean with money sometimes. I mean, you have to spend a little bit of time up 21 00:01:41,589 --> 00:01:47,189 front to buy back a lot more time in the long run. So an example I'm going to give you of this is 22 00:01:47,190 --> 00:01:53,070 delegation. Let's think about the idea, the concept of delegation okay. Let's say that I'm in fact I'm 23 00:01:53,070 --> 00:01:59,059 going to use a really an example from my business right now. Tasha needs to build a social media 24 00:01:59,059 --> 00:02:03,699 asset. Let's say she's building out a carousel for our social media. She sends it over to me, and 25 00:02:03,699 --> 00:02:07,459 there's a couple of slides that I'm not quite keen on that I that I would do something slightly 26 00:02:07,459 --> 00:02:14,179 differently in that moment. I have two choices choice one, edit it and send it back over to 27 00:02:14,220 --> 00:02:19,460 Tisha and say, thanks, I've corrected it, approved it, whatever you can. Now go ahead and post it 28 00:02:19,500 --> 00:02:25,300 quicker. Fast, okay. Option two spend a bit of time with t shirt and you can do this on like a loom 29 00:02:25,300 --> 00:02:29,300 video screen recording video. Or you could just ring them on Slack or Teams and have a quick call. 30 00:02:29,300 --> 00:02:35,020 You could set ten minutes for the next morning. I am going to talk you through the process of my 31 00:02:35,059 --> 00:02:41,259 thinking as to why. I'm not sure these slides are right and what I would have done differently, and 32 00:02:41,259 --> 00:02:46,259 help her help give her some of my marketing knowledge from the past few years. Help to explain 33 00:02:46,259 --> 00:02:50,539 to her, like the psychological reasoning behind why I would have done what I would have done, and 34 00:02:50,539 --> 00:02:57,049 then asked her to go away and try again and then come back. There's a big difference. Okay, the first 35 00:02:57,049 --> 00:03:01,569 one. It's quicker for me in the moment, like it's so much quicker for me to just go, yeah, here's the 36 00:03:01,570 --> 00:03:06,249 edit, here's it's done. But taking that extra time, that's that's proper delegation. Proper coaching 37 00:03:06,249 --> 00:03:11,089 and delegation is not just telling people what to do and when to do it for and how to do it. It 38 00:03:11,089 --> 00:03:15,649 proper delegation is telling is explaining the context. It's telling them the why, the 39 00:03:15,649 --> 00:03:21,249 psychological reasoning. It's imparting your learnings and knowledge. It's exploring, you know, 40 00:03:21,289 --> 00:03:25,009 do we need a system here? Like do we need to write down these rules about these carousels so that 41 00:03:25,009 --> 00:03:28,529 next time you know exactly where to go to look, so you don't even have to come to me for this 42 00:03:28,529 --> 00:03:33,849 approval. And it's by this is what I see now as buying back my time. Because yes, of course, that 43 00:03:33,850 --> 00:03:38,129 takes more time in the moment. Like it's going to take 15 minutes or I'm going to have to record a 44 00:03:38,129 --> 00:03:43,769 video, I'm going to have to exert a bit more energy explaining that thing in deeper detail. But 45 00:03:43,770 --> 00:03:49,288 we're now out at the point with t shirt, t shirts, I think six months in to her job where I've 46 00:03:49,329 --> 00:03:53,489 bought back that time, I've coached her, I've taught her as much as I can. I've taught her, you 47 00:03:53,489 --> 00:03:57,040 know, every time I hand something over, I Nova explained to her the reasoning, the context, the 48 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:01,720 why she's now taking that and running for the hills and running with it. And I, you know, we're 49 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:05,319 getting to the point where I don't need to explain the context anymore. And as the content 50 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:10,440 comes through, I barely even need to approve it. It's just like a couple of tiny, tiny things. And 51 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:16,760 that is buying back your time. So many of us managers are stuck in this mode of like, 52 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:23,040 how do I just do the quickest, easiest way around the mountain as possible? How do I take the 53 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:27,239 fastest route to get to the other side of this immediate mountain? And then we get to the other 54 00:04:27,239 --> 00:04:31,000 side of that mountain, and you turn around and you're like, shit, there's a whole other mountain 55 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:35,239 now that I've got to climb. And then a bigger one after that, and a bigger one after that, when we 56 00:04:35,239 --> 00:04:39,280 could have just taken the slightly longer route, gone to the other side and then the car parks 57 00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:45,880 right there, and it's like, how do we make sure that we're not just taking the quick, easy route 58 00:04:45,959 --> 00:04:50,959 for a quick time win in the moment? Because I promise Future You is going to be annoyed at it. 59 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:56,389 This leads me on to something that you can't talk about time without talking about the word no. Okay. 60 00:04:56,430 --> 00:05:02,629 You cannot talk about time without accepting the only way you gain more time for yourself. You. You 61 00:05:02,670 --> 00:05:08,590 value your own time more, and other people value you. For it is getting really fucking good at 62 00:05:08,590 --> 00:05:12,549 saying no to things that you either don't want to do. You're not good at doing. You shouldn't be 63 00:05:12,549 --> 00:05:15,989 doing. Pushing back and setting boundaries and setting those boundaries is really tough. I 64 00:05:15,989 --> 00:05:21,829 remember the scariest time I ever pushed bad. This sounds so menial right now, saying it out loud, but 65 00:05:21,829 --> 00:05:27,790 at the time I was terrified. Was the first time I pushed back on a meeting to my own boss, and I'd 66 00:05:27,790 --> 00:05:32,230 got this meeting request and it was, I think there was maybe 5 or 6 of us in the meeting, and I had 67 00:05:32,230 --> 00:05:37,829 to go back to her and say, as much as, you know, I appreciate this valuable, I'd love to be in it. Is 68 00:05:37,829 --> 00:05:43,230 it okay if I just join for the first 15 minutes? Because I've got to prioritise X, Y, and Z. And the 69 00:05:43,230 --> 00:05:49,510 first time I did that, I was absolutely I was like terrified. But what I hadn't realised is other 70 00:05:49,510 --> 00:05:55,379 people respect you more and respect your time more when you respect it yourself. We will use 71 00:05:55,379 --> 00:06:02,060 this word respect a lot in my world, in my ecosystem of content on YouTube, TikTok, whatever. I 72 00:06:02,060 --> 00:06:06,980 use the word respect a lot because a lot so many managers come to me and say, how do I get my team 73 00:06:06,980 --> 00:06:13,219 to respect me? How do I build respect with my team? And the truth is, you actually can't get people to 74 00:06:13,219 --> 00:06:17,900 respect you, especially not if you don't respect yourself. First, respect is something I think 75 00:06:17,900 --> 00:06:24,139 that's internal. Like it starts with you. Do you respect your own time? You know, you can say, oh, 76 00:06:24,179 --> 00:06:29,779 this the company doesn't respect my time. My manager doesn't respect my time. Well, do you like 77 00:06:29,820 --> 00:06:34,219 are you just saying yes to all these meetings? Because if so, how can you expect other people to 78 00:06:34,220 --> 00:06:38,579 when you've constantly taught them? Yes. I'll jump in at last minute. Yes, I'll fix that problem for 79 00:06:38,579 --> 00:06:45,379 you. Yes, I'll say yes to this meeting. And so we can't talk about this idea, this concept of loving 80 00:06:45,379 --> 00:06:50,179 our job more through saving time without talking about the word no, and setting boundaries and 81 00:06:50,179 --> 00:06:54,810 pushing back. It's funny because on the internet you will see 1,000,001 different, like 82 00:06:54,810 --> 00:07:01,569 productivity hacks, time blocking planners. You'll see 1,000,001 of them, I guarantee. As 83 00:07:01,569 --> 00:07:07,489 someone who has tried all of them, none of them will be a magic pill. Like, none of them will fix 84 00:07:07,489 --> 00:07:11,769 your issues with the fact that time is the biggest thing that you struggle with. When I speak 85 00:07:11,770 --> 00:07:17,889 to managers about this as well, what they'll often say to me is the problem is they want to use kind 86 00:07:17,889 --> 00:07:23,409 of all these systems and frameworks that I talk about, one on ones delegation, etc. they want to be 87 00:07:23,410 --> 00:07:29,810 a better leader, but they just struggle with time. And that is the difference between working on the 88 00:07:29,810 --> 00:07:34,810 urgent versus working on the important. The distinction we have to make in our head is the 89 00:07:34,810 --> 00:07:41,809 urgent work is often the safer work. What I mean by urgent is things that if 90 00:07:41,810 --> 00:07:47,929 they don't happen today or in the next week, you will notice. So emails don't get answered. Um, let's 91 00:07:47,930 --> 00:07:52,879 say you don't go to meetings. You don't answer a client or you don't answer a team member on slack. 92 00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:57,799 All of those things are urgent. What? We class is urgent, and our brain recognises them as urgent. 93 00:07:57,799 --> 00:08:02,720 They're also very safe. They're generally like the business as usual tasks. You know how to do them 94 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:07,559 in your sleep. They're kind of easy. You're not trying new things. You're not experimenting. You're 95 00:08:07,559 --> 00:08:14,399 not getting rejected. Like they are easy, safe things for you to do. And so you 96 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:19,199 by default will always be working there. You'll always be working in that urgent. Because if you 97 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:23,879 don't do it this time next week, someone will notice or you will notice. Your to do list will 98 00:08:23,879 --> 00:08:27,680 keep getting longer and longer. But there's another side of work which is called the 99 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:31,439 important and the urgent. Important. They both sit on something called the Eisenhower Matrix, which, 100 00:08:31,480 --> 00:08:37,959 if you've not heard of it, just a matrix to show some work is urgent and important. Some work is 101 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:43,119 urgent but not important. And it kind of shows you this way to sort of divvy up your tasks for me. 102 00:08:43,159 --> 00:08:47,599 Honestly, the reason I'm not going to talk you through that matrix is because I have simplified 103 00:08:47,599 --> 00:08:54,188 it in my head where I don't use a matrix, I just have a task list inside. My notion that is 104 00:08:54,189 --> 00:09:00,389 literally just urgent and important in the urgent is my normal day to day to do list. And then the 105 00:09:00,389 --> 00:09:06,469 important is the working on working on the business, working on the team, working on my own 106 00:09:06,469 --> 00:09:11,988 leadership, on my own career. You will find things in there like building out systems. You will find 107 00:09:12,030 --> 00:09:17,070 things like building out a podcast or like custard is a really important one. Custard was a 108 00:09:17,070 --> 00:09:21,149 project. So custard, for those who don't know already, it's our cultural intelligence platform 109 00:09:21,150 --> 00:09:24,989 for managers. Go check it out. I'll put the link in the show notes. You should definitely check it and 110 00:09:24,990 --> 00:09:31,509 try a free trial. It's a nice little plug there, but custard was an important project for us. 111 00:09:31,550 --> 00:09:36,590 It was something that for the first couple of years running Fresh Leadership World, it was this 112 00:09:36,590 --> 00:09:42,229 idea. It was a it was a note in my notes app. It was through having all these conversations with 113 00:09:42,229 --> 00:09:48,819 managers and realising that we needed this tool to measure the data inside of our team, and we 114 00:09:48,820 --> 00:09:53,819 then needed like the support to be able to do it and the scale to be able to do it, etc. for a long 115 00:09:53,820 --> 00:10:00,099 time it was just in my important list and I here's the thing with important stuff is if you 116 00:10:00,099 --> 00:10:04,979 don't do it, no one notices. So we were for the first couple of years of fresh leadership world 117 00:10:04,979 --> 00:10:10,619 making good money, you know, through workshops, through our Fresh Start bootcamp, through brand 118 00:10:10,620 --> 00:10:15,859 deals, making a good amount of money like a good what we would call a lifestyle business. And it 119 00:10:15,859 --> 00:10:22,059 was very cushy. Um, we were in our comfort zone for a long time, and custard as a product just sat 120 00:10:22,059 --> 00:10:27,939 there on this important list, and if I didn't do it that week, no one would have noticed. And this 121 00:10:27,939 --> 00:10:32,939 is the thing you have to realise, right? As human beings were so good at working to the last minute. 122 00:10:32,939 --> 00:10:38,580 We're so good at working to deadlines, not letting other people down. Um, you know, never like not 123 00:10:38,580 --> 00:10:44,099 pushing things out, not letting people down. The question you have to ask yourself is what happens 124 00:10:44,099 --> 00:10:49,249 when there isn't a last minute? What happens when that last minute doesn't exist? The deadline 125 00:10:49,249 --> 00:10:55,449 doesn't exist. The deadline is whenever the hell you decide you want to do it. Because I 126 00:10:55,489 --> 00:11:01,889 guarantee your your subconscious brain will always prioritise the urgent stuff my brain did 127 00:11:01,889 --> 00:11:07,009 for a long time. I was constantly just going back to the urgent, replying to clients as quickly as 128 00:11:07,009 --> 00:11:13,169 possible. Um, you know, posting social media content every single day. All the stuff that if I didn't 129 00:11:13,169 --> 00:11:18,130 do, yes, people would notice, but it was urgent. It was safe. It wasn't the important. And the 130 00:11:18,130 --> 00:11:22,969 important is the things that will move you forward. They tend to be the bigger projects, the 131 00:11:22,969 --> 00:11:27,250 more innovative projects, the things that allow you to work on, whether it's the personal 132 00:11:27,250 --> 00:11:31,209 development, the system building, they normally just take longer, like you're normally talking 133 00:11:31,210 --> 00:11:36,249 about a couple of hours at least, to get your head stuck into the beginning of one of these projects. 134 00:11:36,250 --> 00:11:41,809 But what I've found over time, the best way that I work to this is, first of all, just being aware. So 135 00:11:41,810 --> 00:11:46,479 being aware that there's a difference between urgent and important. Being aware that is there. Is 136 00:11:46,479 --> 00:11:50,320 there a last minute if I don't put one on it, if I don't force myself, but then the next thing that's 137 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:57,280 really helped me is forcefully blocking out full days. So I used to think that, 138 00:11:57,280 --> 00:12:02,840 say, if I had like a day, seven hours of work, whatever, and I just had 1 or 2 meetings that, oh, 139 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:08,319 it's fine because I've got, you know, four other five other working hours in that day. So therefore 140 00:12:08,359 --> 00:12:14,200 surely I can work on the important stuff then. However, as you all know, and I do better than 141 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:20,880 anyone else, if you have a meeting at 10 a.m., at ten till 11, you are going to come into the 142 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:24,839 office. You're going to start work at nine. You know, you've got a meeting at ten, so you're not 143 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:29,279 going to get stuck in to any deep focus work. I wouldn't you're just going to answer your emails. 144 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:33,280 You're going to check slack. You're going to tick some things off because you've only got an hour. 145 00:12:33,319 --> 00:12:38,240 You then you maybe you need to prep for the meeting. You go into the meeting, it finishes at 11. 146 00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:41,960 You've got a set of three actions that you need to do off the back of that meeting. You need to go 147 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:47,589 and organise some stuff. Next thing you know is lunchtime. It's 12 half 12. So you have your lunch. 148 00:12:47,590 --> 00:12:53,549 It's one half one. You've now got one of the meeting, let's say 3 p.m.. You've only got an hour. 149 00:12:53,549 --> 00:12:57,430 An hour and a half again. You're not going to get stuck into that deep focus work. You've not got 150 00:12:57,469 --> 00:13:02,629 time, you've not got the headspace for it. And so you just prep, you do more emails, you get stuck in 151 00:13:02,629 --> 00:13:07,270 the day to day. You do. You do the meeting at 3 p.m. then by the time you're finished, as you know, 152 00:13:07,270 --> 00:13:11,429 you've got a couple of actions and it's basically time to go home. And no one who has energy still 153 00:13:11,429 --> 00:13:18,389 after 4 p.m. and it's like, this is how destructive meetings really can be to progress 154 00:13:18,390 --> 00:13:24,869 if you're not so careful. Two meetings in a day doesn't seem like a lot. I that's that is very, 155 00:13:24,869 --> 00:13:30,870 very normal, if not quite low. Yeah. Just those two meetings being positioned at the wrong time could 156 00:13:30,870 --> 00:13:36,949 throw off an entire day of progress. And so what I do now, I've tried so many different methods with 157 00:13:36,950 --> 00:13:42,629 this over the years, but what has worked so well for me over the last couple of years Is blocking 158 00:13:42,629 --> 00:13:47,229 out full days. So yesterday was Monday. I didn't have a single meeting I had. Sorry. I had a small 159 00:13:47,230 --> 00:13:53,509 day to catch up with the team, but after that nothing completely free all day because I needed 160 00:13:53,509 --> 00:13:59,669 to get stuck into some chunky work for custard project work, deep work that required at least 161 00:13:59,669 --> 00:14:04,549 four hours so that I could spend the first hour just mentally preparing to get myself focussed, 162 00:14:04,549 --> 00:14:09,869 researching, then actually getting stuck in and then just, yeah, not having to worry about this 163 00:14:09,909 --> 00:14:14,829 impending meeting that I've got coming up. And so the way I do it now is like block out the days. 164 00:14:14,830 --> 00:14:20,589 Usually I will like fiercely block out Monday, Thursday, Friday. And normally 1 or 2 meetings will 165 00:14:20,589 --> 00:14:24,710 creep in and then Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm, I like doing days like I'll be doing stuff, I'll be 166 00:14:24,710 --> 00:14:30,629 with other people doing meetings and it's okay if it slips slightly, like quite often. I can't avoid 167 00:14:30,629 --> 00:14:36,869 a Thursday meeting, but I'm just so forceful. And another thing you have to be very careful of is 168 00:14:36,870 --> 00:14:41,460 if someone puts a meeting in for in two weeks time, your calendar in two weeks is going to look 169 00:14:41,499 --> 00:14:45,939 pretty clear right now, as all of our calendars will do. Pretty chill. Pretty, pretty clear. Pretty 170 00:14:45,940 --> 00:14:51,699 easy. By the time that week comes round, it won't be clear, you think just by pushing it forward a 171 00:14:51,700 --> 00:14:57,618 couple of weeks that it will magically you'll be you'll be less busy. It doesn't. So don't decide. Oh, 172 00:14:57,660 --> 00:15:01,579 if I do it in two weeks, I'll have more time for it, because that just won't happen if that meeting 173 00:15:01,579 --> 00:15:06,780 isn't valuable this week. Is it valuable at all? Another big tool that you should keep in your 174 00:15:06,780 --> 00:15:13,580 belt is with meetings. I. People are always shocked when I set like a 20 minute meeting and I have 20 175 00:15:13,580 --> 00:15:18,738 minute meetings all the time. People are always shocked. Say I had like a like a um, someone 176 00:15:18,739 --> 00:15:23,059 reached out to me on LinkedIn who wanted to just chat to me and ask me for some advice on a new 177 00:15:23,060 --> 00:15:27,619 business idea. And he's great. And like, I kind of know him well and I wanted to speak to him about 178 00:15:27,619 --> 00:15:33,699 it, but a lot of people would have just said, yeah, let's have an hour. Let's put an hour in. I'm like 179 00:15:33,740 --> 00:15:40,609 20 minutes and I guarantee there would be such. There's so few more things we could have got 180 00:15:40,609 --> 00:15:44,209 done in an hour than we could in 20 minutes, because when a meeting is 20 minutes, it forces 181 00:15:44,210 --> 00:15:48,928 you into the discipline of like, let's get this shit done. We've not got time for small talk. I've 182 00:15:48,929 --> 00:15:53,210 not got time for niceties. Everyone needs to prep. Everyone needs to understand the agenda. You need 183 00:15:53,210 --> 00:15:59,009 to turn up ready. We need to discuss. And we need to decide. Get better with how you use your time 184 00:15:59,009 --> 00:16:04,929 day to day. Another really great tool that I mentioned it a little bit earlier is loom. If you 185 00:16:04,929 --> 00:16:09,689 guys aren't using loom yet, honestly, it changed my life and it's free. It's just a Chrome extension. 186 00:16:09,729 --> 00:16:13,770 Obviously this is not sponsored, but we genuinely just use it all the time. Loom. Loom Chrome 187 00:16:13,770 --> 00:16:18,048 extension. You can just attach it to Chrome. You click it and you can do a screen recording. It 188 00:16:18,049 --> 00:16:21,969 saves so many meetings for you and your team because you can just give them feedback on 189 00:16:21,969 --> 00:16:25,810 something really quickly. We use it now with the developer for custard, where if we get feedback 190 00:16:25,810 --> 00:16:30,448 from a user, I'll send a screen recording over to the developer saying like, here's what the use 191 00:16:30,449 --> 00:16:34,929 case is, here's what the issue is. How long is it going to take to get it sorted? I also use loom 192 00:16:34,929 --> 00:16:39,679 for like when we have when I have proposal sessions for clients. So I get them on a call, do 193 00:16:39,719 --> 00:16:44,359 this, do the whole sales like understanding their goals, understanding what they need to do in order 194 00:16:44,359 --> 00:16:48,158 to grow, how I can help them. I send them over a proposal afterwards, and I always send it with a 195 00:16:48,159 --> 00:16:55,039 loom video because I want those people. I want the person that I've had that time on the call with 196 00:16:55,119 --> 00:16:59,999 to be able to go away and relay that information as best possible to their colleagues, to the other 197 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,438 decision makers. And if I give them a loom video, they can just go and show them that loom video 198 00:17:04,439 --> 00:17:08,958 instead of having to explain it. And this is why I'm so I hate the word passionate for some reason, 199 00:17:08,959 --> 00:17:13,199 but I am really passionate about middle management. And I always say like, we need to 200 00:17:13,199 --> 00:17:18,279 rebrand middle management. We need to make middle management sexy again, because people have this 201 00:17:18,279 --> 00:17:22,519 view of middle managers that is very current and we need to rerun the word current as well. The 202 00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:27,559 name current people have this view of middle managers that we are 203 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:35,999 annoying, you know, boring jobs worth like just this awful view when in reality 204 00:17:36,150 --> 00:17:42,910 We hold the entire emotional pressure of the organisation. We middle managers are the 205 00:17:42,910 --> 00:17:49,589 translators. They are the people who take the strategy from the top, translate it downwards, and 206 00:17:49,590 --> 00:17:55,789 we know from study after study, research after research that if you have a bad middle manager, 207 00:17:55,790 --> 00:18:02,709 their impact on the team can sway 70% either way. So a great manager, a team will be 70% more 208 00:18:02,709 --> 00:18:09,709 engaged, a bad manager, 70% less engaged. Just think about how much like emotional weight 209 00:18:09,709 --> 00:18:14,509 that has on a manager. We also know the stat I talk about all the time, which is 69% of team 210 00:18:14,509 --> 00:18:19,189 members say their manager has more impact on their mental health than their therapist or their 211 00:18:19,189 --> 00:18:25,069 doctor, and the same amount as their partner. So it's like we can't ignore the fact that managers, 212 00:18:25,069 --> 00:18:30,669 middle managers are wildly important to businesses, yet businesses just ignore them, just 213 00:18:30,670 --> 00:18:36,019 completely ignore them. And so we have to as middle managers. This is why there is this 214 00:18:36,020 --> 00:18:42,259 epidemic of middle managers disengaging and not enjoying their job is because the view of us, the 215 00:18:42,259 --> 00:18:48,899 view of middle management, is so in the gutter. It's like embarrassing and it annoys me. Obviously, 216 00:18:48,899 --> 00:18:54,059 I am on the side of TikTok where like leadership, entrepreneurship is like my entire freaking 217 00:18:54,060 --> 00:18:59,739 algorithm. And I always see the videos of people like taking the piss out of managers. This is why 218 00:18:59,779 --> 00:19:03,458 on my page you will never really see like the comedy content taking the piss out of managers, 219 00:19:03,459 --> 00:19:06,859 because a lot of people love to do it and they get a lot of clicks and they get a lot of views, 220 00:19:06,860 --> 00:19:12,499 but it's just not helpful. Like, I would get so much more of a bigger audience, of a wider 221 00:19:12,500 --> 00:19:18,179 audience if I started slagging off managers. And we did a series recently that me and Tisha have 222 00:19:18,180 --> 00:19:24,339 decided to retire, we did a series on Instagram and TikTok that was called Manager Please, where 223 00:19:24,339 --> 00:19:29,179 it was like, we take out the worst manager stories. We had people texting in messaging, in, 224 00:19:29,180 --> 00:19:34,208 Instagramming, in to tell us their worst stories of their managers. And there were so many bad ones, 225 00:19:34,249 --> 00:19:39,289 like so many bad ones and so on. This series called manager Please, we were talking about these 226 00:19:39,290 --> 00:19:44,050 manager stories and kind of exposing why they were so bad and what that manager could have done 227 00:19:44,050 --> 00:19:49,649 instead. And I said to Tisha, I think we posted two of the videos and it was fine. I said, I think we 228 00:19:49,650 --> 00:19:56,290 just need to pull this back because we're on the wrong side, like we're on the side of the 229 00:19:56,290 --> 00:20:01,929 managers. We're on your side. My side. I am also obviously a manager myself. Like we're on the side 230 00:20:01,930 --> 00:20:07,449 of the managers where, no, we don't get it perfect all the time, but it's just hard. And something I 231 00:20:07,449 --> 00:20:13,489 really want to acknowledge here is for women like we also carry not only like the emotional 232 00:20:13,770 --> 00:20:19,889 labour burden of leadership, but it's so common for women to also take on like the cultural 233 00:20:19,930 --> 00:20:25,848 burden inside a team. So, for example, I know that a friend works inside a business and she's recently 234 00:20:25,849 --> 00:20:31,370 taken on like organising the team days and a bit of HR responsibility when she's not trained or, 235 00:20:31,410 --> 00:20:36,279 you know, anything in HR because she's a woman. Those things just naturally fall on us to do, like 236 00:20:36,319 --> 00:20:41,040 keep the team cohesive. The emotional intelligence of the team, like keep everyone together. And so 237 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:47,438 there's all this, like, extra burden that falls on us. And it really does mean we have to do. The only 238 00:20:47,439 --> 00:20:52,198 way we can fight back is to get so, so strict over our time. So don't be afraid to push back on those 239 00:20:52,199 --> 00:20:56,719 meetings. Don't be afraid to have 15 minute meetings, ten minute meetings, and be really 240 00:20:56,719 --> 00:21:01,240 cautious around that focus time, that energy and that focus time. How are you going to spend it on 241 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:06,239 urgent? How are you going to spend it? Unimportant. Turn off notifications. Like I always think I 242 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:11,959 think I read a stat once that was like, if you get a notification during focus time, it will take you 243 00:21:11,959 --> 00:21:17,039 away. It will take you 20 minutes to get back into focus. And I actually think that's worse nowadays, 244 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:22,800 because sometimes if I have a notification on my phone, I go to him before I know it. This is so 245 00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:26,639 embarrassing. Like before I know it, I'm just on TikTok. Somehow I found myself in the middle of a 246 00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:32,389 doom scroll. Like sometimes I go to do a two factor authentication. And next thing you know, I'm 247 00:21:32,389 --> 00:21:36,910 ten minutes deep into a scroll on Instagram. I'm like, how did I even get here? And so there's so 248 00:21:36,910 --> 00:21:42,469 much in today's digital economy that is trying to steal your focus and attention away, and you've 249 00:21:42,469 --> 00:21:49,389 got to force yourself away from it, push yourself back from it. I actually think two I 250 00:21:49,470 --> 00:21:55,669 think two solid hours of work. You know, if you had two hours a day where you were like completely 251 00:21:55,670 --> 00:22:02,389 focussed and not distracted at all, deeply focussed on your team, on the business would 252 00:22:02,430 --> 00:22:08,510 actually outweigh eight messy, scattered hours. Like that's what I believe to be true now. And I 253 00:22:08,510 --> 00:22:12,228 got a comment on one of my LinkedIn posts the other week when we were talking about launching 254 00:22:12,229 --> 00:22:17,389 this podcast. And, you know, do we do it alongside launching custard, etc. and someone commented on 255 00:22:17,389 --> 00:22:21,589 it saying, Heather, when do you sleep? And I read the comment and I was like, oh yeah, it does seem 256 00:22:21,590 --> 00:22:27,749 like we're doing a lot, so why am I not stressed? Like, why am I not overwhelmed? And it's because I 257 00:22:27,749 --> 00:22:32,179 just say no. I cannot tell you how many times I say no. I get invited to so many cool events down 258 00:22:32,180 --> 00:22:38,979 in London, and I say no to them with cool people doing amazing things because is it actually 259 00:22:38,979 --> 00:22:43,899 helping me, you know, reach my mission of building a world where everyone loves the work they do? Is 260 00:22:43,900 --> 00:22:47,300 it really helping us build a business that's going to challenge and fulfil the team and keep 261 00:22:47,300 --> 00:22:53,938 growing them like? Or is it just a massage for my ego? Because a lot of these things, these events 262 00:22:53,939 --> 00:22:58,259 where you get to, you know, like rub noses with people, with influencers or whatever, they are just 263 00:22:58,259 --> 00:23:04,339 a massage of my ego. And so I just keep saying no. And some people would say that that's bad for PR 264 00:23:04,380 --> 00:23:10,060 in fact, many people have told me you need to do it for PR purposes. And I'm like, yeah, but I don't 265 00:23:10,260 --> 00:23:15,219 just know, maybe I'm doing it wrong, I don't know. Let me know in the comments what you think, would 266 00:23:15,219 --> 00:23:21,939 you want to see me at these influencer events? But I just know that the more I refine my time, the 267 00:23:21,939 --> 00:23:28,529 more I say no, the more I push back. It means I have time and space to create all these things on 268 00:23:28,530 --> 00:23:32,568 the outside look like I'm doing absolute shitloads. Whereas like, if you'd have seen me 269 00:23:32,569 --> 00:23:38,249 yesterday, I have spare time. I'm reading for at least an hour every day and watching TV with Shah 270 00:23:38,250 --> 00:23:43,569 for at least an hour every day. I'm cooking, I'm going to the gym every day. And like I said, when I 271 00:23:43,569 --> 00:23:47,569 say this, it's with a pinch of salt. People who have kids I know you always come at me and you're 272 00:23:47,569 --> 00:23:52,129 like, oh, she wouldn't be saying this if she had kids. I know that not saying that. I'm just talking 273 00:23:52,130 --> 00:23:58,489 about pushing back on the things that are useless inside work, pushing back on the things that we 274 00:23:58,689 --> 00:24:04,689 use up so much of our time for, but that bring no value to our life. And so I would highly just 275 00:24:04,689 --> 00:24:09,410 recommend maybe it's finding that vision that's really helped me, like maybe it's been 276 00:24:09,410 --> 00:24:14,889 understanding clearly what my vision and mission is, which is to build a world where everyone loves 277 00:24:14,889 --> 00:24:20,170 the work they do. Therefore, outside of that, some of the things that come up, I can clearly say, does 278 00:24:20,170 --> 00:24:25,329 this take me closer or does it not? So maybe we all need to find that mission vision, and it 279 00:24:25,329 --> 00:24:30,399 doesn't have to be, as you know, like idealistic as the one that I've said. It could be something such 280 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:35,560 as, like building a great life for my family. It could be something like, you know, creating 281 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:39,799 something within inside work for your career. I don't know, whatever that is. You need to go find 282 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:44,279 it, because maybe that's going to help us all decide what we say yes and what we say no to 283 00:24:44,319 --> 00:24:51,318 decide those boundaries. But the big message here is you're not alone. Like time is the 284 00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:58,838 I mean, is the the only finite resource, but it's the biggest. When I sit in rooms and do workshops 285 00:24:58,839 --> 00:25:04,319 with managers month in, month out and I go around the room and I say to them, what are you 286 00:25:04,319 --> 00:25:10,479 struggling with the most in leadership right now? 70% of them guaranteed will say time in some way 287 00:25:10,479 --> 00:25:16,479 or another. And so please just find a bit of comfort in the fact that it's not just you like, 288 00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:23,399 you're not bad at your job, it's just that the emotional and physical pressure from modern day 289 00:25:23,439 --> 00:25:29,109 leadership, what is expected of managers and what is given in return is so unrealistic, so 290 00:25:29,110 --> 00:25:35,348 unsupported, so difficult. And so you're not alone. But we know that now we're in a management 291 00:25:35,349 --> 00:25:39,030 position. We we kind of can't. The book has to start with us. We do have to take ownership for 292 00:25:39,030 --> 00:25:44,989 this problem. So force yourself to say no. Force yourself to start reducing. Force yourself to time 293 00:25:44,990 --> 00:25:49,709 block and really figure out what you're going to spend time on is important versus what is just 294 00:25:49,749 --> 00:25:56,550 ego. Dopamine hitting. Ticking that box. Um, urgent stuff. And that leads me to a great point, which 295 00:25:56,550 --> 00:26:01,948 is if you want help doing that, this is exactly why we built custard, guys. So custard gives you 296 00:26:01,989 --> 00:26:07,629 data points from every single one of your team members. As a manager uses weekly pulse surveys to 297 00:26:07,670 --> 00:26:12,829 tell you as a manager exactly where you need to be focusing your attention right now. Exactly. You 298 00:26:12,830 --> 00:26:17,629 know how to level up your team, which areas they need improvement in and which they don't. Custard 299 00:26:17,630 --> 00:26:23,189 is working on your team. It is the important work. It's the important stuff. The culture, the 300 00:26:23,189 --> 00:26:28,259 leadership, the growing your career, the growing your team's career. We have always have incredible 301 00:26:28,260 --> 00:26:32,978 offers on. So go down to the description, click the link and you can start a free trial. Just test it 302 00:26:32,979 --> 00:26:37,300 out. You know you don't have to commit. You don't have to carry on. Just go test it out. I know you 303 00:26:37,300 --> 00:26:42,860 want to thank you so much for being here every single week. So I haven't asked. We are going to do 304 00:26:42,860 --> 00:26:48,979 an incredible episode in a few weeks time where we talk through all of your dilemmas and we undo 305 00:26:48,979 --> 00:26:54,179 every single one of them. We talk through them, all of your leadership struggles. So please email your 306 00:26:54,180 --> 00:26:59,339 biggest leadership struggle to hello at the Boardroom podcast comm. I'll put it in the show 307 00:26:59,339 --> 00:27:03,019 notes so you can copy and paste it. Tell us what is your biggest leadership struggle right now? We 308 00:27:03,020 --> 00:27:08,259 will keep everything very strictly anonymous. Um, and tell us that struggle because will most 309 00:27:08,260 --> 00:27:13,300 likely come on to this episode in a couple of weeks time and we will undo, we will dissect, we 310 00:27:13,300 --> 00:27:17,819 will solve all of those issues together. I'd love to hear from you, and I'll see you next week for 311 00:27:17,819 --> 00:27:19,458 another episode of The Boardroom.