How we manage our time is a great way to evaluate our success as managers.
How do you utilize your time?
Is the majority of your time spent putting out fires?
Dealing with unanticipated urgent issues?
Or do you spend most of your time planning, preparing, anticipating or otherwise shaping outcomes?
My rule has always been that Anticipation is the true mark of a great manager.
I am proud of my ability to deal with sudden “urgencies.”
But I believe that a manager’s highest value is having prepared in such a way that those sudden urgencies never arrive.