...And how an executive coach can help...
It’s Sunday night, and…
you open up your laptop and sign in to the company network to prepare for the week ahead. You click on your calendar icon, the program opens and displays the week’s scheduled meetings/invites as blocks of time that are filled in with a variety of colors.
- Is the week’s calendar packed with an almost unbroken kaleidoscope of colors?
- Are gaps in the meeting schedule – shown as white space on the calendar – few and far between?
- Does dread seep in, because the absence of white space means that some of your most important work gets pushed into times when you’re not at your best?
You acknowledge that some of these meetings have a strong agenda and should be highly productive, and that other meetings are essentially mandatory, but wonder about the rest of the meetings. Could taking some time to analyze those meetings' necessity, staffing and efficiency help you begin recapturing the elusive white space that you desperately need?
Some “prying” questions to ask
Asking yourself, your team and other meeting participants the following types of questions – and converting the answers into implemented solutions – could help pry open your meeting schedule to create needed white space:
- Are there meetings to which you could send a team member instead of yourself? Crucially – have you prepared team members to be able to participate effectively on your behalf, so that this is a feasible scenario?
- Could meetings be shortened if attendee preparation were better? How can preparation expectations be raised?
- Is attendance dwindling at recurring meetings? If so, could a survey of meeting participants improve effectiveness? Or has the recurring meeting outlived its original purpose?
- Can you block a few periods through the week as “busy” so that calendar invites to you are reduced?
- Could some meetings be clustered so that short, less-productive gaps between meetings can be replaced by longer periods of white space?
This list is merely illustrative. Identifying the particular questions that can pry open the greatest white space will require consideration of the culture and priorities of your company and team, as well as your most effective listening and communication style. An executive coach can assist you in discovering your most powerful questions and your best strategy for converting the answers into transformative solutions.
Reaping the benefits of recaptured white space
Once you’ve implemented the resulting solutions, what will you do with the recaptured white space? Here are some possibilities:
- Blue-sky thinking about a challenge facing your company
- Having lunch or drinks with a colleague from another part of the company, facilitating collaborative efforts or just providing a welcome change of pace and scenery
- Providing more timely input or sign-off to high-priority projects
- Being better prepared for the meetings you’re leading/attending
- Considering whether your work life is aligned with your personal core values and goals
- Getting home earlier, so that you have more time for physical activity, time with family and friends, and sleep.
Your collaboration with an executive coach can unlock the full range of your new opportunities, and help you chart a creative and compelling plan that puts your recaptured white space to the best use.
Which Sunday night scenario?
So, would you rather open your calendar on Sunday night to a kaleidoscope that’s not nearly as much fun as the childhood toy with the same name, or to a schedule with open windows of white space through which fresh air can flow?
Your next move…
If you would like to explore how an executive coach can collaborate with you in recapturing and making the most of your white space, or in achieving other goals in your work and life, contact Howard Shafferman at The Haswell Group’s website: www.haswellgroup.com/contact/.
Subscribe to The Haswell Group’s blog at www.haswellgroup.com/blog/.
Follow The Haswell Group on Twitter at @TheHaswellGroup