People Development & Executive Coaching



THE ART OF DOING NOTHING

While working with a team of senior executives from one of NZ’s flagship organizations last week, we came onto the discussion of how to spend one’s time.

There are a lot of questions associated with the topic of time at senior level and many excuses.  Any leader today knows the value of focusing on the long term, and not getting caught up in the detail.  Anyway, this group espoused a theory that had come from an American School Executive Course attended by one of them recently  – and that was to spend thirty percent of the time doing nothing.

Yes, you did read correctly!  Thirty percent of your time doing nothing while you are at work.  Not on holiday, or at weekends, but at work.

Since then, I have shared this with some of my executive coaching clients, and they have been nodding wisely identifying with the concept, and then asking…..but how?  I am confronted by this very question myself as I am very busy running a trans-tasman business as well as having a full calendar of coaching clients!

Our busyness is steeped in habit.  We feel valued, even if we are patting ourselves on the back, when we get things done.  For some of us it gives us a sense of achievement, particularly when we are aiming high and have a thousand things on our “to do” list.  I am no longer surprised when I ask a senior leader what is the first thing they do when they arrive at work and they reply – “turn on the computer and all that comes with that”.  The habit is in the doing, and certainly not in the thinking.

The real pleasure of doing nothing is doing nothing.  Some of you will have to go and look for this, but it can be found.  The secret is in remembering to find a way to act non-habitually, and that is where a great coach can help.  They will ask you questions like:

• what are the habits you have and do without thinking?
• what structure can help you change this?
• when do you do your best thinking?
• How do you implement this?
• What do you need to do now, so that you have more time?
• What beliefs are holding you back?

Try and spend an afternoon with yourself and see what happens.  You will find you wrestle with things that are attracting your attention – emails, messages, reports, meetings, people issues, performance issues, the list is endless.

But if you try, really try, you will find that doing nothing frees your mind to enable you to be a great leader.  It creates health, a thinking not possible in busy circumstances, and a potential capability that can only emerge at quiet times.  Silence is truly golden and provides results that can be measured and are sustainable.  Let us know how you get on!

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