The biggest problem any executive faces is self-supervision. The classical warfare exists between wisdom and virtue… wisdom's being the knowledge of what should be done, and virtue's being the willingness to do it. Success in self-supervision is a series of disciplines, the same as in any other success. Discipline is a fence drawn wide enough to include proper activities, but narrow enough to exclude improper ones. Some of the self-supervision disciplines required of leaders are:
1) Recognize escapism — I'm not sure what your favorite escape is, but one of mine is attending meetings. I'll go anywhere and talk about something I should be doing at the time I'm talking about it.
Now I'll let you in on my very special, personal, favorite escape. It runs something like this: In the morning I'll go down to the office and find a great big, complex problem right in the middle of my desk. It's been there several days; that's the reason it's so complex. Then I'll say to it, "Today is the day I get you." Then I make the mistake of looking down on my desk and finding all the little problems scattered around. I decide to clean up the little ones before taking the big one apart. By the time I get them cleaned up it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon and I say to myself, "Nobody as tired as you are should tackle as problem that big." But I ease my conscience by saying that I'll get to it first thing tomorrow. Sometimes I'm able to delay it all the way to the weekend.
Before you laugh at me too much, let me ask you to do one thing: write down your three best escapes from work. Remember, a good escape must let you get out of important work, but at the same time save your self-respect.
2) Understand time correctly — In a personal study I found that executives who are doing the most do not use lack of time as an excuse. They work for a better time utilization. Why complain about not having enough time when Napoleon did what he did in the same 24 hours, as did Alexander the Great, John Wesley, Martin Luther and Leonardo Da Vinci. All great people had the same 24 hours to make contribution ---- just like we do.
Time is the great common denominator and the use of it, not the amount of it, makes the difference. It is a mistake to divide time up into sections. To think in terms of years, months, days, hours and minutes is a spacial concept. Those using this create an artificial structure for working, eating, sleeping and recreation. Most successful executives simply ask, "What is the most important thing I could be doing right now? When they are sure they are spending "now" on the most important, then they know they are properly controlling their time.
One of the problems in time utilization is distinguishing between the interesting and the unique. Anything that can be delegated is not unique. Those things that cannot be delegated are the ones that should consume our time.
Another enemy of the proper use of time is ego activity. Did you ever see a leader actually start fires in order to rush in with his own private bucket of water to extinguish the flames? He got great satisfaction that he was still "the man" in an emergency. As a leader grows, he turns from writer to editor. It becomes more important that he use the best ideas, rather than having the best ones.
One of the tests of any activity is its simplicity. As an outsider, when I see processes or procedures which have gotten extremely complicated, I generally start to look for ego involvement. It takes a great deal of sincerity to maintain simplicity in any organization.
3) Control moods — The nearer a leader comes to the top of his organization, the more his mood control must be self-imposed. As an executive moves up, outside discipline from supervisors decreases and inside supervision from himself must increase. Poor mood control can be an expensive luxury. For example, the amount of time subordinates spend finding out what the particular daily mood of their boss is becomes expensive. Programs are hampered, decisions changed, and the organization upset simply to vibrate with the moodiness of the leader.
Some measures of mood control are:
a) spirit in which constructive criticism is given — the difference between a coach and a critic is the attitude in which the criticism is made
b) ability to avoid worry — taking the responsibility not to act until all the facts are in and not acting on rumors.
c) sense of humor — a leader without a sense of humor generally has a great deal of egotism.
d) enthusiasm - one of the greatest contributions we can make to an organization; its chief enemy is sophistication which produces cynicism.
"Why doesn't an executive do as well as he already knows?" That question can usually be answered by measuring the degree that the leader develops self-supervision. The best ways to do this can be summarized: 1) locate and kill off our escapes 2) develop a better control of time and 3) maintain good mood control. "Success is a series of disciplines."
