In this short, actionable episode, Ray Sclafani challenges leaders with a powerful question: If the last 90 days of your calendar were published on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, would you be proud of how you invested your time?

Ray shares a simple but revealing leadership exercise, a calendar audit, inspired by research from Harvard Business School on how CEOs manage their time. By reviewing the last 90 days of your calendar and categorizing activities as green, yellow, or red, leaders can quickly see where they are creating value, where they should delegate, and what should be eliminated entirely.

Because in leadership, success isn’t determined by how busy you are, it’s determined by where you invest your time.

Key Takeaways

1. Leaders often say what matters most to them, but their calendar shows what they actually prioritize. Review the last 90 days of your calendar and evaluate whether your time reflects your highest leadership priorities.
2. A simple leadership exercise is to analyze your schedule regularly to understand where your time is going. Pull up your calendar for the past 90 days and categorize every activity using the Red, Yellow, Green framework.
3. Identify one responsibility you can transition to another team member to help develop leadership within the organization.
4. What leaders spend time on communicates what matters most within the organization.
5. Everyone operates within the same 168 hours each week, making intentional allocation critical. Before accepting new commitments, ask: Does this align with my highest priorities as a leader?

Questions Financial Advisors Often Ask

Q: What is the most important leadership time management exercise mentioned in the episode?
A: The episode recommends conducting a calendar audit of the last 90 days. Leaders review their calendar and categorize activities into green, yellow, or red to evaluate how effectively they are investing their time.

Q: What does the red, yellow, green calendar exercise mean?
A: The exercise categorizes leadership activities based on their value. Green activities represent the best use of a leader’s time, such as meetings with top clients, developing future leaders, strategic thinking, recruiting talent, and planning firm growth. Yellow activities are useful but could eventually be transitioned to others in the organization. Red activities are tasks that should be delegated, eliminated, or automated.

Q: Why is a leader’s calendar important for business success?
A: A leader’s calendar reveals what they actually prioritize. The episode explains that what gets time gets attention, and what gets attention gets results, meaning the way leaders allocate their time directly impacts organizational outcomes.

Q: Why should leaders think of time as an investment?
A: The episode explains that leaders often say they “spend” time, but investing time implies a return. Effective leaders treat time like capital and focus on ensuring every hour contributes value to the firm’s future.

Q: How can delegating tasks improve leadership capacity?
A: Delegating tasks allows leaders to focus on strategic priorities while giving others the opportunity to step into new responsibilities. Leadership capacity grows when leaders intentionally step down from tasks so others can step up.

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