Everyone who leads anything knows the feeling at some time. You get the monthly, quarterly, or even yearly Profit and Loss, and wonder, “Where did all of that revenue go? We took in so much, it seems that there should be more left over at the end.” If you have not been in the position of overseeing that kind of profit and loss, just think of your own personal checkbook. “What happened to my money?” is a feeling that everyone has had at some time. So what do you do then? Well, what happens next is where the power is in resource management.

Smart people do a category-by- category audit and analysis, and they find the gold. When your cost of goods is way out of line, you find out “why,” and have a serious talk with suppliers. When your G and A is too big a slice of the pie, you look to find out “why” and cut the fat. All of this is designed to give you more of your resources to spend on the things that matter to you most, things like further investment, new infrastructure that will fuel growth, research and development, paying employees better, or distribution of profit to shareholders. In the end, you want to maximize your resources to bring your real purposes to fruition. The power of the audit is that it revealed where those resources were going, and allowed you to redirect them. And further, it brought insight into why that was happening. You found out that there was a manager asleep at the wheel, or some outdated system was costing you money and needed to be replaced. Resources don't just disappear without a reason. There is always a “why,” good or bad.

Ok, now to the point. As a leader, your time is one of your biggest resources. While your skills, knowledge, alliances, money, people, and other resources are expandable, your time is not. So, the only way to get more of it is to find out where it is not making it to the bottom line and “profiting” you. But, lest you think this is mere time management 101, there is more to do than just count your time. You have to get to the “whys,” and that is where character comes in. But it all begins with the “audit.”

A time and purpose audit does three very important things:

First, it makes you aware of where your time is going and how you are spending it. We are all subject to over and underestimating the reality of how much time we spend on various activities. So the first benefit is that the numbers don’t lie. You may think that you only spend an hour or so answering non-important e-mail, getting sidetracked with meaningless Google searches, or being drawn into solving an employee’s problems that he should be solving for himself. When you log it, you find the same thing that people in Weight Watchers find. “There is no WAY I could be eating that many cookies!” The numbers don’t lie. Joe down the hall really is taking that much of your time.

Second, it makes you aware of the connections and disconnections between your time and your stated values, purpose, mission, gifts and objectives. If you say that you place a high value on developing your leaders, but your audit reveals that you spent hardly any time focusing on making that happen, you have a disconnect. If you say that your main objective this year is to develop strategic alliances, yet your audit reveals that most of your time was spent getting drawn into managing details of projects, you have a disconnect. If your greatest gift is creating new opportunities and developing new arenas of business, and yet your audit reveals that you spent all your time on existing operations, you suddenly realize why you are so de-energized - and why your organization’s growth is stagnant. There is going to be a direct relationship between how well any particular component of your organization or your mission is doing, and the amount of focus that it is getting. Since often that focus is you, we are talking about your time. But without the audit, you will not really know what is happening. It will bring the necessary awareness.

Third, it will make you aware of your character issues that are feeding the problem. If you care about a certain area of your business, or mission, and yet other things are eating all of your time, why is that? You must get to the whys, the motivators of this misuse of time.

Say you do your audit, and you find that you spent three hours last week talking to Joe about his problems in his department. Yet, Joe’s problems are really Joe’s problems, and he should be solving them. So, you have to ask yourself “Why? Why am I getting pulled into all of Joe’s work issues?”

The truth could be that you are afraid to say “no” to Joe when he comes into your office. It is difficult for you to tell Joe that you have things you have to do, that the two of you have spent enough time on this and it doesn't seem to be getting better, and maybe he should look at why. He needs to be told that he is stuck and it is time to take action. If you were able to confront better, you would not be losing that time to Joe. He is taking your time, but you are allowing it. Your audit will reveal that, as well as possible other ways in which you have difficulty saying “no.”

Or, you find that although you had a stated plan to get certain things done, you were distracted by every e-mail that came in. All of a sudden you are on other people’s schedule when they send you an e- mail, and lose your own. You have difficulty staying on task. So you have to ask yourself: what is driving that? Is it a lack of discipline in general? Is it a lack of structure? Is it a fear of disappointing people if you do not get right back to them? Is it a fear of frustrating them when you are not immediately available? Is it because you have not properly delegated? When you discover what is driving that, you can do something about it. You can add structure to your day if you do not have it in your own makeup to stay on task. You can get a schedule, and turn off your e-mail in the same way a food addict does not allow junk food in the house. If it is there, you will eat it- for example, if your Outlook is open in those hours, you will not get to your mission. You might need accountability to hold to that structure, and help working through the issues that are driving it as well. Talk to a peer, or someone to help you do that, as you would any other growth issue. You might find that other things are behind it as well. You might find that you are lonely, or burned out, and this distracting behavior really is designed to ward off the isolation that you feel when doing work alone. Then you can work on the issue that is actually in control of how you spend your time.

Or, you might find that although you have a stated plan or objective, it is really anxiety-provoking for you. To go out and develop that new arena of business or ministry means getting out of your comfort zone, or facing rejection, or conflict. Unconsciously, you give it very little of your time, even thought it is a “high value,” and important part of your mission. The fear is causing some avoidance and procrastination. So, while your audit reveals a lack of time spent there, the real problem it reveals is that there is some fear you must face if you are going to move the mission forward.

Time management is important. But, like any other area of life, time management is really “self- management.” And self-control, a fruit of the Spirit, is only developed when we are in the process of growth, facing our character issues that are behind the areas in which we lose our self-control. Your time audit will reveal that for you.

Here is my suggestion: Covenant with someone to whom you are accountable, and ask him or her to join you in auditing your time with the purpose of finding out how directly your time connects with the things you have deemed important. Set up regular review times at intervals that you both will follow.

Begin, before the audit, by sharing your desired values, mission, focus, goals, purposes, objectives, etc. This will set the target of where your time ought to be going. This is not a test that you are going to fail. Instead, it is your vision of where you want to get to as you go forward.

Then, do the audit of your time, broken into 30 minute sections. This may sound tedious, but it is very important. Keep a log of what goes on in every 30 minute block of time. It won’t take you long, just keep it on your desk, or handy, and jot down your activities.

Once you have it written down, for weeks and months, look for the themes and categories of where your time is going. “30% is being spent taking calls that do not relate to my stated objectives,” for example. “25% is spent in meetings that do not further my real agenda.” “40% is spent on operations and I need to be spending my time on vision and relationships.”

Write down the findings in totals and compare them to your stated values, goals, purposes, objectives, etc., noting the discrepancies. Find the disconnects. If developing new business is your highest objective this year, and you are spending all of your time on old business, that is a disconnect.

Discuss the “whys” of these behaviors with your accountability partner. What are the issues that you need to face that are in the way? Who do you need to disappoint, confront, or delegate to? Where do you need to grow, or add structure? What kind of help do you need?

Come up with rules, and steps and plans to deal with it. For example: “no operational meetings on Tuesdays - only new business that day.” Or, “no e- mail except for these two slots each day.” Or maybe a plan such as a new hire to take care of the things that are getting you off focus. Remember, you should be doing what only you can do.

Keep this practice going until, like any other discipline, you do not need it anymore. When you can balance the bike without training wheels, you don’t need them. Auditing your time won't need to be done on a daily basis at some point, but is a good thing to do periodically in some form. What we observe tends to improve.

Remember, anything worth doing is worth examining. The Bible says that we shall “all give an account” before God, for all we do, “whether good or bad” (Rom. 14:12, 2 Cor. 5:10). Why wait until then - or even until next year’s results are in? Do it now; get an accounting and then you can get in control of your values, mission, outcomes, and even your life. God Bless. Henry Cloud, Ph.D.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

(2 Corinthians 5:10)

A one-week
intensive workshop for leaders
with Dr. Henry Cloud
and Dr. John Townsend

Upcoming Ultimate Leadership workshop
in San Juan Capistrano, California

February 11 - 16, 2007

What one leader had to say about the Ultimate Leadership workshop experience...

As a pastor I am constantly on the look-out for continuing education opportunities that will benefit my ministry. In the last 12 years I have attended seminars and conferences all over the country on a variety of topics, including leadership. But I can honestly say that my week at the UL was far and away the best investment of time and money I have ever made. This was as much a “Life Conference” as it was a “Leadership Conference” in that it provided us a rich opportunity to connect what goes on inside of us and the effect that has on our leadership. I left the conference knowing so much more about myself, which in turn has helped me to understand why I have been “stuck” in certain areas of leadership. I not only have a new clarity, focus and energy - I have a plan! I really believe my week at UL has changed me and the way I do ministry. Thanks again for the energy, effort, thought and prayer you put into these UL weeks!