Recently, a sales manager told me that he wished he had more time to do background research on his prospective clients. He was certain that if he had more time he’d be winning more sales. I asked him how the people who were winning the sales got up to speed on the client. He said that they must have more time to do research.


His statement reminded me of a comment someone once made about a project manager. This person said, “He’s not as good as everyone thinks. He just gets all of the projects that don’t have problems.” It never occurred to him that this manager’s approach to project management prevented most of the problems.


Several years ago a colleague told me that I was lucky to ALWAYS be placed into roles that allowed me to take time to think. He said that his roles were always ones that required constant action and provided no room for thinking. I challenged him. Did he really believe that luck or coincidence shaped my and his roles? I asked him if I’d perform his role in the same manner as he did. He agreed that I probably would not. I then asked how he would run my group if he had the chance. He got the point. It wasn’t about our roles, it was about our approaches.


Lack of time isn’t a problem, it’s an excuse. Good leaders don’t simply have more time or more luck than everyone else. They’ve just learned to think about and use their time differently. They create opportunities and take actions that others overlook or don’t believe to be possible.. They are more willing to invest time upfront to think things through and put the right infrastructure in place. That way they aren’t spending all of their time on the back end reacting to problems. They don’t buy into the excuse that they don’t have the time to do things that take time. Instead, they find time. They know how to prioritize their effort and are willing to say no (or not now) to low priority work.


If you believe that a lack of time is what is preventing you from being a more effective leader, think again. Having enough time to do the right things doesn’t enable leaders; it defines them.  The successful leaders in your organization have the exact same amount of time as do you. Leadership is about finding the time to do the right things when those around you can’t. If were easy, everyone would be able to lead.


Brad Kolar is the President of Kolar Associates, a leadership consulting and workforce productivity consulting firm. He can be reached at brad.kolar@kolarassociates.com.