Finding the Time to Lead by Alexander Hiam ...................................................................................................

It's a common complaint, one I hear from many entrepreneurs: "I know I ought to work on communications, employee morale, and training and development issues, but I simply don't have time."
Hold everything! If you are one of the many who struggle to get through your pile of work, consider this: The more leadership you provide, the less work you'll have to do yourself, and the more productive your people will be. It's likely that anyone who feels overwhelmed by their work is not doing everything they can to lead their peolpe. Because ideally (and it's not that unrealistic of an ideal), the main job of the leader is to lead, not to crank out the work her/himself.
Time management expert Dick Cipoletti and I have been talking about this problem and what to do about it. His advice falls into the category of learning to ride the horse easily and naturally rather than trying to force it to go faster or farther than it can.

For instance, most business leaders are plagued by interruptions each day — calls, e-mails, employees seeking their advice or assistance, etc. The day seems to slip by as they put out times fires, until whatever they might have wanted to do is long since forgotten. A simple trick can improve the sitation: write down your single most important goal for the day, then work on it first thing in the morning before allowing interruptions. Schedule visitors to come back at the end of this focused work period.
Don't rescue employees by doing their work for them. Teach them the right way, even if it takes twice as long. (Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.")
Recognize that your workstyle can be a sourcve of chaos and lost of time for you, and possibly for your employees as well. Many entrepreneurs are either highly creative, or the opposite, highly organized and systematic.
Either way, we rely on our relatively extreme qualities to build our businesses.

MAKE IT COUNT

Stop working 12-hour days! Time-management guru Marty Foley offers these tips for slicing your schedule into bit-sized chuncks.

1. SET GOALS. If you don't know what your destination is, how can you get there? Write down your goals.

2. USE A PRIORITIZED TO-DO LIST. Always tackle the high-priority tasks first, and work on the low-priority ones as time allows.

3. EXERCISE SELF-DISCIPLINE. If you can stay focused on your most important priorities, you'll see greater results from your time and effort.

4. AUTOMATE WHERE POSSIBLE. With e-mail, use time-saving tools auch as auto-responders and filters.

5. PERIODICALLY ANALYZE YOUR BUSINESS. Assess which activities work and which ones you should eliminate.