NSG4029: Time Management and Leadership

Time management is an essential part of leadership and management since a leader must be able to manage time more efficiently within his leadership and management context. It is often said that “time is money” and a minute lost can never be recovered (Bass & Bass, 2009). As a leader, it is critical to plan how to manage your time more efficiently within the leadership environment. Time management is, therefore, an essential component of leadership that every leader should be able to integrate within the context of his or her leadership. A leader must be time conscious in the sense that every minute counts. Since a time lost is a wasted time, a leader must account for every minute or second of his leadership so as to be able to lead more effectively (Bass & Bass, 2009). This paper, therefore, focuses on assessing time management and leadership by focusing the various leadership theories that describe how to be an effective leader that is time sensitive.

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In an organization, time is constant and irreversible, and nothing whatsoever can be alternated for the time within an organization. In this regard, organizational leaders must be able to come up with effective time management strategies that center on how to manage time more efficiently. It should be noted that leaders have numerous demands on their limited time and time keeps on getting away. Time is beyond manager’s control, but an effective leader can only develop strategies aimed and prioritizing activities so as to manage time in the organization. A leader can become time fanatic by building time management schedule such as time management spreadsheet, color coding tasks, prioritizing activities by creating priority folders and above all by separating paperwork from priority piles (McCartney & Campbell, 2006). However, time management can become a complicated process for leaders that they soon give up on managing their time.

Focusing on my time management techniques, I tend to be time conscious in every activity that I do. I appreciate the fact time is a precious resource within an organization and once wasted can never be regained. Although sometimes I tend to have numerous demands in my limited time, I often prioritize tasks within my to-do activity list. I focus on the most important activities on my to-do list before venturing into doing the least productive activities. It is imperative to state that prioritizing activities is part of effective leadership since as a leader; an individual must be ready and willing to sacrifice some activities to fulfill other activities. It is part of leadership organization to prioritize activities by developing effective to-do list that centers on critical activities to carry out from the to-do list (McCartney & Campbell, 2006).

My leadership technique focuses on effective management of time in every activity being undertaken within my leadership context. It imperative for leaders like me to realize that procrastination is a thief of time and therefore a leadership should refrain from procrastination and make realistic time estimates. A leader should not micro-manage time but rather provide an opportunity for other to grow and develop within the limited time assigned. The most useful part of my leadership is time management that centers on planning, priorities, standards, policies, and procedures. Through this, I can establish a personal deadline and that of the organization at the same time ensuring that all my activities have a purpose, period and incorporate only essential tasks that are of value to the organization.

One effective leadership theory that best describes my leadership style is behavioral theories that focus on how leaders behave. The way a leader behaves is critical in shaping his or her style within an environment. Leaders should recognize the fact that leadership is all about behavior and how such behavior can shape the actions of their followers (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). In this regard, Kurt Lewin developed a framework based on leadership practices that center on three types of leaders namely autocratic leaders that make decisions without any form of consultation with their team or followers (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Democratic leadership allows the team to contribute their ideas to make a decision within the organization, and finally, laissez-fair focuses on allowing the members to make many the decisions within the organization. This theory, therefore, best describes the ideal character of a leader in regards to time management within the organization.

Leadership and management are often used together since there is a correlation between leadership and management. To analyze the relationship between leadership and management, it is important to evaluate whether a leader must have management skills. In this case, it should be noted that leadership is about doing the right things while management is all about doing things right (Thomas, 2004). One overarching difference between leadership and management is that leadership is the ability of an individual to influence, motivate and enable other people to contribute towards the realization of goals and objectives of the organization. On the other hand, management is all about the act of directing as well as controlling a group or entity with the primary purpose of coordinating and harmonizing the entity towards the realization of the goals and objectives of the company. Leadership is often people oriented while management is centered on tasks within the organization. Within an organization, leadership is focused on leading people by motivating them to be more efficient while management is focused on managing work (Thomas, 2004).

In conclusion, leadership and management are vital concepts that have a lot of relevance within the workplace. As an individual, the concepts that we learnt this week including the idea of leadership and management will help me become more active leader in the organization. The success of any organization is centered on effective leadership and management; in this regard, I will be able to contribute more efficiently towards the success of my organization through integrating the concept of leadership and management that we have learned this week.

Reference

Bass, B. M., & Bass, R. (2009). The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications. Simon and Schuster.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

McCartney, W. W., & Campbell, C. R. (2006). Leadership, management, and derailment: A model of individual success and failure. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 27(3), 190-202.

Thomas, N. (2004). The John Adair handbook of management and leadership. Thorogood Publishing Ltd..

NSG4029: Time Management and Leadership