The Power of No + Structured Time in a Large Company

When you’re leading a large company, everyone wants a piece of you. This makes time your most precious asset. How you manage it can truly determine how successful you’ll be. Chances are your calendar is already overloaded with unavoidable obligations: board meetings, committees, and various other necessary-but-fairly-unproductive discussions. Throw in the meetings you accept because you don't want to be rude and basically, you are screwed.

Of course you don’t have to be an executive to find yourself struggling to balance the endless demand for meetings with the need to find time to actually get some work done.

Here are a few of the rules I’ve adopted that help me be more effective (and preserve what's left of my sanity):

Rule #1: To be the master of YOUR time, be clear about your priorities.

If you don’t decide how you’re going to spend your time, someone will do it for you. Start by picking the areas where you add the most value. To help with this, here’s how I organize my week:

• Mondays: Corporate matters and financial reviews
• Tuesdays: Product, design, and technology deep dives
• Wednesdays: Check-in with my CFO, staff meeting, and business and marketing reviews
• Thursdays: External meetings
• Fridays: Everything else

Because there’s no such thing as a business lunch in California (something I genuinely miss from my time in Europe), I have lots of business dinners. I keep these to three a week or less to maintain a balance with family time. You should make that a priority, too...

This schedule enables me to stay in touch with areas I want to go deep on, monitor the pulse of the business, and it gives me the structure I need to operate effectively. It also allows me to drive how I spend my time vs. being a "victim" of the machine.

Rule #2: Say NO (a lot). It's okay. Really …

When I joined PayPal after the Zong acquisition, I took over the Mobile team. This was a hot area and I was the new guy, so lots of good folks wanted to meet. I didn’t want to come across as arrogant, plus I needed to meet people and understand how the company worked. So I accepted almost every meeting request.

A few weeks of that really started to drag me down. I was spending so much time in pleasant-but-mostly-useless meetings that I just couldn’t get much done. It was bad. I knew I needed to start declining meetings, but I needed some criteria to help me choose and some standard responses to streamline the whole process (and not hurt anyone’s feelings).

Here’s what I came with:

• Immediate Decline:
• Meet and greet: "I'm XYZ, and I'd like to meet to introduce myself…" — my response: "Sorry, but my calendar is really packed, I'm sure we will interact soon when we need to work together on something. I'm sure you'll understand, and I look forward to meeting you when the time comes."

• Let's catch up: "Hey, I'd like to set up time to catch up…" — "Sorry, I'd love to catch up, but my calendar is really packed so I’m afraid I can't accept meetings without a clear purpose. If there's something specific you'd like to discuss, please send me an email, and we'll figure things out. Sorry about that. I'm sure you'll understand."

• Request for more information before accepting a meeting:
• Topic not well defined: "I'd like to meet to discuss our point of sale plans" — this is too vague. I started asking for at least a reason or topic for the meeting and the desired outcome: A decision? On what?

Rule #3: Don’t waste time in meetings. Ever.

Once you agree to a meeting make sure you get the most out of it. It makes no sense to waste the first 20 minutes having someone flip through slides to set the context. Request background material, read it, and expect everyone to come fully prepared so you can focus on the task at hand.

One other thing: When the topic has been covered, the meeting is over. Don't use all the scheduled time just because it’s on the calendar. When it’s over, it’s over. Period.

Rule #4: Be Honest. Always.

When someone asks for feedback, don't be coy. You're not helping if you're not honest. This applies to everyone: team members, peers, and colleagues, potential partners, vendors . . . anyone. An inability to say what you think quickly and clearly inevitably results in multiple subsequent meetings that are a total waste of time for everyone involved. Once you know what you’re going to do—or not do—just say it. Be polite and say it nicely, but don't waste everyone’s time (including yours). That shows a lack of respect . . . and courage.

I'd love to hear from you too. What are the things you're doing to be more effective in a large corporation? Please post in comments! Thanks.

(Photo: Duncan, Flickr)