Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goalajiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: fella Aledo. Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute
Speaker 1: Leadership Podcast. It's episode five thirty four today. I want
Speaker 1: to give you a piece of advice that might sound simple,
Speaker 1: but if you actually live by it, it can transform
Speaker 1: your leadership and your entire organization. The lesson is this,
Speaker 1: don't cram your schedule. I know the pressure you feel
Speaker 1: as a leader, meetings stacked on top of meetings, back
Speaker 1: to back calls, deadlines breathing down your neck. Somewhere in
Speaker 1: that madness, you're expected to think, strategically, lead with clarity
Speaker 1: in motive team. But let's be honest. If your calendar
Speaker 1: looks like an air traffic controller's radar screen, where's the
Speaker 1: room for joy, creativity, or even a decent lunch break.
Speaker 1: And here's the truth. Leadership isn't just about how much
Speaker 1: you can pack into a day. It's about what you
Speaker 1: choose to leave out when you cram your schedule. Three
Speaker 1: things happen. First, you stop being approachable. Your people see
Speaker 1: you as too busy, too buried, and they'll hesitate to
Speaker 1: come to you with questions, ideas, or concerns. And second,
Speaker 1: you stop thinking clearly. You're moving so fast from one
Speaker 1: thing to the next that all you're doing is reacting
Speaker 1: instead of leading. In third, you burn yourself out. You
Speaker 1: run on caffeine, adrenaline and quick snacks grabbed between tasks,
Speaker 1: and that's no way to sustain great leadership. Now here's
Speaker 1: the shift. I want you to make. Leave for spontaneous
Speaker 1: joy and a decent lunch break. That's not weakness, that's leadership.
Speaker 1: Think about it. If you give yourself a margin in
Speaker 1: the day, you're available when an employee stops by with
Speaker 1: good news they want to share. You're present enough to
Speaker 1: notice the team's energy drop at two pm, and you
Speaker 1: can walk them outside for five minutes to reset. You
Speaker 1: have the freedom to turn a regular lunch into a
Speaker 1: meaningful conversation that builds trust. So let me paint you
Speaker 1: a picture two managers side by side. Manager A has
Speaker 1: every minute booked. They wolf down lunch at their desk
Speaker 1: while responding to emails, and buy three pm. Their patience
Speaker 1: is gone. Their team knows not to bother them unless
Speaker 1: it's an emergency, and manager B has protected white space
Speaker 1: in their day. They take a real lunch, maybe with
Speaker 1: a team member, maybe just for themselves. When a small
Speaker 1: win happens in the office, they're free to step in, celebrate,
Speaker 1: and keep morale high. Which manager do you think people
Speaker 1: want to follow? Which one is actually leading? As a leader,
Speaker 1: you need to build your schedule with intention. Block your meetings, yes,
Speaker 1: hit your deadlines absolutely, but also schedule breathing room. I
Speaker 1: call this leadership margin. That margin is where spontaneous joy lives.
Speaker 1: That margin is where creativity gets sparked. That margin is
Speaker 1: where you're not just a manager of tasks, but a
Speaker 1: leader of people. So here's your master template for scheduling
Speaker 1: as a leader. Number one, never book one hundred percent
Speaker 1: of your day. Leave at least one open block every
Speaker 1: morning and every afternoon. Number two, take a real lunch,
Speaker 1: not a working lunch, not something you eat hunched over
Speaker 1: at your computer, a real break to reset your body
Speaker 1: and your mind. Number three protect your margin time like
Speaker 1: it's an important meeting, because it is. Margin time is
Speaker 1: where leadership magic happens. Number four, use open space for people,
Speaker 1: walk around, check in, be present. That's where trust is
Speaker 1: built and finally, teach your team this idea too. A
Speaker 1: culture of NonStop cramming is contagious, and so is a
Speaker 1: culture of margin. So I'll end with this. Nobody looks
Speaker 1: back on their career and says, man, I'm glad I
Speaker 1: skipped every lunch and work fourteen hour days without a break.
Speaker 1: But they do look back and say, I remember when
Speaker 1: my leader took the time to notice me, to encourage me,
Speaker 1: and to share a real moment in the middle of
Speaker 1: a busy day. Leadership is not just about results, It's
Speaker 1: about the moments in between. Don't cram your schedule, leave
Speaker 1: room for spontaneous joy, and never underestimate the power of
Speaker 1: a decent lunch break. This has been the seven Minute
Speaker 1: Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening. For more,
Speaker 1: Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.