JULY–AUGUST 2018 ISSUE

THE LEADER’S CALENDAR

CHIEF EXECUTIVES HAVE TREMENDOUS RESOURCES AT THEIR DISPOSAL, BUT THEY FACE AN ACUTE
SCARCITY IN ONE CRITICAL AREA: TIME. DRAWING ON AN IN-DEPTH 12-YEAR STUDY, THIS PACKAGE
EXAMINES THE UNIQUE TIME MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES OF CEOS AND THE BEST STRATEGIES FOR
CONQUERING THEM.

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How CEOs Manage Time

by Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria

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In the lexicon of management, the CEO is the epitome of leadership. Yet surprisingly little is known
about this unique role. While CEOs are the ultimate power in their companies, they face challenges
and constraints that few others recognize.

Running a large global company is an exceedingly complex job. The scope of the organization’s
managerial work is vast, encompassing functional agendas, business unit agendas, multiple
organizational levels, and myriad external issues. It also involves a wide array of constituencies—
shareholders, customers, employees, the board, the media, government, community organizations,
and more. Unlike any other executive, the CEO has to engage with them all. On top of that, the CEO
must be the internal and external face of the organization through good times and bad.

CEOs, of course, have a great deal of help and resources at their disposal. However, they, more than
anyone else in the organization, confront an acute scarcity of one resource. That resource is time.
There is never enough time to do everything that a CEO is responsible for. Despite this, CEOs remain
accountable for all the work of their organizations.

The way CEOs allocate their time and their presence—where they choose to personally participate—
is crucial, not only to their own effectiveness but also to the performance of their companies. Where
and how CEOs are involved determines what gets done and signals priorities for others. It also
affects their legitimacy. A CEO who doesn’t spend enough time with colleagues will seem insular
and out of touch, whereas one who spends too much time in direct decision making will risk being
seen as a micromanager and erode employees’ initiative. A CEO’s schedule (indeed, any leader’s
schedule), then, is a manifestation of how the leader leads and sends powerful messages to the rest
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has been systematic data on what they actually do. Research on that has tended either to cover a
small handful of CEOs, like the 1973 study in which Henry Mintzberg closely observed five chief
executives (some of whom led nonprofits) for five days each, or to rely on large surveys that cover
short periods (such as our HBS colleague Raffaella Sadun’s 2017 study based on daily phone surveys
with 1,114 CEOs from a wide variety of companies in six countries over one week).
Our study, which we launched in 2006, offers the first comprehensive and detailed examination of
CEO time use in large, complex companies over an extended period. To date, we have tracked the
time allocation of 27 CEOs—two women and 25 men—for a full quarter (three months) each. Their
companies, which are primarily public, had an average annual revenue of $13.1 billion during the
study period. These leaders were all participants in the New CEO Workshop, an intensive program
that every year brings newly appointed CEOs of large companies to Harvard Business School in two
cohorts of 10 to 12 each. In total just over 300 CEOs have attended it.

In the study each CEO’s executive assistant (EA) was trained to code the CEO’s time in 15-minute
increments, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, and to regularly verify that coding with the CEO.
The resulting data set reveals where, how, and with whom the CEO spent his or her time and on
what activities, topics, and tasks. Because it also covers what CEOs do outside of work, we have
visibility into how CEOs balance work and personal life. In all, we collected and coded data on nearly
60,000 CEO hours.

Where and how CEOs are involved determines

what gets done. It signals priorities.
After CEOs completed the time-tracking phase, we shared their data with them, comparing it with
anonymized data of the other CEOs we had studied up to that point. These intensive debriefings
often included the CEOs’ reflections on the pressures they faced in managing time, and on their
mistakes and lessons learned. We also shared our accumulated data with the participants in each
New CEO Workshop. In our discussions, CEOs routinely described managing time as one of their
greatest challenges. The observations, questions, and personal approaches to allocating time they
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article TIME ACTUALLY DO?
we will do three things: CALENDAR

First, we’ll provide a descriptive analysis of the data. How much time do CEOs spend at work versus
on personal activities? How much do they spend in meetings versus thinking and reflecting alone?
How much do they rely on e-mail versus face-to-face conversation? Do they spend more time inside
the company or outside, more with customers or investors? We’ll answer those questions—and many
more.
Second, we will offer prescriptions for how CEOs can manage their time more effectively across their
many responsibilities. One of our most striking observations is that the way leaders allocate their
time varies considerably. Some of this variation reflects differences in their businesses and
management practices. However, many time allocation decisions, such as participation in company
rituals that offer limited return, reflect legacy norms and cultures, as well as a CEO’s own habits. In
our debriefings the CEOs all acknowledged that there were important areas where they could be
using their time better. On the basis of these discussions and those with the hundreds of other CEOs
in our workshops, we are convinced that every leader can improve his or her time management.

Finally, we will reflect on what our rich data

Looking Beyond the Averages reveals about the overall role of the CEO. A CEO

How much do CEOs’ practices differ? has to simultaneously manage multiple

We’ve ranked the variation in their uses of dimensions of influence, which all contain
time from the lowest to the highest. dualities, or seeming contradictions, that effective

Degree of CEOs must integrate. Understanding this broader

variation view of the role is essential to success and also
(standard
deviation/mean) provides an important perspective for managing

Meeting time LOW

time well.
0.14

Face-to-face interactions 0.14

While our research focuses on the CEO role in

Time with internal 0.14 large, complex companies, its findings have
constituencies
implications for all leaders (including executives

Total workweek obligations 0.14 of nonprofits) looking for ways to use their time
and influence more effectively.
One-hour meetings 0.21
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Scheduled time 0.22 The Job Is All-Consuming
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MANAGE TIME
One-on-one meetings 0.24 ACTUALLY DO? CEOs are always on, and there is always more to
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be done. The leaders in our study worked 9.7
CEO-initiated meetings 0.28
hours per weekday, on average. They also

Weekend days worked 0.31 conducted business on 79% of weekend days,

putting in an average of 3.9 hours daily, and on
Core agenda time 0.36 MEDIUM
70% of vacation days, averaging 2.4 hours daily.
Meetings per week 0.36 As these figures show, the CEO’s job is relentless.
 Electronic communication 0.38 About half (47%) of a CEO’s work was done at
company headquarters. The rest was conducted
Time with direct reports 0.39
while visiting other company locations, meeting
Functional and business- 0.41
external constituencies, commuting, traveling,
unit review time
and at home. Altogether, the CEOs in our study
People and relationship 0.44
time worked an average of 62.5 hours a week.

Strategy time 0.48

Why such a grueling schedule? Because it is
Time on organizational 0.54
essential to the role. Every constituency
structure and culture
associated with a company wants direct contact
Spontaneous time 0.59 HIGH
with the person at the top. As much as CEOs rely
Have-to-do time 0.59 on delegation, they can’t hand off everything.

Time with other outside 0.59 They have to spend at least some time with each
commitments constituency in order to provide direction, create

Two-hour-plus blocks of 0.70 alignment, win support, and gather the

alone time
information needed to make good decisions.
Time with rank-and-le 0.71 Travel is also an absolute must. You can’t run a
employees
domestic company, let alone a global one, from
Exercise time 0.89 headquarters alone. As a CEO, you have to be out

Time with investors 0.95 and about.

Time with customers 1.10

Making time for personal well-being.
Given that work could consume every hour of
their lives, CEOs have to set limits so that they can

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health and their relationships with family and friends. Most of the CEOs in our study
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intensity of the job, CEOs need to train—just as elite athletes do. That means allocating time for
health, fitness, and rest.

We paid special attention to the 25% of time—or roughly six hours a day—when CEOs were awake
and not working. Typically, they spent about half those hours with their families, and most had
learned to become very disciplined about this. Most also found at least some hours (2.1 a day, on
average) for downtime, which included everything from watching television and reading for
pleasure, to hobbies like photography.

The CEO’s job is mentally and physically demanding. Activities that preserve elements of normal life
keep CEOs grounded and better able to engage with colleagues and workers—as opposed to distant,
detached, and disconnected. CEOs also have to make time for their own professional renewal and
development (which our data showed was often the biggest casualty of a packed schedule). And
they must be careful, as our colleague Tom DeLong puts it, not to become “like race car drivers and
treat home like a pit stop.”

They Work Face-to-Face

The top job in a company involves primarily face-to-face interactions, which took up 61% of the
work time of the CEOs we studied. Another 15% was spent on the phone or reading and replying to
written correspondence. The final 24% was spent on electronic communications.

Face-to-face interaction is the best way for CEOs to exercise influence, learn what’s really going on,
and delegate to move forward the multiple agendas that must be advanced. It also allows CEOs to
best support and coach the people they work closely with. How a CEO spends face-to-face time is
viewed as a signal of what or who is important; people watch this more carefully than most CEOs
recognize.

Avoiding the lure of e-mail.

In theory, e-mail helps leaders cut down on face-to-face meetings and improve productivity. In
reality, many find it ineffective and a dangerous time sink—but one they have trouble avoiding. E-
mailREAD 3 PIECESwork,
IN THISextends the workday, intrudes on time for family and thinking, and is not
interrupts
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conducive to thoughtful discussions. CEOs are endlessly copied on FYI e-mails. They feel pressure
START WITH: HOW CEOS WHAT DO CEOS ONE CEO’S APPROACH TO MANAGING HIS
to respond because
MANAGE TIME ignoring an e-mail seems
ACTUALLY rude.
DO? CALENDAR

CEOs should recognize that the majority of e-mails cover issues that needn’t involve them and often
draw them into the operational weeds. Conversely, e-mails from the CEO can create a downward
spiral of unnecessary communication and set the wrong norms, especially if the CEO sends them
late at night, on weekends, or on holidays. It then becomes easy for everyone in an organization to
fall into the bad habit of overusing electronic communications.
That’s why setting proper expectations and norms for what e-mails the CEO needs to receive—and
when he or she will respond—is essential. Norms are necessary for the others in the organization as
well, to prevent e-mail from having a cascading effect on everyone, wasting precious hours and
intruding on personal time. One way for the CEO to stay ahead of the digital avalanche is to have an
adept EA filter messages and delegate many of them to others before the CEO even sees them. In the
end, though, there is no substitute for being disciplined about resisting the siren call of electronic
communications. This is a topic our CEOs were often animated about, and best practices in this area
are still emerging.

Some CEOs in our study have begun to use videoconferencing as an alternative to face-to-face
meetings, especially to cut down on travel for themselves and for team members who might
otherwise have to come to see them. Although such efficiencies should surely be sought, CEOs must
never forget that at its core their job is a face-to-face one.

They Are Agenda Driven

CEOs oversee a large number of organizational units and work streams and countless types of
decisions. Our research finds that they should have an explicit personal agenda and that most do. A
clear and effective agenda optimizes the CEO’s limited time; without one, demands from the loudest
constituencies will take over, and the most important work won’t get done.

A good agenda sets priorities for the CEO’s personal involvement over the coming period. But it is
not unidimensional; rather, it is a matrix including both broader areas for improvement and specific
matters that need to be addressed, and it combines time-bound goals with more open-ended
priorities.
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In our study we asked each CEO to describe the agenda he or she was pursuing during the quarter
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being tracked and to highlight the hours
MANAGE TIME devoted
ACTUALLY DO? primarily to advancing it. Every executive
CALENDAR

provided an agenda. We found that the CEOs invested significant time—43%, on average—in
activities that furthered their agendas. Some were far more disciplined about this than others: Time
devoted to the core agenda varied widely, ranging from 14% to 80% of leaders’ work hours. Most
CEOs we talked with agreed that the more time they spent on their agendas, the better they felt
about their use of time.
Overall, we found that an explicit agenda is one of the CEO’s most important tools for making
progress on multiple work streams simultaneously, addressing differences in the rate of progress
across priorities, and using time effectively despite the need to respond personally to unforeseen
events.

Advancing the agenda.

Keeping time allocation aligned with CEOs’ top priorities is so crucial that we suggest that every
quarter CEOs make a point of looking back at whether their schedule for the previous period
adequately matched up with their personal agenda. They should also update the agenda to reflect
current circumstances.

CEOs can benefit from making their personal agenda explicit to others. Their EAs and leadership
teams both need to know and understand it so that they can stay aligned with it. This understanding
will help team members assume ownership of the goals and priorities of the work the CEO needs
them to drive.

Dealing with unfolding developments.

Four Behaviors of Great A good portion of our CEOs’ time (about 36%, on
Executive Assistants average) was spent in a reactive mode, handling
EAs play a vital role in shielding CEOs from unfolding issues, both internal and external. For
distractions and unnecessary activities many chief executives, it is not immediately clear
and ensuring that leaders’ limited time is
when and how to address such issues or how
used well. We often hear CEOs say that a
highly skilled EA can dramatically increase much time to devote to them. Say that a member
their efciency and effectiveness, and our of the CEO’s senior leadership team leaves a
research supports that view.
READ 3 PIECES IN THIS meeting looking upset. Should the CEO follow up
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they may recognize that CEOs need time the team member cool off? Sometimes emerging
alone, our study shows that many EAs problems seem small at first but balloon into
believe that a full CEO calendar signals
larger distractions if the CEO doesn’t attend to
that they’re doing their job. They tend to
book back-to-back appointments, limiting them. In other instances a CEO’s intervention
time for spontaneous communications or makes an issue bigger than it might have been. It’s
solitary reection. In addition, while EAs
essential for CEOs to figure out appropriate
recognize that protecting a CEO’s time is
one of their most important duties, some responses to these unfolding situations.
have a human reluctance to say no to Every now and then, CEOs find themselves
people (especially colleagues in the
dealing with a sudden, full-blown crisis—a
organization). That allows unessential
meetings to creep into the CEO’s day. product or safety failure, a hostile activist’s bid, a
Conversely, other EAs take their traditional serious cyberattack, or even an external
role as gatekeeper too far, maintaining catastrophe such as a tsunami or a terrorist attack.
such tight control over access that their
Most of our CEOs (89%) spent some time on
bosses risk being seen as aloof or
inaccessible. crises. Though on average it was small (1% of

Finding the right balance in managing the work time during the quarter we tracked), the
CEO’s time requires judgment and total amount spent varied a great deal among the
emotional intelligence. It also requires
leaders in our study. Crises can create make-or-
strong communication skills, because an
EA speaks for the CEO and can affect how break moments in a CEO’s leadership. In dealing
a leader comes across. In our research we with them, CEOs need to be highly visible and
have identied four key behaviors that personally involved; the response to such events
drive better performance:
can’t be delegated. Showing genuine concern for
1. Understand the leader’s agenda. CEOs
the people affected, avoiding defensiveness,
should have a written agenda detailing
their top priorities (updated quarterly) holding everyone together, and creating
and should spend much of their time on confidence that the organization will not only
activities that advance the agenda. It’s survive but emerge stronger are some of the
critical that the EA internalize this
things CEOs need to do during these times.
agenda and use it as a lens through
which each meeting request is viewed.
The CEO’s responsibility is to ensure Limiting routine responsibilities.
that the EA knows the agenda and the
A surprisingly significant fraction (11%, on
importance of keeping the schedule
aligned with it. average) of our CEOs’ work time was consumed
by routine duties. Such activities varied
2. Include all the relevant players.
READ 3 PIECESatIN all
Managers THISlevels tend to complain considerably across CEOs, running the gamut
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about having too many meetings. One from review meetings to board meetings, earnings
solution is to try keeping meetings
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small and
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ACTUALLY DO? CALENDAR
attendance is essential. However, good
CEOs delegate well, and to do so they Operating reviews are a major component of a
need their direct reports and affected
CEO’s routine tasks. Their number, frequency,
managers to be present. Otherwise,
extra rounds of communication and and length ranged widely across the leaders we
follow-up will be needed after studied, and our discussions suggested that some
meetings. Good EAs avoid that problem
 by getting the right players in the room CEOs—especially those who had been COOs—
to begin with.
overinvested in reviews that could be delegated to
3. Recognize the value of spontaneity. direct reports.
Most CEOs are overbooked. They would
benet from more time to walk the
hallways and initiate unplanned The ability of CEOs to control what we term
interactions. They also need room to “have-to-dos” was also quite variable. Have-to-
react to events that can’t be
dos include rituals such as giving welcome talks
anticipated; leaving some open time in
the leader’s day will help EAs avoid to new employees. These can play an important
frequently canceling and rescheduling symbolic role and help reinforce the company’s
appointments.
values and culture. By thoughtfully choosing
4. Zealously protect personal and family which of these events to attend, CEOs can set the
time. EAs should recognize that the
tone of their relationship with the organization.
long hours, travel, and stress of the
CEO job can take a toll. Time with Yet a CEO must be disciplined about ensuring that
family and friends, regular exercise, feel-good activities don’t collectively take up
and opportunities to recharge and
more time than he or she can afford.
reect are crucial to effectiveness and
avoiding burnout. EAs’ daily scheduling
choices play an important part in Our discussions suggest that CEOs need to take a
helping CEOs maintain the balance they
hard look at every activity that falls into the
need to succeed over the long haul.
routine and have-to-do categories. They must ask
whether it serves an important purpose or is
simply a company habit, something instituted by
the predecessor, or a carryover from the CEO’s previous role.

They Rely Heavily on Their Direct Reports

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A CEO’s direct reports are the 
company’s most senior executives and include some of its most skilled
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company and get the work done.

In our study about half (46%) of a CEO’s time with internal constituencies was spent with one or
more direct reports, and 21% of it was spent only with direct reports. The total time spent with
direct reports ranged from a low of 32% of time with internal constituencies to a high of 67%. When
we explored that variation, we found that CEOs were more likely to spend time with their reports
present when they had greater confidence in them.

We found that it’s critical for each member of the leadership team to have the capabilities to excel
and earn the CEO’s full trust and support. Any weaknesses in this group significantly reduce the
CEO’s effectiveness, because dealing with work that reports should have handled, and cleaning up
after them, eats up valuable time. In fact, when our CEOs gathered as a group across cohorts to see
how things were going after they had been in office awhile, their number one regret was not setting
high-enough standards in selecting direct reports. Many CEOs told us this was because they focused
too much on the present and not enough on the future when they first stepped into the role. Direct
reports who could manage the status quo were often not the ones who could help the CEO take the
company to a new level.

The more CEOs can delegate to their leadership team, the better they generally feel about their use
of time. It eases the burden of needing to get personally engaged, following up, and asking others to
report back. Since CEOs see their direct reports so frequently, it is also easy to stay in touch with how
things are going with matters they are handling.

Staying connected to other managers.

The CEOs in our study also spent considerable time (32% of their time with internal constituencies,
on average) with a broader group of senior leaders, often called the top 100 (plus or minus). Many in
this group report to the CEO’s direct reports. We found that time with this next level of leadership
was well spent. The top 100 are often the driving force for execution in the organization, and direct
contact with the CEO can help align and motivate them. These leaders are also key to succession

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be candidates to replace the company’s most senior executives. Given that the
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people at this level are often a generation younger, a few may eventually even be candidates to
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Not surprisingly, the CEOs in our study spent less time with lower-level managers (14%, on average)
and even less time with rank-and-file employees (about 6%, on average). However, our research
suggests that effective CEOs need to be careful to maintain a human face in the organization. They
must stay approachable and find ways to meaningfully engage with employees at all levels. This not
only keeps them in touch with what is really going on in the company but helps them model and
communicate organizational values throughout the workforce.

Direct human contact with the rank and file also grounds CEOs and helps them understand
employees’ reality. CEOs face a real risk of operating in a bubble and never seeing the actual world
their workers face. Relationships with employees at multiple levels also build a CEO’s legitimacy and
trustworthiness in the eyes of employees, which is essential to motivating them and winning their
support.

Knowing what is going on.

Spending time with the rank and file, and with savvy external frontline constituencies, is also an
indispensable way to gain reliable information on what is really going on in the company and in the
industry. This is a major CEO challenge. Some CEOs get frontline contact by walking the hallways
and factory floors, and using mechanisms like periodic lunches, unscheduled visits, and carefully
designed field trips to customer and company sites. Others use group interactions, such as town
halls, to foster genuine and open conversations with a large cross section of employees (rather than
present slide decks). Our data indicates that CEOs have varying success in carving out time for such
steps, however.

They Manage Using Broad Integrating Mechanisms

CEOs must avoid trying to do too much themselves. It just isn’t possible for them to make or even
ratify most decisions directly. Instead, effective CEOs put in place well-designed structures and
processes that help everyone else in the organization make good choices. These inform, support,
READand
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enable, integrate
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ACTUALLY DO? (on which CEOs in our study spent an
average of 21% of their work time), functional and business unit reviews (25% of their time),
developing people and relationships (25% of their time), matching organizational structure and
culture with the needs of the business (16% of their time), and mergers and acquisitions (4% of their
time).

Harnessing strategy.
Formal reviews are essential to monitoring whether the company is delivering the required process
performance. Though these consume a quarter of a CEO’s total work time, they allow CEOs to track
progress, provide regular feedback, uphold high standards, and ensure timely course corrections.
Reviews are also necessary to make sure that lessons learned are used to enhance the various
processes through which work gets done.

However, excessive participation in reviews can get the CEO too involved in the company’s
operations and mired in unnecessary details. We talked a lot with the CEOs in our study about this
problem. We have found, again and again, that many have a hard time shedding the COO or
president roles they may have previously held. Some also forget that their senior team should bear
the primary responsibility for many reviews and keep the CEO informed on a regular basis.

When CEOs fail to delegate reviews to direct reports who can handle them, they erode the
autonomy and accountability of their management teams. That doesn’t help CEOs get the best out of
others.

Developing people and relationships.

Building the company’s leadership pipeline is an important CEO function in its own right. We have
found that CEOs must be personally committed to and be involved in improving the quality of the
company’s leaders. They cannot just leave this task to HR. Leadership choices are also pivotal in
shaping the company’s culture. Who gets hired, promoted, or fired signals what is truly valued by
the CEO and the company.

CEOs need to get the most out of an organization’s talent, and to do that, they must forge personal
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connections. OurINCEOs
THIS spent another quarter of their total work time in meetings that focused on
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building relationships. When trust is mutual, delegation comes more naturally, agreement is easier
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more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt when you need it—and to tell you the truth, which is
invaluable at the top.

The time CEOs spend building social capital through a network of personal relationships has many
benefits and is time well spent.
They Are Always in Meetings
CEOs attend an endless stream of meetings, each of which can be totally different from the one
before and the one that follows. Their sheer number and variety is a defining feature of the top job.
On average, the leaders in our study had 37 meetings of assorted lengths in any given week and
spent 72% of their total work time in meetings.

Making meetings shorter and more effective.

CEOs need to regularly review which meetings are truly needed and which can be delegated, and to
let go of ones they were accustomed to in previous roles.

They should also take a hard look at meeting length. In our study, meetings that lasted an hour
accounted for 32% of a CEO’s meetings, on average. Meetings that were longer accounted for 38%,
and shorter meetings, 30%. We found that the length of meetings was often a matter of
organizational or personal habit or both—a default length (like one hour) was the norm.

“Standard” meeting times should be revisited with an eye toward shortening them. Doing this can
significantly enhance a CEO’s efficiency. In our debriefs, CEOs confessed that one-hour meetings
could often be cut to 30 or even 15 minutes. Another good way to streamline things is to reset
meeting norms: Every meeting should have a clear agenda, and to minimize repetition, attendees
should come prepared. Effective CEOs spread these meeting norms throughout the organization.

Some CEOs were worried that they might appear standoffish if someone asked for an hour and the
CEO (or the EA) offered 30 minutes. But we have found that meeting length is worth confronting.
“Whatever they ask for, cut it in half,” said one CEO.
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Another important meeting attribute is the number and composition of attendees. One-on-one
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meetings were
MANAGE the most common (accounting
TIME ACTUALLY DO?for 42% of CEOs’ meetings, on average), followed by
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meetings with two to five participants (21%). Although every CEO had meetings involving large
groups of 50 or more—like town halls, leadership off-sites, or all-company meetings—these were
infrequent (5% of meetings).
The emphasis on one-on-one and small group meetings makes sense for enabling delegation and
relationship building, and allows confidentiality. But leaders should also look for opportunities to
bring the right people together. An essential part of the CEO’s role is to align various internal and
external constituencies around a common understanding of issues, decisions, and action agendas.
Having the right people in the room is a powerful way to build that alignment and avoid the need for
repetitive, time-consuming interactions to bring everyone along.

Allowing for accessibility and spontaneity.

The vast majority of our CEOs’ time (75%, on average) was scheduled in advance. The CEOs initiated
more than half (51%) of their meetings themselves.

While controlling the nature and number of meetings is essential, we also found that CEOs need to
regularly set aside time for more spontaneous interaction (which represented 25% of their work
time in our study). This frees up space for same-day appointments initiated by others, for opportune
conversations or meetings, and for responding to unfolding events.

The amount of time our CEOs allowed for spontaneous meetings varied considerably, ranging from
3% to 61%. In our debriefings, CEOs who discovered that they had left little room for spur-of-the-
moment meetings were often surprised and quick to recognize the need for change.

Spontaneity and accessibility enhance a CEO’s legitimacy. Leaders whose schedules are always
booked up or whose EAs see themselves as gatekeepers and say no to too many people risk being
viewed as imperious, self-important, or out of touch. EAs play a key role in finding the right balance
here.
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Carving out alone time.
START
It’s also WITH:
vital for HOW
CEOsCEOS WHAT DO CEOS
to schedule adequate ONE CEO’S
uninterrupted time APPROACH TOso
by themselves MANAGING HIS can have
that they
MANAGE TIME ACTUALLY DO? CALENDAR
space to reflect and prepare for meetings. In our study, CEOs spent 28% of their work time alone, on
average—but again, that varied a great deal, from a low of 10% to a high of 48%. Unfortunately, too
much of this alone time (59% of it) was fragmented into blocks of an hour or less; too little (18%)
was in blocks of two hours or longer. CEOs need to cordon off meaningful amounts of alone time and
avoid dissipating it by dealing with immediate matters, especially their in-boxes. This proved to be a
common problem among the CEOs in our study, who readily acknowledged it.
Given that time in the office is easily eaten up, alone time outside the office is particularly beneficial.
Long-distance travel out of contact with the office often provides critical thinking time, and many
CEOs swear by it. To capitalize on it, CEOs should avoid traveling with an entourage.

They Juggle Many External Constituencies

While the CEOs we studied spent the majority of their time (70%, on average) dealing with internal
constituencies, a good chunk (30%, on average) was spent with outsiders: 16% with business
partners (such as customers, suppliers, bankers, investors, consultants, lawyers, PR firms, and other
service providers), 5% with the company’s board of directors, and 9% on other outside
commitments (service on other boards, industry groups, dealing with the media and the
government, and community and philanthropic activities).

External constituencies can be just as demanding as internal ones. Everyone wants to talk to the
CEO, and dealing with external stakeholders is time-consuming. It often involves longer workdays
and time away from headquarters and from home. There is a risk of drifting toward outside
commitments less tied to company success.

Finding time for customers.

Most of our CEOs were dismayed to discover how little time they spent with their customers—just
3%, on average. It surprised some even more to learn that this was less than the amount they spent
with consultants. The scant time devoted to customers is partly a function of the huge scope of
internal responsibilities: As an executive ascends from managing a line of business (which involves
more-frequent customer contact) to the job of leading the entire company, it is natural for customer-
facing time to decline.
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Nonetheless, the CEOs in our study clearly felt that 3% was too low. Customers are a key source of
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independent information about the ACTUALLY
MANAGE TIME company’sDO? progress, industry trends, and competitors. In the
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B2B space, meeting with customers’ CEOs is highly valuable, since peer conversations can be very
candid. In B2C companies, there are also rich opportunities for customer contact. For retail CEOs, for
example, store visits—especially unannounced ones—are an indispensable way to talk to regular
customers, not just the company staff.
Some CEOs systematically schedule time with customers. The CEO of a financial services firm in our
study, for instance, aims to meet face-to-face with one customer a day. A manufacturing CEO
allocates two days a month to customer visits. Other CEOs try to build customer visits into their
travel. A habit of some type seems to be the most reliable way to ensure enough customer time.

Limiting time with investors.

On average, our CEOs spent only 3% of their total work time on investors. Most of them found this
surprising; they tended to believe they spent more. But while more time is likely to be better when it
comes to customers, the same is not true with investors. Too many meetings with investors can
easily become a time sink and can draw the CEO into trying to manage the stock price rather than
focusing on business fundamentals. Staying in touch with a few key buy-side investors, doing
quarterly calls, and holding an annual investor day may be all a CEO needs to do—unless, of course,
the company is dealing with serious investor unrest or activism. By and large, the CEOs in our study
seem to have discovered such focus over time, after getting caught up early in their tenures in too
much investor relations.

Limiting unrelated outside commitments.

There is a real risk that CEOs will get distracted by outside activities not directly connected to the
business, where they are in high demand and which often involve worthy community and social
issues. Such activities consumed an average of almost 2% of the work time of the CEOs in our study.
While CEOs should give back to their communities and play the role of business statespeople, they
should carefully restrict the hours they personally spend on such activities and on participating in
business groups. Though the CEO’s presence can be important, overseeing and managing such work
does not require the CEO and can be delegated to direct reports, for whom it is motivational and
provides professional development opportunities.
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Finding time
START WITH:for
HOWdirectors.
CEOS WHAT DO CEOS ONE CEO’S APPROACH TO MANAGING HIS
MANAGE TIME ACTUALLY DO? CALENDAR
All our CEOs understood the importance of spending time with their boards. In our study,
interacting with directors accounted for 5% of CEOs’ total work time, or 41 hours a quarter, on
average. But again we saw significant variation: One CEO spent six hours with directors; another
spent 165.
A CEO must never forget that the board is his or her boss and that “managing up” is vital to success.
However, that involves more than board meetings, committee meetings, and board retreats; CEOs
must find time to build meaningful one-on-one relationships with individual directors. This is
essential to take advantage of each board member’s particular expertise and perspective. At board
meetings, it’s often not clear where each director is coming from, but that knowledge is crucial in
crises and when dealing with controversial topics. CEOs also need to keep the directors well
informed and engage with them between meetings through newsletters and updates. A common
understanding and alignment with the board is important in periods of stress or market challenge.

Dimensions of the CEO’s Role and Inuence

The data on CEOs’ time use reveals that the sheer complexity of their role—the myriad types of
work, activities, and constituencies—is much greater than has previously been documented or
perhaps even understood.

In examining the CEO’s role, we have come to see that their work entails six dimensions of
influence. Each involves a duality—a seeming contradiction, akin to yin and yang—that CEOs must
manage simultaneously in order to be effective.

Managing the Dimensions of CEO Inuence

Chief executives exert inuence along six dimensions, each of which involves a duality, or seeming
contradiction akin to yin and yang. Managing these dualities simultaneously is a hallmark of
effective CEOs.

DIRECT INDIRECT
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
The CEO is directly involved in numerous agendas and The CEO also exerts much inuence over the work of others,
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makes many decisions. using integrative mechanisms, processes, structures, and
norms.
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MANAGE
INTERNAL TIME ACTUALLY DO? EXTERNALCALENDAR
The CEO works with the senior team and with employees at The CEO also engages myriad external constituencies,
all other levels to get all the organization’s work done. serving as the face of the company, and must bring these
external perspectives to the organization.

PROACTIVE REACTIVE
The CEO must articulate a sense of purpose, have a The CEO must also respond to events as they unfold, from
forward-looking vision, and lead the company to greater daily issues to full-blown crises that will prove to have a
success. major impact on the company’s success.
 LEVERAGE CONSTRAINTS
CEOs’ position and control of resources give them immense CEOs are constrained by the need to build buy-in, bring
clout. others along, and send the right message.

TANGIBLE SYMBOLIC
The CEO makes many decisions about concrete things like Much of CEOs’ inuence proves to be intangible and
strategic direction, structure, resource allocation, and the symbolic; their actions set the tone, communicate norms,
selection of key people. shape values, and provide meaning.

POWER LEGITIMACY
CEOs hold formal power and authority in the company that CEOs’ inuence also rests on legitimacy that comes from
is reinforced by their competence and track record. their character and the trust they earn from employees
through their demonstrated values, fairness, and
commitment to the organization.

First, CEOs clearly have direct influence over many issues and decisions, as their numerous reviews
and one-on-one meetings reveal. However, the inherent limits on CEOs’ time and knowledge mean
that much of their influence must also be indirect. Good CEOs are very much in charge but work
through others using strategy, culture, and effective organizational processes that drive sound
analysis and alignment across the organization. CEOs need to learn how to marry direct and indirect
influence.

Second, much of a CEO’s work necessarily involves internal constituencies and managerial tasks,
and our data verifies the overwhelming amount of such work to be done. However, CEOs are unique
in the degree to which they must also engage and influence numerous external constituencies and
represent the company to the world. Effective CEOs connect their internal and external roles by
bringing outside perspectives into the work of the company. They also need to make sure outside
constituencies understand the company’s work and value.
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Third, much of a CEO’s work is inherently proactive: It involves anticipating problems, gathering the
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facts, conducting
MANAGE TIME analyses, and making sound
ACTUALLY DO?and timely choices. Here, the CEO sets and drives the
CALENDAR
agenda. However, reacting well to unplanned and unforeseen events and crises is some of the most
important work CEOs do. Choices here, and the CEO’s personal presence or lack of presence, can
have major consequences both outside and within the organization. Such periods can make or break
a company and the CEO’s own capacity to lead.
 It’s vital for CEOs to block off meaningful
amounts of uninterrupted time alone.
Fourth, while CEOs have a great deal of leverage to exert because of their position in the hierarchy
and access to resources, they also face numerous—and often unrecognized—constraints and
complexities in exercising that leverage. They are constrained in how often they can overturn
decisions that have been brought to them for approval or how quickly they can drive changes
without securing the support and buy-in of their senior team and board of directors. They must
identify the group or people who are needed to bring about a change and then figure out how to win
over the leader that will mobilize them. CEOs must find the right balance between taking full
advantage of the leverage they possess, while being equally sensitive to the constraints they must
navigate and the constituencies they must bring along. Otherwise, resistance will emerge and come
back to bite them.

Fifth, while much of the CEO’s influence is highly tangible, involving decisions about things like
strategic priorities, budget targets, and people selection, some of the CEO’s greatest influence is
symbolic. This comes from the meaning people attach to a CEO’s actions. What CEOs do (and don’t
do), including everyday things like how they dress, what cars they drive, where they park, where
they eat, and whom they talk to and how—always sends implicit messages to the company and its
constituencies. Everything a CEO does affects what the organization focuses on, its norms of
behavior, and its culture and values. The symbolic effects of CEOs’ choices can reach even further
than their specific actions.

Sixth, CEOs hold a great deal of formal power and authority, and exercise it in the many ways we
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 authority, competence, and even results are insufficient to truly
have described. However, power,
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ensure their success. Effective CEOs combine formal power and authority with legitimacy. CEOs
START WITH: HOW CEOS WHAT DO CEOS ONE CEO’S APPROACH TO MANAGING HIS
achieve legitimacy
MANAGE TIME when employeesACTUALLY
believeDO?
in them as people and as leaders. They earn legitimacy
CALENDAR

in multiple ways—by demonstrating values, ethics, fairness, and a selfless commitment to the
company and its people, among other things. Legitimacy gives rise to motivation that goes far
beyond carrying out orders and can lead to extraordinary organizational performance. CEO time
allocation, then, is not simply a matter of what happens in meetings and decision-making processes.
It reflects the far broader set of ways in which the CEO as an individual engages with the
organization and its people.
In managing across these six dimensions of influence, it is easy for CEOs to overlook the less direct,
less top-down, less tangible, and more human aspects of their work. Without this awareness,
though, CEOs give up some of their most powerful levers for driving change.

Why Good Leaders Matter

Countless concepts, tools, and metrics have been developed to help leaders manage well. However,
our study of what the CEOs of large, complex organizations actually do—as manifest in how they
spend their time—opens a new window into what leadership is all about and into its many
components and dimensions. Being the CEO is a highly challenging role, and it is difficult to do it
well.

The success of CEOs has enormous consequences—good or bad—for employees, customers,

communities, wealth creation, and the trajectory of economies and even societies. Being a CEO has
gotten harder as the size and scope of the job continue to grow, organizational complexity rises,
technology advances, competition increases, and CEO accountability intensifies. The ideas we have
introduced here aim to provide current and future leaders, who must bear this enormous
responsibility, with a broader understanding of their role and how to best use their most important
resource: their time.

Michael E. Porter is a University Professor at Harvard, based at Harvard Business School in

Boston.

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START WITH: HOW CEOS WHAT DO CEOS ONE CEO’S APPROACH TO MANAGING HIS
MANAGE TIME Nitin Nohria is dean of Harvard
ACTUALLY DO? Business School.
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What Do CEOs Actually Do?
by Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria

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W hile we realize that corporate leaders are really busy, we know surprisingly little
about their day-to-day schedules. To fill that gap, in 2006 Harvard Business School
professors Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria began asking participants of their New
CEO Workshop to track their use of time, 24/7, for 13 weeks. The data on these pages, which were
created with assistance from Harvard Business School research associate Sarah Higgins, summarizes
the information gathered on how 27 CEOs spent a total of nearly 60,000 hours. Here is how they
allocated their time, on average, among various activities, places, priorities, meetings, and
constituencies.

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MANAGE TIME ACTUALLY DO? CALENDAR
READ 3 PIECES IN THIS
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START WITH: HOW CEOS WHAT DO CEOS ONE CEO’S APPROACH TO MANAGING HIS
MANAGE TIME ACTUALLY DO? CALENDAR
Michael E. Porter is a University Professor at Harvard, based at Harvard Business School in
Boston.
 Nitin Nohria is dean of Harvard Business School.

One CEO’s Approach to Managing

His Calendar
by Daniel McGinn and Sarah Higgins

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T om Gentile spent 20 years as a senior executive at GE before becoming CEO of Spirit

AeroSystems, a $7 billion aviation supplier. Seven months into the job, in 2017, Gentile and
his assistant spent 13 weeks tracking his time as part of Harvard Business School’s CEO
Time Study, and discussed his results with the people leading the research, Michael Porter and Nitin
Nohria. Gentile recently spoke with HBR’s Daniel McGinn and HBS research associate Sarah Higgins
about what he learned—and what behaviors he’s trying to change. Here are edited excerpts from
their conversation:
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EarlierSTART
in your career,
WITH: how did you learn
HOW CEOS WHATto
DOmanage
CEOS time? ONE CEO’S APPROACH TO MANAGING HIS
MANAGE TIME ACTUALLY DO? CALENDAR
Gentile: Back in the 1990s, when I was a consultant at McKinsey, I remember trying to use the
FranklinPlanner calendar system. It was manual and cumbersome—it was too thick to fit in my
briefcase. Later I used a PalmPilot and then a BlackBerry, and now I use Outlook. The tools of time
management have become much more effective during my career. But I really learned time
management from my mentors, especially at General Electric. I watched leaders who were good at it,
and I emulated them. I remember one of my bosses, Dave Nissen at GE Capital Global Consumer
Finance. He had so many demands on his time, but he set clear priorities, and he was ruthless about
eliminating tasks that weren’t important. He went home at a reasonable hour every night and took
all his vacation days. He was incredibly effective. That’s the model to which I’ve always aspired.

A Week at a Glance
For 13 weeks, Tom Gentile had his assistant record the way he spent each day across 60-plus
variables, including whom he was with, where he was, and what he was focusing on. The charts
below break his time use into seven core activities for one week. See the exhibit “What He
Learned” for some of the recommendations on time management that Gentile received from the
researchers.

Monday
He met a customer and a board member in London and then ew to headquarters in Kansas,
working en route.

His average workweek, including commute and travel time, was 73.5 hours, compared with 62.5
hours for the average CEO.

Tuesday
He led meetings at headquarters, including an employee strategy session, a job interview, and
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 bankers.
several sessions with investment
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He spent 33% of his meeting time with large groups, compared with 15% for the average CEO. He
initiated 44% of his meetings (whereas the average CEO initiates 51%).

Wednesday
He held meetings at headquarters, including a media interview, a supplier meeting, and six
sessions with employees.

He spent 35% of his working hours focused on people and relationships, compared with 25% for
the average CEO.

Thursday
He ew from Kansas to visit two Midwest suppliers, golfed with a supplier in Oklahoma, and then
took a weather-delayed ight to New York City.

He took 16 business trips during the 13 weeks.

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Friday
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MANAGE TIME ACTUALLY DO? CALENDAR
He attended his company’s board meeting on less than three hours of sleep and then had dinner
with his wife.

He spent 3% of his time with his board, compared with 5% for the average CEO. He spent 43% of
that time talking with individual directors, compared with 38% for the average CEO, and half of his
board time meeting with the full group.

Saturday
He spent time with family, with a few breaks for work e-mail.

He spent 62% of his nonworking awake time with his family, compared with 47% for the average
CEO. During the study his family time was concentrated in weekends and vacations because his
family hadn’t yet relocated to Kansas.

Sunday
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spent timeINwith
THISfamily until leaving for the airport en route to Scotland at 3:30 PM.
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 He did some work on 92% of weekend days and on 100% of vacation days, compared with CEO
averages of 79% and 70%.

Did those methods work for you when you became a CEO?

They weren’t enough at first, because the job was so much bigger. When I was leading business
divisions at GE, I faced a lot of demands, but it’s a different order of magnitude when you’re a public
company’s CEO. All of a sudden you have board responsibilities, investor responsibilities, and many
more media responsibilities. They take an inordinate amount of time. The requests keep coming in,
and the schedule fills up so much faster.

What did you get out of tracking your time so closely for 13 weeks?

Having that detailed a record of how I use time and being able to benchmark myself against other
CEOs was useful. Some of what I learned was quite surprising. For instance, I spend much less time
one-on-one with my direct reports than the average CEO does, and I didn’t know that. When I talked
about my results with Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria, the Harvard Business School professors who
are doing the study, it felt like a very intensive performance review. They were cordial, but they were
very direct in their feedback.

Why do you spend less time with direct reports?

I tend to structure meetings with broader teams—people from multiple units or across geographies.
So I do spend time with my direct reports, just not one-on-one time. I have monthly one-on-ones
scheduled with every direct report, but they’re busy, and I’m busy, so my assistant often cancels
them for something more important. Porter and Nohria think that if I have more one-on-ones with
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direct  and hold them more accountable. We had a healthy debate about
reports, I will delegate more
that, and as a result I have stopped canceling the one-on-ones. We’ll see if that makes a difference.
START WITH: HOW CEOS WHAT DO CEOS ONE CEO’S APPROACH TO MANAGING HIS
MANAGE TIME ACTUALLY DO? CALENDAR for these conversations. Our
They also suggested that business trips would be a good opportunity
headquarters is in Wichita, which has limited airline service, so we rely on a private jet for a lot of
travel. That can be a great setting for a one-on-one conversation.

What else did the data show?

We noticed that my meetings are predominantly one or two hours. The good news is, I don’t have
many six- or seven-hour meetings, and I have fewer long meetings than the average CEO. But Porter
and Nohria asked a good question: Why do you need an hour? Why can’t your meetings be 45
minutes or even less? So we have started scheduling 45-minute meetings, from 1:15 to 2:00 PM, for
instance. And we’ve continued our practice of having my executive assistant come in five minutes
before the ending time to tell us to wrap up and keep us on schedule. I’ve found that if a CEO’s
meetings start running long, it creates scheduling problems for everyone in the organization.

The data shows you spend a lot of time on e-mail. Is that a problem?

Porter, Nohria, and I talked a lot about e-mail. I do spend too much time on that. E-mail is
impersonal and reactive. CEOs have to stay human and be authentic, and you can’t do that via e-
mail. Professor Porter and Dean Nohria—who by the way was my organizational behavior professor
when I was at HBS!—encouraged me to have more face-to-face time, more time to walk around. That
was one of the big takeaways from the study. I also need to spend more time alone, thinking and
being proactive. My blocks of unscheduled time are too short for me to be reflective about big issues,
and I tend to just go to my in-box. It’s been hard to detach from the in-box, but I’m working on it.
And I have been walking around our headquarters more.

Do CEOs really need lots of alone time? Aren’t you always thinking about the business during idle
moments—while driving or exercising or waiting for ights?

I do have time to reflect when I’m driving or when I’m on a plane without Wi-Fi. Setting aside time
for thinking can be valuable. I do come up with ideas during those hours. And Porter and Nohria’s
broader point isn’t just about time for reflection—it’s about preserving time for spontaneity and not
being overscheduled.
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You can’t let timeWHAT
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management
DO CEOS
be a reactive
ONE CEO’S APPROACH TO MANAGING HIS
process.
MANAGE TIME ACTUALLY DO? CALENDAR

Can’t your executive assistant help prevent overscheduling?

One of the things I learned from this process is that your assistant has to be a strategic partner. I now
try to sit down with her on a regular basis, to make sure she knows what my priorities are. She also
does small things that help. For instance, she blocks out all my time so that no one can look in
Outlook and recognize that I have a free half hour and then request a meeting. She makes
appointments at other people’s offices, which forces me to get out of my office. She also schedules
lunch for me every day. I always have a half hour. That’s a healthy habit, so I don’t miss meals, and it
also allows me to grab somebody to talk with informally about an issue.

Speaking of healthy habits, did Porter and Nohria give you grief about lack of exercise?

Yes, they beat me up a little on that. I do need to schedule in time to exercise, which I haven’t done
in the past. I spent only 4% of my personal time during this period on exercise, which was lower
than average—and to be honest, I’m lucky it wasn’t 0%. They also pointed out that I don’t spend
enough personal time on hobbies. At this point, my only real hobby is golf, and I tend to play it
mostly with customers and at industry events. I certainly wouldn’t object to playing more!

What He Learned
Analyzing how he spent time allowed Gentile to recognize and correct patterns.

E-mail time
During the 13 weeks Gentile spent 137 hours (or 55% of his unscheduled time) tending to e-mail. He
recognizes this isn’t the best behavior and is trying to spend more time communicating face-to-
face.

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Alone time
One reason he spent so much time on e-mail is that 65% of his alone time is in blocks of just 30
minutes or less, compared with 28% for the average CEO. He’s trying to allow longer blocks of
uninterrupted, unplugged time for deeper thinking and reection.

One-on-one and direct report meetings

Just 5% of his time with internal constituencies was spent only with direct reports, and 16% of his
meetings were one-on-ones, compared with CEO averages of 21% and 42%. After learning that, he
stopped canceling monthly one-on-ones with his top team.

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Partner meetings
He spent more than twice as much time with customers, and seven times as much time with
suppliers, as the average CEO did. That’s excellent behavior, which he intends to continue.
You spend more time with customers than the average CEO does. What do you sacrice to do that?

My focus on customers comes from my years at GE—leaders there spend a lot of time with
customers. Jeff Immelt was a role model in that regard, the best I’ve ever seen. Our industry has a lot
of events—association meetings, air shows—that everyone attends, and they can be a convenient
way to see a lot of people. Going to them means spending less time at headquarters and delegating
more to my team, but that’s probably a good thing.

What do you tell up-and-coming leaders about time management?

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about timeINvery
THISstrategically, because it is part of your strategy. You can’t let it be a reactive
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process that bubbles up from the bottom. You have to manage it from the top down, and you can’t
START
delegate it.WITH:
And HOW
evenCEOS
in an age whenWHAT DO CEOS
e-mail is prevalent, youONE CEO’S
must beAPPROACH TO MANAGING
disciplined about HIS
MANAGE TIME ACTUALLY DO? CALENDAR
communicating face-to-face in a way that lets people see you as genuine and approachable.
 Daniel McGinn is a senior editor at HBR, and the author of Psyched Up: How the Science of
Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed (Portfolio, 2017). Follow him on Twitter @danmcginn.

Sarah Higgins is a research associate at Harvard Business School.

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JAYANT BHAGWAT RANGARI 4 months ago

Crystal clear, sharp tool for Executive like me eyeing position of CEO. It shall be worthy and benecial to have a write-
up on “articulating effective communication - verbal (formal & informal), non-verbal”. JAYANT BHAGWAT RANGARI

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