Many years ago, I was assigned to sit on a strategic planning
committee. I thought it was going to be the driest, most boring work
assignment ever. Then I went to the first meeting.
The director started by saying, “Five years is going to come to
pass, whether we plan for it or not. Five years from now is going to be different
from today; that much is certain. The purpose of this meeting is to
plan for change. Let’s arrive where we mean to go.”
Suddenly, the
problem looked less like a color-between the lines assignment and more
like a ‘what do you want the future to be and let’s plan on getting
there’ assignment. Any choice was on the table? All future options? The
future is always in flux? OK, Yoda, count this Jedi in.
Frequently new employees to online work ask “how much time can I
set aside, reasonably, for professional development?” After all, this is
remote work and no one is checking a time clock. But I know that the
heart of the question is “Am I going to get in trouble for investing in
myself?” Wholeheartedly, the answer is no.
I personally subscribe, and I like my employees too, to a 90/10
model of professional development time. That means that I want 90% of
time dedicated to what needs to be done today, now, and urgently. But I
want 10% of time to be set aside and kept reserved to invest in the
future. In my opinion, if you do not invest in the future, you don’t
know what it will be when it gets here. (Remember, strategic planning is
planning for change.)
Investing in the future could look like a myriad of things but in remote work it could be:
- Keeping up to date with your favorite professional blogs, podcasts, or journals.
- Brushing up that presentation that you don’t have a date for yet, but you know you want to improve the slide deck.
- Working with a teammate in helping them with something that you are good at (because by teaching, you refine your own craft).
- Attending remote meetings or conferences.
- Reading professional books. Yeah, books. Remember those pedantic
things? They are quite forgiving and a great deal of them are waiting on
you. P.S. the local library reminds you the books are free, too.
10% of a 40 hour workweek is 4 hours each week. 4 hours is a whole
morning or afternoon’s worth of work. Put that way, many of my employees
found the idea refreshing and were a little stunned to be free to spend
that much time. Spend 1/2 of a day a week on making a better version of
yourself–it’s OK. I’ve got your back.
If setting aside 4 hours seems untenable (and yes, I struggle to
set aside that much myself), how about 1 hour a day Monday – Thursday as
your last hour of the workday when your productivity (#when
#DanielPink) might be at its lowest anyway? Wouldn’t it be easier to
listen to a podcast than do those spreadsheet calculations? Believe me,
the spreadsheet can wait until your brain is buzzing tomorrow. Give
yourself the moment to think creatively and together we’ll solve MANY
more problems than that spreadsheet was ever going to.
The most important thing any employee will want to know with this
question is that their manager supports their own development
completely.
It takes courage to support your employees and let them invest in activities that might lead them away from their current job.
The trick here is that everyone seeks to learn; everyone seeks to
become more than they currently are. If you create the support and the
pathway, you are creating the place where everyone feels that they can
explore and do better. This is a ‘rising tide raises all boats’ thing
and it represents a leadership philosophy that I invite you to join. After all, don’t you want to do better, too?
#management #leadershipphilosophy #timemanagement
#professionaldevelopment #setasidetime #time #bebetter #leader #manager
#manage #timeofday #schedule #online work #workfromhome #remotework
#remotemanagement #onlinemanager #onlinemanagement #wfh
This article originally posted on LinkedIn on April 12, 2019. It was updated with a better font on April 3, 2026.