Time. It’s ubiquitous – it’s everywhere – we swim around in it like the proverbial fish oblivious to the water it swims through and breathes.
And that ubiquitousness, that everywhereness, that swimming-in-it-ness, means we usually don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it.
Even as we bemoan the lack of time, and wish we had more, and try to “manage” it better.
As if, right?
We can’t make more of it.
We can’t “manage” it, though we can manage ourselves in relation to it: how we use it and what we do with it.
We can’t trade it for more time or different time.
And when it’s gone, it’s gone.
Fungible: one part or quantity can be replaced by another part or quantity; interchangeable.
Non-fungible: something unique that can’t be exchanged for any equivalent.
You could argue that you’re exchanging time for money at work. But money – despite the old saying – isn’t the same as time, and time isn’t the same as money. You can’t give your child, your partner, or your friend $5 and have it feel equivalent to time with them.
Why am I making a fuss about this? How is it relevant to leadership – and to strategic thinking, which is how I’ve tagged this article?
Because it’s time (!) we changed how we think about time.
It’s the ultimate NFT – non-fungible token.
I’m writing and posting this on Monday. If you get it via my email newsletter, you’ll see it on Wednesday. In a few days it will be Friday, and then the weekend, and then … another week is gone.
A week you’ll never get back. A week in which you may, or may not, have grown your leadership skills, advanced the project your team is working on, attended to the company’s strategic priority, and/or cared for each other in a way that makes everyone in your company, community, and family better.
Maybe it took you five minutes to read this article. That’s five minutes you’ll never get back.
We each have an unknown amount of time. What are you doing with yours?
Strategy and prioritization and care – three things that may or may not seem to go together, but which are all essential for success – are the responsibility of leadership. How your leaders spend their time influences how their teams spend theirs.
Leadership matters and leadership development is the only sure way to know your leaders are paying attention to what’s most important.
Shall we take some of our precious non-fungible time to talk about it? Schedule here!