# Reclaiming Executive Time in Complex Markets

**Podcast:** LEITWOLF Podcast - Leadership, Führung & Management
**Published:** 2026-10-15

## Transcript

Nowadays, in many cases, time is the scarcer resource.
9 out of 10 leaders don't delegate enough.
Reflect and kill 5.
Kill 5 hours of work next week.
Hello and welcome to today's Lightwolf Podcast Episode.
My name is Stefan.
I'm your podcast host to Lightwolf, your podcast for leading with impact.
Reflect and Kill 5.
How to get 5 hours back next week.
I don't know how you perceive the world, the business world and the world of work these days.
What many of our clients perceive and what I perceive as well is ever increasing complexity.
Meaning more things to understand before making a good decision.
More things interconnected with each other.
that we need to understand also in the way they influence each other before you can make a good decision.
More and more change happening simultaneously.
In 2015, on average, an employee in the business world perceived two transformations per year.
In 2025, so just 10 years later, they didn't perceive two, but 10 parallel transformations throughout one business year.
The source here is McKinsey, and I think it's plausible.
Das ist ein paar Jahre.
Export business to China, maybe you export business to the United States.
Then of course you are influenced by all of these geopolitical factors and it influences your profitability, your revenues, your entire business line.
So this is putting more pressure and stress on many people.
More and more uncertain factors you have to deal with as a leader.
Creating the feeling that you have less and less time.
which is a very understandable feeling.
Although the fact is, every day has 24 hours.
And you can and must decide how you spend your time and how you will not spend your time.
And in order to face this challenge, I have brought a few hot-of-the-press experiences from a wonderful young...
A woman doing a great job in one of our clients.
And three thoughts on top for you to consider to find better solutions, how to invest your time smartly in today's volatile times.
First, mindset.
Your time belongs to you and to no one else.
Take full responsibility how you spend your time, how you invest your time.
Your time belongs to you.
und zu niemanden.
Even wenn manchmal in der heat der Fire, in der heat der Daily Business Pressure, vielleicht vielleicht vielleicht auch, oh shit, ich habe mich verloren, ich habe zu tun, und ich habe zu tun.
Nein, du hast.
Du wählst was du willst, rather als fühlst du deinem ganzen Tag getestet ab, bei etwas du musst, weil andere wollen.
So, das ist der erste Tipp.
Wirklich, was Zeit ist.
Zeit ist die größte Ressource.
Zeit ist die einzige non-renewable Ressource.
Wenn du Geld investieren und du sinken in Innovationen, dann passiert das.
Wenn du von der Fähler, wenn du von der Lehre, wenn du von der Lehre gemacht hast, in der Sinkingen, du kannst du mit einem Geld finden, How to cure this, how to reinvest and how to return the money tenfold.
So money you invest and lose, you can gain back.
However, time, once you've invested it, it's gone for good.
When I was a young manager, joining a marketing company, an outstanding company, and I joined my first ever budget meeting for a very well-known baby care brand all around the world.
Wir spenden die ganze Zeit preparing und discussing decisions on how to invest the resources.
A couple of times people talked about money.
Not a single time did people talk about time.
Because at that time, three decades ago, money was the scarcer resource compared to time.
Nowadays, the balance in scarcity of resources between money and time is tilting and shifting.
Nowadays, in many cases, Time is the scarce resource.
How else can you explain that 30 years ago, probably every single IPO happened with companies that were already making money.
They were profitable already before they went to the stock exchange.
Nowadays, probably 80% of the IPOs happen when companies are still red.
They didn't even break through.
They don't even break even yet.
They lose money.
Like SpaceX lost 5 billion in the quarter before they went IPO.
But the hope and the expectation is so high that it works, right?
So the IPO was done despite a big loss in the quarter before.
And again, I think one of the underlying factors of this is that time has become the scarcer resource.
So your time belongs to you.
Take full responsibility for how you invest it and how you don't invest your time.
Second, value your time.
It's precious.
It deserves your care.
It deserves your awareness, including saying no.
And here comes the example hot off the press from just yesterday.
Since a couple of years, we are supporting a company in the hair care industry, also on strategy.
Und die Busses wir jetzt haben, hat vielleicht ein 2% profit margin, bevor wir starten die Strategie-Work.
Nicht nur die Strategie-Work, aber wahrscheinlich es hilft, als wir uns als unser Client ist überzeugt, dass es hilft.
Two Jahre später, das Margin-Quintuple war zu mehr als 10%.
Inzwischen...
Our partner, one of our partners, one of the members of the business team went on maternity leave, returned full time, is back in charge and told us in the kind of catch up call yesterday, guys, I'm not even sure I can share this, but I'm working two hours less now every day and I'm delivering the same positive results and I received the same positive feedback as before with two hours less.
Every single day.
And of course that made us curious.
We wanted to understand how do you do this?
And the response was threefold.
First, attend fewer meetings.
She explained that before her baby break, she attended almost every meeting that she was invited to where a topic was on the agenda that was related to the business.
Now, having returned, she is declining some of those meetings.
Even though they are related to her business, even though it might be interesting for her to attend, even though others might want her to attend.
But despite this, she assesses the value to be created, related to the cost of her time, and she says no, much more than before her break.
So you don't have to attend every meeting you're invited to.
And the idea is attend fewer meetings.
Second, she eliminated...
Re-loops and re-loops of well-intended controls of other functions.
Her own team members came to her and said, thank you, and now I'm going to go back to function B and C to just check a second and third time whether they understand, whether they have all they need to do their contribution.
And she said, no, you don't.
Stop that.
We have had our meetings.
We have taken clear decisions.
We have given clear responsibility for results and quality and timings to others, to other functions.
They didn't ask any questions, so they are all fully equipped with what they need.
So you do not go and check anything without being asked.
Save that time.
Invest that time into other more value-adding work.
So much more consistent on keeping accountability where it is and then investing time into other things.
And the third thing she does now more frequently is using AI.
Before the break, she still did quite a number of presentations herself, putting it together, formatting, editing, analyzing.
Now she uses the same kind of information, charges it into an AI and back she receives.
A formatted, analysed, proper and straight full deck presentation as nowadays is the norm.
And again, of course, that saves time.
Probably half an hour or an hour every single day.
So two hours a day.
Well done.
Fewer meetings.
Keep responsibility where it belongs.
And use AI to really save your time.
And three is an own new habit of mine.
Months ago, I started.
Something that is now a routine.
I call it reflect and kill five.
Kill five hours of work next week.
It happens every Friday morning at 7 o'clock.
I am an early bird, so I have an early biorhythm.
I typically go to bed between 10 and 10.30pm at night.
I typically wake up at 5.45, 6.00 in the morning.
And on Friday morning, the first thing I do every Friday.
is Reflect and Kill 5.
What does that mean?
First, I reflect, how was last week?
How productive was I last week?
What did I do well as a leader?
How can I do more of it?
What did I not do well this week as a leader?
How will I fix it?
How will I improve it?
And looking at next week, how will I take 5 hours of work that are currently in my diary, out of my diary?
So, I look at the week.
And I ask myself, where can I delegate more?
9 out of 10 leaders don't delegate enough.
They could and they should delegate more than they do.
So the first thing I consider is who in my team, 18 people in 7 different countries, all great people, who could take some of the work out of my diary that's currently planned to be done by myself?
Delegate.
Second, diminish.
I invest too much time into producing a level of quality that is more than needed.
Diminish the quality to good enough, not more than good enough.
And again, that can shave off half an hour here, it can shave off an hour there, and it helps me save time.
Diminish to the quality that is good enough.
Delay.
I then delay some work by an hour or by a day or by a week or maybe even by a month without Jaudizing our annual results or any client satisfaction.
Delay work.
And finally, deactivate, disactivate.
Kill work.
Yeah, maybe a month ago, maybe a week ago, that project number three was still important enough to be on our project list.
But now having learned what we've learned this week, and we are...
Ich bin aufbordet, neue Kunden.
Wir gewinnen neue Projekte.
Ich bin aufbordet, neue Teammitglieder in der Team.
Wir haben einfach gewonnen und gewonnen jemanden in der Team, der led 11 Länder in Asia ist, der currently in Malaysia und Kuala Lumpur ist.
Wir strengthenen unsere Asia-Kompetenz.
Er kommt in und ich spende Zeit da, rather als in ein kleines administratives actes, das nicht wirklich använder viel value zu unserer Firma.
So, it works.
And last week I managed to save a lot of time by turning a business trip that was planned by car, five hours there and five hours back, to a business trip executed by train.
It took me an hour more every way, but I was able to sit down and properly do some high quality work rather than just doing phone calls that were of lower importance than this high quality work.
Working on the system, working for my clients, working for people to join our team.
So this is the idea.
And the mechanism I use is, where next week can I free up time?
Where next week can I delegate, diminish, delay or destroy?
And since six months, every Friday morning, I kill at least five hours.
If you are interested to see this hack, the tools to see 40 powerful, simple, practical leadership tools that were collected by my team and myself over our careers and that help you become a more effective leader, a more impactful leader, save costs, save time and drive your business, then have a look at Lightwolf Academy.
It's a one-year self-steered program where you see six different courses.
from leading people to leading yourself to leading your boss all the way to leading strategically.
Short compact learning videos, our best tools, tasks, learning controls and six times a year, one hour of coaching with me, virtually, synchron, live with all members of Lightwolf Academy where you bombard me with your toughest questions.
If that sounds interesting, If you, like so many others, want to become a stronger leader, then have a look in the show notes and join us at Lightwolf Academy.
Looking forward to welcoming you.
So let's summarize.
In summary, in net, three things you can do.
One, attitude.
Your time belongs to you and to no one else.
Take full responsibility for how you invest it.
Two, Value your time, including by saying no.
And three, reflect and kill five hours of work next week.
If you do like this podcast, then be so kind, take your smartphone now and tick the star rating and leave a one sentence reference in your podcast streaming app.
It helps us learn from your preference.
It helps us learn.
how we can further improve this podcast, and it helps us increase our visibility.
Thank you so much for dialing in today.
I hope you've enjoyed it.
I wish you a fantastic week, and I can't wait to welcome you again here in the Lightwolf Podcast.
Thank you and take care.