From the Ground Up: A Day in the Life of a Successful Manager

What does a day in the life of a successful manager look like? What are the habits that make a manager great? In this post we will cover this and more.

Alright, let’s get started!

If it’s 7am, then it’s time to wake up. Start your day with 10 minutes of mindful meditation. Let this be your first action in the morning, so that you can start your day with a relaxed and focused mind. Your phone can wait, keep it away for a while longer!

Get out of bed and draw the curtains to allow the light to get in. Exposure of the eyes and skin to light triggers the release of dopamine. Dopamine is a molecule responsible for motivation and drive. So light will make you feel ready for the new day.

Put your running clothes on and go for a 30 min jog. If you can’t jog, walk. And if good weather is not on your side, stay indoors and do some stretching instead. Increasing your body temperature will help you wake up, and physical exercise does exactly that. 

7:50am, time for a quick cold shower. Skin exposure to cold water will trigger an increase in the body’s temperature – this reaction is regulated by the medial preoptic area in the brain. So again, increasing temperature will help you wake up.

Time to get ready for work. You are a manager, your team looks up to you, so make sure that your clothes are always tidy and don’t forget to clean your shoes! 

8:20am, off you go to work! If you work in a remote environment, you’re lucky! You get 40 additional minutes to enjoy your morning – remember that this is YOU time, not work time, so the work email can wait a little longer.

8:50am. You arrive at work. You have 10 minutes for chit-chat with your colleagues and for making a delicious cup of coffee. 

It’s recommended that you have your first coffee no sooner than 90 minutes after you wake up. Here’s why: caffeine blocks the effects of adenosine, an organic compound that builds up in the body during the state of wakefulness and makes you feel tired at the end of the day. 

If you have your coffee right after waking up, you block the effects of adenosine in your body and when the effect of caffeine wears off, adenosine shoots up and floods your brain receptors, telling your body that it’s time to go to sleep.

So don’t be surprised if during your 3pm meeting you lose focus and feel like taking a nap. Therefore, have your coffee as late as possible in the morning.

9am. Your work day has officially started. First thing first, check your agenda to remind yourself of what meetings you have scheduled for the day. Spend the next 30 min to an hour going through your email. Flag the messages that require a response from you, but don’t reply yet unless something massive has happened.

10:00am. Check your team’s results for the previous day. Go over the quantity, quality and attendance reports to ensure that everything’s on track.

10:15am. Back to your agenda. You now know what your day should look like, so add all the items on the agenda and color code them to indicate priority. You’ll be addressing all items based on priority.

10:20am. Team huddle time. Spend 10 to 15 minutes to go over the goals set for that day, update the team on any changes that occurred, then respond to their questions. Always keep your team informed and ready for the next challenge! 

10:30am. First meeting of the day. Make a habit of scheduling the more difficult meetings in the morning. Several studies show that our focus starts to drop after 4 hours of work, so always address the important issues before your lunch break. 

Here are some other high-focus items that you might have on your agenda: coaching low-performers, addressing customer escalations and responding to client dissatisfaction surveys, collaborating with other departments to optimize your organization’s processes, participating in cross-functional meetings and providing feed-back on how to address common issues. 

Continue with important meetings and addressing other focus-intensive issues, until 2pm. Refrain from jumping from one issue to another, instead address them one at a time. And make sure not to get interrupted by low-priority concerns during this time.

Here’s a fact: multiple studies show that there is no such thing as multitasking. The human brain doesn’t have the necessary hardwiring to successfully address multiple issues at the same time.  Some research indicates that we can’t process more than 120 bits of information per second, which is the equivalent of talking to 2 people at the same time. 

Instead, what we do is task-switching, or jumping from one task to another; but this practice is not efficient, makes you prone to error and is very taxing to your brain.

Therefore, teach your team not to interrupt you while handling important issues, instead have all non-emergency situations automatically redirected to your senior employee, aka your right hand. 

2pm. Lunch break. Usually around this time your core body temperature is at its highest, as all your internal systems will be in overdrive, therefore you might feel a bit tired. And since you’re already tired, why not take an hour to eat and rest. 

One thing to avoid is to eat lunch at your desk. Don’t do that! Even managers are human beings and need to recharge their batteries. If you can’t afford to take a break, then you have a bigger issue on your hands! Great managers always take their breaks! 

3pm. Back to work. By this time you should have addressed all the pressing issues that you had on your agenda. For the next 2 hours get involved with simpler tasks like daily check-ups on your team members, 1-2-1 coaching sessions with your high-potential employees, or prepping for the following day.  

Here’s a quick tip: cross the completed items off your list as soon as you complete them. This simple action will give you a feeling of accomplishment and will keep you going through your day.

5pm. The last hour of work should be dedicated to improving your skills. Keep in mind that leadership is a journey that never ends, so find time to expand your knowledge. Some of the things you could do is watch SLA Leadership videos on YouTube, maybe listen to a podcast or read a leadership blog. 

Bottom line, expose yourself to new information, never be content with your current level of knowledge. Learn something new every day!

Right before closing your day, update your agenda and add the items for the following day.

6pm. Say your goodbyes, switch your status to Do Not Disturb and shut down your workstation. Refrain from working overtime unless you are dealing with an emergency – and remember that emergencies occur rarely. If emergencies occur every day, or 8 hours a day are not enough for you to complete your tasks, you’re doing something wrong! 

Train your team not to reach out to you outside business hours unless something major happens. If you manage a global team that works in different time zones, ensure that you have a clear and visible escalation procedure in place: have a fellow manager, a team leader or senior employee act as the main point of contact in your absence. They should escalate any issue to you only if they don’t have the ability or the authority to handle it themselves.

6:05pm. You’ve been enjoying time outside of work for 5 minutes. Get yourself engaged in non-work related activities to properly disconnect. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so don’t expect that your team or organization will become great overnight. Take every day at a time and enjoy your progress. 

Successful managers value order and stick to a schedule. They have a very good understanding of their capabilities and limitations and never work against their human hardwiring.