9 CEOs tell us how they manage time

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.

Last week, Modern CEO explored the role of the chief executive officer, and we invited CEOs to let us know how they spend their time. Across industries spanning retail, technology, healthcare, and professional services—and among leaders at private firms and large-cap public companies—our CEO respondents’ schedules reflect a high prioritization of their direct reports, their senior leaders, and their customers.

Nine CEOs offered us a self-reported glimpse into their calendars. (A more rigorous approach, employed by Nitin Nohria and Michael Porter of Harvard Business School for their groundbreaking study on CEO time published in 2018, had executive assistants code their bosses’ time in 15-minute increments, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.) We gathered responses from Constantine Alexandrakis of Russell Reynolds Associates (RRA); Kelly Cook of David’s Bridal; Mary Ellen Coyne of J.Jill; Vimal Kapur of Honeywell Technologies; Raj Mehra of Sage; Brieane Olson of Pacsun; Tyler Perry of Mission North; René Saúl of Kapital; and Job van der Voort of Remote. Here’s what we learned:

Leaders get lots of love

Across almost all the respondents, direct reports and senior leadership ranked No. 1 or No. 2 for CEO attention. Brieane Olson of Pacsun, the youth-oriented apparel retailer, says that about 30% of her time—her biggest bucket—is spent with leadership in one-on-one sessions, weekly meetings, or strategic discussions. Tyler Perry of the consultancy Mission North says she spends about 25% of her time coaching direct reports and in leadership meetings. (She says she devotes another 25% with “new business, networking, and thought leadership.”) Kelly Cook of David’s Bridal, the special-occasion dress retailer, says she spends about 30% of her time with her direct reports and executive team, “mostly [in] 15- and 30-minute meetings, stacked back-to-back like a bridal party in a group photo.”

The outlier here is René Saúl, Kapital CEO and cofounder, who says 50% of his time goes to “engaging direct reports and their teams across every level and division of the business,” describing his approach as “very hands-on.”

Customers are another top priority

Many of our CEO respondents said they prioritize time with customers—and sometimes they combine face time with employees and clients. Vimal Kapur, CEO of the automation company Honeywell Technologies, says he spends about 40% of his time with customers and partners. “This is the biggest portion of my time, and that’s by design,” he says. “It includes time in the field with our sales teams, because I usually see customers with them. It keeps me honest about the business. It’s also where I test our ideas before we make big decisions on products or acquisitions.”

Raj Mehra, CEO of Sage, a tech platform for senior-living communities and caregivers, says he spends about 40% of his time with customers—the same amount of time he spends with his team. “A company built to support caregivers should be a place where its own people feel seen and valued, so I try to show it,” he says. “I bring a notebook to meetings instead of my laptop, so people have my full attention.”

Time with customers and external stakeholders also topped the list of Constantine Alexandrakis of RRA, at approximately 30%. That’s in sharp contrast to Nohria and Porter’s research showing that CEOs spend about 3% of their time with customers, a finding that the subjects found “dismaying.”

Making time for exploration and reflection

Most of our CEO respondents reported earmarking 5% to 15% of their time for reading, reflection, or unstructured thinking. Still, the idea of “exploration” is in the eye of the beholder. Job van der Voort, CEO at the global payroll and contractor management platform Remote, says he spends roughly 50% or more of his time building and exploring. “Some weeks I spend almost all my time with customers, and some weeks it’s almost all with the team. But on average, most of my time goes to building things. I’d call it exploration, but really it’s me and Claude making stuff.”

Mary Ellen Coyne, CEO and president of J.Jill, says she spends 15% of her time on reflection and exploration, but it isn’t just solo time; she says she brings her executive team together outside of regular meetings “to challenge our thinking, explore new ideas, and consider what’s next for the business.”

Mission North’s Perry estimates that she spends 15% of her time on reflection, but caveats: “Most of my reflection doesn’t happen on a calendar. It comes in fits and spurts all week, and not just during working hours,” she says. “Some of my best thinking happens on the sidelines of my son’s lacrosse games, in the car on the way to a soccer game, or on the train into the city in the morning.”

AI in the hands of the CEO

Many CEOs say artificial intelligence helps them do their jobs, but it hasn’t fundamentally changed the work that needs to get done. “AI has been incredibly valuable in helping synthesize information, analyze business performance, prepare for meetings, and better understand insights from across the organization,” says Pacsun’s Olson. Cook, of David’s Bridal, says AI has helped reduce the time between analysis and decision.

RRA’s Alexandrakis says he believes AI can be a powerful tool for helping leaders understand the very subject of this newsletter: where CEOs are really spending their time. “Where AI may become more useful is in helping CEOs and their teams think about how time should be allocated,” he says. “The question is not simply how to fit more meetings into the day, but whether the calendar reflects the work only the CEO can do, the conversations that require their judgment, and the time needed to think about what comes next.”

CEOs, how is AI helping you manage your time? Send your responses to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com, and we’ll highlight some of the best examples in a future newsletter.

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