In the middle of another week of back-to-back meetings and realized I barely had time to do my actual job. As a manager, I’m constantly in reactive mode. I’m proud to show up for my people, but I’ve also let three professional development goals slip this quarter. I want to grow, but it feels like there’s no time left for me. How do you all carve out space for your own development while juggling everything else?

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It’s easy to deprioritize your own growth when your team needs you, but sustainable leadership means making space for both. I’ve started blocking two hours a week on my calendar for development—and defending that time like I would any other high-priority meeting. Small steps, but they add up.

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Oh! I appreciate you sharing this. Gives us permission.

The old expression is I work myself out of my job. You can’t always do it “this quarter”, but over time the goal is to develop the people in your team so that you can delegate parts of your job to people in your team.

Maybe you do a task with them so that the next time they can do it for you before submitting it.

And then over time their capabilities improve, and you get more time to do more things for your boss, as well as more time to do things for you.

Plus your people feel they’ve developed and get an increased network or increased visibility. And you’ll get a reputation for being a great manager who empowers and enables their team!

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