Leadership Energy Audit

Energy Audit

Where your time goes determines whether you lead or just manage. See your patterns clearly — then change them deliberately.

01 Where does your week actually go?

Reflect your honest average week — not the ideal one.

Firefighting
Reactive crises and urgent problems that couldn't wait
18 hrs

Administration
Meetings, email, reports, scheduling, compliance
12 hrs

Strategy
Planning, process improvement, vision, systemic thinking
10 hrs

People Development
Coaching, feedback, one-on-ones, mentoring, recognition
5 hrs
Live picture
Reactive 67%
Proactive 33%
Total weekly hours 45 hrs That's a lot — are you sure?
02 Your energy picture

Updates live as you adjust your inputs above.

Reactive time
67%
Where high-performing leaders aim: Less than 40%
Proactive time
33%
Where high-performing leaders aim: More than 60%
Time allocation chart
45
hrs/week
Firefighting40%
Admin27%
Strategy22%
People dev11%
Reactive (firefighting + admin) 67%
Covey's Quadrant II framework: most managers observe themselves operating at 65–70% reactive. The goal is to invert this over time.
Proactive (strategy + people dev) 33%
Mintzberg's observations: managerial work is dominated by fragmentation and meetings — making deliberate proactive time rare without structural protection.
03 How well are you spending that time?

Hours without quality are just presence. Rate each category on the value it's actually producing.

1 = little to no value 3 = some value 5 = high value
Firefighting quality
1
2
3
4
5
Are you solving root causes or the same fires?
Admin quality
1
2
3
4
5
Are your meetings and reports moving anything forward?
Strategy quality
1
2
3
4
5
Is your strategic thinking changing how the team operates?
People dev quality
1
2
3
4
5
Are people actually growing — or just checking in?
04 Your pattern

Energy pattern
The Firefighter
High reactive
Monday action
05 Discuss with a partner

Take a few minutes to reflect with someone next to you.

1
Where is your time going that your team doesn't actually need you for — and what would you have to trust to let it go?
2
If you asked your team what your job is, what would they say — and would they be right?

Share your results anonymously to contribute to the group picture.