Five Daily Edges of Five Top CEOs

Jeevan Sivasubramaniam Posted by Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, Managing Director, Editorial, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.



In his latest book, David Horsager outlines thirty-five simple ways to gain the daily edge. The tactics focus on little things that executives can do every day that collectively allow leaders to save huge amounts of time, which they can then use for their most important work: interaction with those they lead.

The most successful CEOs in the world often have their own activities that give them the daily edge, and here are just five of them and what they do each day that takes just a little time but ends up paying huge dividends:

1. Richard Branson: The founder and chief spokesman for the Virgin Group (with 200 affiliated companies) is one of the most visible leaders in the world when it comes to interacting with his employees and customers. Tim Ferris once interviewed Branson and asked him how he manages to stay so productive. "Work out," the mogul stated, and he was serious. Exercising regularly gave him more energy and stamina, which then resulted in an additional four hours a day of work time.

2. Arianna Huffington: The publishing legend and founder of HuffPo believes in sleep as something that gives her the daily edge. Huffington recognized that sleep and productivity were not equal in the sense that an hour of sleep equals an hour of productivity. In fact, just an extra hour or two of sleep can mean five-six more hours of productivity--not at all a bad investment.

3. Penn Jillette: The entertainer and magician who has traveled the globe found that a lot of time was wasted when he went through various contracts for his services and performances. Trying to decipher the fine print and legalese led to just more paperwork and time wasted in debates over things that mattered little. Jillette now claims he doesn't read contracts and instead prefers to have phone calls to set up agreements which take up just a fraction of the time it took to examine contracts. "If I can't make the deal in a phone call, and have them understand it, then it's not a worthwhile deal," he has stated. He also believes the personal connection adds a measure of accountability not found any other way.

4. Carol Smith: The CRO at Harper's Bazaar has a very unorthodox productivity edge hack: working on Sundays. Smith goes into the office on Sunday mornings to catch up on emails and attend to other matters. The fact that no one is around and the lack of email traffic allows her to complete in just a few hours what would take her an entire day or more if she waited until Monday morning when the chaos that accumulated over the weekend spills into the office.

5. Gary McCullough: The CEO of Career Education Corp. and former U.S. Army captain gives people exactly half the time they ask for. In a 2009 interview with the New York Times, McCullough stated that he believes most people ask for way more time than they actually need and so he told his assistant to always ask people making appointments just how much time they needed, and then schedule them for half of that. It forced people to be clearer and more concise, allowing McCullough to be able to do much more during the work day.