It doesn’t happen often but it does happen. The team has the experience, skill and confidence to get on with it without your constant attention. It’s like finding yourself the owner of a self drive car or being the manager of Manchester City. Of course you can’t totally relax there is always the unexpected!
Having said that you now have time and energy for all the things you always said were important but got squeezed out by the day to day stuff. So what is the important stuff you now have the opportunity to do? Is it talent development? You can’t keep this team together for ever .The very fact that they are experienced, competent and getting on with it with minimal intervention from you means they will soon move on and up. Should you be doing more to encourage and support young talent? Should you get more involved in scouting for talent? Perhaps attending more conferences, finding out who is involved in innovation and who is developing a reputation as one for the future.
Should you be using the time to get a better understanding of what’s happening on the front line, so much of what is feed to you is filtered. Get out and about so employees can put a face to the name. Set up your own focus group. Spend some time shadowing employees at the sharp end of the business.
Should you be more involved in recruitment after all getting the right people in the first place is half the battle in getting the culture right. Rather than just being involved in recruiting to posts that report directly to you why not a cross section of posts at different levels within the organisation? An opportunity to experience the HR procedures, the frustrations managers complain of and the effectiveness of Equality Diversity and Inclusion initiatives.
May be this is the time to be networking, getting involved in working parties, learning how others are meeting the challenges, finding out more about future trends. May be accept some of those invitations to speak at conferences, give interviews to professional press or write articles.
Or use the release of time and energy to do something radical like setting up a scheme to provide employment for people coming out of prison.
Are there other things you as a senior manager have identified as important but you just haven’t found the time to do? This window of opportunity will only be open for a short while it would be a shame to miss it!
