Just yesterday I was talking with a client—let’s call her Nina, a Senior Director of Product Strategy.

She tells me: “My friend made me do a time audit.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Oh? The ol’ ‘write down everything you do for a week’ trick?”
She laughs. “Yeah. She did it two weeks ago after our last session and was raving about how much time she was wasting. Said it changed everything.”

So of course Nina had to do it too.

She dutifully wrote it all down. Every meeting. Every Slack thread. Every little fire drill.

And sure enough—her spreadsheet was a work of art.
Color-coded. Quadrants galore. Urgent vs. Important like a damn Eisenhower disciple.
She found out she was chasing around urgent but kind of stupid stuff all week.

“Great,” I told her. “That’s some good awareness. We’ve been talking about this for a bit. Now you’ve got even more data.”
Then I asked the real question: “So what do you want to do with it?”

Silence.

She paused, thinking.

I actually love when that happens.

That’s the moment you know you’ve left the easy answers behind and you’re finally digging into what really matters.

Because that’s the dirty little secret of the time audit.
It feels productive. It looks smart.
But it’s just another colorful spreadsheet unless you know what comes next.

You want to show off how busy you are? Sure—document the hell out of it.
Want to actually lead?
You have to figure out why you’re in those meetings in the first place.
And decide what only you should own.

This is the real problem.

We love data. Oh man, do we love data.
We build entire kaleidoscopes of dashboards.
Metrics layered on metrics, colors that would make a toddler’s toy jealous.

But here’s the thing:
Dashboards don’t fix anything.

They just tell you what’s happening—not what to do about it.
They’re diagnostic, not prescriptive.
(And half the time, they’re so busy being “insightful” that no one even knows what they’re supposed to do next.)

Look, we’ll save my whole rant about scoreboards vs. dashboards for another day.

But here’s the short version:
Data is great for spotting a problem.
But it doesn’t solve the problem.

Knowing your calendar is a mess doesn’t make it less of a mess.
Admitting you’re buried in approvals doesn’t stop people from asking.

That’s why I always push for the same thing:
If you see the problem, run the experiment to change it.

You don’t fix it by admiring the data.
You fix it by testing new behaviors.
By clarifying roles.
By redefining what only you should own.

Because dashboards won’t lead your team.
You will.

So if you’re ready to actually experiment with this, here’s your test for the week:

✅ Try This #1:
Write down your hypothesis for the week: “If I stop handing out answers and ask the right questions, my team will share the solutions they already have—and over time, they’ll rely on me less for approvals.”

✅ Try This #2:
Commit for the whole week: No answers, only questions (unless it’s mission-critical). When someone asks you what to do, try: “I bet you’ve been thinking about this. Catch me up—what do you think we should do?”

✅ Try This #3:
At the end of the week, reflect. Did they have the answers? Did their confidence grow? Did you catch yourself jumping in too fast? That’s your real coaching data—and your next experiment.

👉 Bottom line:

You don’t fix these patterns with colorful dashboards or another time management app.

You fix them by changing how you lead.

By testing, adjusting, and committing to the messy work of giving ownership away—so your team actually grows.

Because at the end of the day, leadership isn’t about having all the answers.

It’s about building a team that doesn’t need you to.

Ready to make that shift?

➡️ Let’s talk about a Leadership Clarity Call and make it real for you.