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Pace Yourself and Your Boss

There are going to be dark days. There are going to be dog days. There are going to be days when you are not sure you will make it through the day or night.

Just when you think you are at the breaking point, look around. How are your teammates doing? Most important, how’s your boss doing? If the answer to those questions is “not well,” it’s time to reach down and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and them as well.

I’m not sure who told me or taught me. Maybe I figured it out for myself. No matter what the source, the ritual I have grown to believe in and have been able to rely on whenever the going gets tough is to find capacity. The capacity to do what? To push back the fatigue, to wipe away tired eyes, and to find the means to let the adrenaline kick in so that I can do the job no matter how long it takes or how tough it is.

There are going to be times of crisis when that extra dose of energy is essential. When the clock strikes one and you are only halfway there, you need to find that lift. There are energy bars and energy drinks that may help. Better yet, the inner strength that each of us has needs to be developed and tried.

At the center of such times in your professional life is someone who needs you more than you know: your boss. Some bosses cry out for help; others let out not a whimper. Does that mean, in the first case, that they definitely need a boost from you? Most likely. In the second instance, does it mean that there are telltale signs you should be looking for? Always.

Pacing yourself is one way to eliminate or alleviate a situation in which you feel you’ve lost control. The best way to do that is to start and stop things on time. If you let the events of the day pile up or run into one another, you’re bound to have a problem. It may be that either you or your boss needs prodding. Get over it; get on with it. But stay on schedule and maintain a pace that is prescribed and programmed. There needs to be someone to keep the clock and keep things moving on time.

I once knew a senior defense official who was a workaholic. Actually, there are many of them wearing the uniform of our nation. This one, however, was a fanatic. He insisted that the first briefing of the day be given to him at 5:30 a.m., or 0-dark-30, which in Pentagonese means “very darn early!” Nothing ever ended on time. Briefers were stacked up in the outer office and eventually in the hallway. Those who had to brief this admiral went to bed in fear, woke up in fear, and walked the briefing plank in fear. This had no semblance of order or discipline. And shame on any assistant who tried to restore normality.

I was fortunate never to have worked for such a demanding and undisciplined sort. However, I’ve had ample opportunity to work for people who could cram more into a day than the next three people.

While on the chairman’s staff, I could count on being part of a delegation that would attend a quarterly NATO meeting in Brussels, Belgium. The good news was that there were mussels to be had at the end of the workday. The bad news was the travel aspect of the trip. Often, we would leave on a Sunday afternoon just in time to miss a good ball game so that we would arrive at NATO headquarters the next morning just in time to go to the first meeting. On the return leg that Thursday, we would land at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland around 7 a.m., just in time to be taken by helicopter to the Pentagon to start the workday.

Eventually, we persuaded the chairman to arrive in Brussels early enough Monday morning to take a two- to three-hour nap. He agreed to the new pace. It worked well for him, and the staff was delighted with the new sequence, which kept us fresh throughout the day.

In the next stage of life with General Powell—private life—the pace did not lessen. In fact, we retired on a Thursday, and on Friday I found myself setting up our private offices with furniture, fax, phone, and computer. I did take the weekend off, but we started our new life early Monday morning with the beginning stages of writing his book.

We set a pace that was reasonable and achievable. From October 1993 until Fourth of July weekend 1995, we picked away at assembling the words and the wisdom encompassed in what would become his bestselling autobiography.

Then came the editing of the book by a talented writer and editor who scoured the manuscript for detail and comprehension. This was followed by the publishing of the book by Random House.

Come that September, the pace changed. We embarked on what I affectionately called the mother of all book tours. He and I were off and running on a five-week marathon doing book signings and press interviews. We knew that the road ahead would be trying, so we developed a plan. Part of that plan was taking advantage of the offer by the chairman of the banking company MBNA to lend us a corporate jet. It sure beat commercial air travel and probably saved our hides.

We also agreed that between the departure each Monday morning and the return each Friday evening we needed a healthy routine, a nutritional diet, no alcohol, and lots of sleep. It worked. The only things worn out at the end of each week were the suits we took with us.

Not everyone has such control over his or her destiny. Those who do need to maintain a disciplined schedule and pace for themselves and the boss. Those who don’t need to get a grip.

If you are in that category, this may start with a conversation you may want to have with the boss. Ask the question out loud: How can we do a better job of being in control of where we are going and how we are going to get there? The right answer can benefit you both.