The Hidden 10

A few years ago I sat down with a senior operations executive I had been coaching, and we did something unglamorous: we walked through her previous week, hour by hour.

I asked her which hours had been her best. She named three highlights — a heart-to-heart conversation in the parking lot at the end of a long Monday, a 1:1 that turned into a real career conversation on Tuesday, and a candid exchange after a program review meeting. Two of the three weren't planned meetings. In fact, they were happenstance — or were they?

Then we went looking for the rest of the week. After each block I asked a different question: was this work that only you could have done? A supplier call she had been running for years. A project review she was "successful" in keeping even after a promotion to a new job. A monthly report she was sure nobody ever truly read — written faithfully every month for the past two years, because it had once mattered.

Eleven and a half hours. Almost a day and a half, gone to work that someone — or something — else could carry, if it needed doing at all.

I have run a version of that audit with many leaders since, and the number is remarkably consistent: ten hours, give or take two. I call them the Hidden 10, and the most important thing I can tell you about them is this:

They are not your worst hours. They are your most valuable ones — and the best use of them is rarely a planned meeting or task.

Because the hours you reclaim from the supplier call don't become more supplier calls. They become strategy. People. The hallway conversation. The unstructured thinking that lets you see around the corner. The ten hours hiding in your week are the strategic hours your role demands and your calendar refuses to surrender.

Where are yours hiding? If you want a fast read, the Focus Snapshot on this site takes five minutes — and it will tell us both where to look first.