Take Control of What Shapes You

Most leaders don’t get derailed by a single, dramatic mistake. They get shaped—quietly—by the flow of their days: meetings that multiply, priorities that stretch thin, and habits that happen by default instead of by design. The good news? You can take the wheel back.

As I often tell clients: design your day, or your day will design you.

“Leadership is a daily design problem—if you don’t design your day, someone else will.”

- Donald Fleming, founder of M360 Leader

What’s really shaping you right now

Let’s name a few forces that push leaders off course:

• Meeting creep. Executives now spend nearly 23 hours a week in meetings—more than double the 1960s—before counting unscheduled huddles. (hbr.org+1)
• The “infinite workday.” Late-night meetings are rising; 30% now span multiple time zones, and after-hours collaboration keeps climbing. (Microsoft+2)
• Disengagement drag. Only 21% of global employees are engaged, and in the U.S. engagement slid to 31% in 2024—the lowest in a decade—directly affecting performance. (Gallup.com+1)

This is not a moral failure. It’s a system issue. And systems can be redesigned.

A human story: when the calendar owns you

Elena, VP Operations in a logistics firm (real profile, name changed), came to us tired and honest: “I’m always on a call. I can’t find time to think.” Together with Pascal Dubois, executive coach and new partner at M360 Leader, we reframed her week around three questions:

• What creates value only you can create?
• What steals energy with minimal return?
• What habits will make tomorrow easier than today?

We then used M360meet—our real-time Meeting Cost Calculator—to put a price tag on recurring sessions. In week one, we discovered a single weekly update was burning more than $4,000 per month. (This aligns with independent findings: one firm’s weekly mid-manager meeting cost $15M per year. The math matters.) (hbr.org)

Elena cut two meetings, merged three, and converted one into an asynchronous check-in. She re-allocated those hours to customer quality reviews and a weekly “thinking block.” In 60 days, complaint tickets dropped 18% and on-time shipments rose 7%. No heroics—just design.

The design, not just the drive

High performers often try to “push harder.” But research shows sustainable change comes from habits and friction design, not willpower alone. It takes, on average, 66 days to make a new behavior automatic; the key is making the right action easy and the wrong action harder. (Wiley Online Library+1)

That’s precisely why we built the M360 ecosystem:

• Leadership, Productivity & Results (LPR) Program — a practical, coach-led journey that anchors skills in daily behaviors, not theory.
• M360+ app — with the new Habit Tracker, so micro-commitments stick after the workshop glow fades. (Think: 10 minutes of priority planning, daily.)
• M360meet (live calculator) — turns every meeting into a conscious investment, making smart reductions obvious and defensible.

As Microsoft’s Work Trend Index shows, after-hours collaboration is growing—leaders need mechanisms that protect focus, not just good intentions. (Microsoft)

From default to design: a simple before/after

Make your calendar tell the truth

A calendar is not a wish list—it’s your culture in pixels.

Donald Fleming asks leaders to run two quick audits:

• Money lens: What does each recurring meeting cost? (Live on M360meet.) Leaders consistently discover five-figure monthly savings from small schedule changes—a pattern researchers and strategists have flagged for years. (hbr.org)
• Energy lens: Which meetings return energy (clarity, momentum)? Which drain it? Microsoft’s latest research shows the load is shifting into nights and weekends—so your energy ledger matters as much as your P&L. (Microsoft+1)

A 30-day reset you can start today

• Week 1 — See it. • Export your next 30 days of meetings. • Use M360meet to estimate the monthly cost of your top 10 recurring sessions. Cancel one, halve two. Document the savings. (hbr.org)
• Week 2 — Shape it. • Install one daily keystone habit in M360+: 10-minute Priority Plan before email. • Schedule two 90-minute focus blocks. Protect them like a board meeting. (66 days to automaticity—start the clock.) (Wiley Online Library)
• Week 3 — Coach it. • Adopt the LPR “10-10-10” rhythm: 10 minutes to clarify outcomes, 10 minutes to debrief, 10 minutes to plan the next step. • Replace one status meeting with a short, written update plus a 15-minute decision huddle.
• Week 4 — Keep it real. • Ask your team two questions: “What should we stop doing?” and “Where do you need me more?” • Track one impact metric (cycle time, NPS, quality rate) and one human metric (engagement pulse). Globally, disengagement is the silent cost center; seeing it is step one. (Gallup.com)

Why this works

• You’re reducing waste at the source. Meeting time is one of the largest, least-managed costs in leadership. Making it visible is half the battle. (hbr.org+1)
• You’re building behavior, not just knowledge. A tiny, daily habit beats a quarterly promise. The science supports a gradual, consistent cadence. (Wiley Online Library)
• You’re protecting human attention. After-hours load and time-zone sprawl are real; designing boundaries is now a leadership skill. (Microsoft)
• You’re addressing engagement with action. Teams follow what you schedule. When your calendar aligns to purpose, engagement follows. (Gallup.com)

“Clarity is an act of care. When you clarify the next step, you reduce fear and return people to performance.” That’s not soft; it’s operational.

- Pascal Dubois

A quick visual to keep on your desk

Repeat for 66 days. Let the design do the heavy lifting. (Wiley Online Library)

Final word

You don’t need a better personality to lead better. You need a better design for your day—one that protects attention, converts meetings into decisions, and makes the right habits easier than the wrong ones.

The M360 ecosystem—the LPR Program, M360+ with the new Habit Tracker, and M360meet—exists to help you do exactly that, consistently and humanly.

If you liked this article, please like it and share it on your social networks. And if you wish, book a meeting with our team using the link below.

Quiz: Are you Designing Your Day, or is it Designing You?