The leaders role in managing information overload

Jonathan Spira is one of the leading authorities on the subject of Information Overload in the world today. His book "Overload" is packed full of information on the subject and its cost to ordinary businesses.

In a recent blog he talked about the impact of Information Overload on leaders.  Here he talked about how his research showed that leaders in an organisation have only 5% of their day available for thought and reflection.  And that the biggest drain on a leaders time is information-overload related problems which take a full quarter of their day.

In a statement that seems to be at odds with modern managerial thought, he states that leaders need to reduce their information exposure, as a key portion of their role is to think and that this is the time they need to reclaim.  

He also states that leaders need to engage in how to anticipate, manage and reduce the ever increasing amounts of information that workers in the organisation are exposed to. They need to do this to avoid incurring the costs of Information Overload problems.  You can use his research to estimate the cost to your own organisation using this calculator.

It is analysis by people such as Jonathan Spira that led us to develop the Unified Inbox product as a way to handle the information deluge that has become a part of modern work-life.  If you would like to trial Unified Inbox for free, then check out the free monthly trial offer, and start putting control of information overload back into your own hands.