Featured in Business Leader, 25th February 2020

As the leader of a company, you are there to set an example, to lead and inspire a team individuals to achieve a series of business goals. But how do these business leaders go about their daily routine?

Business Leader spoke to Laura Weaving – Managing Director of Duo Global Consulting about her working day.

What time do you usually wake up?

Normally around 7am.

What do you typically have for breakfast?

A protein shake as I’m running out of the door.

What is the rest of your morning routine before you start work?

I like to give myself time in the morning to get my mindset right before starting the day – this can be anything from 20 minutes of yoga to listening to an audiobook while getting ready (our list of books to read is endless so a great way to combine time, especially now I’m using the tip of listening to it on 1.5 speed!).

What is the first thing you do at the start of your working day?

Make a coffee and catch up with the team.

How do you you prioritise your day’s work?

We use a little miracle book called “the 10-minute planner” – the whole team has one. It’s great at helping plan out priorities for the week without writing a to-do list as long as your arm! A key priority at the moment is our women’s leadership programme which launched in January 2020 – this often appears on my 10-minute planner.

Do you plan meetings or re they a waste of time?

It depends who I’m meeting – being a behavioural consultancy we look at the type of person we are meeting and go from there. By nature, I’m not a huge planner and would prefer to sit down and just talk, but if we have someone who is more reflective and procedural, there will always be a plan and an agenda.

Do you have a working lunch or is it good to take a break?

It’s a mix if I’m honest, ideally a break but it depends on the schedule!

When does your working day finish?

That’s a work in progress, ideally before 6pm but with our American clients it sometimes runs into the evening – I’m working on my boundaries!

How do you prepare for the next day’s work?

Get a good night’s sleep! I’m not a huge planner so that’s pretty much the extent of it. My planner keeps me on track but I’m not one to set out my clothes the night before or anything…

What’s your favourite piece of technology?

My MacBook – with all the travel I do, having a laptop that weighs next to nothing and fits right in my bag is an essential.

How do you switch off?

It’s practice – we have really been focussed on elevating performance recently, both in our business and with the work we’re doing with our clients, and headspace is essential to that. I’m working on being fully present in everything I do, whether that’s at work, at the gym, at home with friends and family, and not multi-tasking all the time, really focusing on one thing at a time.

Other than the day to day, travel is my biggest switch off – there’s nothing like immersing yourself in another culture to get you out of your head!

Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

It’s probably not advice per se but more of a mentality – my parents raised me to really believe nothing was out of my reach, that I could do anything I wanted to do and really that has been the biggest influence on my life in general.

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