Leadership
Remember the days when someone asked you, “How’s it going?” “Fine,” was your auto-response.
“Fine” was code for, “I have a lot on my plate both personally and professionally right now, but unless you have an hour to listen, I don’t think you want me to get into it.” Everything wasn’t fine. You knew it. The other person knew it. But, “fine” was the socially acceptable response.
Today, when someone asks you, “How’s it going?” the new socially acceptable answer is, “Busy.” Busy-ness has become a badge of honor. You have messages to answer, meetings to prepare for, data to review, and decisions to make. You’re connected to work 24/7. You’ve tried the latest software to unclutter. You’ve bought the newest devices to keep up, but you just can’t break the cycle of busy-ness.
In 1992, global internet traffic measured 100 GB per day. Last year, that rate exploded to 20,235 GB per second. There’s been an explosion of information to consume, but we still have a finite number of hours per day to find the valuable bits. As this rate, we’ll quickly move from busy-ness to burnout if we don’t find a way to better manage our time. Here are four ways successful leaders don’t let busy-ness get in the way of business:
1. Prioritize. Start by deciding the most important priorities in your life – both personal and professional. Stephen Covey called this the “Big Rocks” principle. If you think of your day as a bucket, and you start your day without a plan, you’ll soon get busy filling your bucket with little rocks (tasks, cat videos, whatever). Before you know it, your bucket is full, and you spent another day working on things that have little value to you either personally or professionally. Instead, watch Covey demonstrate how to prioritize your Big Rocks.
2. Centralize. Next, decide on a system where you can keep a daily list of things you need to work on. The choices people make here fall into one of two groups: the techies and the Gutenbergers. If you’re a techie, you’ll probably want to use one of the many multi-platform productivity tools like Evernote and sync it with an app like Remember the Milk to help you manage your tasks. Gutenbergers prefer to track tasks on paper. Franklin Covey is a recognized leader in this area, with lots of options to choose from. Regardless of your preference, you’ll want to centralize all of your tasks in one system. Stop writing reminders on sticky notes and in random devices. Put all of your tasks in one place – and remember to put the Big Rocks in first.
3. Categorize. You’re clear about your Big Rocks and you’ve chosen one place to keep track of your personal and professional tasks. Now what? In no particular order, make a list of your daily tasks. Next, put them in A, B, and C categories. A tasks are important, B tasks have medium importance, and C tasks have low importance. Now, number all of the A tasks in order of importance, and do the same for the B’s and C’s. If you’ve done this correctly, something that made your Big Rock list has an A beside it. Not necessarily A-1, but it’s at the top.
4. Recognize. Brace yourself for this – your task list will never be done. But, think of it this way. If you start each day with a plan in place, and if you only manage to get one thing on your list done, it will be the most important thing you had to do that day. Over time, you’ll see that some of your B’s and C’s could be delegated so that you’re focusing on the most important priorities in your personal and professional life.
You can continue wearing the busy-ness badge, or get real about your priorities and work on the most important things first. The choice is yours.
Question: Do you know someone who uses a time management system? What impact do you think it has on them personally and professionally?
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Leadership
If you’re still trying to shake off the political hangover from last year, you may want to turn to leadership books that offer fresh inspiration in 2017.
Here are 5 books being published this year to keep on your radar. Among them, you’ll find uplifting lessons from history, and titles that will help you re-ground yourself through the year.
1. Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace, by Christine Porath, PhD
What it’s about: From the leading authority on workplace incivility, Christine Porath, shows why it pays to be civil, and reveals just how to enhance effectiveness in the workplace and beyond by mastering civility.
Why pick it up: Incivility is silently chipping away at people, organizations, and our economy. Slights, insensitivities, and rude behaviors can cut deeply and hijack focus. Even if people want to perform well, they can’t. Ultimately incivility cuts the bottom line.
2. Radical Candor, by Kim Scott
What it’s about: A former Google executive and faculty member at Apple University, Kim Scott believes that “workplaces are too nice — really ‘fake nice’ — and that we’d all be better off with unvarnished honesty, especially when it comes to evaluating performance.
Why pick it up: “Radical candor,” according to the book’s synopsis, sits at the “sweet spot between managers who are obnoxiously aggressive on one side and ruinously empathetic on the other.”
3. Captain Class: The Driving Force Behind the World’s Greatest Teams, by Sam Walker
What it’s about: The former global sports editor of The Wall Street Journal profiles the greatest teams in history and identifies the counterintuitive leadership qualities of the unconventional men and women who drove them to succeed.
Why pick it up: If you’re a sports fan and a leader who reads, you’ll enjoy Walker’s list of the 16 most dominant teams in sports, and the traits that led their captains to lead them to sustained, historic periods of greatness.
4. Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy, by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
What it’s about: Following the sudden death of her husband, Silicon Valley executive Dave Goldberg, Sandberg described widowhood at a young age as “a club that no one wants to belong to.” Co-authored with Wharton professor Adam Grant, the book is focused on recovering from adversity.
Why pick it up: Though not strictly a business book, it includes stories of people who recovered from a variety of hardships, it includes lessons for leaders who want to build their own resilience, too.
5. The Push: A Climber’s Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits, by Tommy Caldwell
What it’s about: In 2015, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson made the first free ascent on El Capitan’s Dawn Wall in Yosemite National Park. Caldwell documented the hardships he faced and what he learned in the process.
Why pick it up: It’s a memoir that will inspire you to conquer your own Dawn Wall, climb to new heights, and push past your own limits.
Part of a leader’s job is to steer a team through uncertainty. But, doing so can leave you feeling drained. Refuel yourself in the pages of some of our favorites picks coming out this year.
Question: Which of these five titles do you find most compelling?
Create a culture that transforms at the speed of change. Come to a one-day immersion in transformative leadership crafted to inspire and engage you. Learn more or register here. Have questions? Email me directly at daguas@executiveexcellence.com
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Leadership
In honor of this week’s observance of Martin Luther King, Jr., I am re-posting this blog originally published on January 19, 2015. I think it bears repeating.
Consider this. When Martin Luther King, Jr. announced the March on Washington in August 28, 1963, organizers hoped for a gathering of 100,000 protesters to generate enough political force to mobilize the government into action. No one could be sure how many would answer the call. Yet, they came in droves.
They came by train from New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. They loaded onto buses from Boston, Milwaukee, and Little Rock.They drove by car from Maryland and Virginia. They flew in from San Diego and Seattle.
At 7:00 a.m. that summer morning, ten people set up their own folding chairs near the Reflecting Pool. By 10:30 a.m., nearly 20,000 milled around the Mall. By the time the formal rally started at 1:15 p.m., the crowd packed across the mile long grassy area from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument and stretched a mile northward to Connecticut Avenue. Some took positions in the trees in front of the Lincoln Memorial. In the end, nearly 250,000 people packed around the Reflecting Pool in sweltering 83° heat.
Half a million people came of their own volition. They came because they heard the call in their guts. Martin Luther King, Jr. had no authority over them. He had nothing tangible to offer them when they arrived. He could not even guarantee them safe travel. Yet, he had tapped into their human desire to dream, to grow, and to belong. He used his formidable influence not to serve himself, but to share a vision and help others achieve their potential. That’s the power of transformative leadership.
Question: Do you know transformative leaders who inspire others to achieve their full potential?
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CEE News is designed to help you with the challenges you face every day by sharing infographics, white papers, best practices, and spotlighting businesses that are getting it right. I hope you’ll subscribe to CEE News and it becomes a resource that continually adds value to your walk as a leader. If I can be of assistance in any way, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
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Leadership
You’re standing on stage. Alone. You can just make out the silhouettes of the people sitting in the audience. Mostly women. In the back of the room, cameras are trained on you. Everyone is waiting. You take a deep breath. You have 12 minutes to give what may be the most transformative speech of your life. No notes. No PowerPoint. No clock. Just you.
That’s the challenge that I and 31 other women have faced since San Diego-based Connected Women of Influence (CWI) launched the SUE Talks in the Fall of 2015. CWI has been helping to advance and elevate professional women since 2008. This powerhouse association has grown from 12 to over 200 members, and offers a diversity of programs and events like Executive Roundtables, the Women Lead Institute, Women Lead Radio, the Women of Influence Awards, and Women Lead Magazine.
The idea for SUE Talks began as a flash of inspiration. CWI Co-Founder Michelle Bergquist and SUE Talks Co-Founder Deanna Potter were chatting about more ways that CWI could help professional women share their stories. “Why don’t we host a series of short talks by women who want to share their professional journeys and the lessons they have learned?” they thought.
From that conversation the SUE Talks were born. SUE stands for Successful, Unstoppable, Empowering women. Some of the presenters are professional speakers like me. (You can watch my SUE Talk here.) Others had never been on stage before. But all SUE Talkers are women sharing deeply personal stories and demonstrating the power of authenticity. Here’s a sampler:
1. Dear World, by Erika De La Cruz
In “Dear World,” Erika De La Cruz shares the story of losing everything in life that was dear to her at a young age. With the help of college friends and a poignant gift that she received from a shocking flea market purchase, De La Cruz learned a pivotal lesson. Every day, we get the chance to determine what is valuable to us and the value that we will bring to the world. Every day, we get a chance to write a letter that begins with “Dear World.”
2. Adversity is a Slingshot, by Lyena Strelkoff
“1.2 seconds. That’s how long it takes a woman to fall 25 feet. It’s also how long it takes to turn a life into gold.” That’s how Lyena Strelkoff, a former dancer, begins the story of how a fall from a tree while on a date in 2002 turned her into a paraplegic. In “Adversity is a Slingshot,” Strelkoff shares the surprises she faced when dealing with paralysis, including the biggest surprise of all – how much better it made her life.
3. I am That Woman, by Bethany Kelly
In this funny and warm SUE Talk, Bethany Kelly shares that although she is the textbook definition of survivor, the word survivor doesn’t work for her. Instead, she chooses to practice “aliveness.” She explains, “survivor is a fact over which I have no control. Aliveness is a state of being which I can choose.” Kelly’s journey to aliveness took her from simply existing to becoming her own champion and starting a thriving publishing company.
4. Your Biggest Breakthrough is Born at Rock Bottom, by Jessica Joy Reveles
“The room goes dark, but not quiet. Many of the children are my son’s age. Some whimper and whine and others cry out loudly. I shut my eyes tight, a futile attempt to fall asleep that first night . . . “ With quiet grace, Jessica Joy Reveles walks us through her journey from homelessness (twice) to success. She reminds us that it’s “when we’re at our lowest that the most primal instinct in us sparks the will to survive.”
5. Your Ego, by Sylvia Becker-Hill
In “Your Ego,” Sylvia Becker-Hill takes us on a 2,000-year journey dating back to ancient Egypt and the birth of “Cleopatra’s curse,” which still haunts women in business today. Because of Cleopatra’s curse, the pain of unrealized potential is shared by millions of women worldwide. In this haunting SUE Talk, Becker-Hill shares her powerful ritual of how to rewire our brains, break Cleopatra’s curse, and enjoy being SUE – successful, unstoppable, and empowered.
This year, CWI is hosting four more incredible evenings of SUE Talks. Click these links if you are inspired be a SUE Talk presenter, sponsor or register for SUE Talks, or want to watch more SUE Talk videos. We all have challenges and setbacks. SUE Talks remind us not to let our setbacks define us, but to use them as a springboard to reach our full potential.
Question: If you were challenged to give a 12-minute speech about your professional journey, what lessons would you share?
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CEE News is designed to help you with the challenges you face every day by sharing infographics, white papers, best practices, and spotlighting businesses that are getting it right. I hope you’ll subscribe to CEE News and it becomes a resource that continually adds value to your walk as a leader. If I can be of assistance in any way, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
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Purpose
It’s only the 3rd of January, and already the jokes about not keeping New Year’s resolutions are flying. London’s Telegraph just posted “The 13 funniest tweets about New Year’s resolutions.”
Those who will make 2017 a true success are not focused on their New Year’s resolutions – about what they will start doing or stop doing. Instead, they are focused on their why. They’ve taken the time to connect the dots of who they are with what they do. And that is very powerful motivator.
This year, don’t resolve to do two or three small things differently. Instead, take the time to connect with your why. What can you do to make an enduring impact? Here are three simple questions to get you started.
1. What did you want to be before the world ‘should’ on you? You know. “You should go into accounting.” “You should take over your father’s law practice.” “You should study medicine.” As Mark Albion writes in More Than Money, “It’s easy to slide into a career that matches your skills but not your deepest desires. When you get good at something you don’t want to do, you feel as if you’re dying a little bit each day – that your soul is being sucked out of you. Worse yet, it takes time to realize what’s going on.”
2. What did you want to do when you were eleven or twelve? In Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham suggests that we remember our ‘yearnings’. He writes, “Perhaps because of your genes, or your early experiences, as a child you found yourself drawn to some activities and repelled by others. While your brother was chasing his friends around the yard, you settled down to tinker with the sprinkler head, pulling it apart so that you could figure out how it worked. Your analytical mind was already making its presence known.” Your purpose is hiding right beneath the surface of your life. It threads between the major events of your life and opens windows of opportunity.
3. What legacy do you want to leave? Author Michael Gerber takes this idea to an extreme in his book, The E-Myth Revisited. He asks that you imagine attending your own funeral. All of your friends, your family, and your business associate are there. Picture yourself lying in the box in the center of the room, then listen. Imagine what your colleagues would say about you. Would they talk about the margins you gained? The deals you closed? The efficiencies you implemented? Or, would they talk about the value you left behind? How you helped them grow? How they are better off because they knew you? Starting today, you have the power to shape these conversations.
Rather than rushing to the gym or buying an organizer, take some time this month to connect with your why. There’s no passion to be found in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. Find your passion. Connect with your why. Work on purpose.
Question: Do you know someone who is guided by a clear sense of purpose? What differences do you see in their daily behavior?
Interested in finding your WHY? Watch my recent SUE Talk on the importance of placing significance over success and connecting who you are with what you do.
Interested in getting more content like this? Subscribe to CEE News!
CEE News is designed to help you with the challenges you face every day by sharing infographics, white papers, best practices, and spotlighting businesses that are getting it right. I hope you’ll subscribe to CEE News and it becomes a resource that continually adds value to your walk as a leader. If I can be of assistance in any way, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
