It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)
Greetings to you!
Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.
Russ...
LEADERSHIP QUOTE:
"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." Stephen Covey
What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.
A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:
It's December, the last month of 2024. Over the past few months we've talked about INFLUENCE, VISION, and STRATEGY. I thought I'd end the year with a few quotes on the topic of PRIORITIES.
You can read past blogs HERE.
This is a "classic Covey quote". If you've read any of his books or heard him speak in the past, he talks a lot about priorities.
I remember reading his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in graduate school, and I had never heard or understood the concept Covey lays out in his 3rd Habit: Put First Things First.
The simple idea of Quadrant II Leadership is all about priorities. Covey talks about how we allow urgent and not important things to get in the way of the things that are really important, and these things are classified as Important and Not Urgent.
Most of us live in Quadrant I which is full of Urgent and Important things, but it's often driven by crisis and problems which results in stress and burn-out.
Read the book. He explains it so much better.
Quadrant II living is a life where priorities help you focus on aspects of prevention, proactive problem solving, relationship building and planning.
As to Covey's quote above? He's saying that if we aren't guided by priorities, we'll be guided by our schedule.
How do you handle priorities in your life and do they make it to your schedule first?
DEEPER STILL:
Let's just talk about the pressure of priorities for a minute.
It's difficult to manage your life by priorities all the time. There's a reality to the way we lead and sometimes it's impossible to keep things aligned.
However...
Our ability to "bounce back" to priorities is where they really set in.
A couple of weeks ago, I pulled a muscle in my back. I wasn't doing anything special, I just pulled it and was down for 3 days. Now I've been working out at the gym for the past number of months, and I feel like my back should be stronger than it's been for years, but my friend and chiropractor shared that sometimes these things have nothing to do with the muscle in our backs, but with the numbers tied to our birthday.
I'm just getting old.
For 2 weeks I couldn't go the gym. I laid off, and let my back heal while stretching, using ice and heat, and trying to get movement back.
I enjoyed not getting out of bed early and walking to the gym.
But...
My priority is to work towards health, so once my back was ready, I dove back into those cold California mornings (don't laugh) and I got back into my routine at the gym.
Today, I'm back working out, my back feels good, and I know that the work I put in will pay me dividends as I continue to age year after year.
PRIORITIES.
What PRIORITIES have you allowed to be squeezed out of your life and schedule? Is it time to get them back?
Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:
Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Book. A staple in my library and an annual read for the past 20+ years.
Gina and I really enjoyed the new Netflix series with Ted Danson called A Man on the Inside. Really good series, great themes and just a great short series!
I found a new podcast this past week and listened to my first episode on the Costco Company. This podcast, Acquired, tells the stories and strategies of great companies. Here's the warning... The Costco Podcast was almost 3 hours long. I listened to it as I drove back and forth from Home Depot multiple times trying to get my Christmas Lights working!! I'm now listening to the story of Microsoft and it's a long haul, but really interesting!
This past week I was able to facilitate a LifePlan for a business leader and friend. The entire process is about identifying priorities in your life by asking the question, "What's Important Now?"
This week I was reminded of a band in the 90's called PFR. I've been listening to them all week. Great Christian band and nice to revisit this period of time!