Learning

This past week I had the opportunity to travel to Asia to work with some of our staff and partners. It was a great week of engaging with people, but a highlight of the week was a one-day basic business seminar we did for a group of 50 women and 5 men. Each of these people want to change their future by operating their own, successful business.

As we gathered together, there was excitement! This was an opportunity to learn from others, to talk with people that are in the same situation, and a chance to ask some questions.

Two Days

I celebrated my birthday 2 weeks ago. It's amazing how quickly time seems to be flying, especially as I get older. I have no idea where this past year went, but I do know that it was a good year, and I'm excited about the year to come! My celebration was squeezed between a large leadership event and my youngest daughter's college graduation, so there was much celebration.

I'm reflecting on this quote from Mark Twain:

"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born... and the day you find out why."

LEARNING TO LEVERAGE

I've been working for the past few weeks on a presentation around "Leverage in your Leadership". While reading some great books and articles, I found some really good tips to share with leaders about how to leverage our leadership into greater impact.

However, as I was researching and preparing, I realize that it's one thing to "leverage your leadership", and it's another thing to "learn how to leverage your leadership".

Here are a couple of things I think all of us can do that will help us find greater leverage:

#1) BE INTENTIONAL

DISTRACTION MANAGEMENT

I was recently reading a book by T.J. Addington entitled "Deep Influence" (Navpress ©2014).  There are a number of themes in this book that I resonate with, but once again, the idea of distractions jumped off the pages as this is something I constantly work to manage.

Addington talks about this as he talks about leading with intentionality. Lot's of great ideas and tips, and I encourage you to read the book.

I want to detour and focus on this idea of "Distraction Management".

Here I am, looking at the screen, trying to write this blog post, and I'm checking my email, I'm waiting for a phone call, and I'm moving 3 different piles of paper on my desk all at the same time. I'm not managing my distraction very well, and the reality is, if I focused on one task, I would complete it faster, then I could move on to the next, but sometimes I get so caught up in trying to multi-task that I get to the end of the day, and I leave 5 or 6 projects undone because I got distracted and didn't get it down.

MANAGING MY TO-DO-LIST:  It happens to the best of us:

*We start the week by creating of list of things we need to do.

*Our goal is to “get through the list”, but the longer we focus on the list, the more items we remember to add to the list.

*We end up spending more time creating and managing our list then actually addressing the items that need to be done.

*The LIST controls us!

Janet Choi shares that “41% of t0-d0-items are never completed” (I Done This Blog)

By the end of the week, we’re checking things off, deleting things, and determining that some of these things should have been on the list in the first place!

But, the following week, we’re back at it, building our to-do-list again!

So, here are some simple tips to making your To-Do-List work:

#1) Determine if working off of a list helps your or if it distracts you.

Some people are list people. Some aren’t. If you’re obsessing about your list, or if you are trying to manage multiple lists, then it’s becoming a distraction. You need to figure out a better way to track actionable items.

#2) Keep the list SIMPLE

This past week, I had the opportunity to hear a friend speak about the power of COMMUNITY.

My friend Jeff talked about the correlation between burnout and and our need for community. He talked about the fact that the best way to address common forms of burnout is by addressing areas of sleep, nutrition and exercise. He went on to share however that by addressing these things, you can't fully address the issues of burnout.  A study conducted in 2017 found that the missing ingredient was relationships.  Jeff went on to say, "Not just any kind of relationships, but engagement in meaningful work with those in meaningful relationships with others. They described this as being in Community."

Good Morning!

I talked about being "Ready", being "Set" and being ready to "Go", as I looked at the New Year. It's now February and like all other years, I find myself struggling to keep up with the pace and with all of the opportunities that are in front of me.

The reality is that there will "always" be opportunities.

I'm simply have to figure out which ones are the most important for me!

Do you find yourself struggling with this too?

Here are a couple of things that help:

For years I would write a note to my staff every Monday Morning. I called it the Monday Morning Memo, and the idea behind it was that I wanted to give my team something to think about for the week ahead, as well as give them a "heads-up" for things that might be coming at us in the days coming.

I found my rhythm writing these notes each week, and I found that it helped me frame my day, my week, my expectations and my goals.  Just stopping for a few minutes to think about what's coming at me helped me to GET READY for the task before me.

This blog began as a Friday Note, and is now moving to Monday.