Life isn't about finding yourself.
Life is about creating yourself.
─ George Bernard Shaw
Business & Leadership
Michael Hyatt, michaelhyatt.com
"Here are four steps I use to absorb new ideas and become a better leader:
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- Read as much as you can. Really. As a leader, you have to seed your mind with leadership ideas to keep learning and growing. During a the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit a few years ago, David Gergen said, 'Not every reader is a leader, but every leader is a reader.' Leaders, read diligently. I take every opportunity I can to absorb new ideas.
- Use a 'discernment filter.' Once you’ve exposed your mind to innovative concepts, you’ve got to put the ideas through a discernment filter. The truth is that some of the ideas you learn fit you and should be integrated into your current leadership style. But other ideas don’t fit you, and they don’t pertain to you. You shouldn’t act on them.
Some ideas are good, but they fall into the 'not now' bucket. I’ve seen leaders over the years who absorb all of these great ideas but are unable to keep up with taking them all in.
There’s no short cut to discerning your leadership lessons. We all have to do the hard work of deciding which ideas are valuable—and which aren’t.
- Assign an owner. Once an idea makes it through the discernment filter, leaders have to determine how many leadership ideas they can implement in their church (or organization). I know that I can bear the responsibility of the vision for our church and make sure that our strategic values are clear, but I’m careful not to bear the weight of implementing all new ideas. That’s where your team comes in. Don’t be afraid to attach cool ideas to people on your team, so they can run with them.
- Embed the ideas into your culture. Once you discover new ideas, put them in a filter, and delegate them to a team member—you have to start to institutionalize the most important ideas. The ultimate objective is that all of the ideas have to find their way into the DNA of your organization. The main goal of ideas isn’t just to learn about them, it’s to embed them in the culture."
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(BUT ONLY IF YOU WANT TO.)
Danielle LaPorte, whitehottruth.com
"Time management systems are tricky beasts. They may help us be more productive, but not necessarily less stressed, or more fulfilled, or more in touch with our true nature. We may look freer with our priorities all tidy, but too often, time remains the master and we get 'given' time for obeying the system.
"I'd rather be fulfilled than obedient. And it turns out that when I'm fulfilled, I'm...fulfilled -- whether I'm productive or not. And that gives me plenty of energy to be more focused on what matters most, which makes me truly productive. It's a beautiful thing. Here's how I got there:
1. Stop keeping a detailed to-do list. If it's truly important, you'll remember to do it. A few post it notes and texts to yourself should be all you need.
2. Say no, thank you to four things a day. My coach gave me this assignment. It changed my life.
3. Relentlessly focus on the one or two vocational desires that turn you on so much that envisioning doing JUST those things seems so fantastical that it borders on erotic pleasure (yep, I think it's your birthright to feel that hot about your work in the world). Everything else that is not about fulfilling your most intense vocational desires is getting in the way of making your fantasy life a reality.
4. Work with talented and excellent human beings. Amateurs, posers and mediocrity-makers are time squatters. Move 'em out.
5. Delegate the stuff that doesn't light you up.
6. Have (only) 3 important things to accomplish every week. Make those three things happen and you're closer to making your fantasy life a reality. Accomplish more than that and you'll feel like a super hero (good esteem fuels fulfillment AND productivity.)
7. Batch n' chunk. Pay all of your bills at the same time. Create a day just for errands. Make all of your calls before noon. This "while you're at it" kind of momentum is incredibly efficient.
8. Ask yourself every morning what you really feel like doing. Not what's most important. Not what's expected of you. But what you're most excited to do. Enthusiasm is the DNA of making things happen. Start there."
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Linda Hill & Kent Lineback, HBR Blog Network
"In our last blog, we argued that becoming a great boss required courage — in particular, the courage to find out how others see you. Almost certainly, we said, others' perceptions of you will differ in important and perhaps disconcerting ways from your self-perceptions."
"This is an important topic. It's not about being liked or popular, as some assumed in reading our previous blog. It's about your ability to exert influence, which is your major task as a manager. If you don't know how your words and actions are perceived and understood, if you don't know if others trust you (and if they don't, why not), if you don't know what others want and expect from you, how can you exert the influence you want?
"The problem is, how do you find out? As many of you pointed out, simply asking is unlikely to produce a true or complete answer, As the boss, you will often have trouble finding out the truth about anything, especially when it's negative or problematic. Even if you're trusted, people are still aware you hold the keys to promotions, pay, and choice assignments. And if you're not trusted, why would anyone tell you the truth?
"Though there are no simple solutions, we can offer some guidelines (and we hope you'll add more in your comments):
You're more likely to hear what people think and feel, if you've established real, ongoing human connections with them.
You're more likely to hear people's real thoughts and feelings once you've established a history of reacting calmly and constructively to comments of all kinds, even when they're personal and not positive.
Seek out people's perceptions and perspectives in the context of a specific task, project, or program.
Build a developmental network of people who will give you candid feedback.
Finally, if she's willing, your boss can also be a valuable source of feedback based on her own experience with you, and she can pass on what she hears about you from others."
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Russell Eisenstat, HBR Blog Network
"Leif Johansson, recently retired CEO of the Volvo Group, has a simple and powerful test to track his progress as a leader. In addition to the usual metrics — return on investment, growth in market share, increases in shareholder value — Johansson uses what he calls the kitchen table test: At breakfast with his family on Saturday mornings, he asks himself, How easy is it to explain what I have accomplished this week and the decisions I have made? Does my family get it? Does what I say make them proud? Does it make me proud to tell them about it?
"Johansson is a prime example of what my co-authors and I call a higher-ambition leader. Higher-ambition leaders seek to do more than outperform the competition. They aspire to win — powerfully and consistently — with their customers, their people, their partners, and their communities, as well as with their investors. They see winning on all fronts as both good business and a source of pride and purpose — a sure way to pass the kitchen table test.
"The higher-ambition leaders profiled in our book are not unique. Rather, I believe there are a large and growing number of leaders who share these values and aspirations.
"These leaders believe in the value of higher ambition for both personal and pragmatic reasons. On a personal level, they understand that they will feel a lot better about investing most of their waking hours at work, if their work is genuinely making the world a better place.
"On a pragmatic level, anyone who has ever tried to run a business, whether a corner grocery store or a Fortune 100 company, knows that they won't last very long if they don't go the extra mile to provide real and distinctive value for their customers. They also know that it is much easier to win in the marketplace if they have energized and engaged people working on their team. Finally, they know that business doesn't exist in a vacuum. When a company is not seen as a force for good, recruiting good people and partners is tougher, as is working with regulators and governments. Conversely, when everyone in the business — not just the CEO — can pass the kitchen table test with their families and talk with pride about their work, employee commitment and motivation will likely be off the charts."
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Seth Godin
“Modern society is based on a modern idea: get the work done by replaceable cogs, by individuals programmed to do what they’re told, follow instructions and work cheap. The attraction of this system is evident by how easily ordinary organizations replace ordinary employees, and how eagerly schools indoctrinate their students.
"There’s an alternative.
"The linchpin resists the pressure to conform and comply. Instead, she works without a map, solves interesting problems, leads, connects and creates an impact. The linchpin is the one we can build a project around, the one we will miss if she leaves.
"At least once in your life, you have been this person. The one who does work that matters.
"The linchpin might be the doctor who spends an extra two minutes with a stressed out patient, or a politician willing to break with the status quo. The linchpin might be a teacher who uses the lesson plan as a starting point, not a destination, or it might be a customer service rep who can solve even an ornery customer’s problems.
"You’ve probably already guessed: The linchpin is graceful. Graceful under pressure, certainly, but graceful as he walks through the world. Scarcity creates value, and the linchpin understands this.
Choices
"Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, spoke at Princeton’s graduation this year. He asked some difficult questions:
Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions? Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?
Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure? Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize? Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?
Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling? When it’s tough, will you give up or will you be relentless?
Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder? Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?
"These are the choices the linchpin makes every day. When you choose to stop being a compliant cog in a blameless machine, it sets you up to be graceful instead.”
Godin, Seth (2010-10-13). Graceful (Kindle Locations 85-87). New Word City, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
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Kaihan Krippendorff, www.fastcompany.com
"You see, there are four types of initiatives you could be investing your energy in at any one time. If you get these right, you win. If you get them wrong, you spin your wheels and fall further and further behind.
"To avoid the latter fate, make a list of all the initiatives you are currently executing or considering. For each initiative, ask yourself two questions: If I successfully executed this initiative, what impact would it have on my ability to achieve my goals? and, How easy is it to execute this initiative?
"This will give you four types of ideas:
1. Wastes of time: hard-to-execute ideas that would have little impact on you achieving your goals anyway. Dump these now and invest the energy you save into more productive activities.
2. Tactics: easy-to-execute ideas that will not significantly impact your success. Execute these if you want, but they are not important enough to be a strategic priority.
3. Winning moves: easy-to-execute ideas with huge impact. Execute those now!
4. Crazy ideas: difficult-to-execute ideas that, if you could figure out how to make them happen, would really make a difference. Most companies discard these 'go to the moon' ideas. Outthinkers spend time figuring out how to make these feasible."
