Did you accomplish your 2021 goals?

Why or why not?

Who are your MVP's?

Don’t take your top performers for granted.  They need to hear it too.

Have you thanked them and shown appreciation lately?

Was this a good week for your leadership?

What did you do this week that will have a lasting positive effect on the future? 

Express it in words.  Say it out loud.  What?

Ideas have a shelf life

When you have an idea, I find that your enthusiasm for it will go away as other things come into your days, and soon it will be forgotten about. 

Some leaders have an idea, (or one is presented to them, as leaders do not need to be the source of all ideas, thank God), and they want to study it, think on it, stall, and belabor it forever.  They are the resistors of new ideas often out of fear of losing what they have, even though it’s not very good.

Some have a bias for action.  They want to implement new ideas fast.  I lean toward this side.  Leaders who set new things in motion when they first learn of them and the enthusiasm for it is high will have organizations that make more progress faster.  They will make more mistakes – yes.  But they will learn faster and adjust and have much more success as a result.

Sometimes acting on an idea means finding out it was a bad idea.  At least you know and can move on.

Ideas have a shelf life.  Act before they expire.

Develop energy

Yesterday we talked about managing around your energy.  Today let’s talk about creating energy.

If you are wiped out by 3:00, you probably ain’t livin’ right.  

Some of us are out of shape.  Get in shape.

Some are overweight.  Fix that.

Some drink too much coffee.  Don’t drink so much.

Some drink alcohol each day.  Bad idea.

Some don’t eat well, eating too much sugar or carbs that turn to sugar.  Easy to fix if you want to.

Some of us don’t get enough sleep.  Get more.  Put the device away one hour before you want to sleep.  Read that last hour instead and turn off the screen.

The idea is to pay attention and be honest about your habits and how they are affecting your energy and attitude and be willing to change them to feel better throughout the day.

What do you need to change to feel better throughout your day?

Manage around your energy

There’s an idea I totally agree with that rather than managing our time we should manage our energy.  At certain times of the day we can think better.  Other times we are less focused and it is a better time to knock out various housekeeping duties where we are moving physically but thinking more superficially.

For me, creative work is best done when I first wake up and my mind is fresh and I’m in a quiet space.  The afternoons are best for phone calls, meetings, and talking to people.

Then there are differences between days.  If I didn’t get enough sleep or I am overworked, I don’t try to force creative projects in.  I’ll do the simple/easy stuff that day.  If I’m in the zone, I’ll take advantage of it and do more of my major creative project that day.

Of course, I have this luxury because I am a business owner and I don’t have a job on my org chart, so I can do what I want.  Nobody depends on me to be in the office or to make decisions, and I’m not holding anyone up by changing my schedule based on how my brain is firing that day.  

This is how a business owner should have his relationship with his/her business set up.  Of course, there are cycles in a business.  For example, a start-up business fighting for survival may see the owner working crazy hours without the option to alter what he/she does and when.

Leadership is a different type of job than any other.  This business rises and falls on it.  Taking the right time to see things right, and being productive in setting things right is very important. 

Leverage

Leverage is maximum results for the least amount effort.

It’s a tool that comes in many different forms.

The super successful use leverage.

For example Think Daily is a tool of leverage for me.  Rather than expressing an idea or teaching one person by having a conversation, I can speak to many thousands at once.  I do not make any money on it, but it helps people get to know who I am and people show up in my life wanting to be involved or work at my company.  It also keeps me sharp.  It’s leverage.

If I can train people who then train others, that’s leverage.

If I can build today’s project well so it lives on tomorrow, then tomorrow I can use the results of yesterday to build upon.  That’s leverage.

If I can use resources I do not own to move forward, that’s leverage.  I can rent, borrow, piggy-back, partner, etc.

How do you use leverage?

Being more productive

Productivity is maximum results for the least amount of time.

Are you spending your time as productively as possible?

How can you get more results in less time?

What low productivity tasks can you cut?

Chisel strike by chisel strike…

Every day…steps toward your goal.

Most uncelebrated, but necessary.

What is most important to move forward now?

The best sales training…

Make your salespeople raving fans of your product or service – bursting with belief that your stuff is the best.

If they are convinced, they can convince others of the same.

How can you do that?