Ask and listen – what a concept!

Leaders are used to fielding questions.  It’s easy to get the idea that you are supposed to have all the answers – or that you do – or that your answers are the best ones.

You have a team who knows a lot about the problems.  

Ask them – How do you see this problem?  Listen.

What do you think should or can be done about it?

How would you approach it?  Who else knows a lot about this?

Hopefully and finally, “Would you take responsibility for getting that fixed for us?”

You don’t have to go along with their idea exactly or at all – but you will learn something in any case.  

Who, not how. 

Ask the right people the right questions, and listen.

Are you a good leader?

Leadership is bringing out the best in others while accomplishing the goals of the organization.

Are you accomplishing the goals of the organization?

Are you bringing out the best in people while doing it?  Or are people upset, feeling mistreated, and disengaged?

How can you align what your team wants with what the organization wants?  

How can you bring out the best in people?

Are you a good leader?

Be effective

“Efficiency is doing things right.  Effectiveness is doing the right thing.” – Peter Drucker

I’d rather be an amateur at doing the right things than an expert at doing the wrong things.

Do the tasks that are going to move the needle for your organization – even if you have not done them before and are not good at doing them.

Do the right things when you work

If your only strategy for making your business go well is to work longer and harder, you are going to be quite disappointed to learn that that doesn’t scale and doesn’t work.

You only have so much time in a day, and you will crowd out your family, rest, fun, and relationships by trying.  You will not be happy.

You have to make your job smaller so you can do the things that are essential for a leader to do, until you can get it done in 45 hours and be home by a reasonable time to live your life with others.

Your business is supposed to improve your life, not be your life.

Be nice to everyone. Here’s yet another reason why –

Good and bad, fair and unfair, people can light you up on social media like never before.

It’s best to treat everyone like your grandmother (who has 90,000 followers on Social Media).

Maker (creator) in the morning, manager in the afternoon.

I have many related businesses.  But basically I wear two hats.  I create content, and I am a leader.

These are very different.  Creating content involves thinking and writing.  I do this in the morning on most days in a place where I get quiet time.

The leading part involves talking to other people.  I do this in the afternoon on most days.

I’d like to say I set up my days so I can do both my jobs well by design, but it was more of an evolutionary process born out of necessity.  I can’t get creative work done when I’m interrupted or bombed by people stopping by my office, or when the time is broken by conversations that could take my mind to a hundred other worlds.  And I can’t notice what is going on and what problems need to be solved with a creative project by sequestering myself in a quiet room all day every day.

It works for me.

What is most important for YOU to do in your business?

How can you set up your schedule for some or most days to get it done?

About being productive…

“Productivity is not about being a workhorse, keeping busy, or burning the midnight oil.  It’s more about priorities, planning, and fiercely protecting your time.” – Margarita Tartikovsky

Are you trying to do everything?  Do you let others take you off track easily?  Are you easily distracted?

Do you prioritize and work on the most important thing and protect the time to do it?

Less to do for you.

Business owners often feel overwhelmed; like they can’t get it all done.  There is not enough hours in a day.

One way to get your work done at the end of a day or week, is to have less to do.

You can work mightily on getting more done every day.  You can be more efficient and squeeze productivity into every minute.  You can work longer, but the limitation to that shows up pretty quickly.

Or, you can prioritize, and only do what is most important.

You can get others to do the rest by delegation, outsourcing, or hiring.  You can just stop doing things that are unimportant.  

Decide what is your job and what is not your job.

Yes you are responsible for getting things done.  That is very different from you having to do them.

By framing your job correctly and doing less, and focusing on the most important work, you can be most effective and get your work done.

Live by Priority

Notes from the book – “The ONE Thing”

When you have a goal, you live by priority.

The word priority is not priorities.

Prior is Latin meaning “first”.

We have goals and plans for one reason – to be appropriate in the moments of our lives that matter.

What is your ONE goal?  Is it a priority?

Goals tell you what to do now

“What shall I do?”  People who have no goals ask this question.

People with goals ask “What should I do?”

That question will get you somewhere.

What should you do today?