by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Goals, Habits, Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 44 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Don’t be a hero
— From REWORK: Change the way you work forever by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
“A lot of times it’s better to be a quitter than to be a hero,” say Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.
Whaaaaat?!
The authors of Rework explain: “Let’s say you think a task can be done in two hours. But four hours into it you’re still only a quarter of the way done. The natural instinct is to think, ‘But I can’t give up now, I’ve already spent four hours on this!’ So you go into hero mode. You’re determined to make it work (and slightly embarrassed that it isn’t already working). You grab your cape and shut yourself off from the world.”
Sometimes that sheer determination and work overload can produce your desired results. “But,” the authors ask, “is it worth it?” Probably not is the answer. “The task was worth it when you thought it would cost two hours, not sixteen.”
Yet we feel terrible to leave behind, as incomplete, that investment of time and effort. While you will be the one to decide whether it’s worth it or not, you can help decrease the emotional overload by purposefully ignoring sunk costs, as you cannot get them back.
As world-traveler and side hustling guru, Chris Guillebeau, says in this post, regardless of how much time you’ve spent, “consider the next [period] of your life, not the previous investment that brought you this far.”
Look at it this way, “In those sixteen hours you could have gotten a bunch of other things done.” Plus, by going into hero mode, “you cut yourself off from feedback, which can lead you even further down the wrong path. Even heroes need a fresh pair of eyes sometimes—someone else to give them a reality check.”
The authors share how they’ve experienced and solved this problem firsthand: if anything takes them more than two weeks, they bring in someone else to take a look. That someone else might not do any work on the task, but they give their opinion. “Sometimes an obvious solution is staring you right in the face, but you can’t even see it.”
And while, most of the time, we tend to associate quitting with failure, “sometimes that’s exactly what you should do,” the authors point out. “If you already spent too much time on something that wasn’t worth it, walk away. You can’t get that time back. The worst thing you can do now is waste even more time.”
Remember, we can get or make almost everything back, except time. Don’t be a hero to defend a project that is dragging on for too long, instead, be the hero that defends your time and the best use of it.
And while you’ll find that sometimes you cannot “quit” the project altogether, because it’s out of your control, and it continues to drag on, look for ways to substitute yourself. Is there someone whose time and talent are better spent on this than yours? Can you ask for help? Can you outsource it? Think creatively and you’ll come up with the best solution.
To dispel the myth of quitting as a failure, here are some other posts about that: Selective quitting, Quit before you start, and Understanding when to quit and when to stick.
Let me know in the comments here if you’ve ever gone into hero mode and what you learned about it!
ACTION
TODAY: Take a look at your tasks at work and life. Is there a particular one that is taking longer than anticipated? Are you thinking about going into hero mode or already there? Reexamine the situation and consider how you can solve it (if it needs solving at all) so that you can be a good steward of your time.
FUTURE: Keep track of where your time goes for a week or a month, it’s a great exercise, as only that way we can truly see how much time we spend on hero mode without necessarily knowing about it. Sometimes we go into microhero mode and don’t even detect it: that extra long phone conversation, that meeting that went on for too long, etc., they all add up and we don’t even notice except when we look at the data in front of us. Time management guru, Laura Vanderkam, has a simple but effective time tracking sheet and a time makeover guide (it’s free).
Know someone who is about to go into hero mode? Save him or her some time! Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Celebration, Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 56 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Encore Effect – Part 6
— From The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do by Mark Sanborn
Welcome back to the last part of this miniseries. So far, we have learned what the Encore Effect is (from the book by the same name from leadership guru and author Mark Sanborn) and understood what it takes to create a remarkable performance, the one that causes your audience to want more and more.
The author has focused on several Ps along the way: passion, preparation, practice, etc., as the ingredients to create a remarkable performance. However, all the while, he’s been wondering what came first: the remarkable performance or the remarkable person?
“Distinguishing between remarkable performances and remarkable people is like asking which came first—the chicken or the egg?”
Sanborn says that remarkable performances often result in increased rewards. “These rewards may include money, but they also come as increased exposure, recognition, influence and opportunity. […] The person who strives to perform more remarkably without also focusing on becoming a more remarkable person is missing the larger point.”
So, how do we ensure that, along with our remarkable performances, there is also growth in the personal area?
Sanborn suggests “six areas of focus that, when developed and mastered, can’t help but make anyone a remarkable person.” He calls this The Pyramid of Possibility, and pictures each of the six areas—each one starting with a P—like an inverted pyramid (that is, in a V shape) “with potential as the foundation for being remarkable and personalization as the highest expression of it.”
It looks like this:
The Pyramid of Possibility
\ Personalization /
\ Persistence /
\ Principles /
\ Passion /
\ Purpose /
\ Potential /
Let’s take a quick look at each of the six Ps on the Pyramid.
Potential: “Our potential—both individually and collectively—has no known limits. Many of us know how good we are at our jobs and responsibilities, but none of us knows how good we could be. That is the magic and mystery of our potential.”
Purpose: “Potential without purpose is like a sheet of metal that has not yet been formed to make a useful object. Feed that sheet of metal into a press and its value is transformed. Every human being has unlimited potential. But we need the press of purpose to create a channel for expression and action. Purpose focuses potential.”
Passion: “Passion is the fire-in-the-belly that we bring to human endeavors. Of course, passion that is not tied to purpose is like lightning firing in the sky… But electricity that has a purpose—well, that’s a different story. That kind of energy can run a household of light up a city.” (For more on passion, read this post.)
Principles: “What are the beliefs that allow you to shape your world your performances) instead of being shaped by it? [… Remarkable people are] unswervingly committed to their core values, ethics and personal and spiritual beliefs…When what you say is reflected and amplified by how you live, you are almost certain to live a remarkable life.”
Persistence: There’s an important difference between persistence and endurance. “ Remarkable performers and people don’t simply endure—they exercise persistence. They refuse to give in to despair, and they work hard at doing what’s right. Persistence is a strategic word that suggests purposeful action…”
Personalization: England’s equivalent to the U.S.’ American Idol is The X Factor, where the X refers to that one “elusive and indefinable ‘star’ quality that separates one performer from the rest.” For the purposes of personalization, Sanborn wants you to think instead on what he calls the “U Factor”: “those qualities that make you unique among the world’s performers. The U Factor is not something that you have to acquire or search for. It’s something you already possess, and something no one else has… It’s how you use purpose, passion, principles and persistence to make your actions you.”
And with that, this miniseries on The Encore Effect comes to a close. I hope you liked it as much as I enjoyed writing it. What was your favorite part? Did you get any a-ha moments while reading it? Let me know in the comments here.
ACTION
TODAY: Think about your potential. How do you see yourself? How do you see others? The author asks us to ponder, “do you see yourself as ‘finished’ in terms of your spiritual and career advancement or as just getting started?”
FUTURE: Think about your goals. On which of them are you just enduring vs. purposely persisting to make them happen? Make a list of next steps to move that goal forward – there are 100 days left in the year for you to make it happen or to advance it significantly!
Know someone who is an encore performer? Please share this miniseries with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Celebration, Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 17 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Encore Effect – Part 4
— From The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do by Mark Sanborn
As promised, today we’re going to talk about PASSION. This is one of the various Ps that are needed to achieve a remarkable performance as explained in the book The Encore Effect. Stay tuned over the next few days of this miniseries to learn about the other “P” components.
In yesterday’s post, the author, Mark Sanborn, said, “Passion is the fuel that drives performance.” Today, he expands on a very important point about passion: “remarkable performance isn’t just about what we do; it’s also about how we do it.”
And he centers on an important point. “Life isn’t just about living our passions but about living passionately.” And while subtle when reading, this makes a world of difference once we understand it.
Sanborn explains, “In the everyday world, most of us don’t get to focus exclusively on doing those things we are passionate about. The solution? Do everything important with passion.”
No matter your role, if you infuse it with passion, creativity, and enthusiasm, you’ll guarantee increased value in the eyes of those around you. This, in turn, will generate opportunities and doors will open for you. “As a parent or spouse, as a volunteer in your church or community, as an employee making a sales call, teaching a class, or leading a company, bringing passion to what you do each day is an exercise in living fully and influencing others by your example.”
“The good news is that passion can be created and stoked. It’s up to you to do so.”
So, how can we develop and cultivate passion?
Sanborn suggests the following five things:
1. Study and learn. “You can go a long way toward becoming a passionate performer by buying the best books, subscribing to the best magazines and going to free university lectures [online]. […] Given the unlimited amounts of information available today, there is little justification for anyone not being a reader [hmmm, let me tell you about a blog that can help you with this… 😉 ] There is no shortage of ways to become an expert in your field—and grow more passionate in the process.”
2. Use small achievements or successes to fuel larger ones. “Remarkable performances are like losing weight. Which goal sounds more achievable—losing one pound per week for a year or losing fifty-two pounds? The result may be the same, but psychologically these goals are as different as night and day. Focus on achieving a remarkable performance today, then another one tomorrow.”
3. Look to other passionate people as role models. “Reach out to people you respect for their passion and performance. Start a group of like-minded people with similar goals. Avoid the people who act as ‘blockers.’ Remember, passion begets passion.”
4. Plug the leaks. “Examine those areas in your life where your resources (your time, talent, and skills) are not being put to the best use. […] Don’t spend time on things that diffuse your focus and do not advance your goals.”
In here, Sanborn tells the story of a student asking Albert Einstein how many feet were in a mile, and him saying he didn’t know. Upon seeing the student’s amazement, Einstein explained, “I make it a rule not to clutter my mind with simple information that I can find in a book in five minutes.”
5. Make passion part of your life. “Where the head goes, the heart will follow. You may not feel passionate, but when you decide you are going to become a passionate person, you will become one. If you act the part and succeed in the part, one day you will discover that you have become the part! If you deliberately and consciously act with passion, you will come to feel that passion.”
All remarkable performances require effort and energy, but they start with and continue to be fueled by passion all along.
As you know, I’m passionate about sharing the ideas I come across in the books I read (…barely noticeable, huh?). What are you passionate about? Let me know in the comments here.
And please come back tomorrow, as we will take a look at more of the “P” elements for remarkable performances in this miniseries.
ACTION
TODAY: Let’s plug the leaks today: find your sources of distraction and eliminate [or appease] them. For example, social media. If I don’t set limits for myself, I go in to read ONE tweet and I’ll still be there 2 hours later… ugh!… (#NotProud). While you don’t have to eliminate it, can you give yourself a set amount of time, timer-in-hand, so that you don’t get sucked into a time vortex? Can you silence or eliminate the notifications on your phone so that they don’t distract you until you are actually on your specified time for this? What other leaks are there in your life that you might be able to plug today?
FUTURE: Create the intention and commit to develop and cultivate passion in those areas of your life and business that are important for you. You will enjoy them more and become a remarkable performer at them.
Know someone who is an encore performer? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Celebration, Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 57 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Encore Effect – Part 3
— From The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do by Mark Sanborn
This miniseries on The Encore Effect has focused so far on explaining and understanding all about remarkable performances. But what do we need to make those performances happen?
According to the author, Mark Sanborn, the formula is simple:
P+D+A = RP
Where: P = Passion, D = Discipline, A = Action and RP = Remarkable Performance.
While this formula is not a panacea, it serves very well to convey the requisites needed to achieve a remarkable performance.
Let’s take a quick look at each:
Passion: “Encounters with passionate people are memorable,” says the author. “You are captivated not only by what they do but by the way they do it. You may not agree with them, but there’s no doubt that what they believe is important.”
Discipline: “Passion is the fuel that drives performance. But without discipline, passion is just loud talk and noise… When discipline is lacking, results are inconsistent and sporadic. It is discipline that enables us to do what needs to be done even when we are not at our best.”
Sanborn explains that discipline is the things that we do over and over again, “often behind the scenes, that ultimately result in remarkable performances.” For figuring this out, he suggests asking ourselves questions, such as:
- How many times did I rehearse and refine my sales presentation before giving it?
- How many books did I read (and re-read) about my industry/career/service/skills?
- How much time do I spend each day in the gym and how many days each week, to keep myself physically fit?
- How many thank-you notes and follow up e-mails do I send to important customers, clients, volunteers, or friends?
- How much of my income do I invest in myself to further my vocations and my passion?
- How much space do I make in my schedule to do the things that matter to me the most, whether developing my skills, spending time with my family, or giving back to my congregation or community?
Action: The most important thing, the author cautions, is not to confuse activity with action. “You can think the right thoughts all day long, but even if those thoughts make you feel good, nothing happens until you take action. […] Activity is effort without effect. Action is what achieves a desired outcome.”
Sanborn mentions that “some people hide behind activity and use it as an excuse to absolve themselves of responsibility (‘I’m so busy!’).” But it’s precisely that busyness that leads to lots of activity but no specific action to move forward.
The author closes by pointing out that “remarkable performers focus on the outcome they’re striving to achieve and say no to any activity that would divert their efforts. They know exactly where they are going, and they focus on how to get there.”
Come back tomorrow to read a bit more about passion. I’ve reserved a whole post for it, given that passion is the fuel for powering remarkable performances.
ACTION
TODAY: Sanborn suggests, “to discover what you are passionate about, ask yourself: What would I like to spend the rest of my life doing?” And says, “How you answer that question will lead you to your true passion.” Take a moment today to answer that question.
FUTURE: Look at your performances and see where they have had or have lacked passion, discipline, and action. Going forward, determine to have these three components whenever you need to do a remarkable performance. Commit to incorporating the three elements into, both, the preparations and the performance itself.
Know someone who is an encore performer? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Celebration, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 27 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Encore Effect – Part 2
— From The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do by Mark Sanborn
Yesterday we learned about remarkable performances to achieve the encore effect. Today we are going to look at the five traits of remarkable performances.
In The Encore Effect, Mark Sanborn talks about the importance of establishing an encore brand, whether personal or organizational. He defines a brand as “a promise for the future based on past performance.”
As such, an encore brand is one that has performed remarkably in the past and, based on that, we can anticipate that it will, likely, continue to perform the same way. Here are the five traits that encore brands exhibit:
1. Commitment: “Commitment is the price you are willing to pay to get remarkable results. Performance, on the other hand, reveals the price you have paid already. When we deliver a remarkable performance, we are saying in effect, ‘There is no other place or person I would rather spend my commitment on than you.’ And when we deliver a poor performance, we convey the opposite message—that we’d rather spend our commitment elsewhere.”
We all have to set boundaries on our engagements and commitments on a daily basis. However, “the challenge,” says Sanborn, “is to commit ourselves to the things that matter to us the most.”
2. Professionalism: “Your problems and opportunities become those of the professionals, who do their best even when they don’t have time or feel at their best. […] When you realize you are in the hands of a professional, you can relax. You know that your concerns will be addressed and that the professional will take care of you. And that is the feeling of confidence that you want to inspire in others.”
3. Skills: “Making the difficult look easy is a sign of mastery in any profession. […] To do anything adequately requires basic skills. The encore performer has gone far beyond the rudimentary to hone his or her skills to a high level. Encore performers demonstrate that they know how to do what they do, that they’ve practiced and perfected what they do, and that they still have a commitment to becoming better.”
“Are you able to spot opportunities that others can’t? Remarkable performers don’t wait for problems and opportunities to come to them—they actively look for problems and opportunities.”
4. Values: “Values are those beliefs that a person holds most dear. Over time, that which we hold most dear becomes what we are known for. […] Every performer is known for something.”
5. Character: Sanborn defines integrity as, “the distance between your lips and your life.” And he says, “your performance is a visible sign of your integrity and character. […] Integrity, sincerity, honesty, and transparency are all character traits of remarkable performers [whose] commitment drives them to become the very best of who they are. Remarkable performers have consistent values.”
These are the five traits that, in Sanborn’s opinion, are shared by those who excel: remarkable performers. These are the people who attract our attention and gain our trust. The author points out that, “[we] recognize a remarkable performance when it occurs, but [we] also recognize what it means about the performer.”
Finally, Sanborn invites us to examine our win-loss record of performance in our career and personal life: “each one of us has complete control over what we do to keep our ‘fans’ coming back for more.”
And on that note, please come back tomorrow for more, as we will look at the role that passion plays in achieving the encore effect.
ACTION
TODAY: Remarkable performers, according to the author, “think about things that are not being done efficiently or profitably or well in your workplace or industry or community.” Can you come up with suggestions or solutions to a problem that you see?
FUTURE: The author suggests, “Think about how your own life values affect your life, your job, and your interactions with others. Are your values reflected in your actions? If not, what can you do differently?” Over time you will see that “your brand [becomes] a composite of the values you act on every day.”
Know someone who is an encore performer? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Celebration, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 49 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Encore Effect – Part 1
— From The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do by Mark Sanborn
“It’s not what we know in life that matters most, but what we do with what we know.”
“Every day is game day,” says Mark Sanborn in The Encore Effect. “Every interaction is an opportunity to give a remarkable performance. The thing is, whether we realize it or not, we all perform for others in one way or another.”
Sanborn continues, “Performance counts. If you want to win the loyalty of your customers, coworkers, boss, and other constituents, you need to turn in a consistently strong performance. And if you want to wow them, you need to turn in a remarkable performance.”
But don’t mistake a remarkable performance to be necessarily a grandiose thing, the kind that you read about in the newspaper. Most remarkable performances never make the front page. To illustrate this, the author shares the story of a school bus driver whose coworkers teased a lot for not wearing a coat on a freezing day. The driver smiled and took it in stride. When a school administrator asked him why he was not wearing a coat, the driver explained that one of the students didn’t have a coat that day, so he gave his own to the student.
The author says that it’s important to notice that there is not one particular approach either. As long as our values and practices are genuine, they will guide us to perform in a variety of roles that are different expressions of our best self. We can ensure that way that our performances will be remarkable. “A remarkable performance… moves us and makes us want more.” That’s the potential and the promise of the Encore Effect.
Conversely, think how hard it is to perform remarkably when your heart is not in what you’re doing. “It’s difficult, if not impossible,” says Sanborn.
The key is recognizing that our lives are performances of which we are in charge. Every remarkable performance by others affects us positively, and every remarkable performance by us affects someone else positively too.
Remarkable performances can change lives, and “that’s why creating a remarkable performance is so key to personal success.”
Sanborn closes by saying that it is likely that, “all of us, would like to have our performance described as remarkable. All of us would like to excel at the things that matter most to us. And it is by giving such performances that we achieve the Encore Effect.”
Come back tomorrow to continue learning about the encore effect, we will focus on the traits of remarkable performances.
ACTION
TODAY: What remarkable performance can you give today as an individual, spouse, parent, employee, boss or as any other of the roles you play in life? Sanborn says, “Try this. Do the important jobs or tasks you have to perform before turning out the light tonight remarkably—even if you’re alone, even if there’s no one there to watch you. After all, you will still be aware of how you do what you need to do. Remember: self-respect is the first step toward gaining the respect of others. Ask more of yourself today; it will lead others to expect more of you tomorrow.”
FUTURE: Create the habit of planning, preparing, and creating remarkable performances that will leave your audience wanting more.
Know someone who is an encore performer? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
