by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Goals, Habits, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Productivity, Resources, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 32 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Email Charter
— From The Email Charter by Chris Anderson and Jane Wulf
In my quest to figure out a better way to deal with email overload, I came across another person who receives an enormous amount of email: Chris Anderson. He is the Curator and head of TED Talks. And, just as Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg set their own email rules, Anderson and TED’s Scribe Jane Wulf came up with their own rules as well, which they aptly named the Email Charter.
The problem, as Anderson and Wulf see it, is this:
“The relentless growth of in-box overload is being driven by a surprising fact: The average time taken to respond to an email is greater, in aggregate, than the time it took to create.”
Not only that, they emphatically add, “We’re drowning in email. And the many hours we spend on it are generating ever more work for our friends and colleagues. […] Email overload is something we are inadvertently doing to each other… You can’t solve this problem acting alone. You will end up simply ignoring, delaying, or rushing responses to many incoming messages, and risk annoying people or missing something great. That prospect is stressful.”
Fortunately, there is a solution, but we all have to be in on it: “We can reverse this spiral only by mutual agreement.” And they go on to explain: “If we can mutually change the ground rules, maybe we can make that stress go away. That’s why it’s time for an Email Charter. Its core purpose is to reverse the underlying cause of the problem — the fact that email takes more time to respond to than it took to generate. Each of its rules contributes to that goal. If they are adopted, the problem will gradually ease.”
“But,” they note, “Nothing will happen unless the Charter is widely shared and adopted.” This is a relatively easy solution: “The mechanism to achieve that will be email itself. If people who like the Charter add it to their email signatures, word will spread.”
Let’s help make that happen! I’m in, are you?
1. Respect Recipients’ Time. This is the fundamental rule. As the message sender, the onus is on YOU to minimize the time your email will take to process. Even if it means taking more time at your end before sending.
2. Short or Slow is not Rude. Let’s mutually agree to cut each other some slack. Given the email load we’re all facing, it’s OK if replies take a while coming and if they don’t give detailed responses to all your questions. No one wants to come over as brusque, so please don’t take it personally. We just want our lives back!
3. Celebrate Clarity. Start with a subject line that clearly labels the topic, and maybe includes a status category [Info], [Action], [Time Sens] [Low Priority]. Use crisp, muddle-free sentences. If the email has to be longer than five sentences, make sure the first provides the basic reason for writing. Avoid strange fonts and colors.
4. Quash Open-Ended Questions. It is asking a lot to send someone an email with four long paragraphs of turgid text followed by “Thoughts?”. Even well-intended-but-open questions like “How can I help?” may not be that helpful. Email generosity requires simplifying, easy-to-answer questions. “Can I help best by a) calling b) visiting or c) staying right out of it?!”
5. Slash Surplus cc’s. Cc’s are like mating bunnies. For every recipient you add, you are dramatically multiplying total response time. Not to be done lightly! When there are multiple recipients, please don’t default to ‘Reply All’. Maybe you only need to cc a couple of people on the original thread. Or none.
6. Tighten the Thread. Some emails depend for their meaning on context. Which means it’s usually right to include the thread being responded to. But it’s rare that a thread should extend to more than 3 emails. Before sending, cut what’s not relevant. Or consider making a phone call instead.
7. Attack Attachments. Don’t use graphics files as logos or signatures that appear as attachments. Time is wasted trying to see if there’s something to open. Even worse is sending text as an attachment when it could have been included in the body of the email.
8. Give these Gifts: EOM NNTR. If your email message can be expressed in half a dozen words, just put it in the subject line, followed by EOM (= End of Message). This saves the recipient having to actually open the message. Ending a note with “No need to respond” or NNTR, is a wonderful act of generosity. Many acronyms confuse as much as help, but these two are golden and deserve wide adoption.
9. Cut Contentless Responses. You don’t need to reply to every email, especially not those that are themselves clear responses. An email saying “Thanks for your note. I’m in.” does not need you to reply “Great.” That just cost someone another 30 seconds.
10. Disconnect! If we all agreed to spend less time doing email, we’d all get less email! Consider calendaring half-days at work where you can’t go online. Or a commitment to email-free weekends. Or an ‘auto-response’ that references this charter. And don’t forget to smell the roses.
ACTION
TODAY: Anderson and Wulf invite us all to share the Charter via our social media, blogging, and adding it to our email signature. Take a moment and do so today.
FUTURE: Use the rules in the Charter and share it with as many people as possible.
Know someone who would like this post about The Email Charter? Please share it with them via email, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Growth, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Resources, Tools, Wellbeing
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 28 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The After-Action Review: Backward T
hinking
— From Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals by Michael Hyatt
Nobel Prize laureate Daniel Kahneman and psychologist Dale T. Miller wrote a chapter in the book Heuristics and Biases, where they talk about “the power of backward thinking.” What they mean by this is the importance of using the past as a way to design a better future. “Reasoning flows not only forward, from anticipation and hypothesis to confirmation or revision, but also backward, from the experience to what it reminds us of or makes us think about.”
And in today’s book, Your Best Year Ever, author and leadership guru Michael Hyatt recalls a friend of his telling him: “An experience is not complete until it is remembered.” Thus, Hyatt says, “We can’t complete the past until we acknowledge what we’ve already experienced.”
In terms of looking ahead at the New Year, setting goals and making plans, it’s important to look at the past year (or the past in general) and learn from what didn’t go well, as well as build on top what indeed went well.
For this, Hyatt points us in the direction of the After-Action Review (AAR), an exercise used in the U.S. Army to improve performance.
“After an event, the goal is to understand what happened, why it happened, and how they can improve. Lots of businesses use this process, and we can use it too.”
The After-Action Review has four key stages:
Stage 1: State what you wanted to happen. “For the military, this is pretty straightforward. Think of it as the battle plan or the object of the mission. For us, this could be your list of goals from the prior year… Start by asking yourself how you saw the year going. What were your plans, your dreams, your concrete goals if you had any?”
Stage 2: Acknowledge what actually happened. “Ask yourself, What disappointments or regrets did I experience this past year? […] What did you feel you should have been acknowledged for but weren’t? […] What did you accomplish this past year that you were most proud of? Completing the past is not just about processing failures and disappointments. It’s also about acknowledging and celebrating your wins. […] To finish this stage, it’s useful two tease out some themes. What were two or three specific themes that kept recurring? These could be single words, phrases, or even complete sentences.”
Stage 3: Learn from the experience. “What were the major life lessons you learned this past year? […] If you have trouble identifying your key lessons from the year, one way to suss them out is to ask what was missing from your success… Listing these missing ingredients is an effective way to learn what went wrong and what it would take to go right in the future. [Lastly,] to retain these lessons, you’ll want to distill your discoveries into short, pithy statements. That transforms your learning into wisdom to guide your path into the future.”
Stage 4: Adjust your behavior. “If something in your beliefs and behaviors contributed to the gap between what you wanted to happen and what actually happened, something has to change. In fact, that gap will only widen and worsen unless you pivot. It’s not enough to acknowledge the gap. It’s not even enough to learn from the experience. If you don’t change your beliefs and how you act on them, you’re actually worse then when you started.”
And there you have it. The After-Action Review is one of the most powerful backward thinking exercises you can undergo to derive a lesson and move forward.
Happy backward thinking! 😉
ACTION
TODAY: As the year is coming to an end, set aside some time in your calendar to do an After-Action Review of this year. Give yourself half a day in your schedule to do it thoroughly.
FUTURE: Every time you come to the end of a year, a project, a sprint or a certain event, do an After-Action Review so that you can learn and internalize the lessons. They will become invaluable mindset assets for your future.
Know someone who will like this post? Please share it via email, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 38 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: 9 Listening Skills Every Leader Must Develop – Part 2
— From Relationships 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know by John C. Maxwell
In yesterday’s post, we started to look at the nine listening skills every leader must develop. Despite them sounding and being so simple, those skills should not be dismissed, as they are what makes for a wonderful experience both for the listener and for the speaker.
Let’s continue learning the skills that John C. Maxwell offers in his book Relationships 101 so that we can become top-notch listeners:
5. Check your emotions. “Most people carry around emotional baggage that causes them to react to certain people or situations. […] Anytime that you become highly emotional when listening to another person, check your emotions—especially if your reaction seems to be stronger then the situation warrants. You don’t want to make an unsuspecting person the recipient of your venting.” Further, if something that the speaker says triggers a strong emotion in you, you should always allow others to finish explaining their points of view, ideas, or convictions before offering your own.”
6. Suspend your judgment. “Have you ever begun listening to another person to tell a story and started to respond to it before he or she was finished? Just about everyone has. But the truth is that you can’t jump to conclusions and be a good listener at the same time. As you talk to others, wait to hear the whole story before you respond. If you don’t, you may miss the most important thing they intend to say.”
7. Sum up at major intervals. “Listening is most effective when it’s active. […] For example, if you can say, ‘Cheryl, that’s obviously very important to you.’ It will help keep you on track as a listener. Get beyond, ‘That’s interesting.’ If you train yourself to comment meaningfully, the speaker will know you are listening and may offer further information. A technique for active listening is to sum up what the other person says at major intervals. As the speaker finishes one subject, paraphrase his or her main points or ideas before going onto the next one, and verify that you have gotten the right message.”
8. Ask questions for clarity. “If you want to become an effective listener… [be someone] someone who gently asks follow up questions and seeks clarification. If you show people how much you care and ask in a non threatening way, you’ll be amazed by how much they’ll tell you.”
9. Always make listening your priority. “The last thing to remember when developing your listening skills is to make listening a priority, no matter how busy you become or how far you rise in your organization.”
Maxwell shares the example of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. “He believed in listening to what people had to say, especially his employees. He once flew his plane to Mt. Pleasant, Texas, landed, and he gave instructions to his copilot to meet him about one hundred miles down the road. He then rode in a Wal-Mart truck just so that he could chat with the driver.”
Many of us consider ourselves good listeners and consider listening a pretty easy exercise. But let’s not take it for granted. There’s always room for improvement, and good listening skills can change our lives and that of the others around them, so let’s keep refining them!
I’ll leave you with this story of Jennie Jerome, Winston Churchill’s mother. When Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone were competing for the position of the prime minister of the United Kingdom, she had dinner with each of them.
Afterwards, she famously said “When I left the dining room after sitting next to Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But when I sat next to Disraeli, I left feeling that I was the cleverest woman.”
That is the power of listening. And that is why it behooves us to always be practicing and sharpening our listening skills.
ACTION
TODAY: Which of these skills comes most naturally to you? Which one do you need to work on a bit more? Take an opportunity today to practice at work or at home.
FUTURE: Practice the Disraeli skill of making the person who is speaking feel as if he or she is the smartest one in the world.
Know someone who would like this post? Please share it with your circles via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 52 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: 9 Listening Skills Every Leader Must Develop – Part 1
— From Relationships 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know by John C. Maxwell
Novelist E.W. Howe liked to joke by saying, “No one would listen to you talk if he didn’t know it was his turn next.” Sad but true, many people do not listen, they simply wait for their turn to speak. That is why the ability to develop and refine our listening skills is the basis to building positive relationships.
Listening starts with wanting to hear and paying attention, of course, but above all, Maxwell says, “A mistake that people often make… is trying very hard to impress the other person. They try to make themselves appear smart, witty or entertaining. But if you want to relate well to others, you have to be willing to focus on what they have to offer. Be impressed and interested, not impressive and interesting.”
In his book, Relationships 101, leadership guru John C. Maxwell, provides us with a list of nine skills to become better listeners. Some of these listening skills may seem very simple and intuitive, but don’t dismiss them because of that, they are part of the whole listening experience, both for the listener and for the one who is listened to:
1. Look at the speaker. “The whole listening process begins with giving the other person your undivided attention. As you interact with someone, don’t catch up on other work, shuffle papers, do the dishes, or watch television. Set aside time to focus only on the other person. And if you don’t have the time at that moment, then schedule it as soon as you can.”
2. Don’t interrupt. “Most people react badly to being interrupted. It makes them feel disrespected… People who tend to interrupt others generally do so for one of these reasons: [i.] They don’t place enough value of what the other person has to say. [ii.] They want to impress others by showing how smart and intuitive they are. [iii.] They’re too excited by the conversation to let the other person finish talking. […] Give people the time they need to express themselves.”
3. Focus on understanding. “Have you ever noticed how quickly most people forget the things they hear? Studies… indicate that most people can recall only 50 percent of what they hear immediately after hearing it. […] By the next day, their retention is usually down to 25 percent. One way to combat that tendency it’s to aim for understanding rather than just remembering the facts.”
4. Determine the need at the moment. Some people, upon listening, want to fix immediately what the other person is troubled about. Some others, however, simply want to communicate something as a way of sharing and getting it out. “Anytime you can determine the current need of the people you’re communicating with, you can put whatever they say into the appropriate context. And you will be better able to understand them.”
And there is still so much more that Maxwell shares to develop our listening skills! Please come back tomorrow as we will finish the list and learn a great story about the power of listening.
ACTION
TODAY: Think of a time when someone took the time to listen to you. What did that person do that made you feel good? Replicate that when you are listening to others.
FUTURE: Take every opportunity you can to listen to others. It’s only by practicing that we refine our skills.
Know someone who would like this post? Please share via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Collaboration, Creativity, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Planning, Resources, Time, Wellbeing
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 30 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: How to cultivate generosity as a leader–Part 2
— From The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow by John C. Maxwell
In yesterday’s post, we saw three habits of generosity that author and leadership guru, John C. Maxwell, suggests we develop to be more effective leaders. Today we’ll talk about one more habit, as well as specific actions we can take to improve our generosity and add value to others’ lives.
Develop the habit of giving. In 1889, Andrew Carnegie wrote, “The life of a wealthy person should have two periods: a time of acquiring wealth and [a time of] redistributing it.” Maxwell agrees with this point of view and says, “The only way to maintain an attitude of generosity is to make it your habit to give—your time, attention, money, and resources.”
Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving in the U.S. And as we reflect on the upcoming season of gratitude and generosity, here are a few questions that Maxwell poses to make us think about our generosity as leaders:
- Are you a generous leader?
- Do you continually look for ways to add value to others?
- Are you giving money to something greater than yourself?
- And to whom are you giving your time?
- Are you pouring your life into others?
- Are you helping those who cannot help you or give anything in return?
A few years back I heard the concept of the three Ts: Time, Treasure (money, material possessions), and Talent (wisdom, knowledge, expertise, advice, help). While it would be fantastic if we could give something from all those three areas, think of giving, at least, from one of them (time, money, or knowledge/help). Research suggests that making generosity a regular habit may influence long-term wellbeing and happiness, so there’s a clear win-win for both the giver and the receiver.
At this point, you are probably wondering if there’s any way of improving your generosity. Maxwell offers the following three things that you can do to add value to others:
Give something away. “Find out what kind of hold your possessions have on you. Take something you truly value, think of someone you care about who could benefit from it, and give it to [him/her]. If you can do it anonymously, even better.”
Put your money to work. “If you know someone with the vision to do something really great—something that will positively impact the lives of others—provide resources for [him/her] to accomplish it. Put your money to work for something that will outlive you.”
Find someone to mentor. “Once you reach a certain level in your leadership, the most valuable thing you have to give is yourself. Find someone to pour your life into. Then give [him/her] time and resources to become a better leader.”
To be generous you don’t have to be a billionaire, simply start where you are and give of what you have. Sow seeds of generosity on fertile soil, and they will take root and provide value now and many times over in the future as they are replanted and harvested by others.
If you celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, I hope you will join me in this new lovely tradition that one of my favorite authors, Seth Godin, started: The Thanksgiving Reader. It’s been used by more than 100,000 people to date. And because I want even more people using it around the world, whether for Thanksgiving or for the upcoming Holiday Season, my sister and I translated it into Spanish (with Seth’s permission, of course) and you can download it here: The Thanksgiving Reader-ESPAÑOL.
ACTION
TODAY: Give some thought to improving your generosity by giving something away, putting your money to work, and/or finding someone to mentor. Alternatively, create your own “Project Generosity” with a specific goal and outline the steps you need to make it happen in a near future.
FUTURE: Put into action the thoughts from today. What steps do you need to take to accomplish the generous actions or improvements that you thought of? Whose generosity and help can you count on to make it happen? Don’t hesitate to do something bigger than yourself, simply consider doing it along with someone else: you’ll build a lovely experience and memory together.
Know someone who is very generous? Please share this post with that person. Thank you! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Collaboration, Creativity, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Planning, Resources, Time, Wellbeing
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 42 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: How to cultivate generosity as a leader–Part 1
— From The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow by John C. Maxwell
“Nothing speaks to others more loudly or serves them better than generosity from a leader,” says John C. Maxwell, leadership guru and author of The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader.
“True generosity isn’t an occasional event,” he points out. “It comes from the heart and permeates every aspect of a leader’s life, touching his time, money, talents and possessions.”
Further, the author states that leaders don’t gather things just for themselves. Instead, they do it with the intention of sharing those things or giving them to others.
An effective leader, in Maxwell’s words, is someone that people want to follow. And one of the qualities of effective leaders is generosity.
So, how can we cultivate generosity to be an effective (or a more effective) leader?
Here are the habits that the author suggests we develop and nurture:
Be grateful for whatever you have. “It’s hard for a person to be generous when he’s not satisfied with what he has. Generosity rises out of contentment, and that doesn’t come with acquiring more.”
Maxwell shares a quote from one of the richest men in history, John D. Rockefeller, who said, “I have made millions, but they have brought me no happiness.” To which Maxwell replies, “If you’re not content with little, you won’t be content with a lot. And if you’re not generous with little, you won’t suddenly change if you become wealthy.”
Put people first. “The measure of a leader is not the number of people who serve him, but the number of people he serves. Generosity requires putting others first. If you can do that, giving becomes much easier.”
Don’t allow the desire for possessions to control you. Maxwell quotes a friend of his who says that people are divided into three groups: “Haves, have-nots, and have not paid for what they have.” The author points out that a growing number of people are “becoming enslaved to the desire to acquire.” This obsession comes out of a false illusion of control (owning) and the anticipated happiness that people hope the purchase will bring.
Happiness, as we know, comes from within. So, Maxwell says, “If you want to be in charge of your heart, don’t allow possessions to take charge of you.”
Regard money as a resource. Maxwell shares with us the unfortunate, yet popular view that when it comes to money, you can’t win. “If you focus on making it, you’re materialistic. If you try to but don’t make any, you’re a loser. If you make a lot and keep it, you’re a miser. If you make it and spend it, you’re a spendthrift. If you don’t care about making any, you’re unambitious. If you make a lot and still have it when you die, you’re a fool—for trying to take it with you.”
Fortunately, we don’t have to see money that way. There is, indeed, a way to win with money: “hold it loosely—and be generous with it to accomplish things of value.”
“Money is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. If it gets on top and you get under it, you will become its slave.” – E. Stanley Jones
Come back tomorrow for Part 2 where we will continue looking at habits to develop and practical ways to improve our generosity as a leader.
In the meantime let me know in the comments here: Who has done something generous for you lately?
And I’ll share my answer to that question with you: I am grateful for the generosity of my friend Andre Piazza, co-host of Octanage Podcast, for having me on his show this week. The podcast shares the life and success of entrepreneurs in Brazil and, thus, it’s in Portuguese. Yet since it’s been years that I don’t speak it, I’ve forgotten most of it, so Andre kindly allowed me to speak in Spanish instead. The result? An awesome bilingual podcast where we had a ton of fun! 🙂 If you understand either Portuguese or Spanish you’ll be able to follow along. Check it out!
ACTION
TODAY: Think about what generosity means to you. Who has done something generous for you? How can you pay it forward in the same way or differently?
FUTURE: John Bunyan wrote “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” What can you do for someone who can never repay you?
In the spirit of generosity, please share this post with someone who has shared something of value with you. Thank you! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
