by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 54 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Leaders take initiative
— From The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow by John C. Maxwell
A trait in leaders is that they always take initiative. In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, leadership guru John C. Maxwell pointed out that it is a leader’s responsibility to initiate a connection with his or her followers.
Yet, “that’s not the only area where leaders must show initiative,” says Maxwell. “They must always look for opportunities and be ready to take action.”
Maxwell is a genius when it comes to distilling the characteristics of every aspect of leadership. And in this case, his brilliance comes through again in The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, with four qualities that he believes enable leaders to take initiative and make things happen.
1. Leaders know what they want. Clarity and vision are the keys here. Maxwell points to Napoleon Hill who said that the starting point of all achievement is desire. “If you are going to be an effective leader, you’ve got to know what you want [and where you’re going]. That’s the only way you’ll recognize opportunity when it comes.”
2. Leaders push themselves to act. “There’s an old saying, ‘You can if you will.’ Initiators don’t wait for other people to motivate them. They know it is their responsibility to push themselves beyond their comfort zone. And they make it a regular practice.”
3. Leaders take more risks. “When leaders know what they want and can push themselves to act, they still have one more hurdle. That’s willingness to take risks. Proactive people always take risks. But one of the reasons good leaders are willing to take risks is that they recognize there is a price for not initiating too.” Maxwell shares a quote from President John F. Kennedy:
“There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
4. Leaders make more mistakes. “The good news for initiators is that they make things happen. The bad news is that they make lots of mistakes. […] Even though initiating leaders experience more failure, they don’t let it bother them. The greater the potential, the greater their chance for failure. […] If you want to achieve great things as a leader, you must be willing to initiate and put yourself on the line.”
As Maxwell reflects on these traits, he asks, “When was the last time you initiated something significant in your life?” I’ll leave you with that thought to ponder today and a quote by former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca who said, “Even the right decision is the wrong decision if it is made too late.”
Where do you need to jump-start your initiative?
ACTION
TODAY: Think about something that you’ve wanted to do for some time but have been putting it off. Why is that? Analyze your mindset and determine why you’re hesitant. Ask why five times so that you can get to the bottom of it and take initiative today—even if it’s just a tiny little step—towards making it happen.
FUTURE: Opportunity is everywhere. That is a wonderful thing, but it can also be overwhelming. Cultivate a mindset of discernment so that you can take initiative and act only on those opportunities in which you can succeed. That’s where your time and efforts will be rewarded.
Know someone who is constantly taking initiative? Please share this post with that person, he or she deserves recognition for being an initiator, hats off! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Habits, Mindset, Productivity, Resources, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 37 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Break free from your inbox
— From Laura Vanderkam’s email series “Just a minute” sent November 1, 2018.
Laura Vanderkam is one of my favorite authors whose books have changed the way I organize my life and use my time (you can read more about that here, here, here and here).
Her approach to time management is very sensible and, since she is a journalist, she does her own research and really digs into things to find out what works and what doesn’t in terms of using our time wisely. I can’t say enough good things about her and her work! (BTW, I had the honor of interviewing her a couple years ago, you can watch it here.)
I subscribe to her Just a Minute email newsletter and, in the most recent one, she shared some g-r-e-a-t tips about email. Specifically, she shares tips on how to deal with our inbox more effectively and break free from the tyranny of feeling that we have to check email all day long and be always connected.
Since I’m always trying to get better, faster, and more effective at email—yet at times it still feels like I’m trying to stop the waves of the ocean—I thought I’d share with you what she wrote, in case you have the same ups and downs that I do about email. (If you want to read Laura’s full email online click here.)
Thank you, Laura! 😀
Laura Vanderkam has been tracking her time for 3 years now, and is a big proponent of doing so (I did it a while back for a month and it’s a great exercise—I highly recommend it too!). Recently, she was tracking her screen time and she was surprised to find out that the time she spent on email was less than she thought it was. She talked about this with other screen trackers, and the revelation was the same.
So, what to make out of this?
Vanderkam says, “I think what happens for many of us is that email consumes more mindshare than hours. Checking email 8 times an hour for an average of one minute at a time adds up to just 1 hour over an 8-hour workday, but you will feel like you are on email all day long.”
Hmmmmmmm, very good point.
She offers the following seven suggestions to break free from your inbox and handle it in a much more organized way:
1. Accept that you don’t have to respond to everything. “At some point, you can’t. Expectations are infinite. Time is finite. You are always choosing. Choose well. If you’re inevitably going to disappoint someone, you want to be sure you’re disappointing the right people.”
2. Get a real alarm clock. “Using a smartphone as an alarm clock makes it very easy to wade into your inbox before you’ve had your coffee. After all, the icon will show that messages have come in over night, creating a sense that you need to do something about them. But you probably don’t (see the first point).”
3. Commit to a power hour. “Rather than clearing the decks and getting current on email before starting more focused work, do the focused work first. Your inbox will still be there, and it will feel less oppressive when you know you’re making progress on other things.”
4. Deal with email when you can do something about it. “Rumination eats hours, often pointlessly. Put the phone in airplane mode between planned email breaks. This doesn’t work if you get a lot of unscheduled calls you need to take, but if you don’t, then make it more difficult to randomly dip in and out of your inbox.”
5. Stretch the time until you respond to things that aren’t urgent. “Schedule a time every few days to get your inbox to your definition of “current.” If you know there’s a time tomorrow to deal with email, you might stop thinking about most of it until then.”
6. Do more video calls. “I know one of the upsides of working from home is the ability to take phone calls when you haven’t shaved or brushed your hair. But in audio-only mode it’s very easy not to pay attention, and checking email is the easiest way to distract yourself.”
7. Forget about inbox zero. “I know some people disagree with me on this! But I think having a goal of zero unread messages encourages people to pop into their inboxes frequently just to delete stuff. Deleting emails feels very productive — look, I got down from 150 unread messages to 25! — but it isn’t productive in the grand scheme of things. ‘She deleted all her email’ is unlikely to land on anyone’s tombstone. Focus on what matters, and use email as a tool to achieve that. Remember that it is not an end unto itself.”
I keep reminding myself that email should work for me and not the other way around, and all these handy tips will work on reinforcing that. Hope they work for you too! Let me know how you apply them in the comments here.
ACTION
TODAY: From the list above, apply the suggestions that will help you be more effective at email. Be aware of what happens, and see if you can decrease the mindshare that email occupies in favor of other priorities.
FUTURE: Track your screen time: there are many apps for that purpose that work well on both computers and smartphones/tablets. Or you can go the low-tech way with pen and paper, which is very good too. What does it say about the amount of time you spend on email?
Know someone who could benefit from learning these tips? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 50 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Write a great last chapter-Part 2
— From Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer
Yesterday we learned Danny Meyer’s approach to mistakes: writing a great last chapter. “The worst mistake,” he says, “is not to figure out some way to end up in a better place after having made a mistake.”
Today, Meyer expands on his philosophy for handling/addressing mistakes and why it’s important to learn from them.
In his restaurant business, “when something goes wrong, it is essential for the manager on whose watch the mistake occurred to make every effort to connect with the guest within 24 hours.” Depending on your business, the time frame for connecting may be different, but it is indeed essential to connect with the affected party.
The author says, “No matter how much you try to erase what has happened, you cannot.” And he adds, “Why wait for a second or third letter from somebody who has now cc’d his report of your fallibility and culpability to the Chamber of Commerce, the restaurant critic of The New York Times, and the Zagat Survey? Instead, take initiative.”
The initiative that Meyer suggests—and takes—is as follows:
1. Respond graciously, and do so at once. “You know you’re going to resolve the mistake eventually. It’s always a lot less costly to resolve the matter at the outset.”
2. Err on the side of generosity. “Apologize and make sure the value of the redemption is worth more than the cost of the initial mistake.”
3. Always write a great last chapter. “People love to share stories of adversity. Use this powerful force to your advantage by writing the closing statement the way you want it told. Use all your imagination and creativity in thinking about your response.”
4. Learn from the mistake. “Use every new mistake as a teaching tool with your employees [or colleagues]. Unless the mistake involved a lack of integrity, the person who made it has actually helped your team by providing you with new opportunities to improve.”
5. Make new mistakes every day. “Don’t waste time repeating the old ones.”
These last two points showcase one of the reasons why Meyer has been so successful. He is not afraid of him or his staff making mistakes, he knows it’s a natural part of life and business, and he welcomes the lessons and improvements that each mistake brings.
If you want to learn more about Meyer’s story and his philosophy about hospitality, my friend Don Crawford kindly pointed me to this recent podcast. Thanks, Don, it’s awesome! If you have a resource that goes well with a particular post and you’d like me to share it, please let me know, I’ll be happy to do so. 🙂
ACTION
TODAY: Hindsight is always 20/20, but in this case it can definitely help: think of a mistake you’ve done in the past. How could you have solved it in a more timely way and written a great last chapter? Do this exercise a few times, focusing on a different mistake each time. By imagining how the process and the ending could be different, you’ll be getting ideas as to how to handle future mistakes applying Meyer’s philosophy.
FUTURE: Make it a habit of incorporating Meyer’s five initiative points above to your life and business. You and your team will be able to handle and learn from mistakes in a much better way!
Know someone who would like this approach to mistakes? Please share this post: Email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 12 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Write a great last chapter-Part 1
— From Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer
Danny Meyer, restaurateur and hospitality guru says, “The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled.”
I love his take on this!
He and his team refer to their strategy for handling mistakes as “writing a great last chapter.” While Meyer’s examples come from the restaurant world, the approach can be adapted to any business. The author explains:
Whatever mistake happened, happened. And the person on the receiving end will naturally want to tell anyone who’s interested at all about it. That’s to be expected. While we can’t erase what happened, we do have the power to write one last episode so that at least the story ends the way we want. If we write a great one, we will earn a comeback victory with the guest. Also, the guest will have no choice but to focus on how well we responded to the mistake when telling anyone we made it. We can, then, turn a mistake into something positive. To be effective, the last chapter must be written imaginatively, graciously, generously, and sincerely. And sometimes we even write a great last chapter when it was the guest, not us, who made the mistake.
Meyer recalls an occasion when Senator Bob Kerrey—whom he knew well—was having a dinner party at one of his restaurants. One of Kerrey’s guests found a beetle in his salad. Kerrey ran into Meyer the next day and told him. Meyer, rightly so, apologized and asked if his staff had handled it well, to which the Senator replied that, indeed, the staff had handled it incredibly well.
After the conversation with Senator Kerrey, who was then having lunch at another of Meyer’s restaurants, Meyer spoke to the General Manager and told him:
“There was a mistake last night at Gramercy Tavern. We’ve got to figure out how to write a great last chapter here,” and explained what had happened. Further, Meyer added, “Whether or not Senator Kerrey or his guest orders a salad during his lunch, I want you to deliver a beautiful salad and garnish it with a small piece of paper. On that piece of paper, I want to you write the word RINGO, and when you deliver it, you can tell them ‘Danny wanted to make sure you knew that Gramercy Tavern wasn’t the only one of his restaurants that’s willing to garnish your salad with a beatle.”
Meyer points out: “It was now impossible for Senator Kerrey to tell anyone the story about the beetle in the salad without also mentioning the ‘last chapter’ we wrote the following day.”
Most mistakes in Meyer’s business, according to him, are like this one and small enough to fix. But whether it’s something like this or a complaint of any other kind, the author focuses on a twofold mission. “First, to learn from the mistake and to profit from what we’ve learned; and second, to write a great last chapter that allows us to end up in a better place with the guest than if we had never made the mistake in the first place.”
I think Meyer’s approach to mistakes and hospitality is fantastic. Please come back tomorrow to continue learning from him on how to handle mistakes.
Do you have any stories of mistakes well handled? I’d love to hear them! Please let me know in the comments here.
ACTION
TODAY: Whether you make a mistake or someone else does, big or small, you can write a great last chapter. What will you write?
FUTURE: Make it a habit of incorporating the mindset of writing a great last chapter in your life and business. You and your team will be able to handle and learn from mistakes in a much better way!
Know someone who would like this approach to mistakes? Please share this post! Email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Resources, Wellbeing
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 15 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: No Skunking
— From Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer
Danny Meyer’s wonderful book Setting the Table is all about hospitality in the restaurant industry. However, the leadership style and the lessons that this great restaurateur shares can be applied to any kind of business, not just restaurants.
I was particularly struck about a passage in the book where he talks about the qualities of self-awareness and integrity going hand in hand: “It takes integrity to be self-aware and to hold one’s self accountable for doing the right thing.”
Specifically, he says, “self-awareness is understanding your moods and how they affect you and others. In a sense, it’s a personal weather report…” But no matter whether the personal mood is sunny or rainy, it’s crucial for people in business “to be aware of and accountable for their own personal weather reports.”
He goes on to say that “no one can possibly be upbeat and happy all the time, but personal mastery depends on team members being aware of their moods and keep[ing] them in check. If a staff member is having personal trouble and wakes up feeling angry, nervous, depressed, or anxious, he or she needs to recognize and deal with the mood. It does not serve anyone’s purposes to project that mindset into the work environment or on to one’s colleagues.”
Meyer’s term for that is skunking: “A skunk may spray a predator when it feels threatened, but everyone else within two miles has to smell the spray, and these others may assume that the skunk actually had it in for them. It’s not productive to work with a skunk, and it’s not enjoyable to be served by one either. In a business that depends on the harmony of an ensemble, a skunk’s scent is toxic.”
I think this analogy is perfect. My dog has been sprayed by a skunk twice (!), and it’s one of the most repulsive and disgusting experiences we’ve had. We’ve taken—and will continue to take—every precaution to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Skunking in the workplace should be avoided too, as it can spread widely if left unchecked, hurting the organization inside and outside as well.
And this is where we come full circle: it takes integrity to check with ourselves and determine what mood we’re in. If it’s a great one, fantastic, let’s spread the joy. If not, the first step is to acknowledge it and keep it in check, so that we can resolve it (or put it on hold temporarily) and change it for the mood that best suits our business endeavors. And remember: absolutely no skunking!
If this is of any help, I’ve found something that works for me: when I’m not in a good mood and I need to work, I give myself permission to change my mood temporarily. For instance, I tell myself that I will temporarily become happy and postpone my being upset or worried about whatever is making me unhappy when I get back from the office, because I need to be at my best during work and with clients. This usually helps, and by the time I’m back I don’t want to go back to being upset any longer, so I can see what was bugging me in a different light and focus on solving it favorably.
ACTION
TODAY: Take some time to do a personal weather report. Is your mood sunny and beautiful? Partially cloudy? Rainy? Cold and nasty? Be honest with yourself if you’re not in a good mood so that you don’t skunk others (not even inadvertently). How could your self-awareness and integrity help you in this instance? We’re all different: think of something that will work for you and the dynamics of your team.
FUTURE: Adopt the no skunking rule into your life and that of your teammates and business.
Know someone who has been skunked? Help them out by sharing this post! Email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Productivity, Resources, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 53 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Warren Buffett’s little-known tool for prioritizing
— From Warren Buffett’s 5-Step Process for Prioritizing True Success (and Why Most People Never Do It) as appears in the Live Your Legend blog post by the late Scott Dinsmore. Today the site is run by Chelsea Dinsmore.
We’ve talked about prioritizing before, yet I’m always on a quest for additional tools and hacks that can I bring into my life and my projects.
Today I came across a great story in the Live Your Legend blog. It’s about Warren Buffet teaching his pilot a 5-step process on how to prioritize, and a great, new, little-known tool that everyone should adopt.
The story goes like this (taken directly from the post):
1. Know what you want – List your top 25. One day, a few years back Warren went up to his pilot (we’ll call him Steve) and jokingly said, “The fact that you’re still working for me, tells me I’m not doing my job. You should be out, going after more of your goals and dreams.” Warren then asked Steve to list the top 25 things he wanted to do in the next few years or even his lifetime.
2. Pick your Top 5. Once Steve completed his list, Warren then asked him to review each item and circle the top five that were most important to him. The ones he wanted more than anything. Steve was hesitant because, to him, they were all massively important. After all, that’s why he wrote them down. But Warren insisted that he could only pick five. So Steve spent some time with his list and after some deliberation, made five circles. “Are you sure these are the absolute highest priority for you?” Warren asked. Steve confidently replied the affirmative.
3. Make your Top 5 Plan. Warren now asked Steve when he planned to get to work on these top 5 and what his approach would be. They spent the next while discussing Steve’s plan. Steve explained “Warren, these are the most important things in my life right now. I’m going to get to work on them right away. I’ll start tomorrow. Actually, no, I’ll start tonight.” Steve went on to explain his plan, who he would enlist to help him, and by when all these items would get done. Warren was starting to get excited. With any luck, he would be out of a pilot within weeks…
4. Marry your priorities. Once the Top 5 planning session was over, Warren then asked, “but what about these other 20 things on your list that you didn’t circle? What is your plan for completing those?” Steve replied confidently, “Well the top five are my primary focus, but the other twenty come in at a close second. They are still important, so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit as I’m getting through my top 5. They are not as urgent but I still plan to give them dedicated effort.” To Steve’s surprise, Warren responded sternly, “No. You’ve got it wrong, Steve. Everything you didn’t circle just became your ‘avoid at all cost list’. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your top 5.”
5. Know your ‘Avoid at all Cost List‘ and stick to it. Warren makes a powerful and somewhat unconventional point here. Most people would suggest ranking their second most important items just below their first. Makes sense at first, but as it turns out, this is the type of behavior that creates some of the most detrimental distractions in making big things happen.
I love the concept of the ‘avoid-at-all-cost’ list and, as of right-this-very-second, I am incorporating it into my life. I think it’s a great idea and another tool for focus, concentration, and success.
By having an ‘avoid-at-all-costs’ list, your mind will not be distracted by the priorities in that list. It’s as if you put them in a vault and forget about them. You can’t get them out until the other ones are done, so you will not spend precious mental energy thinking about those things that are not your immediate focus. Brilliant!
Do you like the concept of the ‘avoid-at-all-costs’ list as much as I do? Let me know in the comments here.
ACTION
TODAY: Set up some time in your calendar to follow Buffet’s 5 steps and create a plan to achieve your goals.
FUTURE: Once you have your plan, focus, focus, and focus on your top 5 priorities. That laser-like aim will enable you to devote all your energy to your top 5 goals and crush them!
Know anybody who could use this 5-step process to prioritize? Please share this post via Email, Facebook or Twitter.
