As Stephan Covey once said, "Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out."
In today's hectic business world, it is easy to get caught up in everything and lose sight of what the priorities really are. Sometimes, the priorities are clear but the execution process is difficult.
When we first met, one of my clients was struggling with significant turnover. They had been operating with the mentality of hiring fast and firing fast. Whenever they had an opening, they hired as fast as they could to fill the void. After all, they had customer orders to fulfill and they needed people in place to do it. The problem was that not everyone was the right person for their company—they really didn’t share the company core values or fit into the culture.
I’m a bit of a nature lover so for my weekly “Clarity Break,” I wake up early on Sunday mornings and walk in nature. One of my favorite things to do is to be peaceful and observe the proven processes of how nature works. It’s disciplined, has a rhythm, it is repeatable and scalable.
Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take." Having spent more than 1,000 days in the trenches with entrepreneurs and their leadership teams, I can safely say that quotation applies just as well to business as it does to sports. Because when it comes to making decisions, calling things “done”, and launching important work—leaders and teams fall into three camps.
Last weekend I took my 13 year-old daughter on a father-daughter trip. For the weekend I made a commitment to myself to turn off and not check my devices (phone, tablet, etc.), and asked my daughter to do the same. It was hard for both of us on the first day but by the end of the weekend, we saw a 180 degree change in the depth of our conversations to a type we’ve never previously had. We were truly being present with each other and it showed.
