Archive for the ‘Priority Management’ Category

Just Schedule It

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

If you’re like me, you have expe­ri­enced the frus­tra­tion that comes from com­mit­ting to some­thing, and then miss­ing the dead­line. That “some­thing” could be fin­ish­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion, com­plet­ing a project, writ­ing an overview, or prepar­ing for meeting.

As an Exec­u­tive Coach, I have often observed suc­cess­ful lead­ers deal with the frus­tra­tion that comes from over-committing. It is usu­ally born from a fail­ure to fully assess the amount of time a project will take to complete.

The sce­nario goes some­thing like this:

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Your Perfect Week

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Think about the best work week you have ever had.  Maybe you just started day­dream­ing about that award trip to the Bahamas, or the lead­er­ship con­fer­ence (golf­ing vaca­tion) in Palm Springs….but for the pur­pose of this exer­cise, let’s con­sider some­thing else.

Think about a week that you really brought your “A” game to the office. 

You were on time, fully present and pre­pared for all your meet­ings.  You closed the deals you were work­ing on.  You exe­cuted with excel­lence.  Not only this, but you had time to think, to plan, to exer­cise, and you were home in time for din­ner!  Did I men­tion email?  Yes, you were even caught up on all email cor­re­spon­dence.  Not just your work email, but your Linkedin, Face­book, and per­sonal email accounts.

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There is No Substitute for One on One Time

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Today has been a won­der­ful day!  It began with an early morn­ing meet­ing with a friend who has been men­tor­ing me for the last 13 years.  Recently, my time with him has been less fre­quent, but when­ever I am with him I learn and grow.  Our meet­ing took place at my favorite local cof­fee house here in Lake Oswego.  He was pour­ing into me.

Father and DaughterAfter an hour and a half, he left, and one of my sons came by.  He is 17, and is fin­ish­ing up his senior year with some classes at our local com­mu­nity col­lege.  The pur­pose of our one on one time was to con­nect and take a look at his plan for the next quar­ter.  It was an oppor­tu­nity for me to lis­ten to him and to con­nect at a deeper level.  I was able to pour into him.

The rea­son I wanted to share with you about my morn­ing is to chal­lenge you to think about how you will spend your time this year. 

Are you proac­tively sched­ul­ing one on one time with those you care for most?

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You Have to See the Whole Picture

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

If you were to call me and ask if I could fly out and meet with you on March 11th, the old me would pull up my CRM to see if that date was open.  If so, I would say sure, see you then! 

But what I could miss is that I was sched­uled to be at my daughter’s bal­let per­for­mance on the evening of the 10th, and that the fol­low­ing week, I am to make two major pre­sen­ta­tions.  Not to men­tion, this all comes after three very full weeks of meetings. 

The old me would have made a com­mit­ment to that date with­out assess­ing how it would impact me and those around me dur­ing that larger period of time.  Out­look was not good enough.

The solu­tion was to go back to a paper tool. 

Daniel's Yearly Fold-Out Calendar

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