- March 14, 2013
- Communication, Leadership, Mindset, Team Building
As you know everyone is so busy now. Every day is filled with things to do, complete and accomplish, and a day can be over in a flash. How often do you look back and say, where did the time go, or, I did not get to what I meant to do today?
Even if you have a path laid out and are using your time to complete something that is a priority, interruptions are part of the day, especially if you have not created a system for more scheduled check-ins with your staff and your peers.
Recently, at the suggestion of a client, I read The 12 Week Year, by Michael Lexington and Brian P. Moran which creates a new time mindset away from the year and into a more realistic time period to complete goals. In addition, the premise of the 12 Week Year allows leaders and implementation teams to look at a 12-week period for creating goals and completions that lead up to the major goals for the year. It is important, however, to view the time period as 12 weeks and not a quarter as the latter continues the mindset of a year.
The other aspect of looking at time differently relates to scheduling time and keeping the commitments you make to yourself.
How many of you use your calendar for meetings without designating time for reflection or completion of research or a project? In my upcoming new book, Jumping from the I-Pod to the We-Pod, I discuss the importance of taking time to prepare as it enhances value as a leader, and your personal influence in executive meetings. I share an example of a wonderful COO with a great deal of talent and wisdom who was quiet in the meetings with the CEO because his lack of time to reflect created a lack of confidence to speak and share perceptions and creative ideas for innovation and business improvement.
In many settings calendars are public so a meeting can be scheduled for you by someone else if the time is free. If you set an appointment on your calendar for reflection and completion and call it a meeting regarding whatever you are working on, no one will push that aside as they look for your free time.
As a leader, time to reflect is of paramount importance. Time to prepare for executive team meetings of the team of your peers and top leaders or a team meeting with the team you lead, requires some prep time to create an effective meeting. (Please visit the main blog page for more discussions on effective meetings.)
In the consultation session that I am offering the time period for your vision is a year. You can take the clarity of vision for moving forward and create 12-week goals for yourself and with your team to bring time into a new and supportive tool for implementation and engagement. Visit here to sign up for your consultation session today.
If you have a question, challenge or particular success story you would like to share, be sure to leave a comment, I would enjoy hearing from you. – Patricia
