Friday, July 31, 2015

4 hour work week

I feel like I've forgotten all the take-aways from this inspiring book.  Thankfully I found a few notes:

1. Are you inventing things to do to avoid the important?  Yikes.  I do this in spades.

2. Don't interrupt or be interrupted

3. Pick 2 tasks to do per day

4. Focus on the important

5. Do not multi-task

6. Limit meetings -- attending and holding; always have agendas

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Leadership

I missed out on an internal eadership course at work, but got the chance to browse the course materials quickly.

I'm missing a lot of the context, but thought I might note some of the salient points.

Management is a work activity, but leadership is choice.  It's a lens, if you will, something you need to pay attention to.

Do I have leadership credibility?  What's my track record for:
making tough decisions
dealing with performance issues
influencing others

I'd say that I have a lot more miles to go before I can call myself a strong leader.  I've got a few notches in my belt, but not enough to give me credibility.

Creditibility derailers.  There are many that affect leadership outcomes (e.g. our ability to build teams, meet objectives, influence others).  Mine are short-sightedness, risk aversion, conflict avoidance, over and under managing, emotional incompetence.  Need to work on these.  But how?

Resilience (getting back up when you've fallen, learning from the experience and moving forward) this is key.  I've had a lot handed to me in my career so there hasn't been much opportunity to test my resilience.  But in my personal life, I'm plenty resilient.  Everyday I act with resolve.

Last point is on consciousness.  I'm aware, but am I taking deliberate steps to strengthen my leadership?  Afterall, "we become what we think about".