Archive for Decision-making
What does your daily agenda say about you?
Posted by: | CommentsHow would you describe your life? Are you achieving what you desire? Are you accomplishing the things that are important to you? Do you consider yourself a success? How do your prospects look for the future?
If I could come to your house and spend just one day with you, I would be able to tell whether or not you will be successful. You could pick the day. If I got up with you in the morning and went through the day with you, watching you for 24 hours, I could tell in what direction your life is headed.
When I tell this to people at conferences, there’s always a strong reaction. Some people are surprised. Some get defensive because they think I would be making a snap judgment about them. A few get ticked off because they think my claim sounds arrogant. Others are intrigued and desire to know why I make such a statement.
Here is why: I believe that the secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. If you make a few key decisions and then manage them well in your daily agenda, you will succeed.
You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. You see, success, doesn’t just suddenly occur one day in someone’s life. For that matter, neither does failure. Each is a process. Every day of your life is merely preparation for the next. What you become is the result of what you do today. In other words…
You are preparing for something.
The question is, What are you preparing for? Are you grooming yourself for success or failure? As my father used to tell me when I was growing up, “You can pay now, and play later, or you can play now and pay later. But either way, you are going to pay.” The idea was that you can play and take it easy and do what you want today, but if you do, your life will be harder later. However, if you work hard now, on the front end, then you will reap rewards in the future.
Think about it: What are you preparing for today? Success or failure? Does your daily agenda indicate that you make a habit of paying before you play? Answering these questions is a good predictor of what you will become tomorrow and in the future.
From Today Matters
The joy of not knowing…
Posted by: | CommentsSome people believe that great leaders have all the answers. Not true. Successful leaders don’t know everything. But they know people who do. If you ask me a question related to one of my organizations and I don’t know the answer, I know which person in the organization does. If you ask about my profession, I may not know the answer, but with a phone call or two, I can talk to someone who can answer the question. And if you ask about the details of my life and schedule and I don’t know the answer, I guarantee you there’s someone who does – my assistant.
For leaders, it’s okay not to know everything.
The most important decision I ever made to keep me focused and to simplify my life was to hire a top-notch assistant. For twenty-seven of the last thirty years of my life, I have been served by two wonderful assistants: Linda Eggers, and, before her, Barbara Brumagin. Their value to me has been enormous.
My assistant is the primary hub of information for my life. Everything flows to and through her. I trust Linda Eggers to know everything so that I don’t have to. More importantly, she has learned to sift information and grasp the most important details. When we communicate, Linda gives me the main thing, which enables me to see what to do next, helps me to know why it is important, and empowers me to bring the appropriate resources to bear on the need at hand.
Because Linda is the center of information for my life, she knows the good, the bad, and the ugly. That works because I trust her completely. And when she tells me bad news, I am careful not to “shoot the messenger.” Taking out your frustrations on the people who bring you bad news quickly stops the flow of communication.
For leaders, it’s okay not to be the first to know.
Most people have a strong natural desire to be “in the know.” That’s why gossip magazines and tabloid newspapers sell so well. Leaders also have a strong desire to be “in the know” when it comes to their organizations. No leader likes to be blindsided. However, good leaders can’t afford to be caught up in every little detail of the organization. If they do, they lose their perspective and their ability to lead.
In any organization, problems should always be solved at the lowest level possible. If every problem must be shared with leaders first, then solutions take forever. Besides, the people on the front lines are usually the ones who provide the best solutions, whether it’s on the production line, the battle line, or the breadline.
Taking myself out of the middle of everything lessens my personal importance to many people in my organizations, but it allows me to do that which is personally important to me. It also means that assignments are not always done “my way.” But I have discovered that most things can be accomplished effectively in many ways.
What about you? Are you determined to know everything that goes on in your organization or department? Do you get a thrill from being the first to know? Do you live by the motto, “If you want something done right, do it yourself”? If so, you are complicating your life and risking burnout. This only limits you as a leader. Begin relying on other people and cultivating trust in them. Only then can you be free to focus on the most important things.
Adapted from Leadership Gold: Lessons I’ve Learned
from a Lifetime of Leading
The 3 R’s of Decision-making
Posted by: | CommentsThis past week on Twitter, I’ve been sharing some of my favorite quotes on priorities and time management. Important topics for every generation, priorities and time management seem to become more and more crucial every decade.
Today, in the age of the smartphone and social media, even technology has joined the fight for our most precious commodity: TIME.
A few decades ago, I came up with three critical questions on priorities. They still serve me well today, and I hope they’re valuable to you.
Before any decision on where to invest my time, this is what I ask myself:
- What is REQUIRED of me? Any realistic assessment of priorities in any area of life must start with a realistic assessment of what you must do. For you to be a good spouse or parent, what is required of you? To satisfy your employer, what must you do? If you lead others, then what must you personally do that cannot be delegated to anyone else?
- What gives me the greatest RETURN? As you progress in your career, you begin to discover that some activities yield a much higher return for the effort than others. After determining requirements, focus on choices with a high return on investment (ROI).
- What gives me the greatest REWARD? If you do only what you must, along with what is effective, then you will probably be highly productive. But you may not be content. I think it’s also important to consider what gives you personal satisfaction.
Note: These questions are meant to be asked IN ORDER. Many of us would love to skip down to #3 and focus on the most rewarding/fun/exciting activities. But no one can be successful who doesn’t possess the discipline to take care of the first two areas before adding the third.
The time that you have on this earth is precious – every minute of it. As Ralph Waldo Emerson advised, “Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”
~Adapted from Today Matters
Don’t quit during training
Posted by: | Comments“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’”
~Muhammad Ali
Many people make decisions when things aren’t going well. They look for relief in the despair of the valley instead of waiting for the clarity that comes from being on the mountaintop.
Why? Because it takes a lot of effort to get to the mountaintop. And when you’re experiencing the darkness of the valley, it’s always tempting to make changes that you hope will relieve the discomfort.
My advice may be counterintuitive, but quitting during a struggle (or during training like Ali’s quote above) is rarely a good idea. The best time to make decisions is when you’re succeeding. If you fight your way through the valley, you’ll make better decisions at the top of the mountain. Here’s why:
- You can see your situation more clearly.
- You are moving to something, not just from something.
- You leave those around you in a better position.
- You decide using positive data, not negative.
- You are more likely to move from peak to peak instead of valley to valley.
So what should you do in the valley? Persevere. If you keep fighting, you’re likely to get your second wind, just as distance runners do. And it’s said that only when runners are exhausted enough to reach that place do they find out what they can truly accomplish.
If you keep persevering while you are in the valley, not only will you likely make it to the higher ground where you can make better decisions, but you will also have developed character, which will serve you well throughout life.
Use the clarity of mountaintop moments to make major decisions.
~from The Maxwell Daily Reader
Are you driven by Emotion? Or Character?
Posted by: | CommentsEarlier this week on Facebook and Twitter, I shared this statement from Dick Biggs:
The greatest gap in life is the one between knowing and doing.
Life would certainly be easier – and success more simple – if all it took to achieve was to KNOW the right things and DECIDE to do them, right? But I think it’s more accurate to say that a decision is just one bookend of achievement. The other is discipline. Decisions can only help us start. Discipline helps us finish.
That’s where character comes in. Emotion might drive us to make a decision. But character is what keeps us going, even when it gets hard.
In Developing the Leader Within You, I wrote about some differences between character-driven and emotion-driven people:
Character-driven people…
- Do right, then feel good.
- Are commitment driven.
- Make principle-based decisions.
- Let action control attitude.
- Believe it, then see it.
- Create momentum.
- Ask, “What are my responsibilities?
- Continue when problems arise.
- Are steady.
- Are leaders.
Emotion-driven people…
- Feel good, then do right.
- Are convenience-driven.
- Make popular decisions.
- Let attitude control action.
- See it, then believe it.
- Wait for momentum.
- Ask, “What are my rights?”
- Quit when problems arise.
- Are moody.
- Are followers.
The late Louis L’Amour is one of the best-selling authors of all time, with over 300 million copies of his popular western novels and short-story collections sold. When asked the key to his prolific writing, he responded, “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
