Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Busy - Two Kinds

"There are two kinds of Busy. One is busy "on purpose" and the other is busy "on convenience". One kind reduces busy and the other perpetuates it. "

- Rick Wallace

Yes there are two kinds of busy, one works and one doesn't - although we believe it does - one of those false beliefs we talk about.

Yes I'm busy. I have blocked off the next 60 minutes so I could focus. I am focused on preparing for a weekly team huddle -- updating the charts on how we are doing against our goals for the quarter. I then facilitate the 20 minute Huddle reviewing the charts, reviewing the team's individual dashboards, and discussing a core value.

I could have been busy running around "helping" out, managing, showing people how to do their jobs, answering their questions, and following up with employees on the fly to ensure they are doing what they are supposed to. Pitching in here and there. Watching them and making sure they are busy. "Oh no we are out of "that". I'll run over and get some - be back in an hour. No, while I'm out, I'll also deliver "that" too." It is convenient, easy to just show up and do the same thing every day.

Which "busy" gets the best results and ROI for the time invested? Which busy builds a company that is accountable for results? Which busy frees you up and allows you to work "on your purpose", your WHY, your dreams?

It is your Choice! 

Regards,  
Rick Wallace

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Slow Down

"Don't mistake activity with achievement." 
"Be quick, but don't hurry."  
- John Wooden  

Ladies and Gentlemen, heed the advice please. You guys, as I talk to you each month, seem to be spinning your wheels as fast as you can.  

Develop different Habits. Less but better. Saying no to some things that are not essential. Slow down to speed up your success. Do the important vs the urgent. Heed the advice. Quit saying to yourself  "things will slow down soon and I'll have time to work on that Rock". Work on the Rock now -the pebbles will get done or they will not matter in the long term. Work on that Rock now and you won't be as busy next time.  

From Steve Chandler:  

You'll feel better if you slow down.  You'll get more done, too.

It doesn't seem like it would be true.  It doesn't seem like slowing down would get that much more done.  But it does.  Every day you do it, you will get more done.  Every day you experiment with slowing down you will understand the truth behind the legend of the tortoise and the hare.  (The turtle won the race.)

The most important element of slowing down is to know that you're always working on the right thing to be working on at any given time.  Business consultant Chet Holmes said that he and his clients accomplish that by making sure each day has only six things on the Must Do list.  That list lets them slow down.

"Why only six things?" says Holmes.  "Because with a bigger list than that, generally you just try to trim the list.  You spend the day trimming the list.  At the end of the day you feel that most of the important things on the list did not get completed.  You just look down and say, 'Oh, I didn't do the most important things.'  There's a bad psychological impact in not finishing your list!  And so only list the six most important things...and then make sure you get them done.  You'll be amazed at how much you've accomplished." 

If I am on the wrong road it doesn't matter how good I get at speeding down the road.  It's the wrong road.

I need to remind myself of this: Slow down and win.  I need to take my sweet, gentle time.  I want this conversation ahead of me to be relaxed and strong so that the relationship I have becomes relaxed and strong.  So all day it helps to tell myself:  Slow down.  Even slower than that.  There you go
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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

No And Focus

"Anything you focus on grows."
- Steve Chandler

 
Do the One Thing, The Only Thing

From Steve Chandler: 

One slow thing at a time is a strong way to live. Being focused is a strong way to live.

Richard Sloma explains it in his powerful book "No-Nonsense Management: A General Manager's Primer". Pardon the cliché, but General Custer could have become one of our most famous military heroes if, somehow, he could have forced the Sioux nation to attack over the hill one at a time. Supremacy of the seas was guaranteed for the British when Lord Nelson maximized and exploited the technique of "crossing the 'T'" so as to allow all of his ships to fire broadside at each enemy ship as it appeared next in line.  Look at problems as adversaries. Summon all your forces and deal with them one at a time.

The Number #1 Reason to Focus  

From Seth Godin: 

You will care more about the things that aren't working yet, you'll push through the dip, you'll expend effort and expose yourself to fear.

When you have a lot of balls in the air, it's easy to just ignore the ones that make you uncomfortable or that might fall.

Success comes from doing the hard part. When the hard part is all you've got, you're more likely to do it.

And this is precisely why it's difficult to focus. Because focusing means acknowledging that you just signed up for the hard part.

From Steve Chandler:  

We don't have time to do everything we want to do today.  If you have any kind of success at all going on in your life, that will be your reality: more to do than time allows. Celebrate that. Then go warrior on your list and DELETE and/or DELEGATE as many items as you can.  

It's what you say NO to that creates your focus and pathway to an invented future. Not what you keep saying YES to all day in a vain attempt to please others and get them to like you and think you are accommodating.

My Input: 

To focus you have to say NO to other things and requests. You have to commit to yourself as though you were making a commitment to your largest customer. We cannot continue to say yes to everyone that requests something from us. That is what we do now. We want to please everyone, we want to be helpful, and we don't want to disappoint people. But think of it this way - saying no is uncomfortable for a few moments, saying yes to something that is not IMPORTANT will hound us for weeks or months as we stress out over fitting it in with the IMPORTANT things we need to get accomplished.

There is no such thing as time management - you can't manage time, it is finite, but you can manage what you do in the time you have and the quality and impact the things you do in that time.

So the answer is to start politely, and with empathy, say NO to non-essential, non- important requests. People will begin to respect you for it and maybe begin to emulate you.

Are you blocking time on your schedule to work and focus on important ROCKS/ACTIONS that will impact the company and your life and sticking to that hour of uninterrupted time?

You must treat those appointments with yourself as meetings with your most important customer and not let them slip. Don't change them because you get a request from anyone else, including your best customer. After all you wouldn't change a meeting with your best customer to accommodate another customer would you? Other times are open and you would suggest those instead.

First you have to know your clear purpose, your goals and the Rocks/Actions that will get your there. Then start saying NO politely, with empathy and focusing on the important.

Rick Wallace 

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Success is Easy, But So Is Neglect

"You are the way you are because that's the way you want to be. If you really wanted to be any different, you would be in the process of changing right now."

-- Fred Smith, FedEx

Success is Easy, But So is Neglect  by Jim Rohn

People often ask me how I became successful in that six-year period of time while many of the people I knew did not. The answer is simple: The things I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful people. They said it probably really wouldn't matter. If I had to sum it up, I would say what I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. Six years later, I'm a millionaire and they are all still blaming the economy, the government, and company policies, yet they neglected to do the basic, easy things.

In fact, the primary reason most people are not doing as well as they could and should, can be summed up in a single word: neglect.
It is not the lack of money - banks are full of money. It is not the lack of opportunity - America, and much of the free World, continues to offer the most unprecedented and abundant opportunities in the last six thousand years of recorded history. It is not the lack of books - libraries are full of books - and they are free! It is not the schools - the classrooms are full of good teachers. We have plenty of ministers, leaders, counselors and advisors.

Everything we would ever need to become rich and powerful and sophisticated is within our reach. The major reason that so few take advantage of all that we have is simply neglect.

Neglect is like an infection. Left unchecked it will spread throughout our entire system of disciplines and eventually lead to a complete breakdown of a potentially joy-filled and prosperous human life.

Not doing the things we know we should do causes us to feel guilty and guilt leads to an erosion of self-confidence. As our self-confidence diminishes, so does the level of our activity. And as our activity diminishes, our results inevitably decline. And as our results suffer, our attitude begins to weaken. And as our attitude begins the slow shift from positive to negative, our self-confidence diminishes even more... and on and on it goes.

So my suggestion is that when giving the choice of "easy to" and "easy not to" that you do not neglect to do the simple, basic, "easy" but potentially life-changing activities and disciplines.