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10 Imperatives for Change Leadership

As we progress through this economic “recovery”, our whole culture will continue to experience massive instability and constant change in multiple areas. Just look at the financial sector, health insurance reform, climate change, and peak oil to see that the way things are are not like the ways things were.  In order to survive – and even thrive – in this environment, we must learn to navigate change in a positive, pro-active way.

Only through a pro-active approach to managing change will you be able to take advantage of this environment, and capitalize on others’ not being ready to handle change in their world. Here are 10 directives I think are imperative to successfully leading through change projects:

1. Understand the new environment better than ever before – Being the first to understand and capitalize on today’s emerging trends will be the first step out of the current quagmire

2. Make others understand this new environment - We are not in Kansas anymore.  It is time we acknowledged this fact and moved forward.  As soon as you can get your team to understand this fact, you will start making forward progress.

3. Be a strategic thinker – Think broadly about your new opportunities, and bring your resources to bare in new ways

4. Establish focus and prioritize – Once you set your direction, focus on your tasks like a laser beam. Get the important things done now.

5. Be aggressive – New opportunities exist, but they will only be discovered by the ones who want it the most.

6. Ensure alignment - Make sure everyone on your team is working toward the same goals for the same reasons.

7. Execute – It has never been more important to be hands on with your business

8. Diligently monitor results – Use real data to make decisions and change things when necessary. You cannot manage what you do not measure.

9. Communicate constantly - Honest and open communication builds morale and makes people feel more confident, even when things are their shakiest.

10. Be resilient – Perhaps the tallest and most consequential order of them all: Be optimistic in the face of adversity.  If you don’t carry the torch, who will?

Now get out there and lead something!

Get Your 6 Most Important Things Done Every Day

Here is a powerful time management tip from Chet Holmes that totally rocks. Every day, make a list of your 6 most important things to get done that day. And then work diligently until they are done. Every day.

The beauty lies in the fact that the goals you list every day cannot be those longer-term goals, like “Get that MBA,” or “Open that dance studio.” Rather, they are the immediate , shortest-of-term, action-oriented details that all need to be accomplished in order for you to make your larger goals – whatever they may be – a reality.  And, doing so over and over every day has 2 huge benefits: 1) it gets you ever closer to accomplishing your goals, and 2) checking off to do lists feels so good.

But accomplishing daily goals, it turns out, might not be that easy.  Daily interruptions, busy work that must be completed, a phone call from a long time client that must be taken, all eat into your day making it difficult to get three things done, let alone six.  So, Chet offers more tips on how to accomplish these important incremental milestones:

Touch it Once - Don’t handle the document or open the email at all, unless you are ready to deal with it right then. Do the math: Just 15 minutes a day of re-touching old emails, bills, letters, memos, etc eats up 65 hours a year – over two and a half days!

Allocate Sufficient Time to Each Goal to Accomplish All 6 – He suggests that you should only allot 6.5 hours per day to accomplishing your 6 goals. Because we all have busy work and responsibilities to fulfill.

Plan the Day - Plan time for getting your proactive tasks done, and time to attend to your reactive responsibilities. If you group your reactive time into their own focused time slot, they will not distract you when you are focused on accomplishing your tasks.

Prioritize - Rather than putting your most difficult task off until later in the day, after you “get going,” Chet suggests placing your most difficult task first every day, so you can get it out of the way and go in through the rest of your day with a feeling of greater accomplishment.  Another way to go might be to consider the time of day when you are most productive and try to work on difficult tasks then.

Throw Away Unnecessary Clutter – 80% of what we keep as “important” is ultimately of no value to us. If you look at something in your hand and recognize that if wouldn’t hurt to throw it away (or recycle it), then do it. Right now.  Get rid of it and move on.

My To Do List for today follows. What’s yours?

Follow up with new contact (check)

Develop target customer profile (check)

Find technical information for website developer (check)

Finalize coaching agreement for new client (check)

Prepare market assessment for real estate deal (check)

Post this Blog (now…check)

…Best of luck.

How to write a good online comment

Here is an excerpt from an HBS article about how to write a good online comment, written by Tom Davenport.  He deftly writes the how to as a recipe, which I have shortened into the following list:

1. A dash of brevity.
2. A heaping tablespoon of clear and grammatical expression.
3. A pinch of humor.
4. A teaspoon of personal context.
5. A scant cup of nicety.
6. A seasoning of structure.

Sounds like this recipe would also work well applied to just about any aspect of your life or business.