How to Start Your Week with a Calm Mind

Ask any teacher how they spend their weekends and they'll tell you- grading papers and prepping for upcoming classes.  I once asked a friend in the software industry how he prepares for a week and he said with a shrug of his shoulders, "I guess I just show up on Monday and go to work."  

Basically, he had no idea what I was really asking.

Most leaders I know have a similar experience as teachers- they don't just show up on Monday for work.  Rather, they prepare the night before in order to start the week with a calm mind.  

A calm mind is what some call a "mind like water", i.e. a mindset that is perfectly prepared for whatever comes its way.  A calm mind also comes as a result of preparation for the week ahead.  

As Peter says in his first letter, "Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming."  While I don't think that Peter was typing this out on his iPhone, he does remind us to be people who take preparation seriously. 

A prepared leader is one who follows productivity routines.  

According to Elizabeth Grace Saunders in a recent HBR interview, "You want to have routines in place. So I'm a huge advocate of strengthening simple routines. Because on a day to day basis, we're stressed, we're overwhelmed. We can't think about, what's our priority, or what's the best thing to do? I need to have a routine in place."

I suggest starting the week the day before by taking time to review the following:

• What did you accomplish last week?
• What did you not accomplish in the past week?
• What do you need to accomplish in the coming week?

By looking at these three questions, you'll begin the week with poise and calm.  Not a bad way to kick things off.

How do you prepare for your week?

Photo courtesy of HB

Why Your Next Meeting Doesn't Have to Stink (plus a bonus offer)

When was the last time you attended a really great meeting? If you're like me, you had to think hard about that. Now shift gears and think of the last time you had to attend a lousy meeting. I bet that the inventory of those kinds of meetings is much bigger.  Ouch!

Dittos here. Bad meetings are way more common than we'd like to admit.

A recent Wall Street Journal study of executives revealed that most of their days were tied up in meetings.  18 hours a week, on average, were spent in meetings.  That's a lot of time and the video below shows a discussion of the rest of the study.

The issue of meetings isn't limited to CEO's.  The other night my town had a meeting to discuss trees. They were going to be describing how to dig a hole, insert a new tree and then keep it alive. I skipped out on the meeting because I figured that I could just as easily look it up online and figure it out on my own. One quick search in Google for "planting new trees" and my bet is that the rest will follow.

There are probably three options for meetings that apply to regular folks like you and me:

1. You could skip meetings altogether. Seth Godin says that he does this and that's one way to free up time.
2. You could tolerate bad meetings just as you do now. Not my favorite solution so keep reading.
3. You could transform meetings into productive experiences. Now we're talking!

For option #3, you need some level of control on your schedule. If you're an attendee, there's only so much you can do to make a meeting more tolerable. For example, if the meeting moderator is disorganized and in a habit of starting late, you could be in trouble.

If you do have the opportunity to run the meeting, this is where the magic happens. You can control almost every aspect of the meeting and the end result will be a happier audience. Good meetings typically involve the following elements:

1. A published agenda.
2. A respect for time (starting and ending time).
3. A pace that keeps things moving.
4. A tone that makes everyone feel respected.
5. An ability to listen to everyone present.
6. A bias towards actionable results.

If you've experienced any of the above six elements of a meeting, chances are it was time well spent. I've created a new eBook titled "How to Run Effective Meetings: the Six Practices that will Turn Any Meeting Into a Success" and it's available for a limited time for only $1.99.

You can pick up a copy here.  In How to Run Effective Meetings, I outline the prerequisites for productive meetings and then I share the six practices that I use every week to make meetings not only tolerable but on some occasions,  terrific.  

Your next meeting doesn't have to stink.  It might even be delightful if you practice long enough.  

Question: What made a recent meeting productive for you?

Photo courtesy of MA

Why You Should Wait 24 Hours Before Your Next Decision

Like you, I've had days when I wished there were 25 or 26 hours in a  day.  You just can't seem to get it all done.  Fortunately, there's always someone you know there to remind you that those extra few hours would just be filled up with something else.

True and true.

24 hours makes sense from a length of day standpoint. It also helps when you have to make a decision. Stepping away when you're hot under the collar is advice that will never go out of style.  

What's the value of pausing when you have to make a big decision?

 
1. You calm down.  If your decision is somewhat heated or you're feeling tense, it's always good to step back and calm down. Few good decisions get made out of anger.
2. Your thoughts get more clear.  Time creates wisdom and if you can wait 24 hours, your own thoughts will get more clear. Yesterday Cary and I were talking about our kids and their future.  Today we woke up with a better perspective on things and have clarity about how best to proceed. 24 hours will provide that for you.
3. You're more likely to make the right decision.  Unless you are facing an emergency and have to act quickly, the 24 hour rule will always available to you.
4. You have the opportunity to talk with wise people.  When you are facing a big decision, take the time to seek advice from someone you trust.

The next time you face a big decision, take 24 hours to let things settle and step back.  I'm guessing you'll be glad you did.

Question: when was the last time that you faced a big decision and took the time to wait before taking action?

 Photo courtesy of PS

Pope Francis and the Importance of Servant Leadership

Can you remember a time when a new leader brought such palpable inspiration in his first week on the job?

Sure, Marissa Mayer is in the news a lot these days for her leadership at Yahoo. Poor Tim Cook can't catch a break even though Apple continues to amaze its shareholders. Then there's Cheryl Sandberg and the ways in which she's encouraging women in the workplace at Facebook and beyond.

Back to the man that few expected to get the job a week ago in the Vatican- Francis.

Catholics look at this name choice as fairly amazing. Francis is a Jesuit and yet he took a Franciscan name. This would be like me, as a Red Sox fan, naming my firstborn son after a famous Yankees player. Ok, so maybe the Pope's name choice is bigger than that but you get the point- in choosing the name Francis, the Pope made a statement.  Franciscans are still high-fiving one another around the world.

He's telling the Church that he feels that it needs a humble, down to earth, service-oriented pendulum swing. We have plenty of doctrine. Lots of devotions. More than a few novenas. What the Church needs to focus on now is its call to love and serve the least among us.  And not just for a few years as if it were a new marketing campaign.  The Church needs a few hundred years of practical, heart felt religiosity rather than the overly heady stuff that has taken the European and American Church hostage.  

This is scary stuff. Doctrine is easier because it's a matter of belief. Head and heart material for sure but belief nonetheless. Serving the poor? That's about action and it's messy.

Let me provide an example.

I was speaking with a friend recently who had worked with 30 unmarried couples, all preparing for marriage. All 30 were living together. Messy stuff.  I suspect that this is the kind of situation that the new Pope would want us to wrap our arms around.  For better or worse, there are a lot of other messy things surrounding Christians and their practice of the faith.  These include but aren't limited to:

• The fact that most Catholics don't practice the Church's teaching on contraception.
• The fact that so many Catholics voted for Obama, in spite of his pro-abortion views.
• The fact that so few Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  

There is a lot of messy stuff in the world probably because we are complicated and flawed people.  Francis accepts that and wants the Church to take these issues and infuse them with love.

I actually have hope for the first time in an awful long time.  The road will be difficult for sure.  Francis is only one man after all.  Still, if God could raise up Francis of Assisi in a time when the Church was on its knees, he can surely bring us a simple man from Argentina to teach us to serve.

How are you practicing servant leadership in your role at work or at home?

5 Blogs I Turn to for Inspiration

People read differently these days.  Google is shutting down Google Reader for RSS subscriptions and Amazon now sells more ebooks than print versions for several years.  I stopped using RSS readers a few years ago when Twitter came on the scene.  There's something about the brevity of Twitter that's good for people on the go.

Now I use Twitter almost exlusively for reading but there are a few excemptions.  I still enjoy going to someone's blog to see what they are up to and to "crack open" their daily posts.  

Who do I turn to for insight?  Read on...

• Shrinking the Camel- by J.B. Wood, Shrinking the Camel is quite honestly one of the best written blogs there is when it comes to putting faith into work.  J.B. is a master narrator of the events of his life and how God's providence integrates with the most mundane of activities.  A classic post: Thanks for the Lovely Gift Basket.
• Michael Hyatt- the gold standard for productivity bloggers.  Michael is also a devout Christian- combining both geekness with God.  A classic post: 5 Characteristics of Weak Leaders (and how not to be one)
• Ron Edmundson- Ron is a pastor of a traditional church and is an incredibly adept blogger.  He finds a way to talk about his church without outing difficult folks.  Always a good read.  A classic post: 10 Things I'm Learning Leading Church Change.
• Time Management Ninja- written by Craig Jarrow, TMN is all about practical tips and tricks.  With a nod to Apple geeks (just sayin'), TMN is always, and I mean always, useful for decreasing drag on your work systems.  A classic post: 10 Ways to Save Time With Evernote.
• Michael Nozbe- written by Michael Sliwinski of Nozbe fame, this blog provides a behind-the-scenes look at one of today's best techpreneurs. Michael does business the right way and has created an avid following in the process.  A classic post: Combating Resistance: the 10 Step Productivity Course Recorded.

These sites work for me when I need encouragement along the way.  Where do you turn for inspiration?

Photo courtesy of RE