3 Minutes to More Effective Leadership

If you could improve your leadership in just three minutes a day, would you make the time to do it? What if this magic 3 minutes consisted of doing... pretty much nothing at all? Sound too good to be true? In leadership, our ability to connect with people and align them towards common goals is a function, in large part, of our leadership presence.

Presence is how we show up. It's the quality of our be-ing (as opposed to the content of our "do-ing"). In any given moment, our presence may be grounded and focused -- or checked-out and scattered.

When the quality of our presence is high, we are more inspiring to others, more connected to ourselves and more effective in our leadership.

But back to those 3 minutes. It is impossible to cultivate presence if we never pause -- if we're always rushing from meeting to meeting, tied to our smart phones, and feeling forever behind.

The simple act of sitting in silence with our breath, when practiced over time, can radically shift our presence -- even if we do it for only 3 minutes a day. The act of sitting is simple (but not always easy):

• Find a seat on the floor or in a chair where you can sit comfortably but remain upright and alert.
• Close your eyes and start to notice your body, in particular the places where it connects with the floor and/or the chair.
• Tune into your breath, following each inhale and exhale.
• Whenever your mind wanders, gently direct your attention back to your breath. (This will happen many times. Returning your attention to your breath is what you are practicing here, over and over.)
• Continue this for 3 minutes or more (you may want to set a timer before you start).
• When time is up, slowly open your eyes, start to move your body, and return to your surroundings.

Immediately after sitting you may find that you feel calmer, more grounded, and less frazzled. Over time, your attention, patience, and ability to empathize may significantly shift for the better. (I know I've seen these effects, and science agrees.)

If you could make time to sit like this daily, how would it impact your leadership presence? Give it a try, and let me know.

Five Questions for New Year's Reflection

5 Questions for New Year's Reflection

Want to do some New Year's reflection but not sure where to start?  Here are 5 sets of powerful questions to get you going.  You can sit with these in silence, write or draw about them in your journal, mull them over on a long walk, or share answers in conversation with a partner or friend.

ONE

Looking back over the past year, when were you at your best? Think about moments when you felt most alive and engaged, perhaps joyful or particularly purposeful.  What threads of similarity connect these moments?

TWO

What has changed within you this past year?  What is just beginning to change within in you now?

THREE

As you end this year, what's weighing you down?  How can you shift your experience or perception of that which is weighing you down?

FOUR

Imagine that it is twelve months from now, and you've had a fantastic, fulfilling year.  What does that look like?  What did you do -- and how did you have to be -- to get to this result?

FIVE

In the coming year, what are the critical areas for your learning and growth?  What are your first steps for attending to these areas?

Are there other questions that help you to reflect at this time of year?  Share them in the comments below.

Wishing you peace and joy in the new year!

Put Your Phone To Bed

Provocative question: are you inviting office politics into bed with you?

You are if you are sleeping with your smartphone next to your head.

Read my contribution to the New Organizing Institute's Tip of The Day: Put your phone to bed (just not with you).

Share it if it resonates. And get some sleep already!

10 Things You Can Start Doing TODAY to Feel Less Overwhelmed

Best practices gleaned from Getting Things Done, The Power of Full Engagement, 7 Habits, The Fire Starter Sessions, and my brilliant clients. 1.  Identify & make space for your top priorities first. Identify your major priorities and make time for them in your schedule first. Then, make your lower priorities fit in around the big stuff. If you fill up your time with the little things, it becomes impossible to fit in the big things later.

2. Get everything out of your head and into a trusted system. As David Allen says, “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” Get every nagging thought about something you have to do out of your head and onto a list or calendar.

3. If a task takes less than 2 minutes, do it now. Don’t put off a small task for later if you could get it done now in 2 minutes or less.

4. Keep a list of next actions & start every next action with a verb. Keep a list of the very next things you need to do. Each item should be as specific as possible and start with a verb. You are more likely to take action when you see “ask David about timeline for final report,” on your list than when you see something like “final report.”

5. Have a daily meeting with yourself. Once a day (preferably at the start of your day), take 15 – 20 minutes to check in with your top priorities next actions list and calendar. Identify the 3-5 things you must do today to make the day a success.

6. Review everything on your plate weekly. Take 60 - 90 minutes a week to review all of your commitments, assess the past week, and look ahead to the coming weeks. You will catch things that would otherwise slip through the cracks.

7. Use your “power hours” for your most brain-intensive work. Figure out what time of day you are most alert, sharp and energetic. Do your hardest work then & save the mindless tasks for when you’re spent.

8. Charge your electronic devices outside of the bedroom. Get your inbox out of your bed! Purchase an alarm clock if you’ve been using your phone & put your devices in the other room when you turn in for the night.

9. Create intentional time and space away from technology. This can look like: blocking your internet access when you are writing, unplugging from all technology for 24 hours once a month, not looking at your phone between work and when the kids go to sleep, or sitting and focusing on your breath for 5 minutes a day.

10. Do what you say you’re going to do. You’ll gain the trust, respect, and admiration of others – and yourself.

Third Annual National Day of Unplugging

It's that time of year again - the annual National Day of Unplugging.  Rooted in the Jewish practice of Shabbat, the National Day of Unplugging asks us to intentionally disconnect from technology and reconnect to the things that matter most to us. Here's the challenge, which lasts for 24 hours from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday:

[box] Shut down your computer.Turn off your cell phone. Stop the constant emailing, texting, Tweeting and Facebooking to take time to notice the world around you. Connect with loved ones. Nurture your health. Get outside. Find silence. Avoid commerce. Give back. Eat Together. [/box]

The day can jumpstart a more regular practice of unplugging, something I've written more about here, here, and here.

Want to give it a try?  Learn more and take the pledge here.