I believe that when we stretch ourselves in one part of our lives, that stretch shows up in other parts of our lives. That is why I encourage leaders to do things that expand and hone their edges, whether it is in work, life, or play.
It’s Monday morning. The phone is ringing off the hook, your In Box is overflowing. There is a lineup at your door. You are an entrepreneur starved for time.
You have a limited amount of time to work on our business. While it may not feel like it today, you do have choice about how you spend your time. You can continue on your well worn path or make a right turn in a new direction. Use these ideas to get out of firefighting mode to take back control of your time.
Often the way forward is to look back. For thousands of years sailing boats have been used to move cargo around the world’s oceans. With our awareness of climate change increasing and more people looking for alternatives, cargo sailing vessels are making a comeback.
The sun was already up at 6:15 am as I ran along the beach in my hometown of Vancouver, BC. My mind was on auto-pilot as I followed the beach along Spanish Banks where I have run, walked, and biked hundreds and hundreds of times. It felt good to just follow the well-worn path that was so familiar to me.
We often follow our own well-trod paths, especially when we are leading others. Many of us have discovered these paths through the pain of hard won experience. We know what works, what doesn’t, and if we follow the path everything will turn out all right.
Everyone around the table looked at each other. There was silence in the room. This was the third time they had met off site as a team to do their strategic planning for the business. Their coach had just asked how they had done on their five goals for the quarter. No one, including the CEO, was willing to own up until Don, one of the young up and coming members of the leadership team, said “we sucked—we didn’t make one of our five goals.”