The Friday Five - Leadership Edition

The Friday Five - Issue 24
Challenging leaders to maximize their potential
Terry Wetzel ~ Summit Leadership Development

I wish I could give credit to the author, but I did not jot down the source when I saved this a few years ago. “Keep your desk and workspace bare. Treat every object as an imposition upon your attention, because it is. A workspace is not a place for storing things. It is a place for accomplishing things.”

Take a few minutes at the end of every day or week and jot down the things you did accomplish. With so much emphasis on productivity, we have a tendency to focus on what we did not get done, and this can be detrimental. While carrying uncompleted tasks over to the next day or week is necessary, do not lose sight of the things you did get done. This is a far better way to close the laptop and head for the door.

I cannot stress enough that effective leaders and managers truly embody these traits. If your colleagues, boss, or team would not describe you this way, you have work to do. Be honest, be introspective, dig deep, and get busy. Are these traits that you exhibit?

Try to be patient with difficult people. Communication is complicated and involves getting both tone and complex ideas across. Many people struggle with this. Don’t punish them. Real leadership is the willingness to stay in the conversation long enough to find the signal beneath the noise. Next time you feel your blood pressure rising during a meeting, ask yourself: "Is this person actually being malicious, or are they just struggling to find the right frequency?"

We’ve been conditioned to view leadership as a series of mountains to climb. We think, "If I can just hit my quarterly goals, or if we can just close this deal, or if I can just get this project done, then I can exhale.” But as any climber knows, the mountain top is a temporary residence. The moment you arrive, you realize the air is thin, the wind is cold, and your perspective has shifted. You can now see three other peaks that were invisible from below. The only thing you find at the top of a mountain is the realization that you’re going to have to climb back down and find a bigger one. Enjoy the climb.

"The beauty of empathy is that it doesn’t demand that you agree with the other person’s ideas.” - Chris Voss

Although not a “leadership” book by most standards, The World Walk reminded me about the importance of resilience, to live in the moment, and to live boldly. If you need a good story or a break from professional reading, this is it.

Be epic, not average. The world has enough average.
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The photo in today’s web edition was taken somewhere along the Pacific Ocean in Washington.
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