the inner edge

October 23, 2015 by sereynolds

3 Strategies To Following Your Intuition Toward Success

If you’re a regular reader of this column, you may know that many of the topics we discuss here come from a yearlong leadership development program based on my work called Leadership Circles. This month in Leadership Circles, we have been focusing on what we call seeing possibility.

Seeing possibility is the opposite of working really, really hard. It’s a shortcut through the noise and the busy-ness to a more peaceful, easier way to work and live. So often we wrack our brains trying to figure things out, make decisions, make things happen, get the answers, build something from scratch–all good ways of going about our business, but sometimes it all seems so hard. Seeing possibility is an approach that lightens things up. Instead of having to be the ones with all the answers, you take a break and let the answers come to you. It’s like listening to the radio. You don’t have to make up the station. It’s already there. Just tune in.

When you see possibility, the answer you’ve been searching for (whatever it may be) may come from a flash of insight or a gradual knowing, or it might be prompted by an external event. The answer may even reveal itself in your circumstances. Your job is not to make it appear, your job is to recognize it when it does. Just as you tune your radio through the static until you arrive at a clear signal, you are tuning your mind to the messages you’re receiving until you arrive at the answers you seek.

There are a few different ways of tuning into the message.

Draw out the meaning. One way of tuning into the message is to look for “signs” and draw out the meaning. “Drawing out the meaning” is a technique sometimes used by coaches to help people access their intuition. It means using the environment around you as if it were filled with secret messages to tell you what to do.

For example: You’re on Section Nine of the research report you’re writing. You listen to Track Nine of a CD to clear your head. Track Nine turns out to be very short. Does Section Nine also need to be short?

Or, You’re going through an extremely difficult time. You’re anxious and stressed. You walk outside and a gust of wind blows over you. Could it be that this situation will blow over as well?

These are just little mind games. Tricks. Playing with words. But they are tricks and games that help you open your mind to new possibilities, new ways of seeing and understanding.

Notice everything around you. Observe the details, the sounds, even the smells. What’s happening? What do you notice? Then wonder, if this tiny slice of life had something to tell you, what would it be?

Seek serendipity and synchronicity. Another way to tune into the message is to seek Serendipity and Synchronicity, those twin tendencies for life to deliver enchanting coincidences just when we need them.

Serendipity is unexpected good fortune, or discovery by accident. Synchronicity is a timely, meaningful coincidence.

Put them together and you have those mysterious moments in which you accidentally discover exactly the right thing at just the right time. These are a couple of examples:

Caroline discovered that her 10:00 meeting was cancelled just as she was thinking to herself, “If only I had an extra hour.”
Ginny was still fretting over fresh news that her accountant was about to quit when a long lost friend–a CPA–called to ask if she knew of any job openings.

“It’s a sign!” you think. A wink from the universe. A little gift. If you pay attention to these moments when everything “clicks,” you might just uncover new possibilities.

Learn to trust your instincts. Yet another way you can tune into the message is to learn to trust your instincts. Earlier we talked about the importance of making room for your intuition; you also need to be able to recognize the messages, listen, and act in keeping with whatever’s true for you.

What does your intuition feel like? Some say it feels like a zing, a snap, or a click. You might feel it in your stomach, your chest, or your heart. For one person it’s a calm, perfectly still knowing. For another it’s a heavily weighted thunk. Another describes a sudden peace; another a taptap of the mind.

When possibilities fall right into your lap, you may feel like some invisible force has granted your silent request. It’s often accompanied by a feeling of speechlessness, almost disbelief. When you feel that, the search for solutions is over.

All three strategies are all ways of accessing information that seems to be around us all the time, but that somehow we manage to miss. To expand your awareness of what’s possible, sometimes you just have to notice: look for “signs,” then ask yourself what they mean. Watch for serendipity and synchronicity, and follow where they lead. Then stay alert to your intuition, learn what it feels like, and practice following it.

The previous article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

August 19, 2015 by sereynolds

5 Ways To Take A Virtual Vacation, No Matter How Much Time You Have

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

Summer is swiftly coming to an end, and the question remains–have you taken your vacation yet?

When one client I’m coaching, we’ll call him Stephen, told me he hadn’t made time for one yet, I told him to take a “virtual vacation.”

Stephen walked along the sunny path with his spaniel Sporty panting by his side, the two of them trotting along cheerfully downhill toward the lake. At last, free from the pressures of the office…free from the demands of the clients…free from the deadlines and the numbers…Stephen was finally on vacation. He parked himself on a rock at the edge of the beach and laid back to take in the view. Sitting in the sun in his shorts and hiking boots, he allowed his mind to empty completely.

Stephen breathed deeply and closed his eyes. He lay there, breathing, smiling, resting, he didn’t know how long. At ease. At peace. Alone. He dozed. When his nap was over, he stretched long and grinned. What a feeling! And the best part was, he could come back here anytime he wanted. It was only a moment away.

Stephen opened his eyes, took his feet off his desk, and turned back to the computer. Just 15 minutes of rest and an imagined trip to the mountains, and he felt completely renewed.

Do you need to get away? Whether it’s a 15 minute vacation-in-your-office like Stephen’s or a real vacation for rest and restoration, a little time off can help you stop feeling like you’re a little off. Try one of these five ways to take your “virtual” vacation now:

The instant escape. Meditation is an art form practiced around the world for finding inner quietude. It can reduce stress, calm your mind, and clear your thoughts wherever you are–walking, driving, or sitting right where you are. In its simplest form, the entire process is: Close your eyes. Breathe. Clear your mind.

That’s it. Try it now. Breathe in deeply and slowly, breathe out deeply and slowly, feel your body relaxing, and gently release any thought that comes to mind. Close your eyes and try it for two more long, slow breaths. Notice the difference. You can meditate for just a few minutes, or keep practicing for longer and longer.

When you’re going top speed, slowing down in the middle of the day can sometimes seem like the hardest thing to do. But you carry within you the peace you need, and you can find it anytime.

The 10-minute escape. Stephen’s virtual vacation, as you saw above, is really just a form of meditation with a twist. As you do in meditation, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and release all thoughts. Then fill your mind with images, thoughts, or even music. If you’re worried about falling asleep, set an alarm and tell yourself that if you do fall asleep, you’ll awake feeling refreshed and energized.

The hour-long escape. You can combine the techniques of meditation and imagination with exercise to really come away revived and restored. Yoga, walking, running, biking and swimming have a rhythmic solitude that are especially well suited to resting the mind, but you can also get away from stress and frustration with any kind of sport.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be exercise. A bath, a hot shower, an hour in the tub, some quiet time on the couch can all bring the rest you need if you’re able to detach from the pressure and stress. Whatever you choose, be sure it engages your mind, either by helping you escape into a meditative state or getting you so involved in something else that you forget about work for awhile.

The full day retreat. How often do you take a day off? Really off, not to get stuff done but to get reconnected with yourself? If you plan a day off for yourself, even that one day can feel like a vacation. Think of it as a retreat; you are retreating from the world of work for a day to clear your head and gather your energy. Then make sure that’s really what it is.

Be by yourself. Go to the beach. Get outdoors. Get away.

If you really want to make the most of this retreat, turn it into a weekend. You’ll return with a new outlook on life.

The working vacation. If what you need isn’t a day off but a day in, with all the time you need to get stuff done, give yourself a working vacation, or as I call it, “A Vacation in Your Office.” You can also take a Vacation in your House. It’s when you take a day to hold call calls (or better yet, turn off the phone), take no visitors, answer no questions, pretend you’re on vacation and just blast through your To Do list. When you need to get to the bottom of those piles of paper, whittle down your To Do list, put away the holiday decorations, or just catch up on life, a working vacation can eliminate the tasks and the stress they cause.

With all of that said, one of my favorite time rules is to always have a vacation in Sight. No matter where you work or what you do for a living, you get to take a vacation. The simple fact that vacations are a requirement of every legal working contract acknowledges the fact that as people, we need to get away.

And it’s not just a benefit for you. Good ideas need space, and they can’t get it in a crowded mind. You need time off from work to think clearly and be your best. There are lots of ways you can clear your mind, from a thirty-second meditation to a yoga class to a real vacation. Below follow some suggestions to get it.

August 6, 2015 by sereynolds

7 Foolproof Practices For Maximizing Your Time

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

We need to think differently about time. It’s not as if we haven’t been trying. Time-management courses have been around for decades, and work/life balance has become a clich. Some question whether work/life balance is even possible.

Others argue we shouldn’t be talking about balance at all, but time or life choices. Many people feel they don’t even have a choice about their time in a fast-paced, high-pressure world, which makes the whole about which vocabulary to use entirely moot.

The fact is, you will never have control of your time unless you take control of your time. That means stopping long enough to get a handle on what’s happening, reflecting on whether it’s working, and learning new ways to maximize the time you’ve got.

Here are a few shortcut strategies for maximizing your time that I teach my executives and entrepreneurs–they’re simple and you can do them in your head or on a piece of paper:

Modeling. Modeling your time means figuring out what the ideal schedule would look like. You sit down with a pencil and a sheet of paper and sketch the way you’d like the next stretch of time to look. In just a few minutes you can design your ideal week, or even day, month or year. It will take time to turn the model into reality, but now you know what’s possible.

Define your time. This means figuring out what “types” of days you need, just as you have different kinds of clothing (professional acquaintances, neighbors, college buddies), you can also have different kinds of days.

For example, types of days can be: meeting days (when you are available to meet with others), work days (you keep to yourself to do your own work), flex days (a flexible day to provide a cushion for spillover activities), admin days (catching up on paperwork), or days off (for rest and renewal). You can also go by half days or even two-hour blocks if a full day is too long.

Defining your time allows you to get into one mind-set for a particular type of activity and stay there, so you can find your rhythm.

Make appointments with yourself. It’s a strategy so simple I’m always amazed more people don’t use it more often–set a meeting with a specific purpose and be there to get the job done. Some tasks might include: e-mail catch up, coaching appointment, read up on industry news, review financials, or strategic planning. For example, you might set aside the first Monday of every month to review financials.

Breaking time rules. You can escape the rules of time, like that you must work 8-10 hours per day or that you must be available by phone and e-mail at all times. You might start defining the length of your workday by the result you achieve instead of the hours you’ve worked. Time rules don’t necessarily mean working less, but they do mean working with more freedom and choice.

Making time rules. For efficiency and quality of life, you can apply your own rules to how you’ll use your time. Here are a few examples from other leaders and entrepreneurs I have worked with:

Never open e-mail before planning the day.
Never schedule a meeting before 9 or after 4.
Turn off my computer after 7pm.
Spend no more than one evening away from home per week for a work event.

Time rules, even small ones, have the advantage of being concrete and explicit, making it easier to hold yourself accountable.

Replace multitasking with “unitasking.” Mutlitasking is a fact of life in a high-speed world, but many studies have shown that it actually cuts productivity. The strategy behind “unitasking” is to do one thing at a time, even for a short time. This will improve concentration, calm you down, and allow you to get more done in less time.

Considering that on average only about three minutes out of every hour are used with maximum focus, you can improve your rate of concentration with just five minutes at a time. Then fifteen. Then twenty. You don’t have to unitask all the time, just when it counts.

Power down. This means turning off technology. Free yourself the excess–just because you can take your laptop with you in the car and perch it on the passenger seat doesn’t mean you should. Not only does misuse of technology undermine the quality of your work, it also can strip away your gains. So just take the occasional step to power down when you can, turn off the technology, and do what will bring you progress and fulfillment.

The goal here isn’t to stock you up on more complicated notions of how to manage time. Instead, these strategies are meant to take what you already know about time and twist it–just a little bit–so you see powerful new possibilities. These shortcuts for maximizing your time are your exit off the fast track. You can do things much more quickly, easily, and enjoyably than the rest of the world by taking a different route–one of your own design!

July 30, 2015 by sereynolds

5 Quick Steps You Can Take To Find Your Focus

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

There is a quote by Stephen Covey that I love: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Essentially what he’s saying is that we, as entrepreneurs, need focus.

In order to get where you want, in order to be who you want to be, in order to live the kind of life you want to live and lead the way you want to lead, you need to be strategic and find that focus that will make it all possible.

My book, The Inner Edge, outlines many practices that can help you zero in your focus, so that when you’re leaving your office each day you can confidently say you were “productive,” not just “busy.” And how to gauge the difference.

Below are five quick steps you can take to take back your focus, and set yourself up for success instead of burnout:

Step 1: survey the scene. The question here is, “What do you want?” Briefly review your vision so your focus will be aimed in the right direction. In other words, take a step back and take in the panoramic view of your life. Remind yourself of the long-term vision, but zoom in on the near-term vision. Write down your answer to the question in one sentence, and keep it where you can see it often.

Step 2: choose your focus. The question to ask is, “What areas do you want to focus on to achieve your vision?” Name 3-5 specific areas that need your attention if you’re going to successfully attain your vision, and write those down under your statement of what you want. Identify the aspects of that vision that deserve your time, energy and attention right now.

Step 3: study the subject. Ask, “Where are you now? Where do you want to be? How will you know when you get there?” Get specific about what each focus area means. The answers to these questions can be a big reality check–for example if you have to get to California, it helps to know if you’re starting in New Zealand or New York. The same is true for your focus area. If you know where you are now in relation to what you want, you increase your chances of getting there quickly.

Step 4: sharpen your focus. The question here is, “What will you do and when will you do it?” Make a commitment. For example, let’s say you have a focus area called “financial growth.” Right now you are in debt, and you want to be making money. You’ll know you’re successful when you’ve got 12 consecutive reports showing your company to be in the black. The question, “What will you do?” forces you to consider how you’ll get there. Will you eliminate debt? Make an acquisition? Your answer is your commitment.

Step 5: take a snapshot. Ask, “What do I want to remember?” When you’ve gone through all of the steps above, write down your focus areas. Keep them where they can serve as a reminder of what’s important to you now.

Is anything missing from your focus areas? That’s an absolutely critical question to ask, and one many people overlook. Make a conscious effort to step back and think about the bigger picture of your life, and all of your focus areas logically will be designed to lead you to that end.

July 7, 2015 by sereynolds

Do You Need A “Workover?” 3 Steps To Starting A New Career

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

If you follow this column, recently you read about my new series on your “workover.” If you missed it, a workover is a work-makeover–a transformation into a new and improved “you” that will lead to more confidence, a better reaction from others, and better success. You can find the entire article here.

The idea came from an experience I had with a recent client. This business owner had been a successful entrepreneur for decades, but with two new grandkids and a wife who was retiring, he was ready to do something different. Less intense. More rewarding. He decided he wanted to sell his business and get himself hired as an internal consultant in other people’s companies. He had the qualifications, and he had the idea, but he was missing several critical ingredients that would make it all work.

It seemed to me that he needed a work makeover. Just as TV personalities often pluck people off the streets and whisk them away for a head-to-toe transformation, I wanted to pull him into a conference room, work on the pieces that were getting out of date or were somehow not communicating the excitement and attraction he wanted, and return him to the marketplace as this year’s must-have new model. So we did that. We called it his workover.

The following are the three steps I shared with him, and that you can also use for a DIY workover.

Define your criteria. Before you do anything else, identify in a bulleted list the things that matter most to you in the next phase of your work life. What are you looking for now? What do you want?

For instance, if you’re looking for a new job, do you prefer the company is stable, or fresh and contemporary? Would you prefer to have flexibility to work from home, or is an office space important to you? Are you looking to give up your commute completely, or move to a new area? How important is mobility? Do you prefer to work independently, or with a team?

Think of your long-term vision, and describe it.

If you’re more of a visual person, the written list might not be your go-to method of defining your criteria. Instead, you might prefer to visualize what you want in your next job. I often walk through a “you and improved” vision with my clients, asking them to close their eyes and let their mind work out their vision, the audio of which I offer on my site here. Following the audio will help you get a more intuitive feel for what you want.

Rrank your criteria. Writing down your criteria for your perfect job is just the first step. But a workover isn’t about perpetuating the status quo–it’s about elevating yourself. Take the opportunity to rank your critieria so you not only know what’s important to you, you’ll know what’s most important. Doing this will ensure you don’t settle for second best.

For example, a client of mine (a marketing executive) was searching for a new position. She told me that this time, she only wanted to do things she loved to do. But her list of what that might be was very long and contained everything from “working with people” to “being creative” and “developing strategy.” Prompted to rank her criteria, she identified that of these criteria, what she really wanted was to find a truly creative and innovative environment. That one decision greatly narrowed her job search and led to an exciting new opportunity. She never would have found that if she had just told hiring managers she was a marketing expert. When you lump all of your skillsets together under one title like that, you lose the richness of what you do within your job that makes you happy. No, she had to tell hiring managers that she was a marketing expert interested in using her creativity in an innovative environment to open new markets. That level of specificity and the enthusiasm that came with identifying her number one criteria made her an extremely attractive as a candidate.

Refine what you would like to focus on. Now that we’re getting specific about what you want in your new job–in priority order – It’s time to get serious about what you want your day-to-day routine to look like. Get the clear picture of what it would be like to work in your favorite activities day after day. This is the internal part of your workover, and it will show up as confidence that you are a person who really knows what you’re after. You will have seen it in your mind, and now you can go out and pull it off in real life.

Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur looking toward your next move, or an executive looking to explore a new field, taking steps toward a workover don’t have to be daunting. When successfully managed, your workover can improve your quality of life, and leave you feeling generally more fulfilled. This is the second part of a three-part series. Next time we will focus on identifying topics and themes that will make your next job the best you’ve ever had.

March 10, 2015 by sereynolds

The One Sentence You Need To Tell Your Boss, And Yourself

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

Often when I work with executives and business owners, they complain that they feel underappreciated for the hard work that they do. They may have received feedback that they’re valued in the past, and they may feel accomplished. But they don’t always feel like others recognize their worth to the company.

If that sounds familiar, you may be tempted to blame the people around you. Why can’t they see how hard you work? Why don’t they appreciate how much you contribute to the organization? Well, the answer may be that you haven’t taken the step to tell them.

If you want to be viewed as a valuable, contributing member of your organization, you need have the words to articulate your value. If you can’t explain your value to others, they may have a hard time identifying the value themselves.

An easy way to do that is with a simple strategy I call your Concrete Measurable Result. Knowing your Concrete Measurable Result helps you quantify what they bring to the table.

Your Concrete Measurable Result is a single-sentence statement of value that illustrates the results of your efforts.

For example, one might say: “This year, as a result of my marketing efforts, I added $50,000 in new sales of products to our bottom line.”

Or: “As a result of my business developments and networking efforts, I added three big new clients to our clientele this year, who are collectively worth $300,000.”

Or: “As a result of my efforts to improve efficiency, I minimized time-wasting activities across my team and department, and we calculated that we saved 20 percent of our time, which we reallocated to strategic activities, including one project that was worth $3 million to a client.”

All of these are examples of Concrete Measurable Results in which individuals have quantified their efforts to show their value.

There are three main parts to creating a statement of Concrete Measurable Results:

Part One: Describe your effort. Put your finger on what exactly your effort was to create the result. Did you hire a new team and get them on board? Did you put in extra hours to polish a piece of work? Did you come up with a brilliant new idea that’s now paying off? This piece is critical, because it helps you to understand where your efforts are making a difference, and thus helps others to see it, too.

Part Two: Describe the result. Say: “As a result of my efforts, I accomplished ‘x.'” Look for something that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. For example, if you hadn’t personally studied the map of the production floor, the company wouldn’t have generated a productive re-design. Or if you hadn’t improved your qualifiying technique for customers, your company would have wasted a lot of time and money on ineffective advertising. This is the part where you list the result, showing the meaning for someone else and the company as a whole.

Part Three: Quantifying the result. If you really want to drive home your value–for your company and for yourself–try putting some hard numbers to the results. Here you’re looking for dollar figures, or a percentage increase or decrease. This is where the results become concrete and measurable.

Now that you have this information you can use it in the following three ways:

You can write the statement ahead of time, identifying the concrete result you hope to achieve at the beginning of the year to set a goal.
Another way is to use the statement as a reflection, evaluating at the end of a project whether it was worth it, or where your time is best spent going forward.
Last, your Concrete Measurable Result tells you what you need to be communicating to others. Don’t make people guess at your impact; let them know about it. If you feel like you’re working very hard but you’re not sure you’re getting the result, it might be because you’re not making yourself aware of how valuable you really are–being able to identify your worth in just a sentence or two helps you know that and communicate that to others.

Now, we should note that Concrete Measurable Results are not about bragging or puffing yourself up. They’re certainly not about taking credit where it’s not due or overshadowing others. Rather, your Concrete Measurable Results are simply a measure you can take to see where you’re having the biggest impact on your company–and to help others see it, too.

Related: 6 Signs You Need a Coach

January 15, 2015 by sereynolds

Start 2015 With Your Vision In Mind: When You See Possibility, You Find Success

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

Seeing possibility and finding vision means being open to surprising opportunities. To succeed with this practice, we have to consider the idea that sometimes success comes to us instead of us having to create it for ourselves.

Essentially, if your firm has decided to make its talent a priority and use that as a competitive advantage, then your as a leader must lead with intention. How do you do that? You become clear about your vision, then make sure that everyone is aligned that vision. Explain the strategy clearly for your firm, and help individual leaders create their own unique visions or goals for themselves and their team. The last step is to support and motivate them to deliver on their vision by honing in on skills like time management, planning, and so forth.

The goal is that the individual leaders are so energized and motivated by what’s in it for them and their team that they will align their strategy to move toward that achievement, and that specific achievement falls under the vision of your firm.

So when it comes to creating that initial vision, the one that drives the rest of the individual leaders in a firm, it’s important to open yourself up to possibility.

Seeing possibility looks like:

You’re in the shower and suddenly the answer to your toughest question flashes into your mind
You’re driving along the freeway and suddenly the solution to a sticky problem becomes instantly obvious
You’re thinking about an old friend and suddenly the phone rings. It’s him.

Now, imagine your vision of your life as a leader appears in the same way:

You want a specific opportunity, and suddenly that opportunity arrives.
You need a certain kind of mentor, and suddenly that mentor shows up.
You want to make a certain kind of impact, and suddenly you realize you do.

Every time something like this happens, you are experiencing the rewards of seeing possibility.

Keeping your vision in mind, ask yourself these questions:

What’s going your way?
What’s not going your way?
What do your answers suggest about what to do next?

First, name a situation in which you need some kind of answer or idea. Next, rephrase the issue into the form of a question. What do you need to know? Then, take two long and slow breaths, letting the air clear your mind. Breathe and clear your mind. After a few minutes of breathing, sit quietly and ask the question again. What ideas did you get?

When you open yourself up to possibility, to the potentiality of your vision, success comes to us instead of us having to create it for ourselves. Keep your eyes open, and be ready to act when your good fortune shows up. Because when you have a clear vision for your firm, and individual leaders within it have goals that align with that vision, you’ll find sustainable success.

December 11, 2014 by sereynolds

7 Rules for Meetings to Implement in 2015

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns on Mondays!

Searching for just the right New Year’s resolution? Lose weight, save more for retirement, live life more fully… The usual suspects may well be on your list. Or, you could resolve to make better use of your time. Then you can do all of those things and still have time left for you and the goals you’re trying to accomplish in the coming year.

Recently I heard of an executive who has mastered this skill of maximizing his time, at least in one area of his life: meetings. His newest direct report sent him a request to meet and “talk about some things.” He immediately shot her back a note with his “Rules for Meetings.”

This is what it said:

“Of course, I would be happy to meet with you. Below are my Rules for Meetings. After you’ve had a chance to read them, please let me know if/when you’d like to meet.

All meetings must be 30 minutes or less.
Please send the agenda to me before we meet.
Determine the objective for the meeting.
Identify the decision you need me to make.
Bring your recommendation on the decision with supporting evidence.”

As you can imagine, this executive kept his calendar clear of many a useless meeting with this approach. (Imagine what he could do with all that saved time!)

You might not be able to get away with that at your place of work, but are there rules you could set? Here are a few to consider. Read them all, then choose one or two you’d like to try in the year ahead.

Rule #1. Meetings last only as long as they need to. Determine the amount of a meeting time by how many people will be there and what needs to get achieved. If it’s a small group with a short-term objective, 30 minutes might be more than enough–or even 20 minutes, or 10. Let it be brief.

An important caveat to this rule is that some meetings are more beneficial if they are longer rather than shorter. Once you have everyone in the room at the same time, focused on a single agenda, take advantage of the opportunity. Make sure you have enough time to be productive and complete, especially for the big important things like strategizing and conceptualizing new ideas.

Rule #2: Always enter a meeting with an agenda. So many meetings start with a vague beginning and wander around from there. You can spearhead a more efficient approach by creating an agenda for the meeting. Even if you’re not the one running the meeting, your efforts will keep everyone organized. If you feel doing so may be too presumptuous or intrude on the meeting planner’s prerogative, simply make the offer ahead of the meeting (“Would you like me to gather some agenda items?”). You’ll be helpful to the meeting planner–and everyone else in the room. You’ll all be less likely to deviate from the meeting purpose, which can lead to an incomplete process and–ugh–more meetings.

Rule #3. Spell out the objective of the meeting before it’s scheduled. Some people don’t give enough time to determining a meeting objective. This step puts you in control and keeps everyone on track. Make sure that all participants are aware of the specific objective to be achieved at the meeting as soon as the meeting is announced, and include it with any additional mentions of the meeting, especially via email, to get everyone on the same page going in.

Rule #4. Know what you personally want and need. Even if you’ve already made an agenda for the main meeting, you can arm yourself with a personal agenda consisting of items that you want to be sure get covered and the decisions you need to have made. Your private agenda may be no more than a list of bullets scrawled on a sticky note, but it will ensure that no matter how the rest of the meeting goes, it will be effective and efficient for you.

Rule #5. If it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t happen. Get in front of future meetings by planning them early–not right before deadlines that leave everyone frazzled and scrambling to get everything done. Instead of waiting for others to schedule stressful meetings during crunch time, be proactive and schedule meetings early enough in advance to maintain a productive process, even if it’s not your responsibility to do so.

Rule #6. Be thoughtful about meeting participants. We’ve all been in a meeting and questioned whether or not we truly needed to be there. Don’t let this happen to your participants! Be careful of both what meetings you attend and which people you ask to attend meetings you’re organizing. Being thoughtful about who you invite will save both them time, and you.

Always remember that you have more control over meetings than you think. Often we feel like victims–we say that the meetings are too long, not productive, or pull us away from what we need to be doing. If you get in control of your meetings, you can get control of your time. Be the one to say: “Can we keep this short?” or “I’m not sure we need so many people involved.” Take a leadership role so that the schedule manifests itself in a way that is concise and clear, which will ultimately help everyone else and make your meetings more productive.

This one step can be a major time saver for your year ahead and the start of a new commitment to making the most of your time.

October 15, 2014 by sereynolds

My Q&A As “Superstar of the Week” On Business Superstar

The following is my interview with Business Superstar, where I am featured as this week’s “Superstar of the Week!” Read on as I speak with Phil about all things leadership, The Inner Edge, and more. You can see the original interview here.

Joelle K. Jay, Ph.D., is an executive coach specializing in leadership development. In addition to working with presidents, vice presidents, and C-level executives in Fortune 500 companies, she also authored The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership. Dr. Jay spoke with us about the distinctive characteristics that define a leader.

Q: What inspired you to write The Inner Edge? And what were your goals in creating this book?

Joelle Jay: What inspired me to write The Inner Edge was my own experience. There was a time in my life that I found myself becoming successful in my career as defined by external measures, but I wasn’t happy. All I could see was years of dissatisfaction ahead of me.

So I sat myself down, determined to redefine my course in the direction of happiness. I spent a year on this practice, applying a lot of the coaching techniques I applied to others to myself. After a year I didn’t want to go back to feeling unsatisfied, I wanted to honor the steps toward change I had made, so I wrote out the steps, the 10 practices of personal leadership, and The Inner Edge was born.

Q: In your professional opinion, what are the basic characteristics of a great business leader?

Joelle Jay: In addition to some of the more traditional characteristics, like being a visionary, a strategist, and having great people skills, I would add that great business leaders are extremely thoughtful people who are cognizant of who they are reaching and why. They create business structures not only to foster a successful business, but also to make employees happier and more engaged. A great business leader is a master of personal leadership both individually and applied to the whole organization.

Q: Do you believe that business leadership skills can be taught in schools? Or is it a trait that is part of a person’s existence?

Joelle Jay: Certainly there are people who are gifted with natural leadership abilities, who are compelling and visionary and inherently charismatic – the Martin Luther King Jr.’s of the World. But just as people can learn to be compassionate, thoughtful, and hardworking, they can learn to be leaders and practice the skills of leadership.

Q: Do you believe it is possible to create a new business in a rough economy (like the one we have today)?

Joelle Jay: Yes! The evidence is all around us. There are rising, thriving businesses, some of which would even question whether we truly live in a rough economy today. The success of a business isn’t solely dependent upon the market, but the vision of the leader and the capability of the leader to be creative in finding a way to serve their clients, customers, the general public, and employees.

When times are tough, the business landscape might look different, having the mindset that the economy will either make or break your business is a failure from the start. A better mindset would be a commitment to succeeding no matter what the economic outlook.

Q: What advice would you give to those who are eager to be their own boss, but don’t know how to achieve that goal?

Joelle Jay: You can use the 10 practices of personal leadership to figure out how to become your own boss, just like I did! First, learn to see yourself as the leader of your own life, as a leader creating a life for yourself. That small shift in perspective is the first test. Then, get clarity and find your vision for the career in which you are your own boss.

Next, find focus and identify the priorities to need to push to the forefront to make it happen. Then take action, go out and tackle your prioritized action items instead of just dreaming about it. You may be doing this while you’re still a fulltime employee at your current company, so you can take it one practice at a time. There are other practices of personal leadership: maximize your time, see the possibilities.

The next practices include: tapping into your brilliance and personal strengths, learning to truly feel fulfillment, maximizing your time, building your team, continuing to learn and grow, seeing possibility, and finally being able to balance all of it at once. Those are the practices I outline in The Inner Edge, and those are the practices I teach top executives.

To see the full interview, please visit Business-Superstar.com.

September 9, 2014 by sereynolds

Tips To Build Your Dream Team

Your dream personal support team is made up of leaders you admire who advance you, elevate you, and make it possible for you to do more/better/faster than you can do on your own.

Today I want to help you do just that. As an exercise for building your team, just follow the initials I.A.B.:

I: Imagine the people you most admire. Write down the names you would like to have at your table.

A: Ask your questions. If your imaginary advisers were sitting with you now, what would you ask them? record your ideas.

B: Be with them. Let their energy and wisdom remind you of who you are and who you want to become.

And remember, when you build your personal support team, you are no longer the solitary leader trying to go it alone. You are collecting an entourage. Together with your team, you are a veritable force.

From myself I am copper, through You, friend, I am gold. -Rumi

For more from The Inner Edge you can purchase the book here.