7 Keys to Inspired Leadership

One of the biggest challenges for leaders (and everyone) is to juggle all the tasks that come our way. We’re all so busy, right? Or, are we? Being busy is a choice we all make and our own inability to say “no” leads us to be incredibly busy because someone else wants something from us.

We all have a choice!

I just finished a three-day seminar where I learned a whole bunch and got a dozen or so “assignments” from the speakers. Now it’s my choice to take on the assignments or put them aside. To make this decision I need to do what many leaders choice not to do. I will have to take time to plan and prioritize.

How many times have you said or heard someone say, “I don’t have time to stop and plan. We’re too busy keeping up with what our customers need.”? I’m currently working with a group of supervisors in the manufacturing sector. Their illusion is that they don’t have time to plan because they’d have to stop the assembly line to do the planning. First of all, planning does not have to take hours and it doesn’t have to be done at the expense of a critical operation.

I’ve set aside time over a few days to review my notes from the three-day seminar. This time will be a few minutes during the day, here and there, and some time during the evening or next weekend. Some of this planning will be done while I’m at the National Speakers Association convention in San Diego. And, I already know that at the convention sessions I’ll hear other new ideas that I just might want to work with. Potential overload for my brain, if I don’t strategize and plan how to select what I can use.

Based on my notes from both the seminar and the convention, I’ll make some decisions as to what I will tackle now and what I will tackle down the road. I will put some of the possible assignments in my “not to do” bin as they won’t match my business plan. While the ideas may be great, they aren’t for me.

There was a time when any assignment giving to me became a task that I felt obligated to complete. Guess what my success rate was and how it affected my confidence in my ability to complete projects. I’ve learned that I’m not responsible to everyone to complete everything.

Now I will take the new assignments, analyze them and determine which ones I should tackle. Next I’ll put a plan in place for each assignment - with a timeline for completion. If I don’t put the timeline in place I know my chances of following through are slim. You see, I know me and what I need to guarantee success. Once I have the plan in place I can put it into my schedule without interrupting my current workload. It’s not rocket science; it just takes planning.

How good is your planning? Add a comment with your suggestions for dealing with being busy. How do you keep a balance in your life?

 Garth Roberts