It’s Day 6 but also the start of a new week.
Spend a little time as you start your week thinking about how you want to show up this week. What key leadership opportunities or challenges do you need and want to make the most progress on?
Mindset is fundamental to our growth. Kaylee McKeown who was so successful at the recent Olympic Games when interviewed said that ‘expectation is a privilege.’ Rather than let the pressure of competition negatively affect her performance this self-talk and mindset gave her inspiration and energy towards her goals.
The stories we tell ourselves and the mindset we approach our leadership work with can make all the difference between our growth and learning.
Identify a recent failure or challenge and reframe it to find the learning opportunity.
How can you apply this learning to your current leadership?
Day 7 - Start a mindfulness practice today (meditation, breathing) to centre yourself and enhance your decision-making under stress.
With a focus on mindfulness, we can strengthen a broad set of executive functions which leads to boosts in productivity, improved decision making and enhanced wellbeing.
Most of us are in a constant state of multi-tasking – sending and receiving messages from multiple sources all at once, triple booking diaries with meetings, and constant connectivity. We might think we are doing this successfully but growing research in this field tells us of the negative impacts. Our disordered minds, reactive behaviour and high levels of stress and anxiety are just the starting point.
I love how Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author, frames this.
“Attention is a mental muscle and can be strengthened with the right practice. The basic move to enhance concentration in the mental gym: put your focus on a chosen target, like your breath. When it wanders away (and it will), notice that your mind has wandered. This requires mindfulness, the ability to observe our thoughts without getting caught up in them. Then bring your attention back to your breath. That’s the mental equivalent of a weightlifting rep.”
Some of my clients have well-established mindfulness routines and if this is you then well done. For some, you may have lost the routine so today make a plan to bring this back into your daily focus. If you are new to mindfulness work, I suggest being guided by one of the many great apps that will give you a good starting point. The key is to get started and not to judge your performance!
Day 8 - How adpative are you?
Adaptive challenges aren’t technical challenges...
Here’s the thing with being adaptive. It’s not about applying a technical fix to an existing problem. We already know what an existing problem looks like. It can probably already be defined and measured and for this reason, a technical fix is suited. But what about problems that we can’t yet define and measure? This requires a different approach.
As Albert Einstein said: “We can’t solve our problems with the same thinking that created them.”
How adaptive are you?
Perhaps a useful question to ask yourself is “How adaptive am I being right now”. It suits all matter of situations and the essence of being adaptive first requires that we be aware.
Some other questions you can reflect on are:
- Does the way I make and execute decisions today suit the shifting environment of tomorrow?
- How often do I get on the balcony to consider upcoming challenges in my industry?
- Am I aware of how I need to change in order to deal with the complexities and uncertainties that I face?
Day 9 - Identify key stakeholders and their interests. Start a stakeholder map so you don’t leave anyone out.
Most people forget stakeholders that might have ‘hidden’ power in the system. Those who might sit behind or act as key influencers to the more obvious decision-makers.
As it relates to the change you are leading, what do your stakeholders care about and what worries them? This is more important than you think. Empathy is one of the most important skills in influencing. You must put yourself in the shoes of your stakeholders to really understand where they are coming from as it relates to the change you are leading.
You need to start with where they are at as you are engaging and endeavouring to influence them. This is about not only what you need to influence but how you go about it. But more on this later. For today, just start the mapping work.
Day 10 - It’s Friday and the end of the second week of your 21 Day Leadership Challenge.
Reflect on the week and how you are making progress. What are you proud of? Where do you need to make some changes so you can pay attention to this for next week?
Today’s challenge is to review your current network. Create a list of your network.
It might be helpful to think of your network in these 4 categories:
Performance – people in your network that add to your insights and perspectives and therefore support you in lifting your performance;
Development– people in your network that stretch you, your thinking and your experiences. They may also create opportunities that give you exposure to new and different;
Access – these people in your network connect you to others and open the door to new opportunities;
Support – these people in your network provide you with personal and emotional support.
When you sit back and reflect on your network how are you doing? How well is your network set up to support you and your leadership? How diverse is your network? Who else do you need in your network? Are there any categories that are too light?
Secondly, how you are engaging and nurturing your network? Do you have a plan or routine to manage these relationships? After all, this is important leadership work. Not a nice to have and not something to be done when it’s time to look for a new job!
To end the week - Set up a meeting or coffee with someone who will offer you new perspectives or challenge your current thinking…
And as always, we would love to hear from you about your progress. What’s working, where you are getting stuck and what else you need.
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