What happens when your computer gets overloaded?

It slows down. Everything takes longer. It starts giving you error messages. Soon it freezes, and then it crashes.

It’s the same thing that happens to you when you get overloaded. There’s a natural principle at work here: the things I have to do are infinite, but the capacity I have to do them is limited.  (In my case, quite limited.) In our new book, Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times, we talk about how to “push the reset button” on your work and your life when things get scary.

Here’s the issue: At work, everybody’s trying to do more with less. But the real question is, more of what? Are you just trying to do more stuff whether customers value it or not? Are you trying to do the jobs of people who aren’t here anymore, whether those jobs are worth doing or not?

Push the reset button. Ask yourself, what’s the job that really needs to be done? What job do my customers want me to do more than anything else?

Say you’re the only finance person left after everybody else is let go. Do you really need to keep track of every single data point that’s always been tracked? What are the company’s real needs right now? Protecting cash flow? Getting accounts receivable paid up? 

Figure out what the organization really needs you to do. Then focus on that job. Instead of trying to do 2 or 3 jobs that “kind of, ought to” be done, strip yourself down to the job that you must do and that only you can do.

 I hear you giggling. “Tell that to my boss.”  No, you tell it to your boss.  In these scary times, nobody—including you—can afford to carry responsibilities that aren’t core to the organization’s purpose.

What else can you do to succeed in the middle of the wild ride we’re all taking right now? We would love to hear from you.

Get a copy of Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times for 30% off.

“I’m not sure why my company hired you, I’m really good at setting goals and I really don’t think I need any help.”

My client, Jeff was partially correct. He regularly set goals for himself and for his team.  Unfortunately, he seldom achieved them – a characteristic that had led his company to suspect he was not be the leader they needed. Hiring me was a final attempt to help him.

As we continued our first planning session, I asked Jeff to share the goals he had set for the coming year. He withdrew a binder from his briefcase and opened it on the table in front of us. 

“This binder contains all of our goals as a team, broken down into four major categories,” Jeff said proudly.

Over the next few minutes, Jeff reviewed the four categories, each of which contained at least five goals. Together, he had set over twenty separate goals for his team, all of which were classified as “high priority.”

When he finished, Jeff leaned back in his chair and said, “Now, do you still think I need help?” With real compassion, I said yes.

Yes, because I know there are 3 actions I knew that Jeff needed to do to reach his goals.

1. Decide what’s important. The first difficulty Jeff faced is one that affects almost every leader – saying no to the relatively important in order to focus on the truly important – which is Discipline 1 in Franklin Covey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution.

Without question, this is easy to say but it’s hard to do. It’s hard to say no to a good idea, even in deference to a great one. It’s also hard to say no to an idea that’s politically correct to support, even if it’s not the right focus. Most of all, it’s hard to say no because limiting your goals increases your risk if you choose incorrectly.

But the more goals you set as “top priority”, the more you spread the focus of your team. Set enough goals and the focus on each one will be so small that it is almost meaningless. Limiting the number of top goals is the only way to ensure that enough time and talent will be applied to achieve exceptional results.

When I forced Jeff to identify the most important goals out of the twenty he had chosen, it was like a root canal without anesthetic, but he eventually narrowed his list to two.

Try deciding what your most important goals are, I would love to hear about your experience…

Check out my next post for #2 Candidly Assessing New Behaviors and #3 Preparing to Follow Through

 Author: Jim Huling Senior Consultant, Execution Practice

Certainly, independence is vital; however, the problem is that we live in an interdependent reality. Our most important work, the problems we hope to solve or the opportunities we hope to realize require working and collaborating with other people in a high-trust, synergistic way-whether at home or at work. Having an interdependent mindset, skills and tools are vital, especially now as we work through challenges unlike anything most of us have ever seen in our life time.

The principles found in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are all about helping people learn how to understand and build interdependence. The more we really understand and practice the habits, the more we will build the core skills and character necessary to successfully respond to the many challenges that will inevitably come our way. As a result, we will be able to manage our fears and insecurities, and take charge of our lives-which, in turn, can reduce our fears and insecurities.

Are you focusing on practicing interdependence? What differences have you seen in your life?

Click here to learn more about my summer webinar series on job security and career development.

Author: Stephen R. Covey

According to Dr. Stephen R. Covey a mission statement is like a constitution by which you make all decisions for your life. Highly effective people shape their own future instead of letting other people, their culture, or their circumstance determine it. A mission statement provides direction and clarity for your life, your family, your team and your organization.

Such clarity is critically important in today’s turbulent climate. You may work within an organization with fewer people, fewer resources, more confusion, and more noise-you may be expected to do as much or more with far fewer resources. In order to survive in such an environment, you need a compass to help stay focused and on course in order to make critical decisions and accomplish key priorities.

Benefits of a Mission Statement:

• Gives you a greater sense of meaning and purpose.
• Guides your day-to-day decisions.
• Helps you design your life, your family, your team or your organization instead of having it designed for you.
• Provides focus.
• Clarifies what is most important.

If you don’t have a mission statement or are ready to revamp, we can help you get started today. FranklinCovey’s mission statement builder provides an introspective path to creating your mission statement as you answer thought-provoking questions you will uncover your core values and highest goals.

Click here to use FranklinCovey’s Mission Statement Builder to get started today.

Once you write your mission statement come back and tell us about your experience or share your mission with us. We would love to hear from you.

I liked everything I heard, but some habits and ideas resonated with me more than others. Habit 2, Begin With the End in Mind was a habit that made theoretical sense to me, but it’s application (writing a personal mission statement) just seemed a little too ‘touchy-feely’ to me. It wasn’t that I was against the idea. I mean, ‘if you’re the kind of person that is in to that self-exploratory stuff, that’s great, but that kind of thing just isn’t my style.’ I will be honest, I kind of glossed over Habit 2.

Big mistake.

You see, I loved Habit 3, Put First Things First. After learning all about getting organized and putting the big rocks in the jar first, I went out and got a planning system, filled it with stuff (including a color-coded class-schedule) and proceeded to become dangerously efficient. It wasn’t too long however, before I learned that you can’t put first things first without knowing what your first things are! A planning system without the groundwork of a personal mission statement does lead to greater efficiency, but also greater ineffectiveness. As educator Neal Maxwell said, it’s like ’straightening deck chairs on the Titanic’

So, I began the process of hammering out a first draft of my mission. It has been through several revisions in the last 20 years or so, but has served as an invaluable tool in helping me stay focused on what matters most. It has given me the confidence and power to comfortably say “no” to really good, but unimportant things that would lead me to places I really don’t want to go. I have found Stephen Covey’s statement to be correct, ‘It’s easy to say no when you have a deeper yes burning within’.

Such clarity is critically important in today’s turbulent climate. We frequently work with organizations that have less people, less resources, more confusion, and more noise-they are simply expected to do as much or more with far fewer resources. In order to survive such an environment, we need a compass to help us stay focused and on course in order to make critical decisions and accomplish key priorities. A mission statement is that compass.

So, pay the price. Build your mission. Start now. One day, many years from now, when you are precisely where you want to be, you will be very glad you did.”

You can get started by using FranklinCovey’s Mission Statement Builder tool at: http://franklincovey.com/msb

This tool will help you discover your mission and values but will help you find the right words to put your mission down on paper. Once you build your mission statement please come back and tell us about your experience and share thoughts and insights.

Click here to register for a free webcast I will be conducting on discovering your purpose and writing your mission statement. Your source code is B5W.

Author: James Cathcart, FranklinCovey Consultant

Click here to read more from James Cathcart.