Leaders, Do You Have a Traffic Problem

Leaders, Do You Have a Traffic Problem Recently, I came across a popular unattributed quote floating around online (in a meme, of course). It states,You are not stuck in traffic, you are traffic. Its a powerful comment on the tendency of people to remove themselves from blame in bad situations and theres a business lesson to pull from this idea, too.Leaders, if something in your organization isnt working whether it be boring meetings orineffective communication Ive got some tough news Youre parte of the problem.The good news, however, is you can fix things if you commit to change.As a business coach, I work with businesses to identify these traffic issues, and I help leaders enact change through use of the Rockefeller Habits, a collection of business fundamentals developed by Verne Harnish.The habits arent just friendly reminders or general guidelines they are the aggregated best practices of the worlds most accomplished organizations.The Rockefel ler Habits are effective, but they require real effort from a leader willing to accept responsibility for organizational issues. If you recognize traffic problems at your organization and are willing to accept responsibility, here are two essential stepsto take if you want to eliminate those issuesStep 1 Create Meeting RhythmsEstablishing meeting rhythm is a great way to ensure that quick, consistent, and accurate communication keeps flowing from top to bottom (and bottom to top) in your organization. Set up a rhythm ofregularly scheduled, consistent meetings where your kollektiv members can discuss items for which they are accountable and that support organizational and individual priorities.In my work, I have found that one of the most essential and effective meetings is the daily huddle. Now, a lot of leaders scoff when I insist that they needtoadd another meeting to their daily schedules, but trust me This one is vital to organizational success.Set aside a time each morning for your entire gruppe (yes the entire team) to gather for 10-15 minutes. At this meeting, everyone should discuss their daily schedules and any other information the rest of the team should know, progress on key performance indicators, tasks they need help with or are stuck on, and nonnegotiable priorities that need to be accomplished that day.As a leader, make sure toprep for each huddle with intention and zeal Gather beforehand a few high-level insights that the entire team needs to know about, and throw in a little something extra from a personal standpoint, such as a recent win or struggle youve experienced. If you demonstrate a willingness to share, others will learn to do the same. The next thing you know, people will actually look forward to the huddle and even depend on it.Another meeting we encourage is a biweekly one-on-one. This is an opportunity for a team member to sit down with a manager to talk openly and honestly about workloads, shifting priorities, struggles at work, and even struggles at home. Aside from giving leaders the inside scoop on team functionality, these meetings provide employees with the opportunity to vent to someone who can take actionon the matter. Otherwise, an employees negativity could spread to others in the office.Step 2 Install AccountabilityThe second step is to incorporate accountability into these meetings, ensuring that team members are doing the things they have promised to do.Every single team member in your organization should leave these new meetings with action items or next steps towards a goal. If theyre not, the meetings arent being used correctly. (No wonder theyre boring for some of your people) Furthermore, you should check on tasks assigned in previous meetings to stay updated on their status and next steps.Preparing an agenda of discussion topics for each meeting can help keep meetings on track. Even a rough outline can help reign in conversation and keep people focused on the larger goal at hand.During th ese meetings, track the conversation on some kind of visible medium, such as a document or a whiteboard. A visual representation of goals, action items, and reminders is a bold and memorable way to keep people organized and on track.The point of smarter meetings is to open up communication and help team members accomplish their goals. When you establish consistent rhythms, those pesky traffic problems will become a thing of the past. Ready to try it in your organization?JT Terrell is a certified Petra Coach.

3 Keys to Developing Daily Disciplines

3 Keys to Developing Daily Disciplines 3 Keys to Developing Daily Disciplines Article by Todd DuncanTime is yur greatest resource. If you struggle with managing it, you likely have not yet harnessed the power of daily disciplines.As the biblical book of Proverbs says, He who neglects discipline despises himself. The fruchtwein powerful decision you will ever make for your productivity is the choice to build rhythm and routine around doing what matters most. When you do that, you feel good about yourself and can achieve at a higher level. Being a high performer is the result of your daily disciplines.Time Management Is a Waste of TimeFor most people, time management is like raking water lots of activity, limited results. We are limited not by time, but by how we use the time we have. Time management is life management. Time management is values management. Time management is activity management. You and I will never be clever enough to control our time, but we can choose the eventst o which we allocate our time. When those events are repeated through daily discipline, our productivity soars, our spirits are enlarged, and we develop unstoppable determination.3 Keys to Developing Daily Disciplines Key No. 1 Clarify Your ValuesIf you dont know what is important to you, you will spend time doing what is not.When you know what is important and commit to those things as must-dos, you create the ecosystem for a more effective use of your time.When your activities are in alignment with what is significant to you, you suddenly know inner peace. High levels of inner peace reduce stress,calming you throughout your day. We all need a full grasp of those things that mean the most to us. I suggest we spend at least 15 minutes a day in a quiet state of mind to see how we can discover fulfillment in any of our important value areas.There is a saying, often attributed to Roy Disney, brother of Walt When values are clear, decisions are easy.Deciding what to do with your time sho uld be easy if you are clear on your values and spend time reviewing them on a daily basis. Knowing your values also helps you frame what not to do, which may be even more critical to your performance. Once your value areas are clear, you can move from behavior to habit.Key No. 2 Block the TimeBefore a habit is formed, you must commit to repeated behavior. To create rhythm and routine is to decide in advance what your day and week will look like and then discipline yourself to live accordingly. The discipline comes from your values and living in accordance with them.Managing time is not about post-it notes. Its not scribbled to-do lists. Its definitely not being connected all day long with unvetted technology. Effective time blocking - and blocking interruptions that mess up those time blocks - is the key.Time blocks are planned segments of time that help you complete your most important predetermined activities. They are, at their core, disciplines that lead to achievement. They are nonnegotiables.For example, I have a Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday morning discipline of riding my bike 50 miles. My wife, Deb, and I have a Sunday night debrief where we get to tell each other what we did well over the previous week and plan accordingly for the upcoming week. Every day between 1000 a.m. and 1100 a.m., I call three decision-makers to connect, add value, and advance relationships.Key No. 3 Form the HabitsWhy arent people as productive as they might be? Mostly because they miss the difference between trying to be productive and committing to being productive. Habits are only formed when the behavior attempted becomes permanent.Here are some ideas to help you stay focused on forming the habit of honoring your daily disciplines Be proactiveEveryone who moves toward a more productive life does not wait for life to come at them. They go out and make it happen. They know that everything has a proactive solution. You can hope that life will get better for as long as you like, but unless you do something to back up those hopes, littlewill change. Change must come from within. Heres a great question If you continue on the path you are now on, will your life improve and take you to the level of your dreams? Life will give you what you tolerate and accept Fight multitasking Multitasking is the fast track to low performance. It gets in the way of your greatness No one has everhad amanager congratulate them for being busy. The key question is Busy doing what? High-performance people are not busy they are productive. Rather than multitasking, they master the art of one-thing thinking. According to a Harvard Business Review article, multitasking can cut productivity by as much as 40 percent and IQ by 10 points Moreover, according to aUniversity of California, Irvine, study, it takes 23 minutes to get back on track following an interruption. Practice The Five-Minute Rule I learned an amazingly powerful discipline when I welches 23 years old. I call it The Five-Minute Rule. I was studying high-performance salespeople and was reading an article about an insurance agent who was makingmore than $1 million a year in sales commissions. He was asked, What is the best advice you could give any salesperson? He said, Spend five minutes every hour evaluating how the last 55 minutes went, and correct. Once I started using this rule, Iwas able to identify all the things getting in the way of my productivity. I learned how to fix and manage interruptions. I learned how to say no, which is the most powerful word when it comes to being productive. Within a year, I had increased my income by more than 400 percent.Whether you are doing business, living life, or both, the most important truth is your life will be defined by your daily disciplines. The choices you make,the impact you have, and the results you achieve - your entire destiny - itsall in your disciplines.A version of this article originally appeared on SUCCESS.com.Todd Duncan is a sales en trepreneur and game-changing speaker withmore than 5 million students around the globe whom he has mentored and taught in life, time, and sales mastery. He is the author of 17 books, including The New York Times best-sellers Time Traps Proven Strategies for Swamped Sales People and High Trust Selling Make More Money in Less Time With Less Stress. Todd has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Sydney Morning Herald, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Seattle Times, Entrepreneur, SUCCESS, FOX, and CNN, among other media publications.