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My Lessons From Last Week – Week #5

September 21, 2010 in Ideas, Leadership, Life, Ministry, Passion, Productivity, Self Leadership, Teamwork, Vision with 0 Comments

I went through my blog sometime last week  – a little maintenance work, if I can call it that. I use WordPress for my blog. I checked if plugins were working the way they should, links etc. I realized something; most of the times I’ve checked my links, plugins and other functionality of my blog and overlooked the RSS feeds. Well not this time! I discovered it wasn’t working as it should be. I then installed FeedBurner to remedy that – now working perfectly.

The Lesson: There are the “invisible” components of “systems”.  Because these are more in the background and out of sight it makes it easy to forget or overlook them. Because we cannot see them doesn’t meant they don’t exist and cannot affect us. I was challenged to think about the “background” things in my life and functions that facilitate the more visible ones. These same things have the capacity to bring down projects. A little oil is necessary to prevent a gigantic machines / engines from breaking down. I realized I have checklists for some things but not all. The invisible that matters can be made and kept visible through checklists. Checklists help make “maintenance” systematic. In a team context checklists can facilitate easier duty / task transferals and subsequent continuity.

My Lessons From Last Week – Week #4

September 6, 2010 in Leadership, Life, My Lessons From Last Week, Productivity, Skills, Teamwork with 2 Comments

Lessons in life often pay us a visit as we go through the day. When we don’t stop to reflect we waste opportunities of learning and growth. Since I started sharing “My Lessons From Last Week” I’ve been astounded by the things I learn about myself and life in general… As always I will share just a couple of what I learn last week and hope that it somehow enriches you…

  • My Body Talks To Me: I paid a ‘visit’ to the emergency room at the hospital on Wednesday night. It definitely wasn’t fun at all and that was probably one of the longest nights of my life! My skin color changed to grey! That was weird to say the least. To cut a long story short, I was reminded of something and learnt simultaneously. My body actually talks to me! I could hear it speak but I didn’t listen to it much. My body has been telling me that it doesn’t like what is happening in its ‘belly department’. It would speak then keep quiet. On Wednesday it decided to shout a little louder, I could not even ingest a sip of water! There are many things our bodies tell us, it is just that we don’t listen hence they end up telling us in more aggressive ways.
  • Sometimes fatigue is your body telling you to slow down or that we are not servicing it with needed exercise or good diet. Other times it tells us it doesn’t like some foods no matter how good they taste. At other times our bodies speak in a language called pain, telling us to handle them a little more delicately. This morning as I thought about this post I started to ask myself, what else has been body been telling me and I’ve been ignoring? You can get a transplant for some body parts but I’ve never heard of a whole body transplant! You have one body and should take serious care of it. It will treat you like how you treat it! So I am going to listen a little more intently to my body from now on. you can easily avert some life threatening issues if you take time to listen, even to the seemingly minute things your body says. Your body has been speaking; have you been listening?
  • Team: On the squash court… Things are not going as well as I would like. If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know I’m just one of those guys who sees no point in playing without the intention to win… At the moment my squash league team is not doing as well as we’d like. We’re not accumulating substantial points in our weekly fixtures… Last week we had no matches and instead of ‘taking a chill’ like some teams, I proposed we use the normal match day as a practice day. I’m glad we did it! My lesson: a win from my teammates is a win for the team. The opposite is true – my loss is not just mine but team’s! It is rather obvious and you probably know this but there something I’d like to add in this regard.
  • When your team is not winning or reaching its goals the responsibility is not just the captain or leader to turn things around. Teams, on some occasions, continue to miss targets or lose because all responsibility is placed on the leader. There is a line from the movie, ‘A  Bug’s Life’, “When you’re the leader everything is your fault”. I agree with that in part. As a team player you also have some influence leveraging your team to a better game! It is not all up to the leader. Frankly, there are times even when he doesn’t know what to do. Never stop looking for the solution. Your team will only be as great as you make it. Take responsibility in turning things around. There is something you can do. Not being the leader doesn’t make you powerless; it actually empowers you to take risk.
  • When my team is not winning, it is my responsibility even if I’m not the leader, to be part of the solution! Some team members have watched their teams fail as they kept quiet with solutions. Speak up! Most team players only want to identify with their team when they win. However, true loyalty is always proven in the heat of adversity. Do you cower and refuse to identify with your team when you experience losses and associate with them in wins? As part of the team, what do you do when things aren’t going as you’d like? If you’re part of a team you don’ t lead, have you been as responsible as you could be? Why or why not?

There most certainly is an “I” in “team.” It is the same “I” that appears three times in “responsibility.” – Amber Harding

Don’t just let life happen to you, learn something and grow!  Have a great week.

My Lessons From Last Week – Week #3

August 30, 2010 in Leadership, Life, My Lessons From Last Week, Passion, Productivity, Vision with 0 Comments

For the last couple of Mondays I’ve shared lessons from the Road & Squash court. For some reason that is where I seem to find myself  in reflection almost effortlessly.  Perhaps the reason is that it is those two places I, in a sense, disconnect from the usual bustle. Have you noticed places where you easily can disconnect and reflect? I think it is those kind of places where complexity ceases to be daunting. Productivity takes on a new face when we’re in environments that encourage it. Sometimes changing my environment has made significant difference between getting things done and the adverse. At other times it hasn’t been a location but a time of the day… I learnt more than one thing last week, but I’ll highlight something I learnt from (you guessed it!) a squash match I played.

I won the match I played.  I was glad for the win but was not ecstatic. It was a win but not as challenging as I would’ve liked. I prefer winning to losing but I realized something; I don’t just like winning but I like winning with a challenge. There is something about a challenge that makes winning all the more sweeter. The lesson I learnt was the importance of challenge…

One of the reasons why people may feel unfulfilled is that they don’t feel challenged enough! I tend to feel cheated or like I’m the one cheating when I don’t get a ‘fair challenge’ (whatever that means).  After all that is the idea of a match. Perhaps one of the reasons you feel unfulfilled and have somehow lost the zest for your undertakings, work etc is that you’ve ‘outgrown’ your challenge! An obvious remedy would be to seek or ask for more challenge. As a leader, you may want to review the challenges you give your team members. Some blatantly ask for more challenge and others more subtly. The important thing is discernment on how they do it, which can be enhanced by knowing your team members. (Knowing those you lead is an invaluable resource for any leader.)

A sign that you’ve out grown some challenges is when your activity becomes mundane, dull or boring.  Perhaps you are not as incompetent or ‘weak’ as you thought. It may just be that you have been underestimating yourself. It just could be that you’ve grown more than you think. Could it be that you are ‘under-challenging’ those you lead?

(More on challenges later…)

My Lessons From Last Week – Week #2

August 23, 2010 in Ideas, Leadership, Life, My Lessons From Last Week, Productivity, Social Media, Teamwork with 0 Comments

On the Road

Lately, this seems to be one area that I witness and sometimes learn some interesting things (to say the least). Besides occasionally having someone just cut in front of you without signalling, I’ve seen other ‘phenomena’ such as people holding up two lanes for about two kilometres because they were texting, some people reading novels when traffic is crawling, ‘Facebooking’ on mobiles and the one that is on number one at the moment (drum roll) playing an alto saxophone while driving at least 80km/h!

Let me get to the lessons… On one of the days I left the office about 15-20 minutes later than than I normally do, and it took me an extra 50minutes longer to get home!  I then concluded that 15 minutes actually is a lot of time. Sometimes taking a little time to do something could save us much more time ‘down the road’. I then starting thinking about areas where we lose time e.g.:

  • Snooze! When the alarm goes off in the morning. Other ‘snooze buttons’ that I think affect productivity can be. Imagine what you could do with the extra 10-20 minutes. Perhaps plan your day, helping you feel less rushed as you get into work mode. Perhaps use the time to interact with your spouse or children or catch the news update and find out what happened in the world while you slept, there may be something there that affects you. Or spend some time in prayer and meditation, setting the platform for your approach and mind-set for the day ahead or a little cardiovascular exercise… I think the first minutes when we get out of bed determine greatly how our day is going to be. Be very careful and intentional about what you do with the first few minutes when you wake.
  • Small talk that goes on for too long. I think it is important to connect with your teammates / colleagues but watch your time. At the office we have set days and times for us to interact / connect i.e. is outside of meeting etc. You may want to consider something similar. This has actually helped us reduce the amount of small talk that steals from productivity as well as help team building. Our team has grown even closer… Strong teams are not only built on sound clear strategy or vision but also by the strength and depth of relationship of its members!
  • Choice of battle. Sometimes we expend way too much energy on useless arguments. Useless in the sense that we don’t really achieve much by winning them. Okay, you were right that the new guy drives a pink and not an orange car… So what?! Cheesy example but am sure you get what I mean. You’ve just wasted 10 minutes on something that hardly adds value and will not matter at the end of the day!

  • Tweeting, Facebooking, ‘LinkedIning’ etc You are never going to exhaust everything on the internet. Worrying that you may miss something is not valid enough to spend too much time on these platforms. They can help productivity but be a good time and energy waster too if not managed properly.You don’t really need to see every video posted on Facebook or YouTube.  Resist the urge to follow every link that pops up on your Tweetdeck (great app by the way) etc

  • Doesn’t Matter How Much You  Think About It you will still need to get it done. Sometimes we spend too much time thinking about whether we feel like it. After half an hour debating with ourselves we decide to go ahead and do it. Stop checking how you feel about doing something and just do it. Thinking about whether you feel like it or not isn’t going to change the fact that it needs to be done! Nike – “Just do it”!

My Loss

Guess what, I lost my squash league match last week. Yeah losing did sting! I had a sore neck and part of my left shoulder was a little sore. I learnt that I shouldn’t aggravate pain unless to heal. Playing in that condition did not help much except the pain. My movement on the court was terrible to say the least as it was hard to turn especially to my left. I learnt to listen to my body and not try pushing it to do things it is not ‘ready’ to do. I guess this applies all round. Don’t try to make your team do things that it is not ready for, it may hurt them. This may cause them to not want to go down the same road again when they are ready. When ‘hit’ take time to recover. Not doing so will only make things worse. Take a chill pill, get back in the  game another day.  You are no good injured!

A friend of my asked me how my game was and I told him, “I played a rubbish game”. He responded with a truth that stung a little, “Then you deserved to lose!” How true! I learnt to own failures and not make excuses for them. If my input was bad then the only thing I should expect is an output that is bad. Made me think, “Have I downplayed the fact that in some cases I have been the enabler of my own demise?” If your team has failed because of some wrong / bad calls as the leader own them and chart some solutions! Don’t waste time looking for a scape goat. Contrary to what most people think, you’re more likely to gain their respect and confidence. Besides, that is leading by example. I’m sure you  like those on your team to own their role in in not getting the target. As leader this is one of the areas you must not make any exceptions when it comes to you.  I love the varsity of life!

Don’t just let life happen to you, learn something and grow! Have a great week!

…Quit ye like men, be strong – Apostle Paul

Where have you been losing time? Any stories of how you ‘enabled’ your own demise?

About Time

July 19, 2010 in Life, Productivity, Teamwork with 2 Comments

I had the opportunity and privilege to go on a trip to Mozambique recently. I remember the countdown I did a few days before departure. As part of my preparation for the trip there were some things I had to see to before leaving. I remember brainstorming with one of my team leaders about plans for meetings that were going to take place in my absence. I also attempted, to the best of my abilities, to prioritize some of the things in my diary at the office. I shuffled things up and down the priority and important lists.

In a bid to pay full attention to some things I deemed important and of high priority, there are some things I left either completely not done or partly complete. After returning from Mozambique I revisited my diary to follow up on some outstanding issues. I noticed that a substantial number of issues would not still be in my to-do list if I had seen to them when and as they arose as I had the time and space for them then. I visit life’s university yet again.

One of the reasons I did not do those things I could have at that time is to an extent I was busy, busy procrastinating. (I ashamedly admit). Today there were some areas where I felt a little overwhelmed as many minute things have become a mountain of sort. I think one of the reasons we procrastinate is not that we do not have adequate time, but that we simply, “did not feel like it”. We all know this, but I was reminded of the fact that living in procrastination is not progression.

Another way I realized I procrastinated was moving some things in the “urgent-and-not important and urgent-and-important” cycle. I understand the importance of distinguishing and striking a balance between urgent and important, but if it is something you have to do and you keep pushing it on the back burner it will not change the fact that it still needs to be done! Procrastination in all the creative forms we cloak it in, will not change that fact that things will not just happen on their own. Sometimes the things we classify as urgent and not important grow until they make it to urgent and very important – a crisis! No disrespect to whoever came up with “urgent-and-important and urgent-and-unimportant” but sometimes we just need to get with it and get whatever needs to be done done period! Whether urgent or not it will need to be done eventually! I do need to manage my time well but without ignoring that whatever I need to do will not go anywhere until it is done! (#notetoself)

“There is a time for everything, and a season for everything…” Some things are only significant and relevant in their time. If we’re not careful to observe, we may lose out on some of life‟s valuable moments. For example, it is more beneficial and pertinent to study well before one’s exams. It makes more sense to cherish our families and or those we hold dear in their time. It becomes irrelevant to them when they are no longer with us. Time and timing is of the essence. I’m sure it will prove beneficial for us to take another look at our budgets, our time budgets. Everything is just beautiful in its time!

I’m now reflecting on how I’ve been managing my time… Yet another challenge – to celebrate life more by being good stewards of time.

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