Attaining Excellence with Calendar Discipline
With the hectic pace of life for business professionals especially executives and entrepreneurs, effectively juggling competing priorities is a material challenge. As we work with our Coaching Engagement clients to build their Individualized Coaching Action Plans (ICAP), we particularly spend time addressing their unique needs regarding priority and productivity management. A simple, yet high impact topic is the subject of this blog post and a valuable benefit to any business professional, manager or leader.
Volumes of books have been written about Time Management and Productivity Management. Depending upon the methodology being recommended, we receive a spectrum of calendar management advice along with To-do lists or task management systems. Let’s cover something foundational before continuing. Please replace the word “calendar” with “capacity” in your mind which will make the following insights clearer.
As a results-oriented person, you are focused on producing positive outcomes every week from your finite “capacity” to engage others and get things done. Your capacity is divided amongst the professional, personal and civic priorities and responsibilities in your life. You might be thinking, what are the key components that make up my capacity to produce? Good question. The answer is a combination of the use of your personal talents / strengths, time and resources (e.g. financial, access to your personal network, and your valuable guidance, advice and knowledge). When someone wants something from you, that request typically aligns with at least one of these three categories.
We need to add one more foundational component. Let’s define “commitment” in the context of this discussion. Quite simply, a commitment is an agreement that you’ve made with yourself or others to use a portion of your capacity for the week. Hang in there, we are getting to the good part. The people who are delivering consistent excellence in their lives are keenly focused on the commitments that they make every single day - both small and large. They are constantly vigilant about what they say “yes” to and to whom. Why? They know that every single one of those commitments requires a follow up or follow through action or behavior performed by them, their teams, family members, friends, etc. The erosion and destruction of professional and personal relationships can occur fastest when commitments are not upheld. That reality is solidly tied to their ability to positively influence others and generate desired outcomes / results on a consistent basis.
Let’s bring the key components above together. The people who strive for and achieve excellence in their lives are consistently carving out capacity and proactively blocking out time on their calendars to follow up and follow through on their commitments. For example, if you have an important meeting with a customer on Thursday morning, then you should block out time on your calendar for the follow up actions to execute before the end of day on Friday; treat this follow up time on your calendar as important as the meeting with the customer! In most instances, it is the follow up action that drives positive results for us, our teams and the other important people in our lives. Also, if you don’t realistically have the capacity to follow up or follow through on a potential commitment, then don’t make that agreement! At times, taking that action will require fortitude and courage. More importantly, you avoid the expensive “opportunity cost” of wasting capacity on a partial job done versus spending time on other commitments that you can follow through to drive exceptional results.
By consistently focusing on your capacity to produce, commitments and blocking out time on your calendar for follow up actions, you are setting up a disciplined approach to drive repeatable and higher performance results in the various aspects of your life. We welcome you to learn more about our Executive Coaching and other professional services by visiting enlightenedrtc.com. If we can help you or your organization, then contact us and let’s talk.
by
Wayne Spooner, Managing Director
Enlightened Research, Training and Consulting, LLC