Lesson 1: How to Take Action

How to Take Action

I've said it before and I will say it again: in order to learn these skills, you must take action.

"Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will." – W. Clement Stone

It's not enough to sit there and read this content. If you want to grow, you need to take action.

In this section, I will give you some tips and techniques to turn these skills into action.

Even if you don't have the title of a leader, you can work on your communication skills, your relationship with your boss and peers, and so on. A lot of leaders don't have the title of a leader, but they still show up as leaders using the very techniques in this course.

Daily Habits

I spent a couple years of my life exploring goal-setting systems in order to inspire and track my own progress. I found that I was not about to keep super-detailed records each and every day, because it became more about record-keeping than about living life.

I landed on a lightweight system of habit installation that did not require my daily life to become a second job. Here is my own personal practice.

Copy it, change it, and make it your own.

1. Non-Negotiables

Every day, my top priority is the completion of my daily non-negotiables, because without those things, I will not be operating at peak state. My current non-negotiables are:

• Proper sleep
• Hydration
• From 5 to 20 minutes of meditation (this is most of my own mindfulness practice)
• Proper diet (zero soft drinks, very little sugar, and control over carb levels)
• At least 30 minutes of working out (sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening)
• Produce content related to this class (1 hour minimum)

Sometimes I will vary the time and composition of the non-negotiables, depending on what goals I am trying to achieve at that point in time.

Non-negotiables are exactly that - I will not back off of them. That is why they are not up for negotiation. They are required.

Your family, your team.... and the world - needs you to be at your peak state.

2. Daily Goal Review

With the non-negotiables done or scheduled for later, I turn to the tasks of the day. I have a running calendar reminder with "daily goals," that I check around around 8am. Each day, my goals look like this:

• One intentional improvement task: to remind me to try to work on one improvement-oriented item each day. These are aligned with my goal for the quarter.
• My work-related daily tasks: whatever I have to do in a working day, prioritized and time blocked. I normally approach this with the mindset of "what is the most important thing I can do today?" and I make sure I have a dedicated time block for that activity. Another great daily question could be, "What's the most important thing I can do today to move my team forward?"

As I check those goals off, I change the details of the reminder to I am ready for the next day. This has the effect of focusing me on the top things I need to do each day.

Some examples of how I might integrate topics from this course:

• I might look at my meeting schedule in the morning, and decide that I will ask someone for feedback about my communication after that meeting.
• I might take a look at a recording of my own speaking, and take a couple notes to intentionally work on in my next recording.
• If there is something bothering me from a prior day that I left unresolved, I will intentionally resolve it.
• I might sign up for a course that will force me into working on some other skill that I need.

By choosing only one thing per day, I'm not overloading myself with aspirations that I cannot reach. If I can work on more than one thing, that is a bonus.

I am constantly experimenting with things to see what works for myself.

This is called investing in yourself.

Is anything more important than that?

Weekly Habits

I use weekly reminders to groom my daily reminders. Currently, I have a Tuesday morning reminder to check all my daily goals for the week, and ensure that I have at least all of the following covered by daily goals on the topics below:

• Make sure my team moves their work topics forward. If a piece of work is blocked for some reason, I will usually find out quickly (remember, you should be coaching your team to escalate bad new fast) so I can spend some energy helping the team overcome it.
• 1:1 with each direct report (depends on the size of the team, if I have a large team, this could be bi-weekly), but they should be scheduled in advance.
• Make one new connection, either in the broader organization, or over social media like LinkedIn. Some weeks I will make 5 new connections, but one is my minimum goal.
• Make sure I am updating my boss on the activities they need to know about. I have a calendar reminder to do this every Friday.
• Make sure my daily goals are keeping me focused and includes time for me to work on my own skills. If not, I revise my daily goal reminder on the spot.
• Learning and Networking: I set the goal of 30 minutes to one hour per week of learning, usually in the form of a micro-course or podcast, and the goal of connecting with at least one new person per week. I use the weekly reminder to ensure that these items appear on my daily goals, usually on a Friday or on a weekend when I have more time to focus.

Quarterly Habits

I schedule "quarterly reviews" where I review what I worked on last quarter, and what I feel I should work on in the next quarter. Quarterly reviews are a way to look at my own progress through a more strategic lens.

My quarterly goals are a combination of personal and professional goals. During my review session with myself, I might ask questions like this:

• Are my goals still the same, or am I starting to think differently? Do I need to adjust?
• Am I making progress toward my goals? Is my team making progress? Do I need to adjust anything there?
• Am I doing enough to challenge myself? Should I be doing more difficult things?
• Where am I showing up less than I could be?
• Have I done at least one self-assessment from this course?

Yearly Habits

Every year, I sit down and evaluate where I am in life. This requires some honesty and vulnerability, which is A Good Thing, in my opinion.

The reality is, that one day you will no longer be around. Are you leaving the mark you want to leave on the world, for your family's sake? For your sake?

There are a variety of frameworks out there that can help you think about your life and your goals from a holistic standpoint. Here is a simple way to do some self-analysis on a yearly basis.

• Health: Am I where I want to be, health-wise? What should I be doing more of or less of? Side note: I recommend starting to track your bloodwork regularly if you can do so.
• Family/Friends: Am I engaged in the relationships that really matter? Am I hanging around the right people with the right attitudes, or do I need to change something?
• Career: How satisfied am I with my current job or career path? Am I fulfilling my professional aspirations? How is my team doing? Am I showing up for them at the best of my ability?
• Finances: How comfortable is my current financial situation? Am I effectively managing finances and saving for the future? Do I need to do something different?
• Personal Growth: Am I actively pursuing personal growth and learning opportunities? Am I growing, improving myself intellectually, mentally, emotionally?
• Fun/Recreation: Am I enjoying where I am? Am I having fun in life? Am I doing things I enjoy? Am I exploring the things I value or want to explore?
• Physical Environment: Am I happy with my physical surroundings? Do I have a clutter problem? Am I living where and how I want to live?

Take the outputs from your own self-analysis and see what you need to change.

If you can decompose your high level goals into quarterly and then into daily practice, that you will start your journey to the growth you want to achieve.

Bringing your goals into daily focus is critical, because that is where the change is made.