Keep It Simple

I'm all for not over complicating leadership.  Sometimes as leaders we may have grand ideas and yet miss the obvious.  Recently while having a casual conversation with a friend, I heard her mention three things that are absent in the leadership of her group that could make a significant difference.  They are not complicated.  She shared...

• No one from leadership has called me in the last four years to touch base and see how my small group is going. 
• No resources or training have been given to build into us as a small group leaders.
• The leaders don't seem to be committed to attending the small groups, they don't model what they expect of others.

Connecting, resourcing and modelling was what my friend was hoping and expecting the leadership to provide.  These three simple concepts should be present in the leadership of any organisation.  While my friend was talking about her Church, the absence of these principles, in any group, leaves people wondering how committed the leadership really are to its people and purposes.

As you think about the groups you are involved in, whether they be a large corporation or a small charity, how does your leadership rate as far as knowing where your people are at, providing the resources for growth, and modeling what you expect in others?

Being Brain-Smart

'Workers everywhere are experiencing an epidemic of overwhelm… for many, every day involves a constant, massive, and overwhelming volume of work.  As the world digitizes, globalizes, unplugs, and reorganizes, having too much to do has become our biggest complaint.’ (Your Brain at Work, David Rock)

Can you relate to this statement?  Sadly most of us working in the knowledge economy can.  Recently a friend was describing her state of overwhelm, which included 2,000 unread emails in her inbox!  How do we keep up?

David Rock suggests that to be effective in our job we need to understand how our brain works and to develop more brain-smart approaches to our daily work.

Like any other muscle, the area of the brain that makes decisions and solves problems tires from use.  It is a limited resource and like a battery it needs recharging. Some mental processes take up a lot more energy than others.  A repeated, routine activity takes much less energy than making decisions or processing large amounts of new information.  

So how do we respect and value our brain’s limitations?  Rock makes the following suggestions:-

1. Make prioritizing a priority – prioritizing is one of the brain’s most energy hungry activities and should be undertaken when our brain is fresh and energized.  It is crucial to prioritize where to allocate our brain's peak performance.
2. Use visuals – save brain space by getting the concepts out of your mind, onto paper or some other visual form.  Using your brain to store information uses a valuable resource.
3. Break work into blocks of time, based on brain use – for example creative writing, meetings, routine tasks etc. Schedule the most attention rich tasks for when you have a fresh and alert mind. Give your brain a rest and time to recover by mixing things up.
4. Be disciplined about what you don’t think about - don’t think about a project until all the information is at hand.  Or say no to tasks that are not among your priorities.

‘Your ability to make great decisions is a limited resource.  Conserve this resource at every opportunity.’

Question to Ponder:- What could you do to conserve your brain resource and be more effective each day?

(For more information on this topic refer to 'Your Brain at Work, David Rock, Act 1, Scene 1 – Juggling Five Things at Once')  

Protecting Your IQ

‘A study done at the University of London found that constant emailing and text- messaging reduces mental capability by an average of ten points on an IQ test.’ (David Rock, Your Brain at Work)

Smart phones are rapidly becoming the norm and jokes are made about those who still have ‘dumb phones’.  But maybe those of us who have smart phones aren’t so smart after all.  Having 24/7 access to our emails and constant communication, through various apps, means we are ‘always on’.  But it is being discovered that being always on does not equate with productivity and may actually have a cost.

After reading ‘Your Brian at Work’, I’m beginning to wonder what damage I am doing to my brain!  The modern tools of communication and productivity may actually be harming us.  Dr Rock explains that the problem is our brains are forced to be on alert much of the time, which increases our stress hormones and creates an artificial sense of constant crisis.

He goes on to say "the surprise result of being always on is that not only do you get a negative effect on mental performance, but it also tends to increase the total number of emails you get.  People notice you respond to issues quickly, so they send you more issues to respond to.”  And while multitasking is admired in those who can do it well, accuracy goes down when more than one task requires our attention.

While being ‘always on’ can seem productive, the cost on the brain can be significant. Research has repeatedly shown that our performance, either accuracy or quality, is impacted when we try and hold several chunks of information in mind at once, and perform more than one mental task.  Each process uses incredible amounts of energy.  Dr Rock explains that it’s not doing two things at once that is the problem, but doing two mental tasks at once which leads to mental exhaustion and a drop in capacity.  The key is to finish one operation before the next can begin; conscious processes need to be done one at a time.

So what do we need to do in order to preserve our brain’s energy and IQ (and to maintain accuracy and quality in our work)?  Some helpful suggestions given in the book:-

• Catch yourself trying to do two things at once, slow down and focus on one at a time.
• Limit the time you are doing several things at once and then go back to focusing on one thing. Perhaps turn your smartphone off while you do focused work, for example only having it on in the afternoons.  (You may want to let your colleagues know this work strategy.)
• Embed on-going tasks so that they become routines and patterns, which require much less energy for the brain to perform.
• Get decisions and thinking tasks into the right order.  Don’t try and make decisions where the information is not all available. Wait and save energy by not thinking about the same incomplete things on and off, over and over again.

(For more detail on this issue, refer to Your Brian at Work, Scene 3, Dr David Rock)

Question to Ponder:- What working habits do you need to change in order to preserve and maximize your mental energy?

Energy v Time

Recently a friend commented "oh you weren't at the seminar on Saturday, I guess you were busy."  I explained to my friend that I actually did have the time but not the energy.  Two days earlier I had returned from traveling for work and I knew I had an intense week ahead.  In order to restore and reserve my energy I had chosen not to attend the seminar.

Much is written about managing time, boundaries on time, the big rocks etc.  Many of these resources are important and very helpful.  But managing energy is a concept that has only come to my attention in the last few years.  For all of us energy is one of our biggest assets.  Managing our energy is just as important as managing our time.  Wayne Cordeiro writes "How and where I invest my energy may be the most important decision I will make on any given day."

A helpful exercise for me has been to determine what the most strategic use of my energy could be.  Determining the three key areas of where to put my energy has helped guide the daily use of my work time.  How easy it is to squander our energy stores on email and useless activities. 

Not everything in our day takes an equal amount of energy and for all of us our energy is higher at certain times of the day than others.  And depending on how we are wired, certain activities drain us and other things energize us.  Working out what this means for us personally helps us to schedule our day and our energy accordingly.  Important meetings, presentations or vital work should be scheduled when our energy is highest.  Less draining and straight forward tasks can be scheduled when our energy is the lowest.  Allowing yourself to refuel after a time of intense energy output is also important.  This whole area is one that I am still learning in, but I find it incredibly helpful to consider as I plan my week.

We all have the same amount of time, but our energy is limited and finite (and as we get older often ebbing), but we all have the choice of being intentional about how we use the energy we have available. 

Questions to Ponder: What drains and energizes you?  What are the key priorities on your energy?

The Number 1 Indicator of Growth

'The number one indicator that I have found that reveals a person's character is oriented toward growth is the spending of two concrete resources: time and money.' (Henry Cloud, Integrity)

We may indeed have a desire to grow, but do we commit our time and resources to actually making it happen? Do our actions truly reflect a growth mindset? According to Henry Cloud, these two indicators are the litmus test!  Whether it be personally or in our business, the money we commit in our budget, and time set aside in our schedule, indicates the true reality of our growth mindset.

If growth really is a priority, then it will not wait until we are 'less busy' and have 'more time', we will make time!  We will plan training and build growth structures into our lives.  This is a challenge for me personally.  I do create growth structures in my life but not as intentionally and as planned as would be beneficial. 

Recently I met a leader of an NGO who was given the responsibility when his boss unexpectedly stood down.  He felt ill-equipped, but he decided to create a plan to read 6 of the top leadership books within his first 6 months on the job.  He stated that it was one of the best growth periods of his life.

Question to Ponder: What action do you need to take to truly invest in growth? How much time and money are you willing to commit?

Fixed v Growth Mindset

This week I listened to a fascinating lecture by Dr David Rock from the Neuro Leadership Group.  In relation to performance management, he talked about the importance of organizations moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. Let me explain!

A fixed mindset in one in which we believe we are born smart (or not) and that we have a certain amount of talent.  Therefore we cannot change or improve and any additional effort makes no difference.  Feedback is not helpful and there is no need to pay attention to what you can do better. 

A growth mindset, on the other hand, is where we believe we are born to learn and that we can change.  Therefore effort is central, feedback is helpful and stretching goals are a good thing.

Research has shown that 90% of performance management systems are a failure.  Dr David Rock believes this is because our current performance management systems prime people for a fixed mindset.  They are backward looking and the emphasis is on rating and ranking people, telling them they are a certain way.

We need a change in philosophy, to that of a growth mindset, with an emphasis on learning and growing.  It is foundational that we have the right mindset for performance.  One that moves from ranking to co-developing areas for growth.  Does your organization remind people that they can grow and that change is possible?  Do you recognize and celebrate how change has occurred in the past?

Dr Rock believes we should move from performance ratings to a coaching conversation, which is based on a growth mindset.  A quality coaching conversation involves people changing habits.  But the active ingredient in a quality conversation is insights.  Insights matter significantly!  When insights are gained, learning is easily recalled, engagement is created, and new insights stick to the brain.  Learning to have a conversation to get people to see things for themselves, creates insights, which result in action, and the development of new habits.

A growth mindset thinks in terms of a continuum, a journey, rather than a ranking.  Rather than thinking in terms of evaluations, lets think in terms of growth.  Think about how you could use these growth mindset questions in your organization this week.

How have you grown in this area?

How are you looking to grow further?

How can we help?

Question to Ponder:- Do you have a fixed or growth mindset?  What is the mindset within your organization?  What could you do to move to a growth mindset?