The Thoughtful Leaders™ Blog

Are you getting honest feedback?

Posted by Robyn McLeod on April 11, 2013

It’s said that the only way to truly grow as a leader is to have access to candid feedback about what you are doing well in leadership and where you need to improve. There are certainly processes that have been established in many organizations to get some of that – annual performance evaluations, 360° feedback, employee opinion surveys, executive coaching – but what steps can you take on your own to ensure that you are getting honest feedback?
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Filed under: Awareness,Communicate/communication,Thoughtful leadership,Time management - Tags: feedback, leadership development, perceptions, self awareness —

One important way to take control of your workload

Posted by Robyn McLeod on August 2, 2012

Recently a friend described her work situation at a nonprofit. Her manager has been in the role for one year and is planning the group’s project schedule for the year ahead. The past year has been a difficult one with a tremendous amount of work for a team of only three. Ten to twelve hour workdays are the norm and her manager regularly sends email throughout the weekend.
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Filed under: Awareness,Managing,Time management - Tags: commitments, Leadership, Managing, planning —

The key to ending a damaging leadership epidemic

Posted by Robyn McLeod on July 5, 2012

We have written often about Leadership Frenzy – that state of constant chaos, information overload, back-to-back meetings, and 24/7 connection that is at the heart of many of the problems and challenges faced by leaders striving for greater effectiveness. While many of us think that the key to greater productivity and effectiveness is time management, we know that the real key is managing your energy instead. This is something we wrote about recently in Forget about managing your time; Manage your energy instead.
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Filed under: Awareness,Care for self,Time management - Tags: knowing yourself, self awareness, self-care, The Energy Project, time management, Tony Schwartz —

2 Responses to “The key to ending a damaging leadership epidemic”

Karin says:

July 6, 2012 at 7:19 am

I have been thinking a lot about energy… and how it shows up in leaders. It is a vital component.

Reply
- Robyn McLeod says:
  
  July 6, 2012 at 11:50 am
  
  Hi Karin,
  Yes, it is a vital component and one that many leaders overlook. Thanks for the comment!
  
  Reply

6 steps to avoiding analysis paralysis

Posted by Lisa Kohn on June 28, 2012

One of the greatest challenges my clients face is the balance between planning and doing. For some clients there never seems to be enough time to plan. They are hit constantly with urgent tasks and requests, and the ability to think through issues before taking action is viewed as a fantasy. For others, they get seemingly stuck in planning, thinking through issues over and over and feeling unable (or unwilling) to make a move.

I believe this balance challenges us all – or at least most of us – and therefore reached out to the LinkedIn community to gather a few best practices on creating, or maintaining, that balance. Here is the best of the best of what I heard:
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Filed under: Change and grow,Choose,Time management - Tags: balance, challenges, opportunities, planning —

5 Thoughtful Leadership tips to stopping overwhelm

Posted by Lisa Kohn on May 10, 2012

I am feeling it – that feeling of just too much. Too much to do. Too many deadlines. Too many balls in there air. And while I coach clients and offer keynote sessions on managing overwhelm, I’m feeling too caught in my own stuff to know what I know…so here’s a refresher for me (and perhaps for you). And yes, I did pick up The Power of Thoughtful Leadership to help me remember:

Let the little things slide – Right now, at my house, the bed is unmade, the laundry is unfolded, and there are dishes in the sink. Right now, in my office, there’s a pile of magazines that need to be looked through, a pile of papers that need to be filed, and a pile of expenses that need to be entered. Right now, on my to-do list, are many documents to be edited and a full email inbox to go through…and none of that really matters. These are the little things that I normally do to keep my life calmer and more clutter-free, but there simply isn’t time right now and I have to let them slide. And forgive myself for not keeping up with my own standards.
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Filed under: Awareness,Care for self,Choose,Time management - Tags: choosing, delegation, overwhelm, priorities, self awareness, self-care —

4 Responses to “5 Thoughtful Leadership tips to stopping overwhelm”

tim tymchyshyn says:

May 13, 2012 at 8:30 pm

by delegating and building the team,

hey if they don’t want to play, I will find someone else interested in doing a good job

Reply
- Lisa Kohn says:
  
  May 14, 2012 at 10:17 am
  
  Delegating is a great way to stop overwhelm and build your team. Thanks for sharing Tim!
  
  Reply
Melisa says:

May 16, 2012 at 3:14 pm

Well, we all have been overwhelmed with the task we need to do. But I focus on small things that can be solve easily and keep that momentum. You will never notice that you already finish your without even bothering to check on it.

Reply
- Lisa Kohn says:
  
  May 16, 2012 at 4:12 pm
  
  Thanks Melisa. I also find it helpful to make myself notice the things I do accomplish, as that helps me feel less in overwhelm and I’m likely not to notice them if I don’t actively try to.
  
  Reply

I don’t have time to breathe

Posted by Robyn McLeod on March 22, 2012

As you know by now, Thoughtful Leadership is a concept we feel strongly about and believe to be a key differentiator of great leaders. Often when we are in front of an audience and share our teachings about incorporating more thinking, reflection, and “being present” time into daily work and life, we get push back. “There’s no time to think,” we hear. “Just time to do.” In one recent program, a participant offered, “I don’t have time to breathe.” Wow, no time to breathe? Really?
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Filed under: Awareness,Care for self,Thoughtful leadership,Time management - Tags: being present, managing your time, reflection —

The invisible airline carrier and other tales of attention blindness

Posted by Robyn McLeod on December 1, 2011

Over the last several weeks the topic of multitasking has come up multiple times for me in discussions, articles, and television shows. Everyone seems to be talking about the implications and effects of trying to do several things at one time – and the impact of technology on this issue. Most experts and opinion-makers on the subject lament the destructive, stress-inducing effects of multitasking. They cite studies that show how productivity is negatively impacted by trying to complete a task while reading email and participating in a conference call.
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Filed under: Awareness,Care for self,Listening,Time management - Tags: attention blindness, Harvard Business Review, multitasking —

2 Responses to “The invisible airline carrier and other tales of attention blindness”

Dwight McLeod says:

December 7, 2011 at 8:38 am

I have always felt like I was an outsider because I wasn’t able to focus for long periods of time. I would always end up with the office where the most traffic passed or other ways to be around people. Now I see that the ability to multitask can be beneficial, not the detriment that people for years had attempted to make me believe. Thank you for this insight.

Reply
- Robyn McLeod says:
  
  December 7, 2011 at 9:35 am
  
  Thanks for your comment, Dwight! I found Cathy Davidson’s research and viewpoint very insightful as well. It’s so important to hear many perspectives on a topic and she offers a new way of thinking about multitasking. I’m happy it resonated with you and affirmed your need for regular task breaks.
  
  Reply

Dare to begin

Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on October 24, 2011

“All glory comes from daring to begin.” Eugene F. Ware

Sometimes starting is simply the hardest part. There’s a project you need to tackle, an article (or book) you want to write, a number of phone calls you need to make, a relationship you want to build…but all you can do is sit at your desk, not starting. The task seems too daunting and a million other urgent issues or immediate tasks at hand seem to appear, as if out of nowhere. So you never begin, and you therefore never finish.
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Filed under: Setting goals,Take action,The Thoughtful Leaders Minute,Time management - Tags: feel the glory, first step, procrastination, Success —

Choose to have time

Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on October 17, 2011

“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is to say ‘I don’t want to.’” Lao Tzu

Time Management seems to be a current theme for most of my coaching sessions. So many of my clients are focused on finding more time, or managing their time better. So often I hear, “I really want to do that, but I just don’t have time for it.”
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Filed under: Choose,The Thoughtful Leaders Minute,Time management - Tags: choosing, coaching, delegate, time management —

Get out of the meeting maze

Posted by Robyn McLeod on July 28, 2011

Talk to anyone in any workplace and it never fails that the topic of endless, pointless meetings comes up. It seems that the number of meetings – whether face-to-face, conference call, or video/web-based – is on the rise. One executive I worked with shared her calendar with me to demonstrate the point. She had a week full of meetings, many of which overlapped. “How can you be in two places at one time?” I asked. “Well, I’ll start out in this meeting and then leave early to catch the last half of that meeting,” she answered. Sounds awfully stressful and unproductive to me!
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