Leadership = Do the Next Right Thing

Michael asks "What should you do when you don't know what to do?"  In the times when he felt lost, out of his depth, uncertain, unsure whether he was the right person in the role...  All the great moments of self-doubt that I know I share...

His mentor's answer?

"Do the next right thing."

The full post at Michael Hyatt's Intentional Leadership blog: "What to do when you don't know what to do".  I think it goes further than that.  This is not a recipe for rare moments of doubt.  This is a powerful framing of leadership.

There is a time for Managers, and a time for Leaders

When a team is winning, the captain needs to be a manager.  When the team is losing 3-1 at half time, the captain needs to be a leader.  Doing the same but better is going to lead to a 6-2 final score.  The team has to do something different.  This is when the captain must lead.

However, when leadership is made into something too big, action paralysis sets in.  Self-doubt assails the leader and leads to delay.  Leadership needs focus.

Leadership is “Do the Next Right Thing”

Do.  Action.  Leadership is about action.  Nothing changes without taking action.  Knowing what to do but not doing anything is the same as not knowing what to do.

The Next.  The professional knows where he is going, but never allows his mind to go beyond the next step.  He knows that this will lead to a feeling of overwhelm and the little voice inside his mind will tell him to stop.  It is only by keeping extreme focus on the Next that action is possible and sustainable.  The amateur takes on too big a goal.  He lives in a cycle of building frustration leading to a moment where he decides he will act.  He now sets a massive goal for himself and for a day or two manages to exert maximum effort towards this overly ambitious goal.  Three days later he realises how much work is still left and drops back into a depressed state and stops the action towards the goal.

Right.  What is necessary.  What is correct.  What fits with your values and effectively moves you in the direction of your overall goals. Not what others think you should do.  Not what you think others would expect of you.  Not what you parents want.  Not what your friends want.  It is what you feel is right.

Thing.  Specific.

Do. The Next.  Right.  Thing.

"I will act now."

The great failures do not come from a lack of strategy, or a lack of knowledge about where you would like to get to.  Few people wake up in the morning with a goal of being unhappy and frustrated.
True failure is lack of disciplined action.  This is not the failure of not achieving a goal, not winning a game…  but the hideous failure of having left a life unlived.

“You only need 20 seconds of courage in a life”.  Where are my 20 seconds?  How many do I have left?

Productivity, Using 5 minute gaps

I remember watching the "Last Lecture" of Professor Randy Pausch (video embedded below).  One of his messages was "show me your calendar and I will show you where you are wasting time".

He spoke of one difference between productive and non-productive people:  How you use the small gaps.

Using the 5 Minute Gaps


The productive people have learnt to make good use of the 5, 10, 15 minute gaps in their schedule.

The non-productive people go and have a coffee, say "what can I really get done in 5 minutes, I'll do it later when I have 2 hours."

Productive people get all the admin tasks out of the way in the little gaps and then can do big, important projects in their 2 hour gaps.

Non-productive people wait for the 2 hour gap to do all the admin, and then are too tired to get started on the big, important projects.

Launching The "Nuclear" Productivity Option

First, this morning I started my day in a new way.  I was so frustrated from my last week of low productivity that I went for the nuclear option today.  Zero connectivity before midday.  No internet, no phone, no messages - Nothing.

I went down to starbucks and closed down all programs except my word processor, and I wrote.  Then when I ran out of writing inspiration, I read a book.

Second, I decided to do 1 phone call on my to-do list every 5 minute gap.

I got a lot more done today.

I aim to keep this going...  Let's see where I get over the next 7 days ;-)

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
If you haven't seen this, watch it.





How do you react when productivity feels low?  What gets you going?  Any ideas for my week of getting Productive again?

Speakers: Text on Slides is not a Visual Aid

In my 8 years as a management consultant at Accenture, preparing a presentation was synonymous with preparing the Powerpoint slides.  "Hey Neill!  Proposal presentation this Friday..." - I immediately opened Powerpoint and started creating slides...

A lot of powerpoint is not Great Powerpoint.

Great Powerpoint can be a powerful addition to a great speech.  As the saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words.  Strong photos can powerfully impact an audience with a message.

Finding great photos is easier today than ever before.  Sites like Flickr.com or Google Images allow you to search through massive databases of Creative Commons images that you can use in your presentations.

There is a problem.

Most Powerpoint slides are not photos.  They are mostly text.

Written text is processed in our brain via the aural pathways.  Although text is read by the eyes, it is not really processed as a visual medium.  We turn the shapes into sounds via a voice inside our heads and process the language through our aural processors.

If you are a speaker and put text on slides, you are competing for attention.  

You are competing with yourself.

There are two voices competing for the attention of the listener's mind - your voice, and their own silent inner voice reading your slides aloud in their minds.

Text is not a Visual Aid.  

Text is not processed through the brain's visual pathways.  If you want to support your speech with visuals, use images that are processed directly through the brain's visual channels.  Use photos.  Use simple line drawings like Dan Roam's back of the Napkin visuals.

My Recommended Resources for Great Powerpoint:

• Dan Roam's Tools for presenting visually (Excellent Resource for Clearer Thinking...)
• Olivia Mitchell's eBook How to Make an Effective Powerpoint Presentation
• Florian Mueck Put Power in your Point
• Andrew Dlugan on 8 Psychological rules for creating great powerpoint
• John Zimmer's Hilarious Powerpoint Wisdom (what not to do)

3 types of Dangerous People

If you want to improve quality of life, stay away from people that reduce your joy.

photo: Avital Pinnick

Micheal Maddock writes about 3 types of people to fire immediately.  This applies beyond the world of entrepreneurs and work teams.  It applies in all of life.

The 3 types of Dangerous People

1. Victims - they want the problems.
2. Critics - they won't and they don't want you to either.
3. Know-it-Alls - they refuse to learn.

Question:  In the case that it is impossible to get away from someone of type 1, 2 or 3 do you have any ideas for antidotes?

Create, Connect, Complete

This is my theme for 2012.

Create, Connect, Complete.

Two bloggers inspired me to give up on setting goals or resolutions at this time of year and instead take time to reflect on the trends of the last 12 months and establish 3 overall guiding principles for the coming 12 months.

The first is Steve Shapiro, author of Goal Free Living and my mentor 12 years ago during my time in the London office of Accenture.  He talks about making resolutions that work here on his blog.

The second is Chris Brogan.  Each year Chris picks 3 words that are his "theme" for the coming 12 months.


My 2011 words were "Local, Global, No".  (Live Local, work Global, say "No" more).  I did a pretty good job in everything except the "No" part.  I still tend to allow too many non-priority things to get into my days.

Looking towards 2012

My 3 words for 2012 are "Create, Connect, Complete".  These three words give some sense to the chaos of dreams, goals, ideas and desires for the next year.

What will I do in 2012?  I don't know.  No specific plans, but I want to know that I will reflect on each activity I take part in and ask if it is contributing to Create, Connect, Complete.

Complete is the challenge.  I have a lot of personal projects that I have got to 50-80% complete and I want to see some of those come to closure in 2012.

The importance of being Bored

I am terrible at being bored.

I fill my days with a constant stream of activities.

Three days ago, I was with my daughter on a beautiful Costa Brava beach.  We were on a journey to explore the ruins of an ancient 6BC Iberian town on the cliffs (located on the head of the peninsula in the photo below).

We sat for a moment on the rocks to see if we could see some fish or crabs.

And....

I found my hand reaching for my smartphone.

Here I was in a beautiful place, exploring nature, speaking about the time of Egypt and Carthage and what the people who lived 8000 years ago must have been like - and some part of me wanted to check email, facebook, twitter, foursquare...

Why?

I run from being bored.  It requires more effort for me to just sit and think, than to read and respond to emails, create busy-ness.

Do you do "bored" well?  How?

What is an Entrepreneur?

My definition of an entrepreneur: Someone who has more ideas than resources.

"But I don't have any ideas..."

If you don't have ideas, then you are not an entrepreneur. There are millions of things that frustrate me every day. Find something frustrating and think how to reduce the frustration. If you are not frustrated by something every day, please send me the instructions for how to live like you!

If you have too many resources, then you are lucky.

Lucky is not a great long term life strategy.

photo: Martin Deutsch

"But I can't find an investor..."

The lack of resources is a test. If you can do something with very little, then you can do more with a bit. No investor wants to give you a bit until you can show that you can make progress with what you have. Investors really want to be in projects that will work without them (just slower).


There is always a step you can take without anybody else's permission. Find it and do it. Keep doing that. The money will come when you prove you don't really need it.

Do the next right thing.  This is what an entrepreneur does.

How do I know if I have a good idea?  Here is a simple test.

This post was inspired by a discussion started by Ciara over at my Linked-In Group.