Ego Free Leadership
One of my clients is your typical type A, fast-paced, multi-tasking Vice President. He can’t sit still, and his electronic devices are constantly invading his work and home life — and he knows it. He prides himself on being organized ...
When asked to step up to the next level and be more strategic, many managers worry because they often don’t know what that means, how to do it or what it looks like. They’re intimidated by an image in their minds of visionaries like ...
Typically when we think about time management we focus on the structural aspect of time - the practical and organizational implementation of how we manage our paperwork, files and to-dos. What we don’t often recognize is the impact of our unconscious behaviors and beliefs on our ability to be productive. Here are three behavioral aspects of time management that undermine even the best-intentioned time management structures.
Note: This post is the final in a four part series. In this final post of the series on emotional clarity as a pathway to self-discipline, we’ll examine how these tools can help leaders breakthrough the most common form of ...
In last week’s post, we examined the power of using the emotional clarity of contribution to move beyond our fears and find a higher purpose for taking action. This week, we explore the other tool for emotional clarity: learning goals.
In previous posts, I’ve been discussing my resistance to writing a book as an example of how emotional clarity can lead to discipline. This week, I’d like to offer up a different example to highlight the importance of learning goals: My role as CEO of LaL.
A recent McKinsey report quoted in the Wall Street Journal states that only 11 chief executives of Fortune 500 companies are women, down from a peak of 15 in 2010. Likewise, in her TED talk (see video below) Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg enumerates the woeful lack of women in top positions around the globe. Sandberg places some of the responsibility for this on women themselves, rather than on external forces such as sexism. She says, "Women systemically underestimate their own abilities."
Note: This post is the second in a series.
In last week’s post, we looked at the role fear plays in preventing us from getting things done and its impact on self-discipline. This week, we continue with the topic by moving beyond the exploration of our fears to finding a more powerful place of emotional clarity.
Once you’ve answered the question “What are my fears about this (project, task, conversation)?” you have achieved a certain degree of emotional clarity about why you are not disciplined.
Procrastinate? Can’t get yourself to exercise regularly? Or not eat that greasy food that is so bad it’s good? You know that you need to have a difficult conversation about performance with your direct report, but keep putting it off? Many of our clients, even those who are highly accomplished and productive, complain that they lack discipline in key areas of their life. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I find that ‘willpower’ (“I just need to do it”) is a largely useless strategy to overcoming internal resistance. Over the next four posts, I’ll explore the role that emotional clarity has in creating discipline and offer some practical ways you can get unstuck from any project, goal or to-do you have been blocked from taking action on. When I first