I don’t have a selling bone in my body.
I remember as a kid having to sell fundraisers for my school. My customers were my parents and my relatives and that was it out of pure sympathy. It wasn’t like it was a bad product. Anyone remember “World’s Finest Chocolate”? I mean it’s chocolate for heaven’s sake, surely I could sell that. Not a chance.
This week’s leadership challenge goes hand in hand with our three thoughts of the week in which we recognize we have come face to face with a productivity plateau and we need to take the next step to continue to climb the mountain again.
It doesn’t matter what time a day or what season we are in, it seems like there are always a multitude of fires to put out. Whether it’s the daily mundane of the dog barking because it’s time to eat or something much more complicated, there are 100s of things we are thinking about daily.
With so much content out there in the leadership space it can be hard to know which books are the best investment of your time. While of course there is no right answer to this, if you are new to the leadership/self help space, these are five tried and true titles that can get you started.
Procrastination is a gift of mine. I love putting something on the bottom of my list that needs to be done but I don’t want to do. I mean it’s on my list, but I will find 30 other things that absolutely have to be done before that task that I loathe.
Did you hear? Reading Rainbow is coming back! For those of us of a certain age, this show brings back memories of LeVar Burton narrating our childhood. Also of the “Book It” reading contest that we all participated in during elementary school that ended in a promise of a Pizza Hut pizza party in exchange for books read.
Starting a new habit may be one of the harder leadership challenges but perhaps one of the most important. Learning how to start a positive habit is key to being able to follow through in doing the things you want to do to thrive and feel fulfilled. As James Clear writes in his book, Atomic Habits, it really is all about starting the action that makes sure you get to the finish line.
Another day, another meeting. When done wrong, meetings might be the one of the biggest barriers to productivity in modern history and it has gotten a lot worse in the last five years. At least it used to be a little bit harder to hold meetings, but after the pandemic the use of video conferencing exploded from something that used to be a novelty to integration into everyday use.
It’s no secret that it’s getting harder and harder to face the job market. Competition is fierce, AI is taking market share and the industries in need are constantly changing. All this to say that a “good enough” application package 20 years ago won’t get you a sniff today. Good has to become great and in some cases great as to become exceptional. So what does exceptional look like?
Music has been an integral part of my life as long as I can remember and one of the things I gravitate towards most to ground me in the present. Music can really set the mood to whatever suits the moment in really profound ways.