Indicators

A change in focus requires a change in indicators.

If you decide to focus on employees well-being and retention, why are you still talking about growth rate?

If you decide to break down the silos, why are you still setting goals and reporting results by department?

If you want to spend more time with your family, why is your salary still the measure of your success?

A change is a change.

Content

There’s too much talk about improvement and growth and too little talk about acceptance and contentment.

Wanting to be better, wanting to have more, wanting to learn and move forward, these are all very commendable aspirations. But when they get applied to every situation and when we look at them in the shortest possible amount of time, they are just going to eat us.

Life is not that long, and we need to find a way to be OK with what we have, with who we are.

Infuriating

One of the things that’s more infuriating is acting in a way that does not fit the image we have of ourselves.

Raising the voice when we like to think we are calm and understanding.

Cheating at a game when we like to think we are fair and honest.

Gossiping to fit in when we like to think we are open and trustworthy.

And the funny thing is that it’s true whether we have a clear idea of who we want to be or not.

But if we don’t know what we want to be, we’ll never figure out what infuriates us, nor we will ever do anything to correct that.

Good and bad start

Start the day with something that motivates you, something you can be proud of, something that is valuable.

A bad way to start the day is by checking emails and instant messages, and getting caught in answering each one of them (as well as the new ones as they come in).

A good way to start the day is by shutting down email and instant messages app, and writing that blog post that’s been on your backlog for weeks.

A bad way to start the day is with a meeting.

A good way to start the day is by dedicating your full attention to that deliverable that is waiting for your feedback.

A bad way to start the day is by checking social media accounts and a few potentially interesting websites.

A good way to start the day is by going offline and drafting the full content calendar for next quarter.

The bane

Busy is the bane.

And sometimes, you are busy. So much so that being busy becomes a description of your permanent self, more than a temporary state.

To get out of it, make a list of the things that are making you busy. And ask yourself two questions.

  1. Are those things my responsibility? Because if they are not, you are doing somebody else’s job.
  2. Could those things be somebody else’s responsibility? Perhaps a colleague who is looking for an advancement, or a freelancer who is looking for more work.

Once you unlock that conversation with yourself, you are ready to start setting boundaries and delegating.