A few weeks ago, during a two-day annual planning session, I witnessed a truly poignant moment. The leadership team was participating in the “One Thing” exercise, designed to improve trust and team health. It requires each leader to provide every other team-member with two pieces of feedback – one positive and one constructive.
Are you willing to become your best?
Instinctively, most business leaders would answer Yes to this question. Why on earth would anyone say No? The challenge comes when small business leaders are put to the test—in the heat of the moment of the day-to-day grind. This is when shortcuts are taken to ease tension and pain. Because after all, everyone is overwhelmed.
Clarity breaks are essential for business leaders to practice on a consistent interval. A clarity break is a scheduled time to get out of the office with just pen and paper to think. Henry Ford said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.”
Normally I like to share stories of client sessions, but today I want to share my personal experience with clarity breaks. Something you should know about me is that I’m a doer. I love getting things done. And I have to confess that for a long time, I resisted doing clarity breaks and would skip them because I felt my time would be more valuable knocking items off my To Do list. Plus, taking time to just “think” made me feel like I wasn’t really getting stuff done—after all, “thinking” was never on my To Do list.
I frequently encounter this odd, paradoxical statement in my work. My clients specifically hired me to teach them how to run their businesses in a way that will give them more time and freedom, yet when I try to schedule sessions with them, they often tell me they’re “too busy.” They’re so busy trying to do that they “don’t have time” to learn how to do those things better, faster, and with less effort.
Last weekend I took my 13 year-old daughter on a father-daughter trip. For the weekend I made a commitment to myself to turn off and not check my devices (phone, tablet, etc.), and asked my daughter to do the same. It was hard for both of us on the first day but by the end of the weekend, we saw a 180 degree change in the depth of our conversations to a type we’ve never previously had. We were truly being present with each other and it showed.
The best parenting advice I ever got was to date my kids. For all the parenting mistakes I made, I took this one to heart and to this day I have strong relationships and open communication with my adult children. The idea is simple. I asked for one hour each week and I’d buy (of course). They pick the place and time, they just have to talk…about anything. Their agenda not mine, I just needed to hear what’s going on. My promise was not to lecture.
