Practice Comes First

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done.

The action point is to question the premises that I base my decisions on and if they’re obsolete. Do I need new intellectual framework to win the in the market, as it exists today. I always wonder when the moment will come that what I’ve learned and my experiences in the work place make my decision making obsolete. I see this a lot in senior leadership and people who have been mid-management for a long time. I often wonder how can I not be those people that make decisions or give out tasks that actual don’t work so well in today’s world. I’d like to think reading and exploring new ideas helps with better decision making in the future.

Don't Seek Out Strife

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

With all sorts of media and electronic devices around it’s easy to fill every moment of the day with those things. Last year I started taking brief moments where I was waiting on someone or something to just sit. It’s really hard especially with the amount of work I need to get done. I’m trying to do a better job of just being still when I have a moment. Golf allows me to exercise this. If It’s just my normal group of people I play with a round is usually three to three and a half hours. When there are other groups on the course that number can increase by an hour or more. In this instances I try not to reach for my phone and instead pay attention to course and the nature surrounding it.

Management and Theology

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done.

The action point asks if I have any truly evil colleagues. I do not. At least not that I know of. We all get along pretty well. We have a lot of good people working together who are very collaborative. We’ve also had a lot of people who have stuck around for years. I’ve worked with one person for the past five years on a regular basis. At this point we know how each other would feel about certain decisions being made. That doesn’t mean either of us skip the other person, just take the other persons ideas and thoughts into consideration when they’re not in a meeting.

Steady Your Impulses

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Ask, who is in control here? What principles are guiding me?

These are the questions to ask when I feel impulses trying to drive me towards high or lows. I’ve noticed that when I have a bad day a good day can follow. Things ride high one moment and then are down the next. I feel I am seeing less of these since studying stoicism. Today was an example. I had a good solid day. I got a lot accomplished. It was an intense day. The urge right now is to give into my impulses to play video games or grab a beer. Those help me to relax but they can come at a cost if I spend too long indulging them. That’s where the low comes in the next day. The less productive day. Then if tomorrow is a less productive day, Thursday becomes the productive day because I feel the need to make up for the previous day. I need that break though, right? I can’t be always on.

Management as the Alternative to Tyranny

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done.

The action point is to see what I can do to improve performance in the institution. One of the things I’ve been working on is providing better feedback to my team. It’s something I believe in. It’s something I’ve really struggled with. It’s not easy to provide to the point positive and negative feedback. It’s to make the individual and the team’s overall performance better. Yet, I find it difficult to provide. I have a model I use from Manager Tools. It’s to ask for a commitment, to provide the behavior, how it affected the situation, and a next step or thank you. It feels really awkward to say it. The reason for that is because I haven’t done it on a regular basis. I do it from time-to-time and my team appreciates it. It’s one of my goals for being a better manager this year.