Sep 24, 2019
Welcome to our third Midweek Motivate. The middle of the week can be tough for leaders. The goal of midweek motivate is to give you one practical idea that you can try for yourself or with your team right away. And this week we’re looking at two ways that inserting a gap can help you as a leader.
Do you find you’re getting overloaded by the volume of requests coming to you? Do you find it hard to say ‘no’ in the moment? This can be pretty common for leaders. Saying ‘yes’ to requests early in our career can help us to advance. We’re seen as the go-to person who is keen to tackle anything. But, as we progress, effective leadership is often about what we say ‘no’ to.
One practical thing to try this week is to insert a gap between any requests made of you and your response. Even if they’re simple requests, ask for some time to think about it and get back to the person. If someone asks you “Can you run that report for me today?” you might say “Let me check what I have scheduled and I’ll get straight back to you”. That provides you with some time to think about the request and your capacity to complete it.
The second way inserting a gap can help is when we find ourselves having a strong emotional response at work. Rather than just speaking our mind in the moment, it can be helpful to take a quick walk around the block. And rather than firing off an email when we’re frustrated, we might save it as a draft to review the next day. Many a career has been saved by that simple tip.
So over the next few days think about inserting a gap to grab back control over your time and your emotions. You’ll be amazed at what a difference it makes.
Well hopefully you’re finding the midweek motivate helpful in boosting your motivation in that little midweek slump that we all tend to hit. If there’s any particular tips that you’ve found helpful why don’t you email them through to me. You can contact me at info@leadership.today or you can go to the leadership.today website and connect with me via the connect page. There are options to follow me on LinkedIn, join our Leadership Today facebook page, or send us a message. Have a great week and we’ll speak with you again next week.