FIVE QUESTIONS LEADERS NEED TO ASK (OF THEMSELVES)

Questions 3 & 4

By Edgar Papke

This is the third installment in the five-part series focusing on the five questions leaders need to ask of themselves. Asking the five questions, and taking the time to answer them with consideration of your inner truth and intention, is a simple, yet very valuable gift to you. Giving yourself this gift is often the path to giving your gift to others and sharing it with the world.

The first two questions are “What is my gift?” and “What will be the key priorities of my focus?”  Having answered these, you’re ready to move on to the more strategic thinking the next two questions require of you. You’ll likely find yourself in the position of making some difficult decisions. The most powerful thing you have in your life is choice. The choice to do and say what you want. With this power comes great responsibility. The responsibility you have to yourself and how you focus your time and energy.

Question #3:  What will I start doing or do more of?

A common trait of truly great leaders is to know themselves better and improve. In connection with this trait leaders are often hard on themselves. They spend a great deal of time working to overcome their perceived weaknesses. Yet they get most of their meaningful results from leveraging their strengths.

Peter Drucker once wrote, “Do not try to change yourself – you are unlikely to succeed. Work the way you perform.” This reminds us of the power of our personal strengths and the importance of leveraging them. Take a look back and you’ll likely find that the majority of your significant accomplishments and successes are the result of applying your key talents and strengths.

When it comes to the activities you engage in, it’s never a bad idea to take an inventory of what you spend your time actually doing that delivers the best results and contributes most to reaching your goals. I suggest talking the time to create a list of what you spend most of your time doing and then identifying the strengths, talents and traits of behavior you most rely on and use. Once you’ve done so, you’ll be able to go back and identify what works best for you and what you may consider focusing doing more of. Pay attention to when you’re performing at your best and you’ll find a great deal of what you are truly capable of and the power of leaning into the few things you do exceptionally well. Don’t these for granted.

Whether it’s communicating and spending time in dialogue with others, solving complex problems, spending time with the important people in your life, engaging in learning activities, exercising, coaching others to develop technical and business skills, or taking the time necessary for self-reflection, you’ll likely find that your path to success has some distinct and repetitive elements well worth spending more of your time doing.

At the interpersonal level, explore how you interact with others and what your best behaviors of influence are. First and foremost, take an inventory of the aspects of communication and identify where your strengths lie. Among others, these can include listening and the art of inquiry, clearly and consistently communicating your vision and strategies, setting and clearly articulating expectations, and confronting conflict in a respectful and constructive manner. At an interpersonal level, your strengths are key assets to your influence and success and knowing what to lean into and do more of can often help you overcome your shortfalls.

When it comes to activities, it’s often too difficult to try to balance everything you engage. I suggest giving yourself time pursue your interests and passions, even if they are not business driven. What you learn about yourself, how you find fulfillment and happiness, and how you live to your fullest human potential will certainly pay dividends in your business pursuits. Doing a bucket list is often a good approach. An inventory of what you really want to do and accomplish will help you in sorting out the many options you have. From there, you can make more informed choices and what to start doing and doing more of.

Question #4: What will I stop doing or do less of?

 In my coaching and speaking to audiences, I often find myself reminding leaders that great strategic thinking and action isn’t just about doing more and adding more to our plates. Greatness doesn’t always come from responding to the question, “What else do I need to be doing?” Often the best strategic question to ask is, “What do I need to stop doing?”

In today’s world it’s relatively easy to get consumed in the variety of activities that compete for our attention. Let’s face it, it is all quite tempting: email, texting, surfing the Internet, watching YouTube videos, and variety of other technology-driven activities. That’s not to mention the many people that want your time and attention.

It’s easy to lose focus on how you best accomplish what you do and the importance of the more valuable activities you identified by answering question #2. Add to that the challenges of saying “no” and the natural tendency of wanting to take on every opportunity, we can often find ourselves using our time and energy in an ineffective manner.

As I’ve already mentioned, great execution and performance are not always the result of doing more. It’s often a matter of figuring out what to stop doing. Make a list of everything you’re engaged in, explore the value of each to your professional and life goals (you may try using a ranking method of 1 for the least important and valuable to 5 for the most important and essential activities), and you’ll quickly discover that there’s great value in finding what you can stop doing and spending your time on. It’s so very true: time is your most valuable resource you have to work with. It’s a shame to waste it or use it ineffectively or inefficiently.

At an interpersonal level… When it domes to confronting conflict, one of the greatest uses of time and energy is the avoidance of conflict. In most cases, it’s not only a matter of wasting time. It’s also a matter of loosing valuable leadership influence. In my experience coaching leaders, this is the single most difficult yet valuable change to focus on making. To stop avoiding conflict, or engaging in indirect conflict management such as coalition building and covert influence, may be the greatest accomplishment that leaders can achieve to stop engaging in behaviors and activities that get in the way of using their time better.

Looking Ahead: Once you’ve answered the first four questions, you are ready to explore the question that relates to the aspect of leadership through which you get everything done… your relationships with others. For many leaders, the fifth question is the most difficult to wrestle with. That being said, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For much of who and how you engage others, and what you get from your relationships will be a reflection of your responses and learning from the first four questions. Here’s top looking ahead to the challenge.

As always, you are welcomed to the conversation. Please email me (info@edgarpapke.com) with your questions, thoughts and comments, and to share your ideas. Thank you.