The Actions of Leadership Series, #5: Reinvigorate Yourself Regularly

Thoughts on Excellence Free E-Newsletter Series
Volume 18, Issue No. 7b
November 15, 2019

By Dan Coughlin

 

Leadership is rewarding.

Sometimes.

But oftentimes it is physically and emotionally draining. Trying to influence how other people think so they make decisions that improve results in a sustainable way is HARD WORK. It requires sustained, consistent focus over a very long period of time. Contrary to what might be popular belief, you can’t just Instagram or Snapchat your way to effectively influencing how other people think. It takes time and effort and many, many trial-and-errors to effectively change how people think. Consider how long it took to get cigarette smoking in restaurants to be seen as a major health hazard for everyone in the building.

Consequently, leaders need to be reinvigorated on a regular basis. If they don’t pause to refresh their energy, they can easily fall into a host of bad habits that can do great damage to their health and their reputation.

Develop a Reinvigoration Plan

Guess what? No one is going to develop a reinvigoration plan for you. No one can make you walk away from your work and go play golf. It’s quite the reverse. You need to take responsibility for doing things that reinvigorate you. And the key is that you do what works for you, not for other people.

For example, playing golf is a great reinvigorater for some people, but for others it would be an awful experience.

Right now before you run off to yet another meeting take out a sheet of paper and start to write down what reinvigorates you. Make a list of 6 – 10 items.

Okay, stop reading this article, and write down on a piece of paper your 6 – 10 items that you can do to help reinvigorate yourself.

Keep writing.

Ok, now read over your list. Select at least one item that you will do today. Then select one item you will do tomorrow.

Ok, now write those two items on your calendar, one for today, and one for tomorrow.

When that time shows up actually go and do those activities.

Tomorrow after you do the activity you wrote down for that day, then write down what you will do each day for the next three days to reinvigorate yourself.

If you don’t write it down, you will likely lose your focus on these incredibly important activities. And then three days will go by, and you will have done nothing to reinvigorate yourself. And then burnout and bad eating habits and crankiness and other negative habits will return. And then you will be less of a leader than you are capable of being.

So….

Make your list of 6 – 10 reinvigorating things you can do for yourself.

Schedule those items.

Do those items when they come up on your schedule.

And now I’m off for my daily walk. 🙂






Republishing Articles

My newsletters, Thoughts on Excellence, have been republished in approximately 40 trade magazines, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations over the past 20+ years. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with the name of the article you want in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document.

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