Work That Matters

Michael Bungay Stanier, who wrote the book, Do More Great Work: Stop the Busywork. Start the Work that Matters., believes that all work falls in one of three buckets:

1. Bad Work consumes time and energy, and makes no difference.
2. Good Work that you do most of the time, and do it well.  The problem -- it's endless, and it's comfortable, which keeps you spinning your wheels in routine and busyness, as you just get through each week.
3. Great Work is meaningful, challenging, lights you up and matters to you. 

What kind of work are you doing, most of the time? 

If you're like most people, on average, you're doing Bad Work 0-40% of the time, 40-80% of your time doing Good Work, and 0-25% on Great Work.

Check out this YouTube video for a quick overview.

How can you do more Great Work?  Here are three tips that I believe in and fully endorse:

• Create Projects.  See all great work as projects.  Abandon your job description and focus on creating projects where you are focusing on your best work.
• Define 3 Things Daily.  Define three high-impact actions you will take each day, and focus on them. Having a long "To-Do" list completed daily isn't effective if you haven't accomplished what matters most. At the very least, define one thing that you really will do. The other two can be gravy, bonus tasks that you'll be happy if you get to them and if you don’t, you won’t beat yourself up about it.
• Create Great Work Space. Great Work requires a different type of thinking, so create a different kind of space for it. The space can be a coffee shop, a meeting room, another office space, the cafeteria, a library. Find another space to do your Great Work.  Changing the context will change the way you work.

I'll be interested to hear about your success doing more Great Work!

Weekly 1 Hour Time-Outs for Leaders

Check out this advice from the Behavioural Coaching Institute:

"All leaders, especially today, need to develop the discipline to engage in a weekly 1 hour time-out meeting with themselves and a leadership/executive coach.

With leaders dealing with all kinds of internal and external challenges, many consider themselves too time poor to stand back and consider today's serious issues deeply and to honestly appraise their leadership. Yes, leaders find this difficult and many also claim any time spent on such reflection is a luxury that they cannot afford. However, this is a huge mistake if they take this posture. These leaders are failing themselves, their teams and their organizations.

The invaluable 'time out' from their 'game time' should be used with their coach to reflect upon their actions, what they have learned, what they have not been doing, what more they could do and how they can achieve that end."

Carving out an hour each week to reflect, refocus and re-engage is a discipline I know works, from personal experience.  When I take the time for it.  Whether it is with a professional mentor coach, or when I self-coach. What works for me is to use an hour at the end of each week, to reflect on what has worked for the last week, and plan where to focus my efforts for the next week.  With time-outs, I am much more productive and focusing on what really matters.

Coaching Challenge: What "time-out" discipline will help you become a better leader?