NLP Weekly: Do Less. Achieve More. Team Leadership. Pay Attention. - March 22, 2024

NLP Weekly: Making achieving your goals & being a great leader second nature.

March 22, 2024

Performance: Do Less. Say No. Achieve Faster.

Many of us feel an obligation to say yes to too many projects, people, commitments, etc. We aren't great at creating filters or boundaries that quickly eliminate options or ensure we stay focused on our most meaningful goals.

Oliver Burkeman in Four Thousand Weeks, writes about how we cannot possibly do all of the things that we say we want to in our lives. We simply do not have enough time. We are mortals who are not going to live long enough. We need to get clear about what is most meaningful and important.

Yes, you can pursue multiple things simultaneously, however you need to recognize that adding more to your plate means it will either take you longer to finish or some things will inevitably go unfinished.

So how do we gain clarity, prioritize, and achieve faster?

• Warren Buffett recommends writing out your top 25 goals, identifying your top 5, and not paying attention to anything else until those top 5 are complete. 
• Block off time for what is important to you. As Tim Ferriss eloquently states "'Urgent' will always override 'important'. Unless you schedule the things you claim are important, they're going to get crowded out by bullshit."
• Ask for help & support. I know, crazy idea right? The premise that communicate a goal you have to other people in your life, its importance to you, and that you'd like their help & support so you can achieve it seems ridiculous. Its also profoundly effective.

Once you've done that. Stay focused. Do not add anything else in. No shiny objects.

Leadership: "None of us is as smart as all of us." ~Bennis

I'm currently re-reading Organizing Genius by Warren Bennis. We often revere leaders as individual heroes.

Further, we glorify the leader at the expense of the group. We credit Michelangelo with painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The reality is that he had 13 other people help him.

Most successful teams are guided by a team of leaders. There may likely be one person who finds the greatness in a group, however, as whole we need to collaborate and be creative as a group.

As the leader of a team of leaders you should focus on:

• communicating a compelling vision
• cultivating and recruiting talent to the team
• embracing inexperience because these team members don't know what isn't supposed to be possible
• empowering & providing autonomy
• helping other team members discover their own greatness 

Do these things consistently and you'll be generating a meaningful impact faster than you realize.

Nature: Eyes up. Ears open.

 I had three close proximity sightings / experiences with the same family pack of coyotes this week. 

The first was a result of someone else having 3 dogs off-leash on a farmer's property. Somehow none of the dogs noticed the injured adult female scurry to safety while the adult male ran back behind the dogs to protect the two pups they had last year.

A few minutes later I was within about 10m of the injured female. I'd leashed my dog by this point and we let the, likely pregnant, coyote cross in front of us and go into a thicket to wait for her family to join her. 

The next encounter a couple days later began by hearing the male bark to communicate to its family that was still in the den. I didn't know this was what was happening at the time. I just know to listen for barking.

The male then calmly trotted across a field, came within 3 meters but never towards us, and climbed up on top of small mound, which I quickly learnt is the location of their den. He stood on top while the two one-year olds came out and into the field, the mom went further in, and the male waited without making another sound until we were 100m away.

The last encounter I found myself about 10m from the two younger coyotes when the male suddenly appeared half way between myself and the pups. We seemed to make eye contact. 

In the past 3 years, in every other encounter like this, the coyotes have vocalized by barking or yipping and they have approached my dog and I. Some times they have even followed us.

There seems to be something different with this male this year. I now know that I've probably seen him 50 - 75 times in the past 3 years. In this most recent encounter where he positioned himself between his pups and my dog and I, I watched for a minute while he let his pups get further away and then I turned around.

If I hadn't had the earlier sightings to know the mom is injured, I likely would not have had the same appreciation or understanding of what the male was trying to do: keep his family safe, get enough food for everyone, and not increase any risk.

The reason I share all of this is there are people who were oblivious to each of these encounters. Often consumed in their phones.

In the next 3 weeks the mom is likely to have new pups. This pack could get as big as 7 - 8. That has the potential to provide some amazing wildlife viewing through the summer.

By keeping a phone out of my hand, headphones off my ears, listening to nature, noticing and what currently appears to be a mutual understanding between this leader I am able to have experiences that 99% of the people who also spend time in the spot miss out on. 

What could you be giving more attention to? What should you be giving less attention? Who would benefit?

I'm glad you're here,

Graham Snowfield