Michael Nichols | Leadership Made Simple
Leadership Made Simple
No matter how long you’ve been leading, there’s a good chance that at some point along the way you’ve wondered – Am I a good leader?
Maybe you’re not even sure you’re a leader. If that’s you, check out 9 Signs You’re a Leader by Joe Lalonde or Michael Hyatt’s 12 Ways to Know if You are a Leader.
And if you’ve ever wondered if you’re a GOOD leader, here are 5 simple tests that may help you…
If leadership is influence, can someone lead without influence?
I recently published an article about the 5 Most Influential People in the World. If you missed it, take a few seconds to read the post – it’s not what you might expect.
As I wrote about those influential people, I asked this question: What makes them influential?
After spending some time thinking about how leaders develop influence, here’s my list…
We’ve all experienced events and circumstances that shape and guide how we approach our life going forward.
This has certainly been true for me. Throughout my life and career I’ve enjoyed many incredible experiences.
In 2002, I made the most significant financial investment of my life. At that time I began thinking about two things – What do I want my life to mean? and What do I want to experience in life? To be clear, these are two very different questions for me.
We all have a choice.
To tell you the truth, you’ve already made the choice. You are either living and growing on purpose – proactively according to a written plan. Or you are living reactively – subject to the needs and demands of your environment and those around you. It’s one or the other – accidental or intentional.
This post is part of the series – Get Your Life Back!
Take Control of Your Schedule
4 Tips for Managing Your Calendar More Effectively
Plan Your Year with Your Annual Plan
Create Your Best Week
You Can Keep Up With Your Email
The Secret for Managing Email More Efficiently
I have done both. And I can tell you from experience that it’s far more fulfilling to live with purpose – knowing what is most important and intentionally working toward it every day.
I’ve written previous posts about how developing my personal life plan, business vision, and business plan brought about dramatic improvements in my life and work.
Although I had very specific plans in place, I realized I also needed a tool to be more effective with my top priorities and decision-making.
Early in my career, my boss recommended that I meet regularly with each of my direct reports. In other words, I should do a one-on-one meeting with my team. He knew it would both improve their productivity and improve my relationship and influence with my team members.
I thought it was a great idea! And since I wanted the time to be as productive as possible, I spent weeks trying to figure out how to structure the meetings and when to schedule them.
Looking back – I wasted a lot of valuable time trying to set up and agenda for the “perfect” meeting. Which was a futile effort from the outset – because I was going to be part of the meeting – and I’m far from perfect!
So I did the one thing that I knew would get me going. I asked my assistant to put the One-on-One Meeting on my calendar. She scheduled them so I would have two weeks to get ready for my first meeting. So, here’s what I did…
