In fifteen years of coaching high potential and senior leaders, I’ve conducted thousands of hours of colleague feedback interviews. One of the themes that I hear a lot from senior executives talking about high potential leaders is that the client needs to play a bigger game. What the executives mean by that is that the high potential needs to start making an impact beyond their immediate function and start acting as a leader of the entire organization and not just their function.

With the performance reviews and goal setting sessions that come at the beginning of the year, now is a great time to think about how you can play a bigger game this year – the kind of game that really changes things and makes a big difference.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve asked around three dozen high potential leaders to answer the question, “What’s the one thing you need to do to play a bigger game this year?”  I’ve boiled their answers down to seven ways to play a bigger game. If you’re ready to play a bigger game, you’ll want to take a look.

1. Take the risk:  My observation, which just about all of my clients agree with, is that most leaders overestimate the risk and underestimate the rewards of taking the initiative or saying what needs to be said.  To play a bigger game, take the risk.

2. Prioritize:  An effective strategy is probably more about what you’re not going to do than what you’re going to do.  To play a bigger game, you need to pick your spots.  Prioritize.

3. Collaborate: In the bigger game, 1+1 = 3.  To get bigger results, you have to work and play well with others.  Proactively reach out to people of different interests. Seek input from a broader group.  Collaborate.

4. Fight the legacy – If you’re organization is stuck in a rut, a bigger game can look like fighting the legacy of the way you’ve always done things.  The bigger game here is leading an energetic shift from “not possible” to “possible.”

5. Customer focused creativity – Customer expectations get higher every year and can change at light speed.  Part of the bigger game is to lead creative efforts that are focused on the customer experience.

6. Move faster – A big component of your bigger game may be encouraging others to move faster.  Small experiments, shorter decision cycles, being clear about when it needs to be perfect and when good enough is good enough are all components of playing a faster, bigger game.

7. Show up everyday willing to be fired – There’s an iconic scene from the movie Risky Business in which an instigating friend counsels the protagonist, Joel that “Sometimes you just gotta’ say, ‘What the ****.’ Because saying ‘What the ****,’ gives you freedom.  And freedom gives you opportunity and opportunity is your future, Joel.” The freedom to do what you need to do to play the biggest possible game only comes if you’re willing to be fired and believe that if it doesn’t work out here, it will work out somewhere else.

One other important point in addition to these different ideas on how to play a bigger game is that you still have to nail the basic expectations of whatever role you’re in.  That’s the price of admission to play a bigger game.

What about you?  What’s the one thing you need to do this year to play a bigger game? Please share your thoughts in a comment.

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The best leaders are those who lead people to believe in themselves.
People believe in themselves when they have a reason to commit to something significant and meaningful.
When people feel inspired by their leader, leadership is at its best. When people are made to feel important, when they know they matter and they have an important role, they bring their best to all they need to accomplish. Inspiration drives motivation.
When people understand the direction of the vision, leadership is at its prime. People need to know where they are heading and why they are headed there. Once they have that knowledge, they can leverage their talent to achieve great results. Direction fosters purpose.
When people feel safe to make mistakes, leadership is supportive. While success relies on innovation and creativity, it also takes many mistakes to succeed. When your people feel safe to fail, you have done your job in preparing them to meet challenges and letting them know they will go unscathed when they make mistakes. A safety net promotes security.
When people experience trust in their own ability, leadership is at its peak. Those you entrust feel important and empowered. Trust encourages people to bring their talent and knowledge and become part of the team. Trust leads to confidence.
When people know they can contribute in a meaningful way, leadership is optimal. It is important for people to know that they have a genuine contribution to make, that what they do is instrumental in achieving significant results. Meaning creates justification.

Give your people a reason to believe in themselves and watch them create something meaningful and significant.

Lead From Within: When you believe in people, you get people to believe in themselves. And when that happens you can achieve great things together.
- See more at: http://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/lead-people-believe/#sthash.aatfVICm.dpuf

The best leaders are those who lead people to believe in themselves.
People believe in themselves when they have a reason to commit to something significant and meaningful.
When people feel inspired by their leader, leadership is at its best. When people are made to feel important, when they know they matter and they have an important role, they bring their best to all they need to accomplish. Inspiration drives motivation.
When people understand the direction of the vision, leadership is at its prime. People need to know where they are heading and why they are headed there. Once they have that knowledge, they can leverage their talent to achieve great results. Direction fosters purpose.
When people feel safe to make mistakes, leadership is supportive. While success relies on innovation and creativity, it also takes many mistakes to succeed. When your people feel safe to fail, you have done your job in preparing them to meet challenges and letting them know they will go unscathed when they make mistakes. A safety net promotes security.
When people experience trust in their own ability, leadership is at its peak. Those you entrust feel important and empowered. Trust encourages people to bring their talent and knowledge and become part of the team. Trust leads to confidence.
When people know they can contribute in a meaningful way, leadership is optimal. It is important for people to know that they have a genuine contribution to make, that what they do is instrumental in achieving significant results. Meaning creates justification.

Give your people a reason to believe in themselves and watch them create something meaningful and significant.

Lead From Within: When you believe in people, you get people to believe in themselves. And when that happens you can achieve great things together.
- See more at: http://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/lead-people-believe/#sthash.aatfVICm.dpuf

The best leaders are those who lead people to believe in themselves.
People believe in themselves when they have a reason to commit to something significant and meaningful.
When people feel inspired by their leader, leadership is at its best. When people are made to feel important, when they know they matter and they have an important role, they bring their best to all they need to accomplish. Inspiration drives motivation.
When people understand the direction of the vision, leadership is at its prime. People need to know where they are heading and why they are headed there. Once they have that knowledge, they can leverage their talent to achieve great results. Direction fosters purpose.
When people feel safe to make mistakes, leadership is supportive. While success relies on innovation and creativity, it also takes many mistakes to succeed. When your people feel safe to fail, you have done your job in preparing them to meet challenges and letting them know they will go unscathed when they make mistakes. A safety net promotes security.
When people experience trust in their own ability, leadership is at its peak. Those you entrust feel important and empowered. Trust encourages people to bring their talent and knowledge and become part of the team. Trust leads to confidence.
When people know they can contribute in a meaningful way, leadership is optimal. It is important for people to know that they have a genuine contribution to make, that what they do is instrumental in achieving significant results. Meaning creates justification.

Give your people a reason to believe in themselves and watch them create something meaningful and significant.

Lead From Within: When you believe in people, you get people to believe in themselves. And when that happens you can achieve great things together.
- See more at: http://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/lead-people-believe/#sthash.aatfVICm.dpuf

Life is about building.

I am reminded of how a skyscraper is built. The bulk of the construction time is spent on building incredibly strong foundations. The higher the building, the deeper the foundations.

So if you’re going to design an exceptional life, then you’ll need to invest time and effort into the forging of your foundational character that will last you a lifetime.

Unfortunately, not everyone takes the care to do this, and it is for that reason, no matter how talented one is, I would like to present to you the two ways that you can approach life.

The first approach is to ‘let things happen’, and the second is to ‘make things happen’.

What are the characteristics of someone who floats through life and simply lets things happen?

A life like this has no goals, no plans, no strategies, no dreams and no hopes.

It simply takes each day as it arrives and hopes for the best.

This life thinks that if you keep doing what you’re doing that you will achieve different results to those who have been doing what you are doing – except for a much longer period than you.

This life imagines that by doing what their parents did that they will get a better outcome.

This life has no savings plan, no education plan, no investment plan, and in fact to sum it up – has no life plan.

They generally thank God that it’s Friday. They work the job, or if they operate a business, the business is more like their taskmaster rather than their servant, and they work harder and longer than their employees for less pay.

This is the lot of the one who lets things happen.

 This person lives a life on purpose. They thank God it’s Monday because they approach each week with a plan.

Whether they work a job or own a business, they have within their wallet or purse goals for their life that they refer to on a daily basis.

They enter each day with a well thought out plan prepared the previous day.

They bring to their workplace, and to their general environment, a vibrancy and an enthusiasm that is infectious.

They don’t wait for things to happen. They are people of action, and initiate change by doing it now.

They don’t wait to be asked. They do the asking.

They seek out ways and means to receive ongoing education, so that they position themselves to be leaders in their field of endeavour.

Their mouths are filled with positive and uplifting words.

They see trouble coming, and develop plans to either sidestep or avoid it – or even to seek out ways to benefit from it.

They include others in their success, and understand the benefit of teamwork.

So to design an exceptional life, you need to avoid living the ‘let things happen’ life, and spend the bulk of your days in the ‘make things happen’ arena.

For it is there that you will, day by day, begin to build nothing less than an exceptional life.

For an exceptional life lives exceptionally.

There are very few things more daunting than Mondays. You’ve just come off of a weekend where you were able to relax and get some much-needed downtime…and now that Monday has arrived all of that is over.

Mondays may not be the best day of the week, but they don’t have to be unbearable. It’s all in how you approach them. Sure, some of what Mondays send your way is out of your control. Yet you can control how you react to what cards you’re dealt. If you want to make Monday work for you, then give as many of the following suggestions as much attention as you can.

Mondays are notoriously associated with meetings. Back when I worked in an office environment, we had meetings first thing every Monday morning. The idea was that everyone on the management team would be able to start the week well-informed and on the same page because of that early morning meeting. But that didn’t work very well.

The problem with having a meeting first thing was that no one on the team had a chance to get back into the groove with their own departments beforehand. Now I’m not suggesting it wasn’t important to be informed of what else was going on throughout the other departments. But having to hear all of that news before diving back into my own work made what they were saying less important. Why? Because I wasn’t focused on it as much as I should have been.

Meeting times aren’t something you’ll always have control over – especially if you work for someone else. If your meetings are scheduled for first thing on Mondays and if you have any pull with your superiors then ask if it’d be possible to shift the meeting to later in the day. Mention that giving each of your colleagues time in their own space before going into a meeting would allow them to be more “present” in the meeting. You might even be able to suggest moving the meeting to Tuesday instead, which would enable the entire team to clear off work in their own departments before spending time learning about what is happening in other areas.

If you are absolutely certain that there’s no way you can avoid that early morning Monday meeting, then make sure you prepare for that meeting the night before. That alone will make your Monday morning better.

It’s highly likely that your email inbox will be on the verge of overflow. And you’re not alone.

That means that others will be combing through their inboxes, replying to emails relentlessly and sending them nearly as much. There’s a reason why it’s recommended that you not send email newsletters on Monday; when you do you’re just contributing to the problem of an inbox that is busting at the seams. So while I’m not recommending you avoid email on Monday, I am suggesting you treat email more mindfully – especially on Mondays.

That means only send emails that are necessary. It also means deferring those that aren’t until later in the week. Once you start dealing with email more mindfully on Monday, you’ll soon find yourself treating it as such throughout the week.

And that means not just a more productive Monday…but a more productive week.

There’s something about Monday that brings out the achiever in us. The problem is that we tend to look at Monday as the day where we try to do as much as we can.

But Monday is the first of five days in a workweek, and yet we tend to really expend a lot of our energy on Monday anyway. That leaves less and less as the week goes on, which is a problem for sustained and optimum productivity.

It’s important to balance your workload over the course of the week. If you’re using a task manager (and you should be) then using energy levels as contexts can help with this. Chunking out your week into daily themes – which is a form of time chunking – can also keep you from exhausting all of your energy on a Monday.

Monday is the beginning of the week. Using the above tactics will help you keep it from being the end of it as well.

David Allen is a proponent of the “brain dump,” which is the act of transferring things from your head to, well, something other than your head (like paper). One of the best things you can do when you start your Monday is to unload all of the stuff that’s been in your head during the weekend onto paper or into some digital document. That’s not to say you shouldn’t have captured it during the weekend regardless (I’ve recently put together a course for en*theos on capturing that you can check out here)

Note: Nick Wynja of Hack/Make has put together a great reference page that breaks down the brain dump incredibly well. You can check it out here.

Asian Efficiency has coined the phrase “clearing to neutral” and its not only a great way to combat procrastination, but it’s a great way to empty the well so that you can really move forward with purpose and drive. You can fill your Monday with the right things a lot more effectively and efficiently if you clear out all of the things that aren’t needed.

Unload your mind first; that’ll eliminate the wrong stuff. Then you can load your day up with the right stuff.

Mondays don’t have to suck. Mine certainly don’t. But not everyone can set up their day using all of the approaches I’ve laid out above, which is what helps me make my Mondays work for me. So try just one of the tactics I’ve discussed and you will find that Monday will be less of an enemy and more of an ally going forward.

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This morning I woke up, brewed some Yerba Mate, caught a glorious rooftop sunrise and proceeded to get more done before breakfast than I had in the past 4 working days combined.

How about you? How many important things did you get done last week? I mean the things that actually got you closer to your biggest goals and dreams.

Take a minute to think about it and write a couple down. How many did you come up with?

For many the answer is few if any at all. Why?

In a word: Distraction.

In the last 10+ years there’s been an unconscious shift from encouraging focus to condemning it. It’s happening without us knowing and we’re all likely victims. As soon as multitasking became possible and encouraged, our focus died.

Mine certainly did.

We have to fight our very best fight to get it back.

Leo Babauta is leading the charge with his book Focus, which is more than worth the read. I hit up a sweet barefoot run with Leo last week where he filled me in on some of the good stuff. Unbelievably powerful.

Without focus we are headed for disaster and the consequences are as dangerous as they come.

What’s the biggest risk of losing our focus? Wasting our time and living a meaningless life.

The solution is to simplify. Get back to the basics of doing the important.

1. Know what actually matters. Be honest with yourself about the actions that truly move the needle in your business and your life. An 80/20 analysis is a great place to start. If you’re stuck, just think of the tasks you fear the most–that give you anxiety just to think about. Those are likely the most important.

2. Pick your top 2-3 core tasks each day. These are the things that must happen no matter what. If you get these done your day is a success. Stick to no more than three, or better yet one. They must move you closer to your big goals. Checking email does not count.

3. Do them first thing. For me writing is one of my core actions, so I write for an hour or so as soon as I roll out of bed or after my morning workout (it’s 5:45 am right now). The longer you wait, the more distractions will intrude. Nothing happens before these get done.

4. Do not connect to anything until your core tasks are done. Don’t convince yourself you need the internet or email to do your most important tasks. 95% of the time you don’t. Leave the internet off and phone on airplane mode until you crush through the important.

5. Kill multitasking. Stop thinking it’s more efficient. It’s not. No surfing during phone calls, reading during meals, chatting while writing. Do one thing at a time. Simple. Not only is multitasking terribly inefficient but it stresses you out and it’s rude to anyone around you.

6. Turn off email and notifications (and anything else that interrupts you). When you sit down to do something, nothing else gets attention. Just because someone decides

to email, chat or call you, doesn’t mean it’s more important. Those things can wait. But if you know they are waiting there, you’ll be too tempted. Avoid temptation at all cost. We are too weak. I don’t trust myself with email on my iPhone so I totally removed it.

7. Don’t check email in the morning. This is the most effective (and difficult) single practice I’ve found. I know every one of you have heard this one. So why doesn’t anyone actually do it? It will change your life. It feels terrible to know we’ve spent a couple hours refreshing and going in and out of email without really getting anything done. I assure you that if you check it, you won’t be able to help yourself, and you’ll stumble face first into the worm hole. So don’t even open it until you have a few hours of focused action under your belt (this is at least 11am for most).

8. Batch your emailing to two times a day MAX. Maybe 30 min before lunch and 30 min late afternoon. If you need an email for your core task, do not go to your inbox. Go straight to the search feature and find it. If you need to write an email as a core task (which should very rarely be the case), write it offline in a simple program like notepad. Save reactionary items for after you get the important done.

9. Try to get less done in a day–practice Slow Working. Don’t fill every moment of your calendar with tasks (this is a huge one I’m working on). You’ll be stressed and rushed the whole day. Slow down and move through your core tasks calmly. Then maybe you do a few more things with the remaining time but don’t cram them in. If you do, you’ll always feel behind.

10. Plan more time for each task. This is the easiest way to alleviate the schedule. And things always tend to take longer than we think. If your core task will take you 45 minutes, then block out 90. Actually schedule it on your calendar. If it only takes you 40 minutes then suddenly you have free time–how awesome (and rare) is that!

11. Take breaks and reward yourself. Most of us can only intensely focus on something for an hour at best. Take at least a few-minute break every 30 or 60 minutes to clear your head. I love going up to my rooftop for a couple deep breaths and a view of the Golden Gate. Find a fun way to get you free and clear. Take a walk, meditate, feed the ducks, breathe, get a snack or some water or listen to an inspiring song. You pick.

It’s a pretty awesome feeling. You’ll get way more done than you planned but your mind and schedule will also be clear to enjoy life a little more. Few things feel worse than an unproductive day. Nail your big things early and use that energy to take the rest of the day by storm. Take a walk with your wife, play with your kids, go down to the beach and read. Do whatever you want. That’s the point.

When was the last time you had nothing to do? Many of us can’t remember. It’s because we set our days up for failure. With more tasks than we could ever accomplish and loads of wasted time in between. Filling every second of your day will do this. With the above, you’ll suddenly have time to spend in your own way. That’s when your mind really starts to have some fun. The big ideas will begin to show up.

Realize that mindless work is an addiction. It’s just as dangerous as smoking or alcohol. I’m not kidding. Email, Facebook, twitter, texting, surfing, news–it’s all a deadly serious addiction. We just think it’s ok because everyone else around us is wasting their life on it. If everyone started smoking tomorrow would you start? That’s what I thought.

The path to freedom can be difficult to see, mostly because the world is telling you it’s not there. A path begins by walking. These addictions have caused us to lose our way and most importantly, lose our focus. We avoid the present. We avoid what matters. And we avoid what’s right in front of us. Be it a sunset, your husband or that client call you’ve been putting off.

With pure focus we can be unstoppable.

You’ll get more done in a day than most get done in a week, with time left over to savor the subtleties of life you forgot you enjoyed so much.

When in doubt, ask yourself “Am I wasting my time to avoid the important?” Be honest. You’ll know the answer. Do something about it.

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