Effective leaders know how to create, manage, and maintain momentum.  ~Kathryn Scanland

Momentum: drive, thrust, energy.  Momentum is a key attribute of execution.  If leaders aren’t executing then their organizations likely aren’t moving forward; their organizations may even be stuck in neutral or spinning its wheels.  Author John Maxwell said, “It is never the size of your problem that is the problem.  It’s the lack of momentum.”

Momentum isn’t always easy to create, manage, or maintain.  But, as a leader, if you’re not thinking about it, tuned-in to managing it, it’s probably not going to happen.  Here are a few suggestions; maybe you’ll resonate with one of these approaches.

Authors of The Work of Leaders suggest these six tips to manage momentum.

• Lead by example—never ask people for more momentum than you are willing to take on yourself.
• Commit your team to deadlines related to external events.
• Reduce the time between meetings on projects.
• Challenge your priorities to make time for initiating action.
• Focus on choosing the single most important new initiative every day.
• Recognize proactivity and help people see new initiatives as part of their jobs.

Fellow leadership blogger, Dan Rockwell, identified these momentum busters:

• Devaluing small contributions
• Talking about problems more than progress
• Separating deliverables from people (people, not processes, get things done)
• Focusing on weakness rather than strength
• Controlling rather than releasing (when people ask permission they lose momentum)

How about this idea from Lisa M. Dietlin, author of The Power of Three?  Dietlin says, “The Power of Three is doing three things a day to achieve your goal.” Imagine if you led by example and every day others watched you intentionally do three things to achieve your goal.  That’s living momentum on a daily basis.

Whatever your strategy or approach to create, manage, and maintain momentum, make it a priority, not annually, but daily.

In today’s environment, the key to productivity is not to get more things done, but to get the right things done – the important things – with the highest quality you can achieve.  ~Kory Kogon, Adam Merrill, Leena Rinne, authors of The Five Choices

Participants walk into the training room, laptops are quickly opened, and they feverishly begin sifting through a barrage of emails until I instruct them to put their laptops away.  This is a typical scene for me with one particular client.  Unfortunately, I think it’s becoming a common scene as more jobs are dominated by electronic communication with an expectation of an instantaneous response.

We all face three major challenges in today’s workplace.  1) We make more decisions in one day than ever before.  2) Our attention is under attack by constant pings and dings from our electronic devices.  3) We’re exhausted by trying to manage the pace of communication.

It’s our natural tendency to simply react to all of the incoming communication, requests, and demands.  In fact, that’s how we’re wired — to react.  But there’s hope!  We can rewire our brains to respond in a way that lessens the stress and increases our odds for higher productivity.  Franklin Covey’s 5 Choices for Extraordinary Productivity suggests three steps to rewire our brains for increased productivity.

1) Pause    2) Clarify    3) Decide

Pause.  This may be the hardest of the three steps because we want to react.  Before we say “yes” or “no” to that request, email, or voicemail, pause and then seek clarification.

Clarify.  Ask questions to clarify the real importance.  What is really being asked for or requested?  When does it really need to be done?  What are the consequences if it’s not done by that time?  Is it urgent or is it important?  Are there other options for getting it done?

Decide.  Then, and only then, decide how to respond.  Is it something that needs your immediate attention; and if so how will it fit into your other priorities?  Decide how you will prioritize the task or request.

Sounds simple, right?  Three easy steps: 1) Pause, 2) Clarify, and 3) Decide.

If you’re someone who’s been managing your time and productivity by reacting as opposed to clarifying and deciding, these simple steps may sound not only difficult but next to impossible.  It may take more discipline for some, than others, to make the shift and rewire their brains from reacting to responding.  The outcome of making the shift can be significant, if not transformative.

And leaders should be modeling the way.  If leaders aren’t practicing the pause, clarify, decide process, neither will those they are trying to lead.  Do you want to be more productive?  Then pause, clarify, and decide.

The leadership style was outmoded.  Leadership was “caretaking” rather than proactive, both at the level of business strategy and in how we worked together.  The effects could be felt throughout the company.  ~Julie Straw, Mark Scullard, Susie Kukkonen, Barry Davis (The Work of Leaders)

Leadership was “caretaking.”  I’ve run across several leaders recently whose leadership paradigm is heavily focused on “caretaking” or some use the phrase “providing support.”  I believe the four authors of The Work of Leaders are not suggesting that caretaking or providing support should be excluded from leadership, but that it should not be the sole focus of leadership.

The authors contrast caretaking with being proactive with business strategy and how people work together.  I see more and more leaders being proactive around business strategy but not nearly as many being proactive around how people work together.  I’ve even seen some leaders outright avoid being proactive about how people work together.

In The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni distinguishes between a smart and a healthy organization.  A smart organization has great strategy, marketing, finance, and technology.  A healthy organization has minimal politics, minimal confusion, high morale, high productivity, and low turnover.  Sounds like smart organizations have proactive business strategy and healthy organizations are proactive about how people work together.

Think about your own organization.  In the past year, what level of resources (time, money, personnel, etc.) have been invested in your business strategy (being smart) and what resources have been invested in how people work together (being healthy)?  I’m going to guess that more resources have been invested in being smart; however, at the same time there is concern about being able to sustain success over a long period of time.

As individuals, if we are smart we can probably achieve short term success, but if we’re healthy, we are far more likely to be able to sustain that success well into the future.

Some leaders hold the position that they aren’t in control of their organization’s health, as defined by Lencioni, – it just “is.”  Things like high morale, productivity, low turnover, just happen; leaders have little influence over these key organizational attributes.  To me, that’s like saying I have no control over my health and it doesn’t matter what I choose to eat or how much I exercise.  Sure, part of my health is genetic, out of my control; but the vast majority of my health and quality of life can be influenced by my proactive choices.  I can invest in my health.

Here we are, December 1 already.  As 2016 quickly approaches what investments should your organization (or you personally) make in how people work together?  Legendary business leader Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning.  Keeping together is progress.  Working together is success.”

The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated (William James).  As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them (John F. Kennedy).

I screwed up last week.  It’s still bothering me; I hope I don’t make this mistake again.  I was with a client at their manufacturing plant.  When I arrived for three days of leadership training I learned that they would be having a company Thanksgiving meal on Thursday and they asked if I would be able to stay and join them.  I was grateful that I was able to say “yes,” that I would be able to stay and join them in their Thanksgiving tradition.

On Thursday I envisioned finishing out the last session with the management team just before the Thanksgiving meal.  We would walk through the production floor and join all of the employees to share a meal together.  As I gathered up my things one of the managers asked if I wasn’t going to join them.  I said I was but thought we were heading to the break room to eat with the other employees.  I then learned that we would go to the break room to get our food but we would bring it back to the conference room and eat there.  That felt odd (or actually wrong to me) but I decided that they were the client and I was the guest at this point and I should follow their lead.

I regret having done that.  It seemed so contrary to the point of “giving thanks.”  I wish I would have asked if we could join the other employees and eat with the folks from the production floor.  It was an opportunity, as JFK said, to express gratitude and show appreciation.  Instead, we said a few hellos, gathered our food, and headed back to the conference room which is known as “behind the glass.”  In this case, the conference room is behind two walls of glass (to keep out the sound) but you can see out onto the production floor, and maybe more importantly, those out on the floor can see into the conference room.

It’s a short work week, but there is still time to express appreciation.

Appreciation is the deepest craving of human nature and the highest form of appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.  Don’t follow my example, be grateful and express appreciation to those around you at work and at home through your actions.

Effective leaders recognize the power of gratitude.

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.  ~Leonardo Da Vinci

Da Vinci very succinctly described my week.  I facilitated a training and the organization’s CEO decided to join the training at the last minute.  This is always a challenge because when the CEO is in the room (for nearly any organization) the dynamic changes.

This CEO does not hold back if he disagrees with anything I say or present.  Because we are in a room with his direct reports plus other leaders in the organization, I choose to simply acknowledge his comments, most of the time.  But last week I simply couldn’t let some of his comments be the last thing that was said about the topic.

This training was on increasing team performance.  One of the “tools” I suggested was a format for how to ask for individual feedback.  The CEO spoke up and said that the feedback should focus on how the “team” is doing, not on how he is, or is not, effectively contributing to the team.  I agreed that self-evaluation of the team is also very helpful.  I continued to suggest that we all have blind spots, which are things we are doing (both helpful and a hindrance) that we don’t see; hence, they are called blind spots.  The only way for us to be aware of these blind spots is to ask others to help us see them.

I’ll admit I get frustrated with CEOs who think that because they now have the title of CEO that they are somehow exempt from feedback.  And it doesn’t stop with CEOs.  It can be anyone who’s been promoted to a higher level position, and at least for a time, they believe they have “arrived” and are no longer in need of input to make adjustments to their behavior, style, or contributions to a team.  They assume that their own opinions of themselves are an accurate reflection of how they are seen by others.  Da Vinci describes that perspective well: the greatest deception that men suffer!

Here’s an easy way to ask for feedback.  Simply ask: “What’s one thing you see me doing, or failing to do, where I’m getting in my own way?”

I’m going to challenge all of us, myself included, this week to ask at least one person that question: “What’s one thing you see me doing, or failing to do, where I’m getting in my own way?”

For some of us, blind spots may be revealed; and that’s a good thing!  I don’t think any of us want to emulate the emperor with no clothes, so we better start asking for feedback.

Adrian McGinn said, “Our blind spots are only seen by others so seek to be enlightened!”  If you want your team to increase its performance, then the best place to start is with yourself.  Seek to be enlightened!