Patti Cotton

Executive Coach & Career Strategist

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Three Lifestyle Habits to Keep Your Leadership Sharp

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Three Lifestyle Habits to Keep Your Leadership Sharp
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As a leader, how do you stay sharp and energized?

In studying great leaders, three habits seem to support this, with some of these leaders having taken it to a science.

What are these three habits, and how can you capitalize on the experience of the greats?

  1. Reading to Nourish Your Leadership Lens

Great leaders read daily. Bill Gates reads about 50 books yearly. He told Time magazine that reading is essential for success. Elon Musk shares that reading is what taught him how to build rockets. Warren Buffett, who reads about 500 pages daily, says, “That’s how knowledge works. It builds up like compound interest.”

I agree. Whatever you feed your brain is what it uses to operate. This is true for the food you eat and the information you absorb. If you are not taking the time to ingest new information to keep learning and to help you make best decisions, you are not growing. Stagnant leadership is dying leadership.

Here are tips to begin your reading habit.

    • Research what some of the great leaders are reading. Then do likewise. You can expand from there.
    • Set a timer. This is a habit to feed your brain, just like exercise is a habit to keep your body in shape. Begin with 30 minutes and set a timer so that you can focus on what you are reading.
    • Read three chapters before you decide whether you will finish the book. Sometimes you will begin a book that is just not inspiring. When this happens, give it three chapters just to make sure, and then set it aside for another if the selection is stale.

  1. Rituals to Stay Grounded in Turbulent Times

Rituals are as old as mankind. There are many kinds of rituals, such as those that increase confidence or ease grieving. There are those that signify an end or beginning to a life chapter. You and I may have personal rituals including actions such as wearing lucky socks before a big event. Rituals are cultural markers that involve activity tied to some sort of meaning. The wonderful thing about these is that they can also provide grounding and a sense of control.

Arianna Huffington is one leader who firmly believes in ritual. In fact, under her direction, the Huffington Post offers regular yoga and meditation classes, as well as nap rooms, to its employees. Building in one of these activities on a regular basis serves to bring balance and well-being to those who participate. Richard Branson claims he does his best thinking when he adds the ritual of movement, such as taking a walk.

Here are some ideas for you as you think about establishing your own rituals.

    • Decide how you would like to celebrate. Is it important to you to celebrate accomplishments? Important dates? Identify what is meaningful to you and then develop a ritual to mark the event.
    • Identify how you will center yourself. Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a wonderful way to calm anxiety or quiet the world. Developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, MBSR was originally intended for people suffering from anxiety, depression, and pain. It has proven incredibly successful, and today, is also taught in almost every community as a way to alleviate stress and develop mindfulness.
    • Practice sharing a meaningful ritual with others so that it becomes part of your company or family culture. Sharing brings a sense of belonging and connection which is powerful and sorely needed in today’s world.

  1. Replenishing the Leadership Engine

Rest is key for rejuvenation and to re-energize. Just as your car needs energy to operate, so do you. Are you truly getting the quality and amount of sleep you need? Sleep deprivation interferes directly with focus and executive reasoning. This means your performance – and that of your business, in turn – is at stake.

McKinsey conducted a study of 196 business leaders and discovered that two-thirds were dissatisfied with the quantity of sleep they got, and 55% were not happy with the quality of their sleep. Yet, the compelling evidence shows that a lack of sleep on the part of a leader directly impacts organizational performance. What can you do about this?

Here are some tips to get you started on the road to better sleep habits.

    • Target the optimal seven to nine hours of sleep per night. If you have claimed in the past that you “only need six hours” or whatever your number is, you need to let that idea go. Experts show that anything less than seven hours is simply not enough, and you are systematically weakening your brain and body’s abilities to function over time.
    • Keep your bedroom cool and the lights off. Any compromise to darkness will compromise a sound sleep. This includes removing your cell phone from the bedroom. The stress and stimulation it represents, in addition to the blue light it gives off when alerts come through, is enough to interfere with your ability to relax and stay asleep.
    • We have all heard that best sleep hours occur before midnight, so one should go to bed early. Yet many of us may be nocturnal or find this impractical. Decide the block of time that is right for you, and then allot enough time to meet your sleep quota.

Staying sharp means discipline. And discipline is what we see the best leaders reflect as they make change around the world. Taking the time to develop this will mean the difference between good and great. As you review the three lifestyle habits of best leaders above, where will you start?

The Clockwork of Excellent Leadership:   3 Essential Gears

What makes up excellent leadership? The essential components that go into leadership must all work together, or they begin to wear on one another and bring things to a stop. Learn how to keep them running like clockwork. Sign up to receive the  complimentary infographic.

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

Three Commitments to Effective Leadership

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Are you committed to being a leader?

You have the title. You have the area of responsibility. You’re in a seat that allows you to make key decisions for the larger picture.

Moreover, others have deemed that you have both the competencies and character to lead well.

But what about your commitment?

Without commitment in three key areas, abilities are not enough.

In my engagement with leaders, I will work with them to assess their leadership competencies, their character, and their commitment. Most often, they can readily articulate their strengths – and many are keenly self-aware of their vulnerabilities. When we discuss character, this is often a more reflective time in our conversation, for this is not a question that surfaces as much.

Then, I approach their commitment. Most everyone quickly affirms they are committed, and some may even feel softly affronted that I’ve even asked the question. “If I weren’t committed, I wouldn’t be here,” quipped one. “They don’t pay me enough, but I still sit in this chair!”

It’s at this point that I invite them to reflect on three areas of commitment and to explore where they might need next to grow.

1. Aspiration.

Aspire to a vision. How old is your vision? Is it still relevant? And does it still inspire you to action? If not, it’s certain that your people are not inspired, either. Take the time to revisit this in light of where you and your company are today. Then, review your direction and strategies to ensure they support it best.

2.  Engagement.

Get involved and find solutions. Dive into the many issues that face you as leader, your business, and your industry. Use the appropriate brain trust to turn old ideas upside down and to come up with creative solutions to problems. See the gold in continued growth for yourself. Admit and examine those areas within the company that require refinement or redirecting. Recognize the merits of collaboration as you examine industry challenges and decide to become part of the thought leadership that provides the answers.

3.  Sacrifice.

Be willing to make sacrifices in pursuit of the vision. If you have been in leadership many years, or your business has been long established, there may be pockets of complacency that impede your ability to move ahead. These may not be readily apparent, so as you share the vision anew, make sure that this is shared at all levels of your organization. Ask each area of responsibility, then, to perform a litmus test by examining systems, processes, and protocols to see if these best support the vision and its direction. Then, define the behaviors and attitudes you want to see that reflect company values. What needs to shift or change? What needs to go, or be adopted? Remaining “in place” with what has always worked is a sure sign that you are not staying current – and by default, you could be on the way out.

In essence, commitment in these three areas requires that you roll up your sleeves and do the hard work required to lead well. I challenge you to use this framework as you consider the effectiveness of your own leadership, and that of your executive team.

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

​Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

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© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

Three Ways to Increase Your Team’s Execution Skills

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Three Ways to Increase Your Team’s Execution Skills
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Many parts of your job are important, but among the skills that leaders must possess, execution rises to the top.

It’s simple. Unless you can execute, the work doesn’t get done. It’s tough to stay focused on your own priorities, and when you add oversight of your executive team and their performance, things can get complicated.

What gets in the way of your team’s ability to execute – and what can you do about it?

Use the following checklist to see where you need to put a system, process, or behavior in place to get things done:

1. Planning

  • Does your planning session reflect clear goals, deadlines, and assigned responsibilities?

Valuable time is wasted when clarifying these components are ignored. Your executive team members certainly know their areas of responsibility well. But they may not be eager to take on additional work, especially if the project under discussion has pieces that touch multiple areas. And when this is the case, your planning session may suffer from “Bystander Effect.” This social psychology phenomenon says that that when a group is faced with a crisis or critical question at hand, each person in the group will assume someone else will take care of it (and perhaps look the other way!). Your role as leader is to make sure these pieces are well-defined – and well-assigned!

  • A chief piece that you as leader must own is to drive accountability.

What will the process be for reporting on a particular initiative or project? What essential information will you need to receive in updates so that key issues aren’t buried, or meetings aren’t consumed with minutia? In other words, how will you know the work is being done? And finally, you must define to your team members how you want them to report back to you so you aren’t chasing them for answers.

2. Prioritizing

  • You and your team will need to reassess your workloads, and make sure all agree as to any shifts in focus.

If taking on a new project, revisit expectations about other work that is already scheduled. You will save time and team morale by holding a quick meeting to discuss what timelines on other projects each feels needs adjusting and come to a shared agreement on these items. Otherwise, left to individual decision, one team member’s adjustments may adversely affect another team member’s expected outcomes.

  • Time-block your own work into a calendar.

Executives who don’t do this often complain that “the real work gets done when everyone else leaves the building.” Granted, peace and quiet is important, and unexpected interruptions can slow things down. But it is sadly more often the case that executives stack meetings back-to-back on their calendar, and then wonder why they cannot catch up. Block out time each day to work on your responsibilities – or someone else’s priorities will steal that time from you.

3. Performing

  • This is most often where I find executives stall.

If you have completed steps 1 and 2 above, but you still feel stalled, it may be due to an unconscious fear around completing your assignment. If you find yourself ready to work but frozen, ask yourself these questions: “What do I fear as I look at executing this project? Do I know what the next step is? Or am I fearful I will fail? That my work won’t be good enough and others will discount my credibility?” A time management system is often touted as the answer to procrastination. But behaviorists know that in many cases, stalling is an indication that the executive is worried that he or she will actually complete the task at hand! Fear of measuring up, or on doing so well that one is assigned even more responsibility in future, can be at the basis of poor performance.

Where do you need to fine-tune your own team’s ability to execute? And are you as leader on top of your game when it comes to holding them accountable? I look forward to hearing about your thoughts and experience.

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© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

The Courage to Lead

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The Courage to Lead
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Character does matter. And courage, as one of its virtues, is vital.

Many a person placed in a position of authority or power has fallen due to a lack of courage. And they have, in many instances, also damaged the lives of countless others under their leadership.

How does courage play into leadership?

Courage means making bold decisions under conditions of uncertainty – or standing up to oppose potentially bad decisions.

Consider Alan Mulally, who turned Ford around from impending doom to a viable, profitable company. When Mulally arrived, Ford was unwilling to address the issues that were sinking it. Further, the organization was losing $18 Billion that year. In order to bring Ford’s operations and infrastructure up to speed, Mulally borrowed $23.5 Billion, convincing the Ford shareholders to put up its stock and the famous Ford Blue Oval as collateral.

Courage means having the confidence to act in difficult situations.

Mary Barra, General Motor’s chairwoman and CEO since 2014, addressed an angry Senate investigating committee immediately following her appointment. The Senate was examining deaths from failed ignition switches on Chevrolet Camaros. Barra took full responsibility – a bold and risky action. GM subsequently recalled more than half a million cars affected and paid more than $120M in settlements. Moving forward, Barra took the company’s products from problematic to high quality, earning the business a new reputation of excellence.

Courage means taking risks, coloring outside the lines, trying new things. It means growth, exploration, innovation – and so much more.

The first step toward developing more courage is to identify where, when, and in which situations you feel your courage falter.

Do you need to flex when it comes to confronting a chronic, damaging situation? Deciding to cut losses to render the business healthier? Acting more quickly and decisively when faced with moral issues?

Avoiding the tough stuff only postpones the inevitable.

Maya Angelou once said, “Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.”

Where might you flex more of yours?

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

5 Ways to Cut Your Meeting Time in Half

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5 Ways to Cut Your Meeting Time in Half
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Ask anyone in management about how much they love meetings, and I can guarantee you will hear a loud groan. Chief complaints are that there are too many, they waste time, and little gets accomplished during these. A top upset is when meetings rehash the same agenda items without any move forward.

How can you minimize the time spent on your meetings, maximize the focus and outcomes, and get back to work quickly?

Here are 5 ways you can make sure your meetings are effective, stay on track, and keep the organization moving forward:

1. Prepare your attendees for the meeting.

Make sure your meeting has a clear purpose, an agenda, and any background information to brief people. Send this out ahead of time and alert attendees that they need to review the info before the meeting is held. This one move can eliminate a lot of time in your meeting wasted on bringing people up to speed and risking conversations around things that have already been decided.

2. Clarify what you want from your attendees.

Is this meeting informational, for consideration, or for action?

a. If the meeting is for information only, make it clear that you are sharing for awareness, and decide during your meeting what information from your time together needs to be shared with the larger employee base or select management.

b. If the meeting is for consideration, make sure you define what is up for consideration and what outcomes you would like for the meeting. This kind of meeting is most likely to be typed as a time-waster unless you facilitate for the outcomes you request, identify next steps with deadlines, and share this with all involved to pull things forward. It is important especially for this type of meeting that you as leader facilitate and allow other team members to speak and weigh in. Your job is to conduct the meeting and keep it on track to desired outcomes – not to dictate opinion by reason of your position.

c. If the meeting is for action, be sure that you have identified and have present all decision-makers who need to be in the room. This avoids having to chase down and reintegrate any new views or opinions coming from those who were absent (and which can often cause another new meeting on the same subject, rehashing the same agenda). As with the meeting for consideration, articulate clearly the decisions that were made, the actions you have determined, who will follow up on each, and a deadline for reporting back.

3. Go lean on your attendee list.

Do you have tourists in your meetings? People who have climbed “on the bus” by virtue of association, but who really don’t need to be in there? Review your agenda carefully and decide who from your regular attendee list no longer needs to be involved. This can be touchy as you may send the wrong message by simply disinviting them. Be sure to explain why – that the agenda isn’t something to which they need to devote time, and you are revamping in order to minimize meetings and time spent on these so that they can do the work at hand.

4. Avoid highjacking.

Three major ways this can happen to your meeting are when Parkinson’s Law of Triviality is activated, when side-barring occurs, and if you have a personality who tends grandstand or hold court.

a. Parkinson’s Law of Triviality is where people spend a relatively large amount of time, energy, and focus dealing with relatively minor issues. How does this work in a meeting? People will stay with trivia inside of a more major decision because they are more comfortable with that. They may not understand the larger issue at hand, or they may not be fully engaged with it. When this happens, and they begin to “major in minors,” the more important issue being neglected, and a whole team diverted to a side conversation. If you notice this happening, be quick to call people back to the larger focus at hand.

b. Stopping your own meeting to side-bar means that the rest of your team has to wait while you do take care of things that should be cared for in a 1:1 meeting or other forum. It sends a poor message about your own leadership abilities and causes people to lose their focus and engagement during your time together. That’s a hard thing to recapture – so don’t do it!

c. Do you have a grandstander? A personality who considers meetings the place where they can make sure everyone else is impressed with their opinion? This person tends to takes up all the air in the room so that others aren’t able or willing to participate, or interrupts loudly to show expertise. If so, you need to have a critical conversation with this person to help them to understand the behavior you are noticing, how it is adversely impacting the team, and the desired behaviors you want to see instead.

5. Recap of your meeting.

Send out a recap of your meeting notes with appropriate action steps, designated people in charge of them, and deadlines. These notes should be taken by someone other than you to allow you to focus on leading and facilitating. If you have an assistant, this is optimal. If you have a leaner team in attendance for this one, ask one of your members to capture what you want on the agenda so that you can have your assistant type these up later for distribution.

What are your pet-peeve time-wasters in meetings? I’d love to hear more about it.

For more about making your meetings more effective to promote better decisions and outcomes, see McKinsey’s May 2019 article “Want a Better Decision? Plan a Better Meeting” by Aaron De Smet, Gregor Jost, and Leigh Weiss.

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© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.