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Scott Eblin offers his take on lessons in the news and his advice on your pressing leadership questions.
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3 Questions to Manage Your Own Performance

I often tell leaders it's important to check yourself out. You may be asking, “What on earth does checking yourself out have to do with effective leadership?”  Fair question.  If, by checking yourself out, we’re talking about sneaking in an admiring glance as you walk by a mirror or a storefront window, the answer is not much.

If, on the other hand, we’re talking about the modern day version of what Socrates meant when he said, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” then the answer is a lot.

I’d make the case that mindful leaders spend regular time checking themselves out.   They question their assumptions.  They check their motives.  They figure out what pushes their buttons.

Interested in spending some time checking yourself out?  Here’s a simple way to get started.

Just about everyone has topics, situations or people that push their buttons.  Those are external factors that are always going to exist.  The big opportunity is to work on your internal response to those external factors.  As I wrote in a post a few years ago calledQuestions for Conscious Leaders, the opportunity is summed up by the great leadership coach, Tim Gallwey ...

What Songs Keep You Motivated at Work?

Music can have a powerful impact on mindfulness. Certain songs or genres can be totally distracting or annoying while others set you up to remember why you do what you do as a leader.

Likewise, there are distracting and annoying things about smartphones and there are also very useful things about the devices. One of those is the capacity they give you to carry around a mindfulness playlist in your pocket.  Having one can be very useful when you need some help in refocusing on a more mindful approach to leadership and life.

As an example, there are three songs on my mindfulness playlist that I come back to again and again.

The first is George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. I love its meditative groove and point that nothing, good or bad, lasts forever.  Here’s the last verse and chorus of the song:

Now the darkness only stays the night-time
In the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good at arriving at the right time
Its not always going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
All things must pass away

Another favorite that’s more ...

7 Tips for Taming Your Calendar

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post called Five Ways to Get Your Calendar Under Control.  Since then, I’ve used it as the starting point for a conversation among high potential leaders in our Next Level Leadership® group coaching program. The framing questions for the group about the post are:

  • What do you already do or agree with?
  • What do you disagree with?
  • What other calendar control ideas work for you?

As the inflow becomes heavier and the expectations become higher, taming the calendar beast is a common challenge for leaders. Here are seven of the best ideas I’ve heard lately from leaders who are figuring out how to leverage their time to get important stuff done:

1. Declare “No Meeting Fridays” – Some organizations have had a lot of success with declaring every or every other Friday as a meeting free zone on the calendar.  The point is to give everyone some regular time to work, catch up or reflect on their own.

2. Schedule Appointments with Your Self – I’m working with more and more leaders who are scheduling a few hours a week on their online calendar as work appointments with themselves.  By scheduling ...

Can't Focus? Try Breathing

If you’ve been following Mindful Mondays, you know that I’m a big fan of stretching and breathing. As I mentioned in this video, combining the two can be a quick and effective way to take a break that pushes the reset button on your brain.

Of course, you may want to take a quick break by focusing on one or the other. If I had to pick one to start with, it would be breathing. Obviously, we all do it and, because we do, it’s always available as a resource for slowing things down enough to step back, relax and reset your perspective.

There’s a big difference, though, between regular and mindful breathing. If you have a smartphone, there’s a terrific app you can download called Breathe to Relaxthat will help you feel the difference. The app was created by the National Center for Telehealth and Technology which is a unit of the Department of Defense focused on “employing emerging technologies in support of psychological health and traumatic brain injury recovery in the military.”

It’s definitely worth the download and the two minutes of your time it would take to use it everyday ...

Why Good Leaders Don't Care

A couple of months ago, I was talking with an executive leader I’ve known for a few years. One of the things I’ve noticed about him in that time is that his confidence has grown in a very appropriate and admirable way. I mentioned this to him and, in reply, he laughed softly and said, “It’s a fine line between confidence and indifference.”

That’s one of the best lines I’ve heard in recent memory because it’s funny and it’s true. Like most things that are funny, there’s an element of truth and recognition to it. The connection between confidence and indifference is that the right amount of indifference can lead to confidence. And the confidence that comes from indifference makes you a more effective leader.

Here’s what I mean by that:

When you’re so attached to a particular outcome that you can’t imagine anything else, it’s easy to feel fear. If you feel fear, it’s going to show and you’ll project a lack of confidence. That lack of confidence, in turn, makes it more likely that you won’t achieve the outcome that was so important ...