How to Sharpen your E-mail in 2014

Okay you don’t have time today to be provoked or provoking. No worries straight down to business so. Have a look at your inbox, look at the 10 most recent emails, for today or this week depending on your dependency. Now quickly answer this question: why are they still there? If you’re honest most will fall into 1 of these 3 categories;

1. Reply needed; this mail needs a reply from you, only you, you need to think or research your answer, try your best to close the reply so you don’t end up in an email conversation. If clarity is required follow up with a visit or phone-call; send it, close it and delete it.
2. I may need to read this later; a sales pitch, corporate update, interesting HBR management tip etc.  You’ll come back to it again and again: read it, don’t read it but delete it.
3. Notification; so somebody has looked up your LinkedIn profile, favorited your tweet or liked your comment. If you have a goal of developing your online presence fine, put aside some time each day /week (dependency issues again) to engage if not delete & unsubscribe to these notifications.

What you will quickly find is how few emails need a reply from you and only you, these are the priority ones and require your attention and closing thoughts. Any emails that get deleted straight away should be unsubscribed, ones you may need later (really, do they?) should be put in a folder.  Be ruthless with email and gracious with your replies!

What you should learn from your kids

My 4 year old daughter returned from school on Friday and announced that her teacher had asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. Intrigued I asked her “Well what did you say?” expecting an answer in the Disney princess mould. “A Seal Trainer!” she proudly declared.  Seeing the surprise on my face she kindly explained what was involved in training seals.  For a moment I thought about how great it must be to think everything is possible and then turned back to the everyday humdrum of family life.

I was reminded of this interaction a couple of days later when Michael Comyn posted a link to this video. It’s designed to make you think, and it did but in two very different ways;

1. Record and reward those moments; it makes me think of those great things kids say all the time, our kids do 3 things many others can’t; they consistently make us laugh, smile and be proud.  Recognise those that do something that others can’t, won’t or haven’t thought of doing.
2. When and how do we lose it? That belief, that optimism, the feeling that anything is possible simply because others have done it too.  Encourage the fanciful and ask if others are doing it, if they’re not you’ll have to invent it!

Next time we feel or we are told that something is beyond us try to apply the kid test;

• Is there somebody else doing it?
• Why can’t we do it?
• It looks like fun, can we try it?

What have your kids taught you?

Golden Rule of Achieving Goals

We know all about SMART Goals and the benefits to a team of goal setting. But how do you talk to your team about goals? how do you evaluate progress and keep the plan relevant? The simple rule of thumb is to start with the end in mind.

This doesn’t mean leaders should grandstand their vision every chance they get, quite the opposite; try to button it more often! Instead of visionary declarations ask provocative questions like how does this help us achieve our goal? or what do you need from me to move this on?
Keeping on song doesn’t mean you have to keep singing.