I want to look deeper at how to feel better by creating better systems for yourself as a leader.
We get this sense of being overwhelmed and anxious because we are unsure where to go next.
We have this nagging feeling that we are not as focused or energized as we should be.
We don’t see progress in what we know deep down that we must, but it is hard to understand how to come out of that.
We are stuck. We stay stuck.
We must release ourselves from holding patterns detrimental to our ministry.
Your emotional strength and health will dramatically change as a leader as you move. These can also help the people around you.
1. Six by Six
Bill Hybels created this. Write down six significant things to focus on and how you will move your ministry forward if completed within the next six weeks. Keep this note somewhere you can see it daily.
- Six things
- Six projects
- Six decisions
You are involved with these, doing some of this yourself and involving others. You are pushing forward on these six things, and if you are successful in these, even four, five, or six of them, you will have made a big dent in moving your organization forward.
Choose the six things you contemplate, not six to-do list items. “Wow, if I can accomplish these things by either doing them myself or influencing others, these will move us forward.”
Examples:
- In the next six weeks, you must hire a critical position with a dramatic effect.
- In the next six weeks, you need to conduct planning with your team and have a completed plan to hold yourself and others accountable.
- It could be a specific number of givers or potential givers that you will meet within the next six weeks.
- It could be that in the next six weeks, you need to reflect personally, listen, and pray to God for His plan to move you forward for this year.
So, it is up to you, but you have got to make these tough decisions about the six things you will push forward on, write them down, and put them where you can see them. It is transformational.
2. Model Week
Create a ‘model week.’ As a part of your system, we want to make more effective use of the calendar. Your calendar is a budget for where your time goes. You can budget wisely and intentionally in advance, or your calendar can reflect how reactive you are as a leader.
Create a model week where you decide in advance what an ideal week would look like if you could control time and how you use it.
- What would a model week look like?
- Where would I invest my time?
- How would I budget my time for maximum impact over a week?
Only some weeks will look like that, but it gives you a target where you have already made decisions.
- I ideally have meetings here internally, and these are the slots on my calendar where I can meet with people outside of the organization, such as potential donors.
- These are where I usually have the evenings I plan to be available for events or other meetings.
- I will walk around the organization and be visible to staff during these blocks of time.
- These are the times that I am going to work on projects.
- These are the periods I will make phone calls or do follow-up work.
Calendar usage:
Blocking 90-minute chunks, for example, on an ideal calendar, then helps you think about where and when you will be doing this work as you look ahead for six weeks, which is back to the six by six. Your ideal week becomes a model for deciding the coming weeks on your calendar.
The calendar is the most straightforward tool because we can make intentional decisions about where to put our energy and focus. Rather than letting email or interruptions demand that, we are scheduling more and more of our time. If you know where your time goes, you can make better decisions about using it.
You can’t control everything. Things are always going to come up. Don’t use that as an excuse not to improve in this area. The more effective you can be on the time you can manage and control, which I call your discretionary time, the more time you have to do the most. So, utilize that calendar. Get precise and disciplined in that.
Team meetings calendar:
You can do several other things to improve your systems. Feel better because the right things are in focus. Please look carefully at our team meetings calendar.
As a leader, how you use time with others is one of the primary tools to get things done. So, when you are meeting with people, what are you doing? You bring new focus, energy, clarity, and simplicity into their world. People want more of this. It is not necessarily more money but more time with the leader because leaders have a clarifying, energizing, and focusing impact when in the room with people.
You should clearly explain your team meeting schedule and how you use time with your team.
Meeting with the individual:
I would take it further and look at how I meet with the individuals on my team.
Annual evaluation is the most apparent and minimum thing that you do. Very few things are as wasteful as this idea that, once a year, you will evaluate someone formally. Evaluation needs to be going on all of the time. Constantly evaluating, affirming, continually giving people feedback on things to be encouraged by, challenged by, and even see improvement very specifically. If you do annual evaluations, it can be a summarizing of that or going deeper into that.
Think about individuals:
- Who do I need to speak to? What are five things I could encourage them, and what are five things I can challenge them on to continue improving?
That will energize you because you will know they are working on the things they need to be working on, and you will be speaking into their lives, which is crucial.
I look forward to hearing from you. Reach out to me by text if you have any questions. Dig into this concept, use the tools we have given you, and move to the next level.