Energy at work
Habits for High Productivity Days
The first thing you need to know about having a high productivity day tomorrow is that it starts with the last thing you do today.
Habit 1: End your day with a plan for the next day.
One of the biggest pits I see busy managers and leaders fall into is that they work to exhaustion and leave the office without setting a plan for what they need to get done the next day.
Starting the day with a plan for what you have to achieve is key to having a highly productive day. That plan can and should be crafted in advance so you can: Continue reading…
Breaks Work at Work
Odds are you could be far more effective at work if you didn’t spend quite so much time working.
One tenant of energy management and workplace effectiveness is to take breaks every 90 – 120 minutes. But convincing bright motivated people to take 5 or 6 breaks in a day is no easy task.
Continue reading…
Recovering from pushing too hard.
I’m writing from the Kootenays, BC. I had planned to take the mountain bike ride of a lifetime this week but I strained some back ligaments while training. Now, I’m on the shelf and off the bike for a bit.
Yup the coach overdid it a little. So, I thought I’d eat some humble pie and share my lessons learned. Continue reading…
Who’s expecting?
What would you do differently if – starting today – you were pregnant?
Now gentlemen, I want you to think about this too. Go with me here.
Since one of my clients became pregnant, she’s been looking at energy management in a new way. With a little someone depending on her body, energy management seems more critical. Continue reading…
Breakfast in a Blender
How’s your day going so far? How did it start?
One of the ways I get to know my clients is by asking them to walk me through a typical day. I get them to start with their wake-up routine and we move all the way through to when they go to bed.
Make Time for Energy Over the Holidays
In all honesty, how familiar is this scenario: Over the holidays, you rush from one social commitment to the next throwing back the eggnog and butter tarts. Before you know it, it’s January 2nd. You are physically and emotionally spent, wishing you had an extra couple of days to recuperate, and oh yeah, you are 5 – 10 lbs up. Happened before? Continue reading…
BCB Communicator: Maximizing Sales Opportunities
Chris Obst’s article Maximizing Sales Opportunities, published by BCB Communicator magazine is posted here with the permission of the publisher.
In the article Chris explains how to improve sales potential by replenishing your energy.
Plan meetings that promote action
When people plan big meetings and corporate events they usually (hopefully) have an objective.
They want to motivate people toward a strategic goal. They want to team-build. They want to educate and energize people. Generally speaking, the people planning meetings want attendees to leave the event ready to DO something.
You can make opportunities to take a break
My summer is off to a great start. I’m up at 6AM watching the World Cup before I start work and I go out with a buddy for lunch to grab a mid day game. Go Germany! I admit to getting swept up in the action.
And last weekend I competed in the infamous Test of Metal mountain bike race with 999 other racers. It is a 67-kilometer cross-country mountain bike race with over 1,200 meters of climbing. The pros complete it in 2.5 – 3 hours. Mortals like me take 4 – 6 or more.
I’ve never trained for anything so hard in my life.
I want to share something l learned from all this about rest and recovery. Continue reading…
Get ready for a whole different kind of tired
You and I are knowledge workers. We use our mental and emotional energy to do the heavy lifting at work.
Leading one-on-one meetings, delivering presentations, analyzing, writing, motivating, coaching – as much as these tasks can feed us, and give us a buzz, they can also drain our mental and emotional energy. Continue reading…
I learned about resting from racing
My journey to do the Test of Metal epic mountain bike race started on January 1st. I was thrilled to be one of 1000 participants who got a limited entry spot that sold out in 22 minutes.
The training on and off the bike began then. It really was fun to get in better shape and better at biking at the same time. It was a great feeling to be focused on a physical test like this at 46. It also took a toll on my family life. For the last few weeks leading up to the race, I was AWOL on the home front a few times a week for 3 and 4 hours rides. Continue reading…
Appearances matter
I can’t believe it has been a month since I launched the Jump Management Coaching brand.
Much as we may not like to admit it, appearances matter. The way that you present your company and yourself not only leaves an impression on the people around you – it has an effect on you. Continue reading…
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable
The title for this article is also the new tag line for my company. It came out of an “ah ha” moment that a lot of managers have.
In management, you are always moving, stretching, balancing and rebalancing – it is pretty rare that anyone feels totally comfortable because nothing stays still for very long.
3 reasons you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable
- Change is constant. And change makes everyone of us more or less uncomfortable.I’m coaching a new VP who confided in me, “This is a really hard job! I feel like I never have things under control.” In her pre-management role, she was able to get things set up and let them operate on cruise control. That just doesn’t happen in management. Continue reading…
How excellent are you?
Leadership excellence is about being able to inspire and grow your highest leverage assets: trust, respect and loyalty.
In good times and bad, everything flows from those three levers.
When you think about great leaders you have known, or admired, my guess is that you would give them all high scores in what I call the 4 C’s. Continue reading…
Management and energy insights from the slopes
I spent last week skiing with my family at Whistler, and the holiday inspired me to write something a little different this month!
1. Try an idea out. Push it a few times, if it still isn’t working try another idea.
Our trip started with a plan. My wife and I wanted to take the kids on a spring break ski week at one of the family-friendly resorts in the Okanagan. Our friends had raved about them.
But when I started calling around to make reservations (a few months ago) every place I called had problems. They were booked, or they didn’t get back to us. Continue reading…
Fundamentals of Energy Management
- Values: know what matters most, and ask yourself if you have the energy to live the way you want to live.
- Nutrition: eat healthy meals and snacks to support your day, and know when treats help and when they hurt.
Pick an event and go for gold
One way Olympic Athletes maintain focus is that they always train FOR something. They train for national competitions. They train for world championships. They train for the Olympics.
They summon the energy to get out there rain or shine because for them, exercise has a purpose.
You may not picture yourself taking the podium for the luge, but finding an event, or a physical challenge is a great way to shift your mindset from seeing exercise as a chore to seeing its purpose in your life. Continue reading…
Train to be a gold medal leader
I have to say, ever since the Olympic torch relay ran past my house, I’ve been stoked about the games. (I hope my American and European readers will
indulge me if a little Canadian pride sneaks into this email).
Did you see Alexandre Bilodeau win Canada’s first home-gold in the men’s moguls on Sunday? Can I tell you why I found it so exciting?
As Stephen Brunt wrote in his Globe and Mail article, “That great moment didn’t happen by accident.”
Bilodeau won because he trained hard. He won because he took risks no one else took. He saw opportunities no one else saw. One commentator said, “In his gold medal run, Bilodeau skied hard, fast, and on edge, walking the thin line between greatness and disaster.”
Great leaders also have to ride that edge. We also have to train. We also have to focus. We also have to get comfortable being uncomfortable walking the line between greatness and disaster. Continue reading…
Tap into an underexploited energy source: Your emotional energy
We all possess four distinct, yet interconnected sources of energy: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Most of us have a pretty good read on our physical and mental energy levels.
Physical energy is about what your body can handle: you know your physical energy is low if you fall asleep on a conference call, or if you are dragging your butt to meetings.
Mental energy is about what your brain can handle: you know your mental energy is high if you are able to analyze a dense report, or if you can make creative connections throughout the day.
Emotional energy is about what you can handle emotionally. It is often indicated by a person’s stress threshold, their breaking/boiling point, their ability to maintain a positive outlook, or their ability to motivate themselves and others. These are all critical factors for high performance at work and at home. Continue reading…
My life is more than half over
Is your life more than half over? Mine is.
My 45th birthday was a couple of weeks ago. When I factor in family history, increased life expectancy, and everything I do to take care of myself, I still come up with 90 as a likely final buzzer. So as of 10 days ago, there’s just no getting around the fact my life is more than half over. Continue reading…