Give your Willpower a fighting chance!

One of the things that I've really come to appreciate since starting up my coaching/consulting practice is the value of structure in my work - and personal - life.  It's not that I didn't have structure in my former executive role.  Lord no!  In fact, in my former executive world I was somewhat inundated with structures and other people who helped me with their own structure or imposed it on me!

However, as I have reinvented myself as an Executive Coach, TEC Canada Chair and consultant, I've had to become much more self-reliant on my own personal efforts.  I no longer have an admin assistant, an executive associate or a team to keep me on task.  I can no longer rely on others to remind me of upcoming meetings, set me up with briefs or notes from the past, or otherwise keep me progressing forward.  What I've also come to realize is that all my best intentions, willpower, and (fading) memory are "tools" that are inadequate to keep me on track and, more importantly, ahead of and on top of my timelines and goals.

What I've discovered is that many if not all of my clients suffer from a similar misplaced faith in the power of their own self-discipline and motivation.  It's clear that all of us suffer from some form of self-delusion in this regard.  We see ourselves as highly competent and motivated professionals, executives and leaders and, therefore, expect that we should be quite able to keep ourselves and our organizations on track through the sheer force of our indomitable will and strength of character.  When we fail to meet these high expectations for ourselves our level of frustration, anxiety, and even self-loathing is something to behold.  This is despite the fact that in many cases we have set ourselves up for failure.

But there is a way out of this trap and a way for us to actually better establish the basis for ongoing success in our lives.  It's all about structure.  And I'm not talking about overly complicated, burdensome and bureaucratic things that we might all dread.  It's about taking simple steps in our day-to-day lives that can give our willpower and good intentions a fighting chance to succeed.

So what kinds of things have I done to help me become successful and hopefully more successful into the future?  One of the first and best things I have done over the past 2 years is in fact create my own one page business plan.  That may sound intimidating to most of us and but I can tell you from personal experience that it helped focus my mind and efforts at the beginning of my journey and, more importantly, has served as a great touchstone to evaluate my ongoing efforts and success on a go-forward basis.  The key here is to SCHEDULE some time in your calendar to complete this task and then to review it on a regular basis - not less than every quarter.

Second, use the power of your electronic calendar and access that most of us have to personal digital assistants.  Given the number of clients that I have to personally navigate each week it is critical for me to not only establish my schedule of upcoming meetings in my calendar but also to set reminders a week or month in advance of critical dates and deliverables.  I try to ensure I am ready for each client encounter before it happens and if I tried to rely solely on my memory...well, I'd be out of business pretty quickly.

In similar fashion, I use my calendar and reminder functions to ensure that I do advance follow-ups with all of my clients once per week on a set schedule.  For me that has become Friday mornings, where I have set a time to connect with my clients, remind them of their commitments, and help them show up our meeting ready to work.  I have become part of their structural support network.  I also encourage them to follow-up with me - in particular as a result of coaching sessions - with their declared personal commitments immediately following our work together. 

For those of us with an ongoing support network - admin assistants, secretaries, executive associates - I also recommend enlisting those people as key supports.  If you lack structure, give permission to these staff to "impose" structure on you.  They are there to help you if you will only let them.  Often times you are much more desirous of being in creative and entrepreneurial mode while these people really do have a greater love for structure and order than you do.  Let them complement your best leadership qualities with what they know and do best.

I also personally use - and recommend to my clients - that they make use of some very ancient and useful tools at their disposal.  Sticky notes and paper.  Get things out of your head, on to paper, and visible to yourself on an ongoing basis.  As you create your personal business plan, get it out of your head and your computer hard drive, print it out, and paste it on your wall and in your line of sight.  Let it serve as a constant reminder of your personal and professional goals and objectives.  Let your visible and written plan guide your daily actions.  Similarly if you are having trouble overcoming a bad habit (e.g., checking your e-mail first thing when you come into the office, checking voice-mail) then put a bright colored sticky on your computer/phone to remind you to focus on your priorities first - what actions are going to help you move forward on your business plan objectives. 

We are all well-intentioned and capable professionals and leaders.  We would not have risen to our current status and roles if we were not.  But by applying a little more structure to our good intentions and willpower we can make that success easier to obtain and sustain.  We can give ourselves a fighting chance to become even better leaders.
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Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.