There is no “I” in Management; but there should be

(3 minute read time)

I was writing content for my business.  It was going to be a great piece on Productivity and Time Management.  

Then, the unthinkable happened.  Writer’s Block.

Listen y’all, I write a lot in my job.  I would have never taken up this line of work if Writer’s Block was something I struggled with regularly.  

And yet, I kept missing my own deadlines.  Missing deadlines, for a piece on TIME MANAGEMENT!?!?!?  (Isn’t it ironic, don’t cha think?)

And then, a light bulb went off.  

I realized I was not buying my own beliefs.  I was writing all these amazing tips about how to get stuff done efficiently and not following them myself.  I wasn’t walking the talk.

If I just followed my own advice, I would have met my deadlines.  I could have skipped the drama, frustration and irritation.

How about you?  Have you ever given an employee some great advice only to find yourself not doing that very thing you said would help?

Having spent 20+ years in corporate, I know I am not the only one who struggles with this.  I know there are leaders out there, like me, who have great concepts, strategies, and solutions.  They share their wisdom with others but sometimes fail to execute it for themselves.

The most important person to manage on your team is you.

The best (and I do mean THE BEST) leadership strategy I have learned over the years is to get inside the minds of employees, be curious about their perspective and understand why they make the choices they do.  

This helps in both forward and reverse.  We can use this skill to understand past decisions our employees have made as well as influence their thinking going forward.    

But, there’s a caveat….

This only works well when we get really good at using it to monitor ourselves first:

Do you know why you do what you do?  

Do you know why you feel the way you feel?  

Do you know why you have the results you do?

The answers to all of these questions are in your brain.  

Your brain is your most valuable resource.  It is the source of all of your past, present and future results.  Yet, few of us take time to manage it. We just live at the effect of it.  No questions asked.

Not managing our brains is like getting the latest iPhone and just letting it be a simple phone and ignoring all of its other powerful uses.

So how do you know if you are managing yourself well?  It’s easy, take a look at your results. Are you getting the results you really want?  Are your relationships the way you want them to be? Are your goals being met? Are you living the kind of life you want to live?  If not, then it’s time to consider how you can improve your self-management skills.

When you figure all of this out for yourself, it is much easier to influence and lead others.  People will naturally want to follow you.

If you want to get really good at managing people, you must manage yourself first.  I can definitely help, just click here to schedule a free, 30-minute discovery session.