How Could qWitting Charge Up Your Team?
The second Friday of each new year is Quitters Day.
And there is no better way to mark the occasion than by consciously quitting (qWitting) poor leadership habits that are holding you and your team back from long-term success.
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Are you bothered when someone refers to a "negative" temperature?
Or is that just an odd pet peeve of some people (or of one person)?
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Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
Happy Quitters Day, and welcome to The Energy Detox coming to you from outside Houston's NRG Stadium, where tomorrow, the Houston Texans will be taking on the LA Chargers in the first round of the NFL playoffs.
00:13
And today's setting is chosen in particular because it ties in very nicely to today's holiday that being quitters day. And if you're not familiar with Quitters Day, well, it occurs every second Friday of each new year, because by now, a whole bunch of people have already quit their New Year's resolutions. And the reason that today's setting ties in nicely is because a former member of the LA chargers quit the NFL before the start of this season, and that individual is Corey Linsley, and he had a solid 10 year career as a center starting off with the Green Bay Packers and then on to the LA Chargers. But unfortunately, a couple games into last season, he was diagnosed with a heart condition, and he was forced to make a very difficult decision that being to continue on with his career, he could have chosen to keep playing. He certainly had a lot of good years ahead of him, most likely, he certainly had 20, 30, maybe even $40 million ahead of him, based on his existing contract at the time, and the prospect of a couple more years of usefulness to the NFL. But he decided to walk away. He decided to focus on his long term goals, his long term desire to be there for his family, his wife, Anna, their four children. And so he made the conscious, intentional decision to quit, to walk away, to retire, and we're going to lean on Corey's story, because, of course, that's an example of a very positive thing; to quit, a very again, as I said, intentional thing to quit.
01:44
And here on the energy detox, we're all about intentionality. We're all about being conscious, witting participants in all of the decisions that you make for yourself and for those around you, that being said, we're going to step through nine things that you can consider quitting, that you might not be fully aware of, but that can have a huge impact on your leadership. We're not going to step through things you can quit that you might expect to hear on a New Year's related podcast episode, that of course, being things like drinking, if you are participating in Dry January or again, other things you might quit to save you time, energy, money. No, we're talking about those more subtle things. And these are things that aren't just out of the blue, but things that I get to help people quit on a regular basis, all 12 months out of the year as a coach in the energy industry. So without further ado, what's the first thing that I am encouraging you to quit if you happen to be somebody that is inclined to do these things?
02:37
So first one quit saying I got a quick question for you. How often does somebody come to you and say, "Hey, I got a quick question for you." Or how often do you find yourself saying, Hey, I got a quick question for you, and how often does the person on the receiving end of that greeting say to themselves, is it really a quick question? Do you really need to introduce things like that? Do you really need to come to me and basically apologize for taking up my time. I appreciate that you consider it, but again, I got a million things going through my head, and quite frankly, the last thing I might want to do is actually answer your quick question. So why don't you just spit it out and so that being said, you know what is one of the antidotes to this? This isn't just a pet peeve session where I'm going to roll through things that you know, might upset me or upset you or upset others, but practically speaking, what can you do? Well, of course, the first thing is to get to the point. Instead of saying, I got a quick question for you, just jump into the question. But more creative solutions that I've seen other people deploy, and that Personally, my favorite is use a little bit of humor. Next time you have a quick question for somebody, go to them and say, Hey, I got a not so quick question for you. Change the Tone, change the tenor. Get them in a position where, consciously or unconsciously, they're more open to actually answer your question. Because when it comes to again, somebody like a Corey Linsley or any lineman, there's no time for fluff. There's no time to dance around things. You need to be direct. You need to be on point and adding in extra introductory things unnecessary.
04:06
Similarly, item number two, when it comes to communication and unnecessary words, quit saying the word just, it's amazing how often, especially when you're looking for it, you hear people use the word just, Hey, I was just gonna head over here and do X, Y and Z, or, you know, I was just thinking that we can, you know, maybe attack this problem from a different angle. Saying the word just even if people don't realize it, it weakens your communication. It makes you sound less confident. It's unnecessary filler. And again, there's all kinds of other filler words out there, but that one in particular seems to stand out, at least for me. And you know, when I'm on the lookout for these things. And again, it's also a friendly reminder of people like Corey Lindsley or other centers who don't have time for filler, who don't have time for extra any. Thing, right? When you're on the line, that is a crisp operation to snap that ball. There's a reason that he has snapped the ball 10s, actually, probably hundreds of thousands of times, right? It's a precision operation. He's got a key technique. And again, you can't afford doing anything extra. You need to be on point if you want to have success. No different for silly little words like just that can derail or diminish your communication.
05:28
Item number three, non verbal communication. So the first two again are words that you might consider quitting. But what non verbal things do you do that might be impacting negatively your performance. So again, it's more of an open question for you, and it's one that, quite frankly, you might need to rely on other people to answer, because I know full well that one of the things I do when I get maybe anxious or I'm in the zone, I tend to stick out my jaw and I don't even realize I'm doing it. But fortunately, a lot of times, my wife might be around and she'll see it, and she'll point it out to me, and she'll tell me to stop. And similarly, in my coaching world, again, when I'm sitting in the back of a room in a meeting, it's amazing how often I will see people doing things unconsciously. That again, I'm sure other people are seeing but it's making them less effective. For instance, people might sigh when they respond or before they respond to a question. You think that's impactful? Well, you bet it is. Or again, people might turn away or divert their eyes, or their posture might be a little bit off, and they might not realize they're doing it. So I encourage you go out, ask around when you're sitting in a meeting or before a meeting, go say, Hey, can you take a look at what I'm doing? Find somebody. Find a call. You can say, I want you to be on the lookout for any tips and tells and tricks and things that I'm doing that might be ineffective. Because, again, if you are alignment, if you are a center, like Corey Linsley was clearly and the impact is very clear, right? He makes a movement that is not allowed or at the wrong time, well, it's a penalty. It's going to hurt his team. So so too for you, what small movements might you be making that might be having outsized impacts.
07:05
Item number four, quit inviting every darn person on your team to meetings. Not everybody needs to be in every meeting. Not everybody needs to be in the huddle, so to speak. So quit inviting everybody to meetings. Now, again, this is not a new idea, of course. In fact, Jeff Bezos popularized, popularized the idea of the two pizza rule, where, if you have too many people at a meeting and you can't feed them all with only two pizzas. Well, again, you have too many people, you should have no more people in a meeting than can be fed with two pizzas. Now, again, when we're talking about linemen and centers like Corey Linsley, who at his peak was, I believe, 301 pounds. Obviously this analogy falls short, because I think when you're talking about folks like him and his colleagues, it's probably more like a two dozen pizza rule. But nevertheless, quit inviting everybody to meetings not everybody needs to be there, and use this new year as an excuse to quit doing that.
08:03
Item number five, speaking with meetings, speaking about meetings, you know, quit being the smartest person in the room. You may very well be the smartest person in the room in a given meeting, but take a moment to suspend that for a minute. Quit being the smartest person in the room. You don't always have to call every play, so to speak. And it's amazing what happens when you take a step back, when you slow down and you let other people do a little bit more talking, let other people bring up some some point something that, again, you already have on your mind, slow down. Quit being the smartest person in the room. Give somebody else another opportunity to do so.
08:39
Number six, quit sending out reports and information that don't add any value. In fact, quit sending out things that might have negative value. Might be a negative yardage play, so to speak. If we want to keep forcing in this an analogy, New Year is a perfect opportunity to ask, Hey, is this necessary? Are you or somebody on your team sending out stuff, going through the motion, doing things and again, this is especially true when it comes to different reports. Are you sending out things that are really of negative value? They are a waste of time, they are a waste of energy, if they are or if you're not sure, quit. See what happens. What's the worst that could happen?
09:18
Number six (actually seven), quit reflexively saying yes. Now we've talked about this on the energy detox. This is a controversial thing sometimes in an industry where you get rewarded for saying yes, where you get rewarded for being a go getter, but if you're a leader and you're there influencing others, and you're reflexively saying yes to everything. Well, that's the type of thing that can get people hurt again. That's the type of thing if you're doing it unconsciously, you could damage your reputation, and, heck, in the case of Corey Linsley, you can damage your health if he reflexively said yes, what got me to where I was was hard work. You know, I didn't let some silly health condition derail. To this point. So why am I going to start doing that now? I'm going to keep on moving forward. Well, again, that's a bit of an extreme case. Maybe it's a little bit different from saying yes to some exercise or project that falls into your lap, but same idea, are you consciously saying yes to those things, or are you unconsciously, unwittingly, reflexively, just going with the flow and taking on things that are going to cause some sort of damage in the long run.
10:27
Item number eight, quit hoarding your vacation days. Now, again, this episode here, we're being recording this on the heels of all the holidays. Hopefully, maybe you got a little bit of refreshment in there. But over the course of the year. Are you one of those people that takes great pride in hoarding your vacation days and never taking a day off? Well, if so, quit it. Quit it again. Not a new concept here, but it's one that I see all the time inside of organizations. I experienced it myself, and quite frankly, I was in a position where there was times where I was that person who needed to be told, Hey, quit being this macho man who can never take a day off to refresh, to relax, God forbid. So if that's you, consider quitting that as you head into the new year.
11:11
And finally, item number nine, quit assuming. Now on the last episode of The Energy Detox, we talked a bit about assumptions, of course. And so this is another reminder that if you are the type that is quick to assume something and move forward, because again, you work in a fast paced industry like the energy industry, quit it. Or at least quit assuming negative intent. Again, another topic that is kind of out there in the public domain. I see some companies that embrace this, but quit assuming the negative and instead embrace positive intent. In fact, some people will go so far as to use the analogy API, which, of course, has nice tie ins to the energy industry, and API stands for assume positive intent. So quit jumping to the negative, as you know, logical as that might be at times, and at least start by assuming positive intent, A P I.
12:05
So with that, as we move to closing here, on the heels of those nine items that you may consider quitting here as you head into the new year, I got two questions for you, because this would not be an episode of the energy detox, of course, if we didn't leave you with two questions. And the first is, what would it look like if you quit? What would it look like if you stepped away? And now I ask this knowing full well that if you're in any sort of organization, you do all the normal succession planning stuff, you have to ask this question. You know you've got the person who's going to come up next in line, but in a very simple, non secession planning way, informal way. How often are you saying, hey, what would it look like if I did step away? What would it look like if I didn't go to this meeting? What would it look like if I took a day or two off? What would transpire? We're not talking in the macro and succession planning and all of that type of stuff we're talking right now. If you quit doing what you were doing, what would the impacts be? What would be learned? What would you do differently?
13:00
Now, again, in the case of somebody like Corey Linsley, when he quit, or at least last season, when he had a step away mid season, you know, the impacts were pretty real. They were pretty negative. The LA Chargers did not have a very good season. They finished five and 12, and as the rushing statistics showed, well, they probably could have used him at center. But that being said, what would it look like if you quit?
13:23
And then the second related question is, well, who on your team is so central? Pun intended as we again focus on the former center Corey Lindsley. Well, you know, who is so central to your operation that if they quit, things would go south. Now, again, I know full well that this is a question that you are likely asking all the time, consciously or unconsciously. But take a moment today, as you kick off the new year, to say, not just hey, who could we not afford to lose, but what would the actual impacts be? That's that second piece. Because one thing to say that this person is so valuable, but where you know people kind of maybe they fall short when they're challenged is when I ask them, Well, what would the actual implications be? And many times it's not quite as bad as they might think. And with that in mind, they're able to actually approach things more consciously, more clearly when it comes to this question of, well, what would happen if somebody quit, what would happen if somebody walked out the door?
14:23
And so with that in mind, I encourage you to consider consciously looking for things to quit. Consciously stop doing things that could hold you back. And along those lines, if you're looking for more on this topic, or you're looking to share this episode, I encourage you to go to a website dedicated to conscious quitting, and that is qWitting.com. Q, W, I T, T, I N, G.
14:46
So with that, Happy New Year to you, and if you happen to be an LA Chargers fan watching, I certainly wish you the best as you manage whatever impacts you might be having out there with the fires in your neck of the woods. So with that, take care. And thanks, as always.