Are your frustrated stakeholders accusing you of running out the clock?
While coverage of the COP26 U.N. Climate Conference continues have a rather apocalyptic tone, the constant talk of timelines, deadlines, doomsdays, extinctions, climate countdowns, etc. does at least provide a good opportunity to examine your own clock management, as we'll do during today's live episode of The Energy Detox.
The headline: 𝐑𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐍. 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 (by Elizabeth Kolbert of The New Yorker)
The goal: to (𝐆)𝐫𝐨𝐰, (𝐏)𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 (𝐒)𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 success by pondering these 3 questions throughout your day:
💡 What precious opportunities for growth and development are you leaving on the field at the end of the game?
💡 How often do you prematurely employ a "prevent defense" for yourself or your organization?
💡 How quickly can you hop back into action when your headset's off and you're soaked in Gatorade?
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Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
Hello and welcome to another Live episode of the energy detox a petroleum based blend of leadership conversations guaranteed to boost your professional and personal output by flushing away the hidden and often toxic barriers to peak performance. I'm your host, Joe Sinnott, a chemical engineer, executive coach and 16 year energy industry veteran helping you tap into the same resources fueling today's most successful and sustainable leaders. And today, we're going to talk about how those successful leaders employ time, how they put time on their side, how they allow time to move them and their team forward and not feel stuck and constrained by the limits of time and the clock that is constantly ticking down in our lives. And we're gonna drive this conversation as we do each morning by using a headline related to the energy industry. And thankfully, there are plenty of headlines this morning related to time the ticking time bomb, that is climate change. And with halftime, if you will, at the cop 26 conference over in Scotland, Scotland. It's you know, it's it's a good opportunity for journalists out there to say how it's going to point to the pros and cons of how the conference has gone, how the world leaders, many of which have already left, you know what they said what they did, what they committed to what they didn't commit to. And we're not going to dive into all the details there, you're welcome to do a quick Google search of cop 26. And, and here, you know, again, what a lot of journalists takes are on the first half of the cop 26. But we are going to take one of those headlines from The New Yorker, which was published yesterday. And again, it talks about how time is running out at the UN climate conference. But it doesn't focus as much on what has already gone on over the past week or so. But more on what has gone on or hasn't gone on over the last 30 years. And the author of this who wrote a book I believe, called the sixth extinction, which focuses on basically man's impact on the world and how we are driving ourselves towards another extinction. You can understand and appreciate that there is certainly some bias in this article. There's a bias in lots of the articles. And essentially, it's pointing out that over the last 30 years, there have been commitments, particularly on America, this is focused on America. And in fact, the word that's used a couple times, including in the sub header is the fecklessness of America, our feckless approach to commitments, and while again, not going to opine on how much merit there is to what this author put into place here and what the author has communicated both in her books and in this article, it is a good opportunity to ask yourself whether your stakeholders are looking at you as a feckless leader, as a feckless manager of time. Are people looking at you and saying, Yeah, you had some some pros and cons, you've made some some good progress. You've maybe won several games if we go ahead and start layering in the football analogies which we will do this morning. But is there something missing? Is your clock management leaving something to be desired? And most importantly, is your clock management on an unsustainable path when it comes to the long term success of your team for the full season for future seasons? Are you growing and developing your team so that you continue to win games for the next several years? And a lot of that comes down to time management, not just the limited time that you have and growing and developing your players? You know, there's only so many practices, there's only so much time that you can put in place, and how well and how efficiently are you using that time, and we're getting, we're not going to go into the weeds on that. There's no shortage of things out there to help you manage your time you can go and you know, if you're familiar with Stephen Covey's famous book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, there is a big focus on time and crafting your ideal week. And there's lots of good things and approaches you can use. But today, as we always do, we're going to try to just come up with a couple of quick questions that you can use throughout your day or throughout the week, and be on guard for those times where you're not maximizing your time. You're not optimizing your time. But I don't want you to do it in a stressful way. I don't want you to have that that countdown clock in your mind saying every minute and every second is precious. Again, there's enough of those you can go ahead and Google the climate clock, right that's constantly counting down or counting up. I think there's some formula about money in there. And you know, at the moment, we're at, you know, seven plus years until you know, it's we're at a time regarding the climate, sometimes it's six plus years and and again, you can look at those things you can stress yourself out, but don't Instead, ask yourself these three questions that we're going to go over as We always do that will help you grow, protect and sustain success for yourself and for your team. And that first question today is, what precious opportunities for growth and development are you leaving on the field at the end of the game?
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And of course, good analogy for this is not so much in pro sports, but certainly in high school and say college football at the end of the game, if the game is basically no longer in question, well, what do many coaches do, like they begin to bring in some of the younger talent, some of the inexperienced talent to to get them some reps to get them some plays, to, to be out there on the field, even if the game is pretty much decided to get some experience. And again, this is a pretty standard practice. Some coaches maybe are quicker to do this than others. But at the end of the day, they're taking advantage of the fact that yeah, there's foregone conclusion here, the game is settled, we don't need to worry about, you know, piling more points on what's more important at this point is taking this opportunity to grow and develop people. So again, it's good opportunity for you to ask yourself, what opportunities do you have? What, you know, what, couple minutes in your day or your week do you have for your team to, you know, introduce them to something that they might not see on every occasion. And again, this can play out in many different ways, are there opportunities to bring people into a meeting or conversation that they would normally not be in, just so they can have exposure, and so they can see what goes on. And again, maybe that helps them develop and be ready to jump into action when needed. Or maybe it helps you because they're, they're seeing things differently, they're experiencing things differently. And they can help ask you questions, to be a better leader, to be a better coach, to be a better manager, whatever the case might be. So look for those opportunities throughout the day, some of them might not be glaring and might not be a 30 point lead with two minutes on the clock. So ask yourself, what are those opportunities to bring people in to expose them? And, again, how might those opportunities to grow and develop people help you help your team move forward? The next question today is how often do you prematurely employ a prevent defense for yourself, or your organization. And again, when does a prevent defense come into play? Well, typically, the game is not completely settled, you have what you might deem to be a comfortable lead, if you happen to be the coach, and you decide for your defense to hang back a little bit to avoid giving up the big play, so that the other team can't score quickly, they're more likely to score because in prevent defense, they're gonna be able to move the ball down the field, but you're basically saying, Look, you know, time is ticking down, there's probably not enough time, as long as again, we don't give up any big plays for them to score quickly enough to close that gap. So again, you go into this prevent defense mindset. And we're really on offense, you may not be as aggressive as you were during the game, you might be just trying to run down the clock, you're not calling plays that are going to pick up big yardage or that might get you some first downs or move you down the field, you're content, just running the ball, letting the clock run down. And even if you have to turn over the ball and give it back to the other team, again, they're going to have less time to execute. But again, if you've watched sports, you know that this approach can backfire some times. And it's a risk. It's a calculated risk that the coach is taking to say, look, it's more important for us to manage time to basically run out the clock, and we have a comfortable enough lead that we can do that. But sometimes it doesn't work. So the question for you is, how often are you prematurely running out the clock? And more importantly, do you have stakeholders who see you running out the clock, and who are making up their own story regarding why you might be doing that. And obviously, this comes up quite often when we're dealing with some age related concerns, which are very real, right? People who've been in position for decades at a certain company, who are closer to retirement who are afraid to take risks for very real reasons, they might be comfortable. And, again, they might be consciously doing so they might be consciously avoiding risks. But again, is this at the detriment of other people going back to the first question today? Are they missing opportunities to help other people grow and develop or help the company grow and develop because of their own selfish desires. And where this is really important is when they're not making a conscious decision when they're unconsciously acting in a cautious manner? And when their stakeholders are seeing them do so? Or at least thinking that they're doing so? What is the trickle down impact of that on everybody?
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Whether it's current employees, investors, board members, whatever the case might be, you need to ask yourself, are you doing that? And again, you don't need to be two years out from retirement to be accused of doing this. This can be happening to anybody at any point who's starts to feel some contentment, some, some relaxation, if you will. And it's funny to say relaxation when you're in a pretty bad defense and you're trying to, to hold on for dear life. But the reality is, it happens and it's most dangerous when it happens unconsciously. So, again, take this opportunity, whether in your professional life or your personal life, to think about those times where you might be prematurely enacting a previous and defense, where people are looking at you and saying, why is, you know, why is he or she not taking the risks that you know they used to take. And if that's the case, then ask yourself how you might communicate what you're doing. Because if you're not in a prevent defense, but you're seeing as being a prevent defense, the damage can still be real for your stakeholders, the amount of damage to morale and confidence in you can be real. So if you're not aware of it, it doesn't matter. It's happening no matter what. So again, take the time today to ask yourself, how often are you prematurely entering into a prevent defense and or having other people look at you as if you're in a prevent defense long before the game has been decided? And the final question is, how quickly can you hop back into action when your head sets off, and you're soaked in Gatorade, another words, if you know, the, the game seems to be over, there's a minute or two left again, you have a comfortable lead. And something happens, you know that 1% chance if you again, if you follow sports, sometimes online, they'll they'll give you the percentage chance of a team winning. And there have been times where a team has a 99% lock to win a game and something happens. That's the beauty of sports, right? So what if you're already at the point where again, if you're looking at a football sideline, the coach already has this headset off, he's already been doused in Gatorade, the team feels they've won the game, there's again only a minute or two left, they've got a comfortable lead. And then something weird happens. There's a fumble when there shouldn't have been because they're basically just trying to take a need to end the game. Or the other team again recovers. You know, two onside kicks in a row, something crazy like that. It happens. So the question for you is, if something like that were to happen, how quickly can you hop back into action? What is your mindset? Are you always ready to hop back into action? Or again, you you're there on the sidelines, shivering here, as we head into November? Are you are you they're just not able to respond and jump back because that's what you need a leader, right? You need adaptability. And that's sustainability in many ways, right? It's the ability to change course quickly, it's the ability to make quick decisions, it's having that support around you so that when things happen that don't go according to plan, again, you can adjust, you can put back on that leadership hat or that headset and start making those decisions, that sustainability. That's the important thing that you're getting paid to do as a coach, as a leader, as a manager, whatever the case might be. So ask yourself, how quickly can you hop into action, if the things that are going along and that seem on track for success? You have a quarter they're your business, and you know, things are going well, and revenue looks good, and everything's on track until it's not? How quickly can you adapt? How quickly can you adapt your communication? How quickly can you rally the troops and again, put your starters back on the field to, to, you know, stem the shift in momentum, if you will, those are the questions you need to ask yourself. And if you don't have things in place, so that you can hop back into action, so that you can't, again, consciously step back so that you can't take a vacation, whatever the case might be, then ask yourself, why not and what it would take to put yourself in a position. So again, all that being said, I, and with apologies to all of the apocalyptic journalists out there covering cop 26, covering climate change, for perhaps diminishing the impact by just bringing in some American football analogies here today. I again, sincerely apologize for for diminishing some of those headlines. But I do hope that if you listen to this message, and if you ask yourself these questions, I do hope that they help you. Ensure that your fan base your stakeholders, your employees, your investors, your board members, whatever the case might be, that they again, continue to look at you as a coach who is dynamic, who can adapt, who is looking to the future who can develop people, and who knows when to put you know, your your foot on the gas, if you will, and throw on some extra points so that you have maybe a more comfortable lead, or who knows when to take a calculated risk to put in some of the, you know, second, third, fourth string players, maybe a little bit on the earlier side, because you're confident that that is an investment that's necessary. Ask yourself how to do these things throughout the day. And you will, again, have a stronger, more confident fan base, who knows that you're thinking through these things and you're not just coasting along, you're not just watching the clock tick down and you're not just resting on your laurels from what may have been years of success, leading teams, leading yourself leading companies, whatever the case might be. And with all that being said, as always, I
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appreciate you watching listening or perhaps reading the transcript afterwards. I encourage your your feedback and your comments as always, and nothing else. I hope you have an excellent week. And thank you again