Boundaries

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I had a interesting conversation with Becky Robinson from, Weaving influence the other day about boundaries in our lives. The conversation mainly revolved around the need to establish boundaries that allowed you time for work and for your family. Let's look at the dynamics involved here.

I have struggled with this balancing act between my ambition, drive and work ethic at work, then also making time for my family. Most of the people I have spoken to about this agree that there isn't enough time in the day most of the time. So, how do we set boundaries that enable us to truly accomplish our goals at work and with our family?

"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities"~ Stephen Covey

• Plan: Writing out what we have to accomplish in any given day can greatly enhance our ability to manage our time properly. Write out what needs to be accomplished each weekend for the following week. Use a planner, or whatever program you like and "schedule" the different tasks that your aware of. Also, set aside blocks of time for things that will come up that your not aware of right then. That way you have some flexibility in the plan.

• Priorities: After you write out what needs to be done, prioritize this list into the things that have to be accomplished by you and the things that can be delegated. Don't be a control freak, allow others to assist you in the accomplishment of your tasks. If there's something that someone else can do, let them do it.

• Time: We make time for the people and things that are important to us. In your plan, ensure that you make that time. Our families know this and when you take the time to spend with them, this show's credible evidence that they are important to you. So, ensure you put some family time into your plan.. 

• Self-discipline: Commit yourself to one task at a time, don't move from it until it's complete. Don't let your cell phone, email, or other social media outlet distract you from the current task. When you bounce around from task to task, you will find frustration and half completed tasks. No progress or completion.

•  Say, "NO": This is probably the hardest one to do for most of us, Remember, It's OK to sometimes say, "No" to people or tasks. There are a lot of people and tasks that will dominate your time and resources. Don't let them, politely say, "No"

I hope this causes you some reflection and helps you in identifying where you could define your boundaries at work and in life.

What ways do you establish boundaries in life and at work? I'm interested and listening, please share.

Lessons in Losing

Dave Martin / AP

There's a lot of celebrating fans in Green Bay today. The other side, Pittsburgh, not so much. It's tauted as the, "World championship" What can we learn from the losing team of Super Bowl XLV about leadership? Yes, I said, the losing team.

First things first, I'm not a big NFL fan. I watch it from time to time, but I'm not a die hard fan. I watched the Super bowl, because it's the last NFL game of the year and appeared it would be a good game, which it did not disappoint.

As the final ticks of the clock evaporated from the play clock there was elation on the Green Bay Packers sideline, while there was disappointment and defeat on Pittsburgh Steelers side.

As the two teams went in different emotional directions the first thing I noticed after Pittsburgh's coach, Mike Tomlin had shook hands with the Green Bay coaches was that while he was leaving the field, he had his arm around one of his players and was talking to him. Now, I've seen a lot of coaches in this situation just alienate themselves from their players and walk off the field alone. Much different then when they win, hugging, jumping into others arms, cheering one another. Coach Tomlin showed me a lot about his character and his leadership in this moment. He did what good leaders do in defeat, he immediately started to lift up his people.

Flash forward to the press conference. On one side you have Green Bay answering all the easy questions about victory, on the other, the Pittsburgh players and coaches answering all of the, "What if?" questions. Again, Coach Tomlin impressed me when he stated, " You may make excuses, not me, I will not make excuses, Green Bay played a heck of a game and made the plays they needed to win the championship"

Our human nature is to look to anything that we can credit with our demise in a losing situation, it had to be because _____ ( enter excuse) Coach Tomlin didn't do that, he did what good leadership does, he accepted his loss. He didn't deflect it to the QB Ben Roethlisberger two interceptions or to injuries to 3 starters. He took responsibility for the loss and then gave credit where credit was due.

I found an interesting quote by Coach Tomlin, when asked about the importance of winning the super bowl, "It's down the list, to be quite honest with you," Tomlin told Baptist Press. "I'm a husband. I'm a father of three. I'm blessed enough to be the head coach of this group of men, countless other things. I'm a brother. I'm a son. It's down the list."


Wow, a head coach in the NFL saying that winning the Super Bowl is down on the list of priorities? Maybe that's why he is the youngest head coach to ever win a Super Bowl? He understands priorities.


Coach Tomlin later then stated,  "Football is what we do; it's not who we are. It is our job, it is our business. We all are very passionate about it, we all want to do very well at it, but [faith] keeps it in perspective."


This begs the question, Leaders, what are your priorities? Does your job or position define who you are? 


What did we learn from losing?

• Accept Responsibility
• Don't make excuses
• Immediately start to lift your people up
• Importance of understanding priorities
• Understand your job is what you do, it doesn't define you

You have any thoughts on losing or this article? I'm interested and listening, please share.