QUESTION

I know the big picture of what needs to get done. Yet, I’m overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information coming my way. The email, meetings, ad hoc requests, random problems on the team—add travel to the mix—and it makes focusing on a single thing very hard.

ANSWER

It’s a cliché to say that today’s employees are deluged with data. We know that Sometimes we can get lost in the tactics and forget the strategy we are trying to execute. Developing daily practices are key to survival.

Adventure is just bad planning.
― Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer, led the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage by sea

Review your overarching strategy.
Review daily goals as they align to that strategy, reflect on where most of your energy will be needed and where you can have the most strategic impact.
Block schedule and use reminders
Tally incomplete tasks and carry balance to the next day.
Reflect on the day. What went well? What did you learn? How present and strategic were you? What impact did you have?
Repeat.

Most of us skip the first step. We attend the same kickoff as everyone else, but we are thinking about what needs to get done, not why we are doing it. Answering “what’s it all for?” at the start of the day is a good reminder and grounding activity that can help motivate and help us catch a view of the forest before we descend into the trees. Learning how to prioritize and delegate information for ourselves, first, helps us drive results more effectively with others

Reading through it, a daily checklist might sound tedious and uninspiring. Keeping notebooks, calendar blocking, setting reminders, and taking time at the start and end of the day are all very important habits to maintaining progress—but they aren’t the stuff of heroic stories. Nor do they give us the same bump of satisfaction that completing an ad-hoc request for a high-level manager or stepping in to save a drowning project.

Filtering the minutia of the day forces us to learn crucial skills of prioritization and delegation—skills required at every level of our advancement. Miscalculations can have unintended consequences as well as positive impact, regardless if we directly manage a team. If 100 requests or opportunities come to us, not all will align with our goals. There will be some percentage we will have to ignore or delegate to other stakeholders. We can only absorb so much.

Reaching greatness, however we define it for ourselves, requires focus on consistent and long-term personal performance. In the book Great by Choice, author Jim Collins set out to answer this question: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? He finds the answer in the story of two explorers, Amundsen and Scott, who led separate teams on an expedition race to the South Pole in 1911. The journey there and back was roughly 1,400 miles, which is equivalent to a round-trip from New York City to Chicago.

While both teams would be traveling the same distance as each other through extremely harsh weather conditions, each team took an entirely different approach to the journey. Scott’s team would walk as far as possible on the good weather days and then rest up on the bad days to conserve energy.

Conversely, Amundsen’s team adhered to a strict regimen of consistent progress by walking 20 miles every day no matter what the weather. While on good days Amundsen’s team was very capable of walking further, Amundsen was adamant that they walk no more than 20 miles each day to conserve their energy.

Which one succeeded? The team that took consistent action.

Instead of constantly changing course, making aggressive moves, and taking big risks, Amundsen came up with a plan, and carefully, methodically, and consistently stuck with that plan. His team moved ever towards their long-term goals instead of getting side-tracked by short-term temptations, fears, and changing circumstances—and arrived on time. They didn’t panic during stormy periods, nor did they expand too aggressively during good times. Scott’s team that only traveled on good days ended up dying on the journey.

When the stakes are high and the pressure is on, learning how to embrace a daily practice increases our chances of not only survival but effective performance.

MORE THOUGHTS…

I may say that this is the greatest factor: the way in which the expedition is equipped, the way in which every difficulty is foreseen, and precautions taken for meeting or avoiding it. Victory awaits him who has everything in order, luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time, this is called bad luck.
― Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer, led the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage by sea

In no department can a leader spend time more profitably than in the selection of the men who are to accomplish the work.
― Douglas Mawson, Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic

The time to prepare for your next expedition is when you have just returned from a successful trip.
―Robert Peary, American explorer and United States Navy officer

While on top of Everest…’it showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn't the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.
―Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist

REMEMBER

We make decisions more than anything else. Filtering information effectively forces us to learn crucial skills of prioritization and delegation—skills that enable or block our advancement. When the stakes are high and the pressure is on, learning how to embrace a daily practice increases our chances of not only survival but effective performance. Learning how to prioritize and delegate information for ourselves, first, helps us drive results more effectively with others.

PRACTICE

Commit to a daily practice. Determine what activities you will embrace to develop a more disciplined approach to managing your day. Pay attention to your level of task absorption in a given day and its emotional impact.

CONNECT

Talk to a friend or trusted colleague about the times when you've worked with a colleague, mentor or boss that had a gift for hearing people into speech or making the complex easier to understand. What qualities did they possess that helped them communicate and influence with impact?

REFLECT

If you keep a journal for your own development, write down what practices you use to manage yourself. How are they effective? Ineffective?

To perform well while under pressure, we need to train our minds to work more effectively. Making the right decisions, whether that is hashing out how artificial intelligence will evolve or ensuring naval ships are ready on time takes practice.

Driving Results With Others: A pocket guide for learning on the job enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.