Leading from Home Part III: Practices

Colleagues,
This is the third article in our series on healthily leading from home. You can find the previous articles at my blog.
 
Today we will look at some healthy practices to enact while leading from home:

• Accepting limitations
• Being fully present
• Strengthening connections

 
All three of these practices help you to become both a better leader and a healthier one.
 
Accepting limitations means accepting that we can’t do everything. There are too many tasks, needs, and people that need attention. This is at once terrifying, because it implies failure, and liberating as it gives us permission to choose. Understanding that everything won’t get done means that you choose what gets done today and what doesn’t. Accepting limitations also makes it easier to shut down at the end of the day.
 
Acceptance makes it easier to focus on priority tasks, to let go of our aspirations to be perfect, and encourages us to delegate. In the video, I’ll discuss five ways to deal with things that aren’t your priority items.
 
Being fully present is the single most powerful thing you can do to both improve your leadership and enhance your state of mind. Being fully present means that you are physically, mentally, and emotionally present to the person or task in front of you.
 
Steps to being fully present:

• Create a clean break. When you need to be present for something or someone, get to a logical stopping point on the previous task.
• Eliminate distractions. For someone who is physically present, turn your chair away from your monitor or even walk away from your desk (and all the potential distractions). Put your phone down, turn paper copies of your work upside down, put your computer to sleep, etc…
• Engage fully with the person. Listen, ask questions. Ask the second question – the one that gets below the surface. Attend to what brought the person to you and what they need. Do they need you to solve a problem, or to just listen?

 
Being fully present helps you:

• Help people feel valued.
• Uncover problems early by listening more carefully.
• Make wiser decisions because you’ll have better information.
• Relax by being less distracted.

 
Strengthening connections is imperative in a time of physical separation and isolation. Try these:

• Be vulnerable and ask for help. Right now so many of us are still trying to figure out these constantly changing times, so we are all vulnerable!
• Allow time for really seeing how people are doing at the front end of those video meetings. This goes beyond “how is everyone” to asking specific questions about what is challenging people. Many of us have loved ones who are particularly at risk. Feeling alone with those concerns takes a toll.
• Engage with a community beyond your own organization. Learn from others and provide support. Expanding your community not only provides you with more support, but it also grants more access to ideas and breaks down isolation.

 
Best practices:

• Be intentional about what, or on whom you focus.
• Prioritize relationships.
• Support others by being fully present.

  
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick

• Remember that you can view a video that expands on this content at my YouTube channel here. If you subscribe to the channel you will automatically get alerts for each new video.
• You can register for the April 2, 2:00 meeting here.
• As always, you can email me at [email protected]​