Why you should not type your notes.

Colleagues,

Last week I had a coaching session with a wonderful new principal. The discussion was rich and she took a lot of notes. We were f-t-f (yay!) so I did not type things up on my computer.
 
As we were wrapping up, I asked her to take pictures of her notes and send them to me. She said yes, but then looked at her notes and said that she would probably type them up first so they would be easier for me to read.
 
I proceeded to beg her not to type her notes. This was a perfect situation for an MVP – a minimally viable product. The MVP approach benefited both of us:

• She didn’t have to spend precious time typing
• I got a copy of the notes without having to wait or follow up

 
Strategic leaders let go of perfection in favor of progress.
 
Handwritten notes are worth more now than typed notes later.
 
A terse email response now is more valuable than a literary masterpiece next week.
 
Strategic leaders do the minimum (MVP) whenever possible so they can spend more time developing people.
 
Today’s challenge: Find three things to MVP and invest the saved time into 5-minute coaching conversations. Let me know what happens, you can email me here.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick