“You should be spending ninety percent of your time on this,” my boss said. That sounded crazy. There is no way I could spend that much time on this one project. Have you ever had your boss tell you to do something that you ignored as irrelevant? It is dangerous to ignore feedback from your boss. Instead, take action.

I have gotten out of some productive habits like writing and staying in touch. The best time to restart a habit is today, so I am taking action. Do you have habits you wish you had not lost? Or want to start a new habit? What actions will get you back into the routine you want?

Do you take time to assess your effectiveness? Do you assume your boss knows you are delivering on your priorities? Consider taking a step back and walking through a simple exercise reflecting on whether or not you are as effective as you assume.

Use a bullseye to narrow your priorities and force yourself to identify the most important initiatives on which you can spend your time. Are you spending your time where you can make the biggest impact?

It is easy to lead off a meeting by making a statement or conclusion in a way that stifles the discussion. If you are a more senior member of the group this effect is especially true. I work to remind myself to start a meeting by listening.

One of the most powerful insights that impacted my job performance as a junior executive was realizing my work had changed. I was promoted into roles that required me to rethink where I should spend my time. I had to challenge my concept of what was “work” and what was my value to the organization.

Do you ever wish you could make more time? Consider your inner dialog when you find yourself without time to complete something.

This year staying in touch is harder and more important than ever. You never know when you need your network to help with a job search. I work to stay in touch by thinking of my network in different categories. I want to avoid letting my relationships degrade.

In our current strange quarantine world more than ever you are measured by the results you deliver. We have fewer touchpoints as many of us work from home. Your work will speak for you when you cannot be seen in the office working hard every day.

As a manager, it is worth considering three ways to get things done. Before you just do the work, consider if it makes sense to tell someone else how to do it or to coach someone.

This quarter is a completely different world than how we started the year. You may have set goals and resolutions as the new year started. You may have said “this year I will do more…” or “be more…” something. How can we adjust these goals and stay on top of the changing landscape?

Effective executive communication requires being brief. Brevity saves time. It increases the likelihood your message will be received. It requires you to choose what is absolutely necessary. Use the power of one.

Many of us have taken care of the most important priorities ensuring folks are safe. We have taken steps to continue doing our work if we can as we had planned before we all got quarantined. Let us take stock to consider what changes will be long-lasting. And where we should place our bets.

You have dealt with a lot of change. Many of us have been sheltering in place for over three weeks. If you are like me, you are getting cabin fever. You have figured out some of the bumps in working remotely with your team. If you have not been thinking of the impact on your business in the long-term it is time to brace yourself for the longer term impact.

The concept of grace doesn’t always come easily to me. Giving grace is letting go. Forgiveness. Allowing for others to be not-perfect and not hold it against them. Now is a time to give as much grace as possible.

It’s been some time since I posted something new; and the longer it has been the harder it seems to get back into the groove. The perception of the task is that it gets bigger and bigger. So I’ve decided to try and get back in with small steps. This mindset also helps frame some of the overwhelming things going on right now. Small steps.

More is not always better. Consider whether “more" adds the value it should.

We tend to view our choice on what we do as we run late through our own lens. Take a moment and think about the other meeting attendees and what they perceive from your response to running late. It may be different than what you would in their position.

We face adversity almost every day. I had a boss who used to say our job was to deal with adversity. Progress was not the absence of adversity, instead it was dealing with different adversity over time. As leaders, we should not ever expect it would go away.

I work with all sorts of teams and people at all levels of seniority. I am a huge fan of providing feedback. I fall into a common trap of only finding fault or seeing what I want to be different next time. I need to be reminded of the power of positive feedback.