The 1st Focus of Time Management comes from the urgency to simply get things done.  You identify tasks then create “checklists.”

The 2nd Focus of Time Management comes from the urgency to make sure there is time for everything.  You schedule activities in a calendar.

The 3rd Focus of Time Management comes from the urgency to make sure that Important things get done first.  You assign priorities to activities that are consistent with your goals and values .

The 4th Focus of Time Management comes from the urgency to build capacity for the long term.  You work on improving practices and processes to get more done with less effort.

The 5th Focus of Time Management comes from the urgency to build people so that they can build capacity.  You leverage relationships so that people help you get things done in a win-win manner.

From my perspective, these focuses are developmental:  you must become skilled at each level before being able to have skill at the next level.

If you find yourself overwhelmed with what lies before you, it is helpfulto drop back a level or two and get a grasp on accomplishing your priorities.

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. – Calvin Coolidge, 30th U.S. President, 1923-1929

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed. – Michael Jordan, Basketball Player

Drive thy business; let it not drive thee. – Benjamin Franklin

For me, walking the tightrope is living; all else is waiting.  – The Great Wallenda (tightrope artist)

- Joseph Raelin, Boston College School of Management

The ethical integrity of an organization will be determined by its least ethical leaders.  This falls under the leaking boat principle:  the soundness of a boat is based on how much it leaks; 99% of the hull may be perfectly sound, but that 1% that leaks can sink the entire vessel.

When internal stakeholders view the organization as unethical, the foundations for integrity become tenuous, but those internal problems may be self-corrected.  When external stakeholders view the organization as unethical, the entire survival of the organization becomes questionable, as it may not survive the loss of trust that is essential for positive working relations.

Concerning all acts of initiative and creation there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. That the moment one commits oneself, then providence moves too, all sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise never have occurred.

A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.

W N Murray, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition – 1951.

So you’ve got to leave room for the “gray box,” the part of your mind that can unconsciously process all this information and sometimes gently, sometimes loudly, proclaim the right course of action.

I am not discounting the value of thoughtful consideration. In fact, if anything, perhaps more value should be placed upon really getting in and doing an effective job in systems thinking, teasing out the chain of causality and probability to make a “reasoned decision.”

No doubt, the more experience one has, the more enlightened the Grey box is likely to be. That is why older people often have more wisdom. Yet wisdom is not solely the priviledge of our elders. Many times, the flexible, dynamic intelligence of youth, able to quickly intuit connections and place variable-weighted value on the relevant data, can see trends and possibilities that the elder mind might reject.

It is the work of the young to try to see beyond the near-term niftiness of a decision to second- and third-order effects (using the Grey Box), as it is the work of elders to use their Grey box to include more tenuous-yet-relevant data-points to grasp expansive potentialities.

In the end, this is not a recommendation to make “gut decisions.”  Rather, it is a suggestion that once the analysis is undertaken, more work must be done.  You must go to the grey box and allow its immense powers to work.  This may require quiet time and “emptying the mind” meditation, a complete disconnect from the topic (say, by engaging in an activity that completely captures the attention, like snowboarding, tennis, or a bike ride), or, if you have developed the ability, listening to your body when you entertain the possible decisions.

The quality of your performance depends on letting the power of your mind not be hindered by the size of your data set, nor your “future model.”

*NOTE:  In reverse-engineering electronics, when engineers could not discern the real operational activity of a function, they would label the unknown operation a “black box.”  This phrase would serve just as well for us; however, the phrase has been co-opted by the airline industry, since the flight data recorders have been eponymously termed “black boxes.”  Data recorders record all relevant data points, but they are backward-looking at what has happened.  The capability that I refer to is much broader and is able to export past experiences and data into envisioning future possibilities and probabilities.  Thus we call this integrative function a “grey box.”  This conveys the “grey matter” qualities of the brain, while also conveying that there is a place in Mind that is able to blend past, present, and future with immense (and somehow mysterious) power.

Character can be shown through “smart and savvy action.”  This might be a more appealing description, in that it focuses on behavior rather than something deeper in the core of the individual.

But I like the implications of the word “character.”   It connotes something our grandparents would have referred to while taking the measure of a person.  I like the way the term character puts the focus not just on what a person can do, but on the manner in which they do it, and their internal motivations to take such actions.  In other words, the way they accomplish something says a great deal about who they are as people.

Character can be deduced by the “intangibles” of a person, by aggregating how they handle themselves.

The reason that professionals must use and demonstrate these intangibles is that much of their work occurs in collaboration with others.  (We could call that collaboration “teamwork,” though it could also consist of any relationship that requires give-and-take, including boss-employee, seller-buyer, regulator-regulated, etc.)

The Seven Key Character Traits of Professionals

1.       Integrity:  Professionals do what they say they will do.  They do not lie, they do not spin, and they act with high standards of ethics and legal adherence.  They earn and maintain the trust of others, for they know that once someone’s trust is lost, it is very, very, very hard to reclaim it.

2.       Respect:  Professionals respect others’ differences, even while they may not agree with or believe in the value of those differences.  But they know they will not win friends or collaborators if they show disrespect, nor will they align with others in a way that might provide opportunities to persuade or influence.  Professionals show humility by respecting others, and thus set themselves up to learn and grow.

3.       Poise:  Professionals maintain poise when things get tough.  They do not lose their cool over things that are frustrating or disappointing, even while they show passion.  This way, they earn admiration and credibility, while avoiding turning off those who are turned away by their intemperate actions.

4.       Initiative:  Professionals are pro-active agents of change, not victims of circumstance.  They take initiative to get things done.  If they do not like how things are going now, then they get things in gear to change them.  This may require forming a strategy to gain buy-in or seeking the blessings of authority.  In the end, they simply do not let things that must be attended to lie down.

5.       Discipline:  Professionals demonstrate discipline in their behavior.  They maintain pace on projects through careful allocation of their valuable time, energy and resources.

6.       Courage:  Professionals have the courage to address issues of conflict and concern.  They do not let their fears keep them from advancing the agenda.

7.       Compassion:  Professionals show compassion for others and themselves.  No human is perfect; everyone makes mistakes.  If we cannot understand the situation from another person’s cognitive and emotional position, then we are either psychopaths or robots.  Further, our compassion causes us to reach out and seek to help those who need and hand, and to forgive them when they make mistakes.  All that said, having compassion does not make the professional a doormat.  Indeed, showing “tough love” and holding people accountable or terminating them if they are falling down on the job becomes easier with compassion.

Armed with these “intangibles,” people of varying skill can collaborate and effectively work in a workgroup or team environment when there are shared goals and mutual accountabilities requiring the sharing of information, resources, or work processes.

In a recent employment law case reported by the NYT and others, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that an employer illegally fired an employee for disparaging comments that she made about her supervisor.  The employer maintains that the employee had received numerous complaints about her behavior.  They also held her accountable for her public posting to FaceBook of negative comments about her supervisor.

The NLRB said that the company policy of avoiding disparaging comments about co-workers was too broad, and that the employee’s right to free speech was violated.

The employee stated that the supervisor was a psychiatric case; this comment drew several supportive responses [from co-workers?].

COMMENTS:  On the one hand we have an employer’s attempt to protect itself by establishing a company policy that mandates employees avoiding commenting in a disparaging manner toward other employes.  I imagine that the company put this policy into place to avoid having to defend itself from accusations that the company permitted an environment that was not politically correct.

On the other hand, we have an employee who has a right to free speech.  Regardless of the lack of common-sense shown by the employee in publishing these comments on FaceBook where it could get replicated innumerable times via the Internet, employees should have the right (within bounds) to express their opinion about working conditions, their company and the competence of their supervisor.  How and to whom those opinions are expressed have moral, ethical, policy and legal implications, but the right to express them cannot be infringed.

An NRLB appeals board will decide whether the expression of those opinions in a quasi-public forum like FaceBook is permissible, or if it is something that can be circumscribed by company policy.

Irrespective of any given company policy, people can and will express opinions about leaders in online forums.  Managers and leaders should understand that employees, associates, peers, customers, and vendors can (and likely will) breach the wall of presumed private comments and actions.   If those comments are positive, then no harm and all the better.  But if those opinions are disparaging (whether true or not), then this affects the leader’s reputation, credibility, and overall effectiveness in their role as an leader.

Bottom-line:   The leader’s operating presumption should be that nothing a leader does or says is private;  all actions will be considered “fair” for public comment by someone, including the fitness of the leader for their role.  While this may have a chilling effect on leadership, it is recommended to regulate behavior accordingly.  The mnemonic must be that “Everything you do is being watched by someone, and could become public at any time.”

Purpose leads to Setting Priorities. When you know what your Purpose is, you can establish your Priorities.

Priorities lead to Making Plans. Priorities make you use judgment to choose some actions and activities over another.  Sometimes making these judgments is difficult, as they create dilemmas when either choice seems correct.  Hey, nobody said this would be easy!  Once you have your Priorities in order, you can make plans to achieve them.

Plans lead to Practices. Plans must have components of a sequence of activities attached to goals.  Plans and the activities that they include are supported by Practices—habits and disciplines—that force you into the mental, emotional, spiritual and logistical domains to do the things that achieve your priorities.

Practices lead to Engaging Performances. Habits born from discipline build momentum.  Momentum creates mojo.  Mojo makes you shine in your performances.

Peak Performance requires Periodic Resets.  Taking time-out allows you to re-set Purpose, Priorities, Plans, and Practices and to re-gain Poise, the state of living in grace.

All that said:

Personalize your own Path Forward. Your path to success will be unique as you are.  That said, “steal with pride” from others who have become more successful than you—in any domain.

Punch through the Membrane.  Want something different?  Then step forward, breathe, and punch through the invisible bubble of status quo that surrounds you.