Entrepreneur, Professional Learner, & Proud Failure. Writes about sales, marketing, and entrepreneurship from the eyes of a learning and development nerd. Lead teams, manage people, scale a business, and learn better through the biweekly irreverent newsletter, the TL;DR.
A bi-weekly roundup of focusing one one thing January 5 - January 19 Fewer, Not LessYou're probably aware of the fact- but ignore it- that the executive functioning part of your brain (the part that "thinks") can only focus on one thing at one time. You have only one slot. One stick of RAM, one drill bit, one spell slot- One. Thing. Sure, you can replace the thing in the slot quickly, aka multitasking, but it's empirically a bad idea if you want to get something done well or effectively. (You're going to multitask anyways, so let's move on) When running a meeting, everyone sitting around the table or in the Zoom call also can only focus on one thing at a time. As a leader, it's on you to make it easy for people to focus on you and your message. Unfortunately, you have a lot going for you that makes it easy for YOU to focus on the content:
I've sat in lots of meetings where the presenter went too fast, did not provide enough context, and expected too much from meeting participants, and then was surprised that the team didn't understand it all. 🖐 I've been that person, too. With my lingering New Years Resolution Energy, I'm trying to be more aware of this cognitive limit. I'm trying to achieve fewer goals, simplify choices, summarize more, and reduce clutter. I'm saying No to plenty of good things so I can say Yes to a few great things. However, fewer doesn't mean doing less. There's a slight but huge difference between doing fewer things versus doing less. Back to the meeting example:
What are some more ways that you can embrace the power of Fewer, versus succumb to the malaise of Less? Join in the conversation on LinkedIn and share your own focus strategies or prioritization tips.
A TL;DR from the CROPlease don't take fewer walks because it's cold out, just make them a little less long. -Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer TL;DR from the Archive: The Presentation and Script For Proposing an OffsiteNow that the year has started, if your team isn't planning an offsite to start the year strong then now's the time to convince senior leaders to start a fresh year on a fresh foot. Download our presentation deck and use these talking points to convince your team to plan a corporate offsite.
ROCK TUMBLING UPDATE My rock tumbler barrel Rock Hudson has been rolling green mossy agates for over a month now. They're in for their final polish round when this newsletter is being posted out. I've been trying to be a wee bit more scientific in tracking what exactly I'm doing with each batch, so here's some super scientific descriptions of how they've looked over time:
Hopefully "Oh you're ready" for your final polish, Dan from Learn to Scale Opt-out from the newsletter | Unsubscribe from all emails | Update your Preferences | www.learntoscale.us, Boston, MA 02119 PS. There's nothing quite as crushing as having a friend be perfect at whistling for the first time |
CEO & Founder of Learn to Scale
Entrepreneur, Professional Learner, & Proud Failure. Writes about sales, marketing, and entrepreneurship from the eyes of a learning and development nerd. Lead teams, manage people, scale a business, and learn better through the biweekly irreverent newsletter, the TL;DR.
A bi-weekly roundup of feelings more common than you thought April 27 - May 10 Is This Why You Open Your Laptop with a Sigh? This week alone, four different people described the same feeling and each one thought they were the only ones who felt that way. FOUR! Each one led their business in some way and had responsibilities and long-term goals. I was able to identify the signs of what they were feeling because I too have the same feelings: It's the feeling that upon opening the laptop, or...
A bi-weekly roundup of the ways we downplay culture April 13 - April 26 Is Culture a Luxury? Scene: TechCrunch Early Stage conference. Hundreds of startup enthusiasts, investors, service providers, and students milling about a converted warehouse. Espresso bars scattered around serving handmade lavender lattes. Large standing tables on the main floor where nerds are furiously tapping away at email, ignoring the conference around them. In the parking lot, mostly men in sport jackets and...
A bi-weekly roundup of cultural building blocks March 30 - April 12 The Mundane Building Blocks of a Great Corporate Culture In the last TL;DR newsletter, I shared some very brief commentary and a link to an exhaustive new blog post around resetting team culture. Instead of being uncharacteristically brief this time, I wanted to unpack a big "why should you care" reason for crafting a leadership mandate. TL;DR You can't directly change a team culture. I had a client recently share the results...