I'm the author of The Accidental Creative, Herding Tigers, Die Empty, Daily Creative, The Brave Habit. Subscribe to Brave Focused Brilliant for three quick tips every week.
BFB: Maker's schedule vs. manager's schedule
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A request: we'd love to share some books that newsletter readers are currently enjoying. If you'd like to be a part of it, just reply with (a) the book and author, and (b) why you liked it. We'll be sharing over the coming weeks. We love to think that career success is about big efforts and visible projects. However, it's usually the result of steady, persistent progress. This week, three tips for the everyday march. One to help you be brave. One to help you focus. One to help you be brilliant. Brave: Plant TreesI recently had the privilege of doing a series of workshops with leaders from the US Navy, and I ended my sessions with a Greek proverb: A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they will never sit. So first things first: men and women. But the bigger point is this: it takes bravery to plant a seed and trust that natural processes are going to make it grow. That's what good leadership is like. You plant seeds in the people you lead through being a person of integrity, trustworthiness, and challenge. By refusing to let them settle for less than they're capable of. By investing resources and putting your own self on the line for decisions you make. Doing so plants seeds that will grow up into trees, and decades from now people will be influenced by your leadership even if they don't know who you are. That takes bravery. What seeds can you plant this week? Focused: Maker's Schedule, Manager's ScheduleIn last week's newsletter I referenced an essay by Paul Graham, so I thought I'd include one of my all-time favorites in this week's edition. It's about the differences between the way that managers see time and how makers do. When you're operating on the maker's schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in. Plus you have to remember to go to the meeting. That's no problem for someone on the manager's schedule. There's always something coming on the next hour; the only question is what. But when someone on the maker's schedule has a meeting, they have to think about it. For someone on the maker's schedule, having a meeting is like throwing an exception. It doesn't merely cause you to switch from one task to another; it changes the mode in which you work. This essay described so many of the issues that I see playing out in organizations I work with. The managers and the makers have completely different priorities for their time, and neither is good at communicating why the system isn't working for them. Have you ever experienced the tension between a maker's and a manager's schedule? Brilliant: Your 500 WordsI've made no secret about the fact that I write 500 words a day. I don't love to write, but I know that unless I make steady, persistent progress toward my goal I will eventually lose my drive. Thats the single reason why I've been able to write and publish seven books in twelve years. Maybe writing isn't your craft, but whatever it is, what's your equivalent of "500 words"? What is your steady, everyday march that keeps you moving toward your goal even when you don't feel like it? Brilliance doesn't happen on-demand. It arises in the midst of your consistent, focused work. What is your "500 words"? This Week:
And, finally:If you enjoyed this newsletter, my new book The Brave Habit is a practical guide to making brave decisions every day in your work. I hope you’ll read it. (You can download a few sample chapters here.) Your turn to lead:Do you know someone who might find this email helpful? Please forward it to them. |
Todd Henry
I'm the author of The Accidental Creative, Herding Tigers, Die Empty, Daily Creative, The Brave Habit. Subscribe to Brave Focused Brilliant for three quick tips every week.
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