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Maintain Your Leadership Engine

Excerpt from Lead Conversations that Count: How Busy Managers Run Great Meetings
(Rowntree Press, 2021)

At one point in my career, I was the Director of Development at a renowned independent school in Toronto. I had three young children and was in the process of a divorce, and we had just launched a major capital campaign at work. There was a lot on my plate, yet I felt I was juggling everything fairly well.

One day while driving to work, I noticed the fuel light was on. “Ah, I can fill up the tank later,” I thought. But as I approached my office, my car started to sputter. I pressed the gas, but the engine wasn’t getting any more power. With a growing sense of anxiety, I recalled that the light had been on the day before – and the day before that too. In my zeal to juggle all the balls I had in the air, I had neglected the basics of filling up my gas tank. Thankfully, I managed to reach the parking lot, where my car coasted to a spot, and I could safely call for assistance. That day I realized the truth of the adage “you can’t run on fumes” – both literally and metaphorically.

As the Conversation Leader, you are the engine that drives the whole process of the meeting. Your energy and presence create the ecosystem for you and your group to do the work. If your tank is empty, you aren’t going anywhere, and neither are your participants.

Part of your meeting preparation is to ensure you are ready to show up fully for your group. What do you need to do to ensure you can show up at your meeting prepared and focused on what you need to accomplish?

Here are some tips to keep your engine running at peak effectiveness:

• Ensure your physical needs are met – be well-rested and well- nourished
• Be organized for your conversation – make sure you have what you need to be successful in terms of materials, location, briefing
• Ask for any assistance you need from others to be ready to “surf” in the meeting
• Check your blind spots by reflecting on any baggage from previous conversations, issues or people that may offer any level of doubt or discomfort. Noticing and naming issues in advance helps to give you some perspective about them, rather than letting yourself become reactive to them in the meeting.

Calibration is like making sure your windshield is clean. Even a smear or large dead bug blocks your view of what’s ahead or makes you have to work harder to see around that obstacle of vision. Cleaning dust, debris or snow from your car isn’t something you do once. It’s part of routine maintenance that enables you to see clearly and drive safely.

It takes personal preparation to be in the right state for leading effective conversations. Create a clear intention, notice any potential blocks or biases that may be clouding your awareness, and do what’s needed so you can be fully present.

Take Action

Take a moment to do a quick scan to see if there is anything in your physical, emotional, social or spiritual aspects of your life that feels like it is draining you. This might be the unopened mail piling up at the door, or a phone call to someone you’ve been procrastinating on. Create one small baby step you could do today to address that energetic drain. It may have nothing to do with your “to do” list. Sometimes cleaning out your sock drawer can give you just that bit of mojo you need to finish up the report that’s still sitting in your inbox!

Resources

Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Currency: 2020)

Debbie Ford, The Right Questions: Ten Essential Questions to Guide You to An Extraordinary Life (HarperOne: 2004)

Author Information: This is an excerpt from Lead Conversations that Count: How Busy Managers Run Great Meetings by Carolyn Ellis (Rowntree Press, 2021). For more information on the book, please visit www.LeadConversationsThatCount.com. This article may be shared provided the author information is included.