Hi this is Kira Leskew of the Eagle Institute. Core values have been proven
to be key to high performance in business.
This video is part of a series showing you what ours are and how they can help
you as well being a mindful leader. Today we're talking about clarity so stay tuned.
How easy is it for you to make decisions?
If you find decisions easy then most likely you have a high degree of clarity
about your priority, and what's important to you as a leader. If not, might be time
to be more clear about your values and your biggest priority.
Here's an example from my last business
Amber Wood Doors. In our second year of business
a potential customer came to us with a really big set of plans that included
five sets of really large doors.
This job was a substantial size for the size that we were. The catch was that the
customer wanted us to build the overhead garage doors as well, which we had
already decided was not part of our business.
We actually had the knowledge the equipment and the capability to both
build and install the garage doors,
however it would have taken a large amount of resources away from our
regular business which was one-of-a-kind handmade front doors and French doors.
Taking on this job would slow us down in building our entry door market.
It took us about a five-minute discussion to say no to this customer
even if we lost all the entry door business.
The reason? We knew what this business could be at its best in the garage door
job even though enticing was a distraction from that best. If we didn't
have that clarity before we started,
and more importantly, before the opportunity came up, it wouldn't have
been that easy to say no with the ease and the confidence that we did.
Imagine all the time that we would have wasted if we hadn't had that clarity
about who we were and what we did.
Imagine if we'd taken on that job...
It could have really damaged our growth. Part of mindfulness and action is
developing that level of clarity as a leader.
What are the things you're saying
YES to - and in order to have a really clear YES,
it means you have to have a clear NO to some things. And if you're not clear,
saying NO can be very difficult. But when you know what your most important
objective is, both business and personally, then making these seeming
difficult decisions just become so much easier. If you took out a journal right now,
could you write down your priority, your number one priority, as a leader? As a
person?... In two minutes or less?
If not then most likely you're not clear about your most important objective.
If you want to improve your clarity
here are a few suggestions. First off, schedule some time to identify and rank
your priorities. Limit yourself to 3 and this might be hard if you have you're
used to having long to-do list but making decisions to reduce the size of
this list is actually the objective. Put them in order 1 2 3. Next time you have a
decision to make
look at this list and see if you can have a clear answer right away.
Was that easy,
or was it difficult? Did it make you feel
I don't want to do this? Let us know. Leave us some comments we'd love to know
what you think or any questions that you have about applying clarity to being a
mindful leader.
We have lots more resources for being a mindful leader at our website.
And I invite you to check us out.
The link is in the cards for this video, in the notes below, and on the bloopers
at the end of of this video.