Image courtesy of GeorgeBK

As a leader, do you think your role requires you to serve others or for others to serve you? This question serves as the basis for a guest post I co-wrote with S. Max Brown for the leadership blog series “Wake Up and Shake It Up” being run by Shawn Murphy over at Achieved Strategies.

The month-long series focuses on sharing insights and inspiration to encourage leaders to work with their employees in creating a more engaging, empowering, and consequently more productive workplace. The series features a number of authors and experts in leadership and personal development, including Lolly Daskal, David Burkus, Monica Diaz, and Mike Henry, Sr. to name just a few of the series’ contributors.

I would like to thank Shawn for inviting me to participate in his leadership blog series, which I’m told will also be offered as an e-Book for readers to download.  I invite you to check out this piece co-written by Max and myself, which looks at how leaders can inadvertently shift their focus to a self-serving one and what they can do to refocus the lens of their leadership back onto their team. And while you’re there, be sure check out what the other series’ contributors have to say about changing the way we approach leadership.

A few weeks ago, I had one of those stretch of days where Monday ended up blurring into Friday. This wasn’t because of something specific from that particular week, but more a result of an escalation in busyness that had started building up over the previous weeks. Naturally, this frantic pace was beginning to take its toll, and I knew that I should be making more time to relax and catch my breath to assess the situation. Ironically, in trying to manage this growing pile on my To-do list, the first thing I started cutting back on were those very things that I needed the most.

One night, after spending the last couple of days working at this accelerated pace, I was preparing my kids’ lunch for the next school day. While making their sandwiches, I realized that I had accidentally buttered both sides of the same slice of bread. It was a silly mistake, one that gave my wife a good laugh at my expense. And yet, it also ended up being the very thing I needed – a wake-up call to recognize that I’d been so busy simply reacting to what I was facing that I was neglecting the importance of reflecting on what tasks were the ones that most needed my attention in order for me to reach whatever goals I had for that week.

I realized that part of the problem is Click here to continue reading »”4 Questions To Help Your Team Keep Their Focus”