Do what is important

by Andrew Bryant
Director of Self Leadership International

I started writing this monthly newsletter in November 2003 and have never missed an issue, until last month! So if you missed June's edtion then here is my excuse; in June I presented 20 days of training, wrote a new training program, conducted one to one coaching sessions and more importantly had a baby! Well to be more accurate my wife, Zurina gave birth to Nathan our second child on June 24th.

Nathan came early and upended our planning, but reminded me of the important things in life and that is what I wanted to share with you in this month's edition - do what is important.

As I work as an executive coach and leadership trainer I am constantly asking people the queston "what is important about this?" This is a very powerful question because it causes the listener to access their value system. Our values are what we decide is important and they unconsciously guide our behaviours.

If you know what someone values you can predict their behaviours in certain situations such as conflict, negotiation or sales.

Organisations have values because they want their employees to know what behaviours to engage in especially when new or different circumstances arise.

Values drive our use of time, we do the important and urgent things first and if we are smart we then spend time on the important not urgent things second. If we are not smart we end up spending time on things that are not important and not urgent or just urgent to other people and not important to us.

This brings me to the point - our leadership or self-leadership is judged by our ability to hold true to our values, even in times of stress. This is one definition of integrity or doing the right thing even when nobody is looking.

My new born son reminded me of how much I value family and how much I value what I do because it makes a diffence in peoples lives, he also reminded me to value myself because I want to be around to see him become a father and so I have approached my exercise regime with new found vigor.

So next time you need to make a decision, whether it is to catch 5 minutes extra sleep or to prepare yourself to go into an important meeting, ask yourself "what's important about this?"

If you are communicating with your colleagues of your team, remember to connect them with "what's important about this" because we feel valuable when we do something of value. Even the most mundane of tasks can be valuable to the organisation, what chaos would ensure if nobody did the cleaning or the filing?

So this month I have again found time to write this newsletter because it is important to reconnect with our clients and to stay in touch with those who are considering choosing us for your leadership, coaching or sales training requirements. So if it is important to develop your people give us a call... meanwhile I am off to change a diaper!

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