Leadership Development Program Continues

During the August LDP session, we transitioned along our development arc from “leading ourselves” to “leading teams.”

We kicked things off with a presentation from LDP alumni Dave Morrison on the Power of Habit. Dave was intrigued by Charles Duhigg’s book of the same name with the subtitle “Why We Do What We Do in Life and in Business.” He discussed the Habit Loop (Cue, Routine, Reward) and shared some interesting examples from the book including how marketers got us to regularly brush our teeth.

Next, Leigh discussed David Allen’s book titled “Getting Things Done, the Art of Stress-Free Productivity.” He defined stuff (“anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn’t belong where it is, but for which you haven’t yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step”) and what we need to do about it.

Leigh went on to present Allen’s model for getting control of your life, a best practice that includes:

• collection
• process
• organize
• review
• do

This included some provocative steps such as the two-minute rule (if something takes less than two minutes, just do it) and getting your inbox to zero.

Afterward, Steve presented Mike Scott’s model for Accountability, which is “doing what you said you would do, as you said you would do it, and when you said you would do it–period.” He presented some tools such as the reference card for creating a totally accountable culture, an agenda with action items, and the information transfer form (ITF).

We discussed the concept of no surprises and three important questions (What’s the next step to get that done? When are you going to do that? Can I count on you for that?). We did some role-play using accountable responses.

Finally, we discussed how we can encourage more accountability at Markon within our teams. We finished out the day with a great peer counseling session. Next month, we’ll hear from Jen Van Meter from the Clearing.