Be the Duck!

Last week I was asked how I manage conflicting priorities, aggressive deadlines and daily firedrills and remain successful.

I have not mastered time management, but I have routines that allow planning and prioritization especially important when dealing with aggressive deadlines, conflicting priorities and daily fire drills.

After I stopped laughing, I realized her question was genuine and for a brief moment I felt quite the fraud.  But then I typed,"Be the duck."  There it is.  Quick.  Concise.  Visual.

For those of you who have not heard me talk about my mom, let me introduce you to a Sandyism.

For years, my mom would tell my brother, sister and I to "be the duck".  It became humorous as our friends would ask, "why be a duck?" or "whats up with your mom and the duck?"  At one point, she even cut out a cartoon and put it on our refrigerator.  Not quite like below, but same message.

I remember the day, at a local pond, when she pointed out the cool composure of the duck.  Just gliding across the water.  From the surface, duck is calm and collected.  But underneath the water, the duck's feet are paddling, working with the water to move in the intended direction.  She extended this to people and those that always appear to have their stuff together compared to those that appear to always be in a state of chaos. 

My siblings and I knew that when Mom said, "Be the duck" it meant to demonstrate composure and grace through steady control over emotion. 
Daily I am challenged with all the above and daily I remind myself to be "the duck". 

To help me "be the duck" I have implemented three simple productivity tools into my daily routines:   1) Years ago, I started using a Personal Kanban to organize my work.  Kanban is so simple to implement.  It allows me to prioritize my work and ensure my work in progress stays in balance.   I love that our Architecture Oversight team has embraced Kanban using Jira and has rolled it out for the Patterns Development work as well as our transformation work.  Check it out here.
2) Another technique I use is the Pomodoro Technique which is a simple way to focus exclusively on one task / project for a set amount of time (traditionally 25 minutes) and then take a break (traditionally 5 minutes) and then going back in for another 25 minutes.  I use this in the mornings and lunch for email.  Basically, I turn off distractions (IM, text, and other), set my cell phone timer for 25 minutes and open up email and hyper focus.  When the timer goes off, I stop, save what I was working on to draft and take a break.  After the break, I repeat.  It is amazing how many emails I can respond to without distractions and with a time limit. 

3) Finally, I am a firm believer in setting intentions with agendas for meetings.  When asked to attend a meeting, I will ask for the intention and the agenda.  This helps me ensure I am ready for the meeting or in some cases address the need without having a meeting.

Happy Thursday!

Blasted Question #2

Interesting admission, this week I was asked to answer five questions for The Architect Newsletter.

The questions came to me in email, so I decided to use the Pomodoro Technique to quickly answer and meet the deadline.

The Pomodoro Technique is a simple way to focus exclusively on one task / project for a set amount of time (traditionally 25 minutes) and then take a break (traditionally 5 minutes) and then going back in for another 25 minutes. I use it every mornings and lunch for email.

Basically, I turn off distractions (IM, text, and other), set my cell phone timer for 25 minutes and open up email and hyper focus. When the timer goes off, I stop, save what I was working on to draft and take a break. After the break, I repeat.

So, anyway, I decided to use the Pomodoro Technique to answer the questions which I successfully did sans one question. My first pass, I answered question one then skipped two and went on to answer three, four and five hoping to circle around to the question. But my 25 minute timer went off as I stared blankly on question number two. Break time.

Five minutes later, I stared at question number two:

  2. What are the top competencies necessary for you to be effective in this role?

Several attempts, finally at the deadline I recalled one of my first managers at Wells Fargo telling me that social intelligence, emotional leadership and prudence are competencies that differentiate leaders from managers.

• Social intelligence is the ability to successfully build relationships and navigate social environments. Think for a moment about your protoconversation. You know, the micro expressions, voice intonations, gestures and pheromones that our brain is “taking in” for every conversation. These impact how we respond to others (social awareness) and how we have effective interactions (social facility). Both are instrumental and often show up when triggered (and think about them triggered when blindsided!).

• Emotional leadership (or emotional intelligence) is the ability to accurately perceive your own (an others) emotions in order to see the signals and how they impact relationships. Essential when influencing towards a common goal, individuals with this competency can create an “emotional contagion” that sets the tone for group level dynamics.

• Prudence is wisdom or common sense. Prudence as described in the Cardinal Virtues is the ability to discern the appropriate course of action to be taken in a given situation at the appropriate time.

These three are, in my opinion, the most critical competences to have in business regardless of role.

So my response was: One of my first managers at Wells Fargo told me that social intelligence, emotional leadership and prudence were the most critical competences to have in business regardless of role.

If those are foundational, then I would add to be successful as an architect, additional competencies include:
• Communicate - to describe technology to your audience whether it be someone highly technical or in layman’s terms.
• Inquire – to probe and ask questions to get to the “facts”
• Conceptualize – to take all that you have heard and pull it together into a consumable artifact whether that be a diagram, design, model, or something else.
• Execute – ability to take what you have designed and make it a reality.

Do you agree? Disagree?

What would have been your response to question number two? Inquiring minds want to know.

Happy Thursday!

How Do You Show Up?

My friend, Sherrie Littlejohn, is a life coach and speaker.

She also is my previous manager, a wife, mother and beautiful human being.

She is an avid blogger and I find motivation each time I read her thoughtful reflections.

In today's blog, she writes, "Success in life is more about how you show up than what you know or even who you know. Yes, each is important. However, would you agree that the foundation for success starts with you? Your attitude, your behavior, your mindset, your commitment, your passion, your enthusiasm, your courage, your confidence, your conscious awareness of yourself provides this foundation. When we start with ourselves, then and only then, can we learn, attract, and be our very best for ourselves… and then for others."

There is so much truth in this paragraph!
My attitude
My Behavior
My Mindset
My Committment
My Passion
My Enthusiasm
My Courage
My Confidence
My Awareness

How I choose to show up and behave allows me to be my best self.

Powerful reminder that I am in control.

Take a visit to Sherrie's site at https://littlejohnleadershipcoaching.com/ and tell her Stacy says hello!

Happy Thursday!