Leadership Hacks, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1Distractions and productivity

Before jumping into examining leadership hacks, it's important to talk about the distractions that slow leaders down or stop them from looking for ways to hack their leadership approach. Over the 25 years I've been working with leaders, I've noticed a number of emerging patterns and trends that stop leaders from being more efficient.

By understanding these trends and patterns you can make a conscious choice to start changing the traditional way you operate in relation to your mindset, approach or impact. This will enable you to be more effective and to have a more positive impact on your work and the people you work with in an office or remote environment.

There are five common distractions, or obstacles, you need to overcome to ensure you don't get sidetracked from using shortcuts and hacks that can benefit you. Three of these are internal — that is, they're within your control — and two are external — that is, they're environmental and harder to control.

Internal distractions

Internal distractions are fully within your control to manage. If you have self‐awareness, you have the ability to do something to reduce or eliminate these internal distractions. If you don't have this higher level of operating you may lose traction and not have enough energy or time to achieve as much as you could if you removed or controlled these distractions.

Lack of energy

With business moving as fast as it does today, most leaders have a very busy schedule. ...