Being a leader is about living your life in a way that inspires or encourages others. Here is the 11th in my series of monthly newsletters, each with a section on the skills you need so you can be a leader of your life. To lead is to serve. If you make it your goal to do the best that you can and to help people, then you can't fail. I encourage you to commit to keep learning.

The content below is extracted from Mike Holt's Leadership Skills - Taking Your Career to the Next Level.

Very little can be accomplished without a plan, but planning can only happen once you have a goal and you know what you're striving for.

Everything you do, whether personal or associated with your business, should bring you closer to your goal. Once you understand that, your focus should be to reach your goal as quickly and efficiently as you possibly can.

How do you start? Organize your thoughts, get focused, and go:

Accountability. Hold yourself accountable for your plans and your actions by making a public commitment as to what your goal is. Once you put yourself out there, you put pressure on yourself to succeed. You have someone to hold you accountable even if it's just your own desire to avoid looking bad. Accountability builds creditability and credibility builds character, all of which impact your ability to lead by example.

Be ready to work. To work efficiently you need an uncluttered mind. This can be accomplished by creating a plan. There are a few basic rules to follow when planning:

• Establish your priorities based on your goals. Write down what you need to do in one place on a master to-do list. Writing things down will ensure that you remember everything you need to do. Have you ever gone to the grocery store to pick up some soda, then discover after you left that you bought other things and forgot the soda? The same thing happens with your priority tasks because you're so busy and distracted with life. You can’t remember everything, so you may find yourself in a sticky situation because you forgot to do something important. Written reminders on a master to-do list will help prevent this and keep you on task.
• Schedule time to organize your days, weeks, months, and year. Sort and prioritize your list based on what you're trying to accomplish, and which items have a deadline.
  

Commit to your plan. Once you have a goal and a plan, you need to get qualified (trained) to be competent to follow through on your plan. You need to be your #1 competitor and take ownership of your actions.

If there are any scheduling conflicts that arise, resolve them as early as possible. If you have something to do and can’t get it done, plan to complete it the next day or at the next available opportunity. Never allow one missed appointment to cause a delay for the remainder of the day. Apologize, reschedule, and continue through the day as planned. It's better to reschedule one appointment than make everyone unhappy.

Update your plans. Once you’ve made your lists, make sure you're working on your priorities. Make time to regularly review and update your plans to keep the to-do list current. Cross out those things that are done and move unfinished tasks over to the next day at the top of the list if possible. Look at every action you take to determine if it’s helping you reach your goals. If it isn’t, don’t do it!

• Set objectives and deadlines.
• Utilize commercially available organizers, tablets or apps to help make better use of your time. Sometimes just a simple calendar app on a cellphone will do, but studies have shown that using a paper-and-pen planning method can actually improve the outcome. The act of writing your priorities on a list helps to organize your mind as you’re doing it, and makes you think of additional things relevant to the project as you’re writing. For some people, there’s something positive about carrying a small notebook or an index card with their plans for the day in their own handwriting. Once you’ve mapped out what you want to accomplish you need to get it on your calendar and commit to it daily.
  

"Subject to Change Without Notice". Plans can and do change! Sometimes with little if any notice. Everything you plan and everything that you're doing is subject to change. There are many variables that can affect the best made plans. Some changes can be anticipated but others come out of nowhere and will require you to react and adapt quickly. If you're working on a single project, totally zeroed in, and new information comes in that you didn't have before, or circumstances change in a way that you didn't anticipate, then your plan might need to take a different route. But you must have a plan first. It's much easier to modify an existing plan than to survive with no plan at all!

One of our biggest pitfalls is not being disciplined with our schedules. Staying busy and working very long hours does not equate to effectiveness; more often than not, it proves to be counter-productive, reducing your productivity and your ability to lead effectively.

We'd love to hear from you about this series, and the ways you're using it. Send us your comments and feedback by clicking on Post a Comment below. Look out for the next part in this series a month from now, and please share with your colleagues.

To review or catch up on previous newsletters on business and personal development click here.
The above content is extracted from Mike Holt's Leadership Skills textbook.

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