The Essence of Leadership, Create Your Own Advisory Board (with AI), & More

Sep 22, 2024

Welcome to the Outside Performance newsletter. Each week, I write about topics, people, and ideas that I find interesting and inspirational. Following my own curiosity to ignite the spark in others. Join by subscribing below:

In today’s edition:

Quote - The Essence of Leadership
Framework - The Pomodoro Technique
Article - The Power of Small Wins
Poem - The Road Not Taken
Post - Create Your Own Advisory Board with AI

Quote

“Leadership is all about building relationships, understanding people, and inspiring them to be their best.” - Barrack Obama

This quote boils leadership down to its very essence.

It is powerfully simple.

But, we need to think through ‘how’ we can best accomplish each part. How would you uniquely approach each area, to become a better leader?

Framework

The Pomodoro Technique

Earlier this week on LinkedIn I posted about the power of accountability. As part of this, I talked about the importance of owning your work and, once there is greater transparency in a company, it allows the whole company to become more productive.

So, once we have clarity on what is in our own yard, how can we cut through our work in the most effective way?

One technique is called the Pomodoro technique. Again, powerfully simple.

The secret is to think in tomatoes 🍅 rather than time (Pomodoro being the Italian for tomato).

Each tomato represents a block of time and the technique asks you to replace a block of time (25 minutes) for a Pomodoro, interspersing each ‘tomato’ with short breaks.

The Pomodoro Technique - How it works

The Pomodoro Technique was invented in the late 1980s by Francesco Cirillo, in an effort to avoid overwhelm and burnout.

If you have ever felt a project too big to start, the technique is great for both perfectionists and procrastinators at the same time, by splitting the work into 25 minute chunks which are easy to commit to. This method of working, particularly taking regular breaks, helps:

Improve focus
Minimise distractions (stay away from mobile or computer notifications!)
Prevent burnout
Promotes accountability
Boosts motivation

Three rules to stick by

To get the most out of the technique, and to get the most from each interval, follow the below:

Break down complex tasks - if a task requires more than four Pomodoros, break it down into smaller, actionable steps.
Combine smaller tasks - for those items that are smaller jobs, combine them into whole Pomodoros.
Once a Pomodoro is set, stick to it - remove distractions and focus solely on the tasks requiring completion. You must work for the duration of the Pomodoro.

Next time you approach your task list, give this a try.

Article

The Power of Small Wins

So, with this week’s framework helping us maintain focus on tasks - via breaking them down into ‘pomodoros’ - this week’s article from Harvard Business Review expands on the theme. In particular, how celebrating the small wins really helps us win the large ones also.

I have posted a link to the article above, but three key takeaways for me are:

The Progress Principle: celebrating small wins and progress in meaningful work helps us enhance motivation and engagement.
Inner Work Life - it may sound obvious, but how often do we actively think this and put into practice: your emotions, perceptions, and motivations greatly impact your productivity. Positive progress drives a more positive “inner work life”.
Daily Feedback - recognising and celebrating small wins regularly helps us to maintain a momentum, and promote a culture of continuous improvement. Everyone leading teams in the whole organisation need to be on board and facilitate this.

These were three of my key takeaways from this article, but there are lots more to learn by reading the full article. Enjoy!

Poem

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost’s poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ was written in 1915 and is a celebrated piece of American literature. In particular, it has been referenced as a poem for leadership, where there is a need to set out a clear example of triumphant self-assertion. Yet, Frost’s poem is also misread. The poem also portrays that both roads bear similarities, essentially helping illustrate the struggle and comparisons we make to routes not taken, irrespective of the route we choose.

But, that is the essence of leadership and decision making.

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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Post

Creating Your Own Advisory Board with AI

A fascinating post that I saw this week was Adam Blecker’s post on LinkedIn, where Adam wanted to set up an advisory board using ChatGPT’s new advanced features.

Adam’s video shows the conversation and its outputs, which, even just a number of months ago, I could not have envisaged. The pace of change with AI is astounding and transformational. Whilst we do need to ensure that AI is used within ethical boundaries - and there is a high need to regulate it - observing the impact that this technology can have is super interesting.

That’s it for this week’s edition, I hope you enjoyed it.

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