How Successful Leaders Prepare for the Week Ahead

Because our Lawrence & Co. team is com­plete­ly vir­tu­al and only face-to-face once a year – and since we’re very busy and often drop right into action in our week­ly meet­ings — we want­ed to find a way to get to know and con­nect with each oth­er personally.

So, my team cre­at­ed meet­ing starter cards which we call CoachAgories, that offer ques­tions in three cat­e­gories: Work, Self & Life (based on the mod­el from Your Oxy­gen Mask First). Here are some examples:

• Who’s your great­est mentor?
• What is the best lead­er­ship book that you own?
• Are you wear­ing Adi­das or Nike?
• What is the biggest hir­ing mis­take — or one that you’ve witnessed?
• Do you have a Mac or a PC?

When I asked this CoachAgories ques­tion to exec­u­tive teams we work with in India, the US and Cana­da, the answers were shock­ing­ly sim­i­lar — and not sur­pris­ing: preparation.

Suc­cess: when prepa­ra­tion meets opportunity

One of my favourite quotes by Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War (manda­to­ry read­ing in many busi­ness pro­grams) says it all:

“Vic­to­ri­ous war­riors win first and then go to war, while defeat­ed war­riors go to war first and then seek to win.”

If you are too busy to pre­pare, if you want to be mediocre, just go with the flow and see what hap­pens. That works in life, some­times, but not when there’s a job to be done, when cus­tomers or employ­ees are involved.

You can’t just show up and hope and pray. It does­n’t work. How suc­cess­ful lead­ers pre­pare is by already hav­ing thought things through. They have plan A, B, C and D, and they will pre­vail no mat­ter what, because they are prepared.

How Suc­cess­ful Lead­ers Pre­pare becomes a habit

So, based on what these suc­cess­ful lead­ers told us, here are their top six habits to make sure they are ready for the week:

1. Make lists

Almost every leader we spoke to con­sis­tent­ly make their pri­or­i­ties lists – either Sun­day morn­ing or evening, or in some cas­es on Fri­days – to set them­selves up before the week begins. These are the impor­tant pri­or­i­ties – not urgen­cies – to focus and allo­cate their time, aligned with their quar­ter­ly or annu­al goals. They include:

• Must-do, top three high-val­ue, high-impact items
• Per­son­al resilience, growth and work goals.

Note: In Your Oxy­gen Mask First, I break lists down into three columns of Work, Self and Life. How­ev­er you carve up your list, include all the areas impor­tant to you and the most essen­tial stuff you got to do, in each one.

2. Lick toads

Anoth­er way how suc­cess­ful lead­ers pre­pare is by NOT pro­cras­ti­nat­ing. Most lead­ers tack­le their toads, first, in some way, to boost their ener­gy and cre­ate great momen­tum for the day. Toads are things you pro­cras­ti­nate doing — and often car­ry a men­tal bur­den — because you don’t want to deal with them.

3. Sync cal­en­dars to priorities

Most lead­ers we spoke to make sure their pri­or­i­ties get done and ensure the peo­ple around them are also work­ing on their most impor­tant things.

The sched­ule meet­ings, and make sure agen­das are clear, and

Block in time for the non-tac­ti­cal — think­ing, strate­giz­ing, brain­storm­ing, high-lev­el prob­lem solv­ing and prepar­ing — or it won’t get done.

4. Allo­cate time for emails

They all took spe­cif­ic time, at some point every day, to set and change meet­ings, ask for and share infor­ma­tion, and delegate.

5. Prep per­son­al life

Most lead­ers make sure they are fresh and ready to go on Mon­day morn­ing by putting their per­son­al life in order, on the week­end. Things like orga­niz­ing the house, plan­ning meals, pack­ing a bag, choos­ing clothes, mak­ing plans with kids or for social activ­i­ties, choos­ing a run­ning route, spend­ing time with fam­i­ly or friends.

This is all about mak­ing sure they lead the week, and the week doesn’t lead them.

The Chal­lenge

• You must already have a way you get orga­nized to make it a great week. Based on the habits above, how can you take it up a notch?
• With whom on your team could you dis­cuss prepar­ing for suc­cess­ful week?

To hear more, lis­ten to Episode 104 of The Growth Whisperers.

Learn 12 Tips for Bet­ter Busi­ness Meetings.

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all – a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.