become about all there is to do. Why? Because you are clari-
fying your vision and the steps to move forward!
The following process can be helpful in both those scenar-
ios but particularly when you are doing better in planning.
First, you have to clarify and refocus on key areas.
Clarify or recommit to the primary areas of contribution
you have as a leader. Answer the question, “What are your
key areas of contribution as a leader?” There are probably
only a handful of things that only you can do or that you’re
ultimately the most responsible for in your organization.
Refocus yourself on these things.
For most leaders, these are the things YOU are ulti-
mately responsible for:
1. Vision, mission, and values
Ask yourself, “Where are we going and what is the
impact we are trying to have on life?” This is your
vision. Your mission is who you serve and how you
serve them. Identify your values in terms of your orga-
nization at its best and what the leader of that organi-
zation needs to embody.
2. Financial health
While there are many people involved in finances in
terms of growing giving, revenue, or the program, you
as the leader of this organization must know that you
are ultimately responsible for the financial health of
the organization.
3. Shepherding staff
Shepherding staff and your board take time. This is
people-oriented work and usually a huge area of focus
for leaders.
4. Self-leadership
Self-leadership is one we often forget, but it’s incredibly
important because before we can lead others well, we
have to lead ourselves well.
This is the time to ask yourself some tough questions:
Am I healthy?
Am I focused on the right things?
How am I doing spiritually?
How am I doing with my time?
How am I doing with my areas of strength and my areas
of weakness?
Now, I don’t know about you, but this usually feels self-
ish to me. So, step back for a moment, and look at it
from the perspective that you, as the leader of this orga-
nization, need to be strong, ready, and healthy to be able
to do for others what you’re called to do.
5. Thinking and planning
Thinking and planning is time intensive work that no
one else in the organization is going to do for you. Very
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few people in your organization are going to go to bed
tonight thinking and planning about where your orga-
nization is going to go. So, this is a key area of contri-
bution for you.
Now, you take all of these responsibilities and you
FILTER them.
There are several things we tell our leaders to do to
filter the things they are responsible for, and these are
also things I do myself.
1. Create a 6×6
Now that you’ve got the primary things you’re responsi-
ble for clarified, you’re going to filter all of this by creat-
ing a six by six. Write down the six key projects you
need to get accomplished within the next six weeks.
These are things that if you don’t get them done, you are
not going to be moving forward in the next six weeks
like you hope to.
2. Budget the time on your calendar
So now you have your six by six, but just creating it is
not enough. Now you have to budget the time to work
on those things. These are not your daily things. These
are the six big projects you want to move forward on,
contribute to, and see happen. To do this, you’ve got to
budget the time. I find it works best when you chunk
the time. I recommend chunking ninety minutes of
focused attention on these things. Chunk the time, and
hold to it to be able to know that in the next six weeks
you have allotted the time to work on this.
3. Automate, delegate, eliminate
This is where most people stop if they
are doing this at all. I’m going to take it
further. Next, we are going to take the
long list of things you are doing, not on
your six by six, but all the stuff that is
making you feel busy and overwhelmed.
Create three different lists:
What can be automated?
What can be delegated?
What can be eliminated?
Automating is something I
would think nowadays people
would be quick to try to do, but it
involves technology, working with other
people, and making checklists. So, we
decide that is too much work, but if you
are doing something more than once
on a regular basis, it is a candidate for
automation. I promise you the work up
front is worth it!