Welcome to one of my favorite seasons in the Northwest and what my sister calls sweater weather! As a former teacher, I can also ruminate with her on the merits of bouquets of sharpened pencils, but I digress . . . here’s what’s new for this coming season at PLR, Inc. and Influencing Options:

FREE: Download an informative interview conducted by Chad Barr from CB Software Systems with Libby to launch her new teleseminar series: Libby’s Leadership Series: Top 5 Challenges for Leaders Today! Click here.

FREE: Libby’s Leadership Series Teleseminars: You and The Horse You Rode Up On. Join Libby for the latest in leadership issues, communication and management challenges, etc. An informative series with practical application—each seminar will have at least one leadership tool you can use immediately! Teleseminars will be quarterly on the Last Tuesdays in October, January, April and July. Sign up now to reserve your spot. Click here for more information.

Order Now: the 2nd CD in the Influencing Options Legacy Series: Empathy in the Workplace: Why or Why Not? An interview with Libby Wagner and Bob Weyant. Click here.

Coming Soon: Libby’s Leadership Series: You and The Horse You Rode Up On: Foundations of Leadership—a two CD set highlighting favorite topics from classes, newsletters and articles, such as leading yourself, communicating a vision, dealing with difficult situations, letting someone go, increasing respect in the workplace, managing performance and more! Stay tuned!

Return to Top

Managing the Unmanageable: Let’s Make a List!

Finally, my mother makes her debut here in the newsletter. I wish my sister Karen were around to see this because she always swore she was going to write a play about our family which could only be put into production after our parents were gone. Then she would threaten me by saying that she was going to cast Lisa Bonet in my part as the older sister (this is when the Cosby show was popular, mind you). Frankly, I didn’t see the resemblance.

Our mother embodies enthusiasm. People who haven’t met her always ask me to describe her, and it’s tough—my mother can fill up the room with her presence. I used to say she’s me to the nth degree. One of the great traits I learned from her is to be thrilled with things—great books, good movies, scrumptious food, a finely set table, an article of clothing that made you look your best AND was on sale. She’s also incredibly generous, and for many years, it was a family joke to see who would be sitting around the table at Thanksgiving because she literally would invite people off the street. (Okay, not literally, but almost!) My sisters and I would whisper, “who is THAT?” as we passed the green bean casserole and mashed potatoes. Our mother also managed things—a household, a part-time job when we were growing up, multiple moves that cris-crossed the country, three active daughters, and my dad. My parents entertained in the old-fashioned sense, with themes and décor and meals carefully planned. My mother is the list-maker extraordinaire.

As teenagers, before melatonin reached the appropriate level in our brains, we wanted to sleep in. Sleep in, for Pete’s sake, on a Saturday! No such luck. Our mother’s voice would ring through the house: “Time to get up! We’re going to do something productive today!” (She also said, “Yoo-hoo!” when calling us in to dinner, I kid you not.) And as we’d assemble, bleary-eyed at the breakfast table, she’d announce: “Let’s make a list!” with great enthusiasm. Really. This was exciting stuff! If you actually want to recreate the Virginia-Wagner-voice when you say this, you have to pitch your tone about 3 octaves higher than your normal voice and grab the nearest pen. Go ahead, try it. It’s empowering! Now, at the time, we did not appreciate our mother’s list-making finesse; however, as my dad said after I graduated from the university, “We got smarter when Libby graduated from college,” and now I have a better understanding of what she was doing and why it was important: she was working to create order, systems and manageability to the running of things.

It’s no surprise then that I am a great list-maker myself. I love lists. I love crossing things off of lists, and if you’re a Myers-Briggs fan, you’ll know I’m a “J” and that real J’s do things, and if they’re not on the list, they put them on, just so they can cross them off. It’s a little neurotic, I admit. My younger sister Melissa (we can’t call her Missy anymore because she’s a grown-up) married a list-maker. I think she actually makes lists, but loses them—you know who you are!

You might be wondering why I would devote an entire newsletter to this idea? It doesn’t seem all that complicated or revolutionary. I think certain kinds of lists can help you accomplish three key things as a leader, and even those of you who can’t find your lists buried on your desk or gathering lint in your purse, this can work! Let’s differentiate here from massive “task lists” and computer programs that do this for you—I still can’t figure out how to get my Outlook to print out my lists in the way I want. This is very low-tech. Anyone can do this, even a self-described non-lister. Here are my favorites:

1. Top Three
2. Critical Six

I alternate these—the first I learned from my mentor, Alan Weiss, and the second I recently read in James Ray’s Harmonic Wealth. I like both. Here’s how I use them.

1. Top Three: every night before I go to bed, or before I leave the office, or whatever creates the demarcation between this working day and the next, I write down, with a pen on a piece of paper in relatively large print: “Top 3,” and then I decide which of the three things on my massive list are my top priorities for tomorrow. Only three. I set these apart from the other things as priorities. Even if you have 43 things on your list (or even if you don’t have a list already), you can identify the three things you simply must do tomorrow in order to feel like you are making progress, moving forward, managing the unmanageable. It’s also an important psychological tool, as well. The prioritization and commitment to those three things will help you feel more confident, successful and powerful.
2. Critical Six: James Ray adapts this practice from the story about Ivy Lee and Charles Schwab. Here’s how he does it—choose your most critical six things you need to accomplish the next day and order them according to importance. Finish #1 before moving on to #2. If you don’t finish all six, then roll the remainders over to the next day making sure you always have six on your list. This can create amazing results—you may be surprised to find that you feel re-energized rather than exhausted by your typical daunting list. This creates purposeful movement forward.

Now, some may be thinking, that’s just great in theory, Libby, but what if in reality I have 43 things that need to get done today? Give it up—seriously. Part of the challenge of leadership is in the understanding and knowing that you will always have more to accomplish than you have time to accomplish, especially if you are learning, growing and dedicated to your development. Get comfortable with the ongoing process of your work as a leader and don’t make your measure of success only in that crossing off or checking of the list. If you begin to utilize a system like this, you will not only make progress on those items that are the most significant, you will also begin to feel better about the tackling of the rest of the list, or you’ll delegate it, or you’ll get creative and innovative. Trust me. Try it for 2 weeks and see how it goes!!

The three key things you’ll get from utilizing Top Three or Critical Six?

1. 1) A sense of accomplishment
2. 2) Actual results for getting things done
3. 3) A system to manage the chaos of larger lists

Okay, ready every one? In your best Virginia-Wagner-voice: “Let’s Make a List!”

Return to Top