The Tyranny of the Urgent!

Years ago I read a great little pamphlet, The Tyranny of the Urgent, by Charles E. Hummel.  The concept that has stuck with me is the idea that if I listen to the ‘urgent’ things and give them my attention, the ‘important’ things will go undone.  Urgent things aren’t bad to do; they just aren’t as productive as the important things.  Apart from genuine emergencies, urgent things are simply urgent because they cry out in my thoughts giving me the impression that I have to do them RIGHT NOW!  In most cases, this is really not true.  Let me give you an example:

Sally starts her day helping her oldest kids get off to school while her toddler still sleeps.  Once her kids are safely on the bus, her ‘to do’ list takes over her thoughts.  She really wants to stop and spend some time in God’s Word and talking with Him, but instead she listens to the urgent cry, “I have to put a load of laundry in the washer.”  Once she completes that task, she hears, “Aargh, Mike (her husband) forgot to take the trash out.”  So, she takes the trash to the curb.  Then, she hears, “I really need to dust the living room before Susie wakes up.”  By the time she finishes dusting, Susie is awake demanding her full attention.  Does she ever get to her Bible time and prayer?  No.  Why not?  Because spending time in the Word and in prayer, did not cry out as loudly as the other tasks even though it would have benefitted her more to have her devotions. 

How do we avoid the trap of the tyranny of the urgent?  First, we have to be aware of what we are thinking instead of just letting our thoughts flow through our minds unchecked.  This takes some practice, and we have to purpose in our hearts to learn to do it.  Second, we need to learn to prioritize our daily tasks into one of four categories:

1.      High Importance/ High Urgency:  These tasks move to the top of the list because nothing moves forward before they are accomplished.

2.      High Importance/ Low Urgency:  These tasks need to be worked into our daily routine.  It can help us to purpose that we are not going to anything ‘urgent’ until we accomplish this important task.

3.      Low Importance/High Urgency:  These are tasks that can scream at us “DO ME!”, but they really aren’t that important.  We need to learn to focus on doing the important tasks first, and then turn our efforts to these tasks, or better yet, delegate them!

4.      Low Importance/Low Urgency:  These are truly the mundane tasks of life.  We can allow for short 30 minute segments of your day to accomplish these tasks.  Planning for them helps us prevent them from taking too much of our time.  Again, if possible, we should delegate these tasks to others.* 

As we plan our day, we simply need to decide what we are going to do and do it, and then decide what we do not need to do and not do those tasks.  Unfortunately, sometimes it is hard to know how to properly categorize the tasks that are before us.  Here are some questions that can help us evaluate our priorities:

1.      What is required of us?  In other words, what are the tasks that have to get done today that only we can do effectively?  These tasks are moved to the top of our list.

2.      What are the tasks that give us the greatest return?  Are the results of our efforts worth the energy and time expended?  In other words, are we being efficient in our efforts and not wasting them.

3.      What tasks are the most rewarding?  We should enjoy what we do.  So, we should focus on doing what we enjoy the most and learn to do it well enough maybe even to make it our career.*

When we can prioritize the tasks that are requirements in a way that maximizes our productivity, doing these tasks will bring us great pleasure and motivate us toward continued success.  So, whether we work at home or in the business world, learning to prioritize the important over the urgent is a key to having a productive, successful day.

(These concepts are found in John Maxwell’s Developing The Leader Within You, pgs. 23, 25-27.)

Prioritize your Ignite Work

Achieving our Ignite goals is a step by step process.  In order to reach our goals, we need to start each week with a time of evaluation and planning.  In this evaluation, it is essential that we discern our most important priorities.  John Maxwell shares the Pareto Principle in Developing the Leader within You.  It simply is: 20 percent of your priorities will give you 80 percent of your production IF you spend your time, energy, money, and personnel on the top 20 percent of your priorities (pg. 20).  So, how does this apply to our Ignite businesses?

The first priority of all Ignite Associates is to sign up for their website and then switch their own electric bill, if possible.  Then, the new associate needs to watch all of the training videos especially the one on Customer Enrollment.  This is critical because enrolling one more customer is the only thing that will trigger Immediate Income for the new associate and Leadership Income for their upline.  No one gets paid at all if the new associate fails to have their second customer point in ‘pending’ status by the end of their first 30 days. 

Priority #1:  Accomplish your 4 customer points within the first week of joining Ignite.

Once this is achieved, the new associate and their sponsor need to make it their priority to train the new associate in setting appointments.  It takes practice to learn how to avoid mixing the invitation and the presentation.  The new associate needs to make it their priority to watch all of the remaining training videos on their Ignite Power Center.  Also, their sponsor needs to invest at least 2 hours into their new associate showing them how to use the Power Center and helping them to develop their Why and their Ignite goals.  Role playing both doing invitations and presentations are great ways to learn to do both effectively.  The sponsor needs to encourage their new associate to attend the first Ignite Academy that is offered.  Ignite Academies are great, intensive training sessions that are invaluable for both old and new associates.  They are also available on the SUCCESS CD’s and through www.plugintoignite.com.

Priority #2:  Complete all training videos, meet for individual training with your sponsor, and attend an Ignite Academy.

Lastly, to be successful in Ignite is simple.  All an associate has to do is set appointments, show the plan, and plug into meetings.  Mastering the invitation takes practice as does showing the plan.  Thankfully, using the DVD of the presentation makes that easy.  The key to setting appointments is simply picking up the phone and calling people with whom you already have a relationship.  Spend some time catching up with them, and then ask them to set a time to watch the videos, attend a meeting or listen to a webinar.  But, none of this happens unless the associate initiates contact.

Priority #3: Initiate contact with friends and set appointments.

Make your contact list as long as possible.  Set weekly goals for how many people you will contact and then pick up the phone.  One of the beautiful things about Ignite is how fluid it is.  It can fit into the nooks and crannies of your day, but you won’t fit it in to your day, if you don’t make it a priority and plan to do it.  Choose to make Ignite part of your top 20 percent of your priorities, and watch it start to produce at a fourfold rate!

What Leaders Do

How would you define leadership?  In Developing the Leader Within You, John Maxwell states, “Leadership is influence” (pg. 1).  All of us influence people around us and at the same time are influenced by others.  Perhaps the most important question is how are we influencing others – for their good or their harm?  If leaders view their followers as the means to their own personal gain, then their influence over their followers will be minimized greatly.  Their followers will perceive that they are simply being used.  Effective leaders seek the best interests of their followers, and they demonstrate genuine concern for their followers well-being and success.

How do we earn the right to influence?  First, leaders have to be put in the position to lead.  In many cases, this simply means being hired into a certain job position that has inherent leadership responsibilities.  With each position comes a degree of authority, but authority alone will not produce the power to influence others.  Leaders who fail to effectively communicate and express genuine respect and regard for their followers will find that their followers will in turn have little respect or regard for them as leaders.  Both morale and productivity will plummet.  Leaders who rely solely on the authority of their position will feel insecure and use intimidation to motivate their followers. As followers sense this insecurity, it is likely that they will seek to do the bare minimum to get by in their work. 

How can leaders avoid this trap?  They have to purpose in their hearts to demonstrate genuine concern for their followers.  As leaders faithfully show that they truly care about their followers, reciprocity will ensue.  Their followers will want to see their leaders succeed.  Effective leaders invest time in helping their followers develop their own abilities and leadership skills. They empower others to reach their full potential.  While they seek to know all of their followers, they look for those who are real influencers and help them develop and train others to be influencers as well.  As leaders consistently prove their genuine concern for developing their followers to be leaders as well, they will gather even more followers because of their proven character.  It may take a long time to reach this level of influence, but the rewards of seeing those they have mentored in turn mentor others is priceless.

The Four Types of Leaders

Shortly after I signed on with Ignite, I came to realize that effective multilevel marketers have to be effective leaders.  No one can work a business like Ignite alone.  So, I have been working on developing leadership skills to help my associates in their endeavors to build our business.  I have been reading John Maxwell’s book, Developing the Leader within You, and in it he classifies leaders into 4 different categories (pgs. IX-X).

1.      The Leading Leader: 

a.       Is born with leadership qualities.

b.      Has seen leadership modeled throughout life.

c.       Has learned additional leadership skills through training.

d.      Has the self-discipline necessary to become a great leader.

2.      The Learned Leader:

a.       Has seen leadership modeled most of life.

b.      Has learned additional leadership skills through training.

c.       Hs the self-discipline necessary to become a great leader.

3.      The Latent Leader:

a.       Has just recently seen leadership modeled.

b.      Is learning to be a leader through training.

c.       Is developing the necessary self-discipline to become a great leader.

4.      The Limited Leader

a.       Has little or no exposure to leaders.

b.      Has little or no exposure to leadership training.

c.       Has the desire to become a leader.

When I evaluate myself against Maxwell’s categories, I would probably place myself in the second one, but I do not know if I fit there completely.  In college, I received a lot of leadership training from Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship, and I saw many good examples of good leaders.  However, since then, quality leadership models have been greatly lacking in my life.  The few leaders that have been over me pretty much left me to find my own way in my work.  While I did my job and had a positive impact on my counseling clients, I had no vision for developing my capacities as a leader or furthering my education.  Since joining Ignite, I have witnessed some folks who are true leaders.  They are experiencing great success in their business by helping other do likewise.  This is what Ignite calls Servant Leadership.  As I serve my associates by helping them build their teams, they in turn learn to serve their associates and train them to do likewise.  Serving one another promotes everyone’s success.

As you evaluate where you fit in Maxwell’s categories, what do you see that you need to focus on in order to grow your capacity as a leader?  I know that I have to study books like Maxwell’s Developing the Leader within You and build the self-discipline necessary to grow my capacity to leader my associates, so that we can all be successful in Ignite.

Where are you on this pyramid?

3% Self-Starters who look for challenges. Champions with clearly defined and written goals.

 10% Leaders/Winners: goals (unwritten) but are to win/solve problems as they arise.

60 % Average: goal is to make a paycheck/ hide from problems.

 27% Goal is to get something for nothing/ they are the problem.

  

When I was first confronted with this pyramid, I have to admit that I ranked in the 60% of folks whose only ambition in life was to collect a paycheck while avoiding problems. I much preferred to follow a competent leader than to be the competent leader. Since attending my first Ignite Academy and seeing this diagram, I have realized that my aims in life are too low. So, I have purposed in my heart to step up to that 10% level and develop my capacities as a leader in Ignite as well as in my counseling ministry.

Thankfully, I have been blessed to have several good coaches in this business. I am really not a New England Patriot fan, but I have to give credit to Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. They have proven to both be in that top 3% category of champions who look for challenges and form goals to achieve them. Tim Tebow is another example of someone who looks for challenges and seeks to overcome obstacles through his commitment to hard work. In the business world, men like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Donald Trump have all shown themselves to be in that top 3% of Champions.

Most entrepreneurs fall into the top two categories, while most employees cluster in the 60% average category. Those who are content with being on welfare in spite of being able bodied and able minded, make up the 27% of those who want others to work and pay their way for them.

Moving up the pyramid requires motivation and self discipline. It requires concerted effort toward change. In just a few short months as an Ignite Associate, I have observed and listened to some of the most successful Associates in this business. I want to duplicate their efforts, but I realize that there is a learning curve to do so. So, I am compiling a reading list of books that will help build my capacity as a businesswoman and as a leader of those who join my Ignite team.

Where do you fit into this pyramid? If you don’t like where you are at, what are you going to do to change that? Start to dream again. Set SMART goals and break them down into daily tasks that will lead you to accomplishing your overall goals. Stop fearing failure. Keep trying, and you will eventually realize your dreams!