For Busy Mining Exec's - The list of lists you must have ...

February 8, 2015

For Busy Mining Exec's - The list of lists you must have ...

But before we begin, the mother of all lists is at the end of this article – The Bucket List. There’s nothing quite like (after a bad day) having put something on a list, to cross it off. Similarly there is nothing quite like (at the end of a bad day) reviewing your bucket list and remembering all the wonderful things you’ve already experienced in life. Bucket lists demonstrate this brilliantly. No matter how bleak your world, make one now! As some of you know, I respect the (almost) daily blog of Kevin Roberts, worldwide CEO of Satchi and Satchi. Kevin loves lists, but many of you WON'T know, I LOVE lists also – probably too much! Some of Kevin’s better posts  this past few months (and wow this guy is prolific) have promoted the power of lists. He’s been publishing his favourites recently and they’re rippers. While lists do it for me, I do appreciate we all have wildly differing levels of organisation and structure and we apply that in varying doses to different aspects of our lives. So I figured I’d provide this “list of lists” to help really busy executives who are serious about making a difference, to better manage themselves. Some are self researched, some are copied and some are my own. Pick and choose what works for you and feel free to send them to your colleagues, home partner and sticky tape them to your kids newly minted school books. Enjoy and have a great and stress free 2015, full of some order, but mainly lots of fun. Data is important but five reasons why leaders agree emotion is more so ...  

 This list was compiled based on research recently conducted by the Fortune Knowledge Group in association with the global advertising agency gyro. Only Human: The Emotional Logic of Business Decisions, which surveyed 720 senior business executives, revealing the undervalued role of emotion in business decisions. Their five key findings about emotions in decision-making:

1. Executives “trust their gut”
2. Strong reputations and cultures win
3. Analytical insight requires emotional insight
4. Positive gains outweigh negative risks
5. Long-term partnerships are the goal

You can download an executive summary of the report here. 10 New Year potential self-improvement directions.  

1. Storytelling. One of the most effective ways of connecting with people. There is an art to it: plot, character, timing. Embroider and polish your best encounters.
2. Mindfulness. Clear your head and focus on one thing at a time.
3. Emotional thinking. Make the big decisions with your heart, the small ones with your head. The electromagnetic frequency of the heart is ten thousand times stronger than that of the brain. The brain takes its orders from the heart.
4. Negotiating. I’ve learnt a lot about this from my children. There are times to be tough, and times to be tender. Figuring out which to do when is often the challenge!
5. Delegating. Something my children have learnt from me. They all knew RASCI from a young age.
6. Showing appreciation. Finding the right words can take a few goes but it’s always beneficial to show gratitude.
7. Active listening. Your eyes have as much to do with this as your ears. The subtext, what’s not being said, always reveals a greater truth.
8. Learning from your failures. A genius is someone who makes the same mistake once. We’re defined by the way we learn from our failures.
9. Making lists. Hands-up everyone who puts things on a list just for the pleasure of crossing it off?! Be a compulsive to-doer. It keeps you going continuously forward. Ha what a beauty! Who’d have thought the art of list making is a self improvement objective.
10. Have fun. It’s harder than it sounds! Slipping into business-as-usual mode is easy. Leisure needs to be planned, scheduled, sought out – and best done with other people.

This last one (“Have Fun”) reminded me of a comment made to me many years ago about how a colleague was amazed that I extended my diary through the weekend. I thought it was normal – they thought I was psychotic! To this day I cannot imagine how I could function and relax without some sense of what I had in front of me. Without that I would feel like a robot, being dragged from one unknown activity to another with no real sense of “when will this end”. Sorry - not for me! 10 Favourite Jet Lag Reduction Tips  - essential for busy Mining exec’s whose holiday home is an aeroplane cabin 

This one is a direct copy from one of Kevin Robert’s recent posts.

• Hydrate with Fly1above – a brilliant product.
• Set your watch to your arrival venue 2 hours before you board.
• Don’t touch alcohol pre/during flight.
• Wear flight socks.
• Eat protein/veggies – avoid starch/fats.
• Don’t work on the flight – read odd stuff, binge on some TV, sleep!
• Go into low reactor mode – slow down heart rate, adrenaline output, and don’t get emotionally engaged in the inevitable lousy travel experience/service.
• Budget a 3 hour rest, shower and 30 minute exercise break when you arrive/before you work.
• Get to bed early day one, avoid screens, read and sleep!
• Power nap for 30 minutes once/twice on day 2.

Check out the full blog here. Thanks Kevin. If you want to personalise this advice check out the British Airways Jet lag advisor. Answer a few basic questions and get some tailored advice about when to seek light and when to avoid light. The advice is quite minimalist and reminds me of the Pilates I now weave into my running training – it never feels like I’m doing anything - but the impact is profound. BA Jet Lag Busting Calculator And here’s Nine things lists do for me.

• Lists organise me
• Lists scope my day and week
• Lists highlight the important
• Lists marginalise the irrelevant
• Lists minimise rework
• Lists urge me out of neutral
• Lists enable my commitments
• Lists free my mind
• Lists let me play
• Lists release me

And lastly that bucket list.  

We’re back to where we started. I won’t list mine right now (perhaps later) but I will say that my wife and I made a travel bucket list seven years ago (around about two months before the GFC hit) and I am utterly convinced that if it were not for the making of the list we would not have done half the things we did in the last few years, despite a severe contraction in our earning capacity! Quite simply, there is nothing quite like (after a bad day) having put something on a list to then cross it off. Similarly there is nothing quite like (at the end of a bad day) going back to your bucket list and remembering all the great things you have already experienced in life. Bucket lists demonstrate the power of lists brilliantly and it is NOT about money. Eat in the very best authentic Dim Sum restaurant in Hong Kong. EXPENSIVE Catch a Salmon with a beach rod. CHEAP Both brilliantly motivating and exciting (well to me at least). No matter how bleak your world, make one now!