Juggling Elephants Blog

We got this automated response to an e mail sent out last week:

Thank you for your message. Due to some upcoming deadlines and my current workload, I will only be checking E-mail and phone messages a couple times each day. If you need immediate assistance, please call ______________ at xxx-xxx-xxxx. They will know how to reach me.

Isn't that the most beautiful e mail you have ever read? Okay... I know we are bit over the top, but it is encouraging to see. It educates others as to when they can expect a response to their inquiry. It helps any people who are communicating with this person by e mail to plan their own lineup instead of waiting on an immediate response. It also shows someone taking control of their circus-and we ALWAYS get excited when we see that happening.

What could you do today to take more control of your circus-and get more of your important tasks accomplished?

Labels: focus, interruptions, priorities, productivity

A popular activity with youth and adult leadership programs over the years is to give each participant some amount of "money" and they are to "buy" the virtues or qualities they deem most important for themselves. Then the participants are asked to develop action plans on how they can emulate these virtues or qualities in their leadership roles-or develop them more thoroughly.

What if we took a twist on that activity and focused on priorities? Start by listing all your priorities for today. No ranking... just list them. You now have $100 to spend on accomplishing these priorities. Which ones would get the most "money?" Which ones would get the least?

Once you have this prioritized list in hand, think about your day. Are you setting up your schedule and activities to actually accomplish these most important priorities, or are you wasting much of your "money" (time and energy) on items you said weren't worth as much? The ROI (return on investment) for this activity might be huge.

Labels: lineup, scheduling, time management

Melissa Raffoni is President of Raffoni CEO Consulting. In a blog at hbr.com she highlights the 8 things employees want from their leaders (ringmaster in Juggling Elephants terms). They are:

• Tell me my role, tell me what to do, and give me the rules.
• Discipline my coworker who is out of line.
• Get me excited.
• Don't forget to praise me.
• Don't scare me.
• Impress me.
• Give me some autonomy.
• Set me up to win.

What a powerful list! If all of us who have people who report to us reviewed these 8 items before starting our day of managing others-what a difference it would make. Would you add anything else to this list?

Labels: motivation, ringmaster, teamwork

The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, estimate that March Madness (the excitement that follows the NCAA basketball tournament) could cost businesses $1.8 billion in lost productivity and unproductive wages. The estimate is based on the approximate number or participants in office pools, the money they earn, and the time that they will likely spend checking updates and "trash talking." $1.8 billion is a lot of money.

So, what to do? How do you regain some of that lost productivity and clamp down on those who are wasting precious time? Maybe you embrace it! When was the last time your team had an intermission? When was the last time they had fun together? We understand that March Madness can get carried away but maybe a little "clowning around" will get that much needed energy back into the building.

Being a former basketball player, I love March Madness. I introduced a "bracket competition" in a company that was full of people that probably had never picked up a basketball, let alone watched a game. It was a great activity that the whole office had fun with. One Friday, we ordered pizza and watched a game during lunch. I have since left the organization but the tradition and excitement still lives on (they just emailed me a bracket and invited me to play).

It might not be "March Madness" that gets your office excited. Pick something else! Because it is critical to allow employees the opportunity to enjoy themselves and have a little entertainment. From the book Juggling Elephants, "People sometimes need to laugh, relax, and not take themselves so seriously." With a little effort, invest that $1.8 billion that you are going to lose anyway and reap a return.

Labels: intermission, relaxation, stress reduction, teamwork

Nothing brightens our day more than getting feedback about how people are using the strategies from Juggling Elephants to improve their life in some way. The following anecdote we received last week had us laughing and also applauding the couple who gave us an interesting visual of their circus. They wrote:

My husband and I are trying to live by the principles of Juggling Elephants. We are having almost daily conversations about the acts in our rings. He has made a commitment to his self ring (something he, too, has neglected for quite a while). When I asked him how his circus was going one day this week, he responded by saying, "The elephants have torn down the tent and are running amuck down Main Street!" He was dead serious. His work ring was way out of control that day and he visualized it and verbalized it to me by the destruction of the circus!!! Poor elephants. We both had a hearty laugh and moved on to a discuss how he could "herd those elephants" back into the circus and how he could reconstruct the tent.

Bravo! You both get a standing ovation from us. We welcome any comments you have about your experience with the book. E mail us and let us know how your circus is going.

Labels: humor, stress

While waiting in the doctor's office with my dad this week I was perusing through the collection of magazines on the table. It's amazing where you can find stories and examples of people who literally have been juggling elephants and made the conscious decision to stop. Today's nugget comes courtesy of the June 2009 Oprah Magazine (Hey! It's a doctor's office-you didn't expect March 2010 did you?).

Jada Pinkett Smith is an actress, producer, writer and mother. She is also the wife of the actor Will Smith. In the article she writes, One day I was so overwhelmed I thought I might be crushed under the weight of all the responsibilities I'd taken on. Her solution came to her in a moment of meditation-The less I do, the better things will go.

She then offered two bits of advice on how she stopped juggling elephants (my words-not hers). They were:

• Being present. Whether at work or with your family, do what it takes to really BE in the moment.
• Trust that the people around her could do their jobs. A powerful insight in the article was When I was trying to control the people around me, they felt suffocated and invalidated. When I let go, they felt empowered, which created an atmosphere of harmony and there was peace within the everyday chaos.

In the closing of the article she writes, Since then [since she stopped juggling elephants], it's been a year of bliss. I don't have to go around trying to save everybody anymore. That's not my job. I took off the control freak crown, and now my headaches are over. To me, that sounds like a pretty good reason to stop juggling elephants.

Labels: engagement, juggling elephants, stress reduction

A big "act" in your relationship ring is probably your family or a "significant other". How do you keep track of and work effectively with the relationship performers in your circus? Here are a couple of quick suggestions:

• Have a family/relationship calendar. My mom taught me this one. Growing up we had a big calendar that hung on the wall in the kitchen. Whenever we had an activity or event that we were involved in as kids, we would be instructed to "put it on the calendar." If it wasn't on the calendar, it didn't happen! Now, with technology, my family has an online calendar that we all have access to. This calendar has saved me so many times and has probably helped my relationships with my family as well. It helps me remember family events and activities before I make commitments that might conflict-whether it is a dance recital, birthday or the ever important anniversary. It helps me to include in my lineup the activities that my family is involved in. I am also more productive because I can immediately respond to requests that involve "after hours" or "travel plans" because I can pull up our calendar, look for conflicts and give an immediate, yes or no.


• Sit down as a family at the beginning of the week and have a planning session. For one thing, this is a great time to review the calendar. What activities are going on in the next few weeks? Who needs a ride somewhere and when? Can we schedule time to actually sit down and eat a meal together? What about a vacation when everyone is free? With teenagers, this is even more vital. A weekly planning meeting doesn't take a long time and acts as "an ounce of prevention" for the week.

Family/relationship planning will not only help you get a standing ovation in your "relationship ring" but it will also help you in your "work ring". When you have a very busy schedule at work, the last thing you need to worry about or be distracted with is the great unknown of what is going on in the lives of those you care about. Relationship planning will allow you to stay focused and know when you can stay a little later at work and/or when you need to make sure to be out the door to make it home.

Labels: calendars, family, personal growth

Listen to this. A Netherlands-based electronics firm is creating a bracelet that will change color and flicker from yellow to red when a person's emotions rise to unhealthy levels. It's being developed chiefly for stock traders on European exchanges. When trading becomes too intense and the trader's blood pressure rises, the device will issue a warning to "take a time-out, wind down, or reconsider their actions," said the manufacturer. The results, hopefully, will be beneficial to investors-to say nothing of the stock brokers themselves.

What's your early warning indicator that you need to take a break? That you need to step back instead of trying to push forward mentally, emotionally or physically to the next task? Determining it now-before you hit the wall-and then planning how you will replenish the needed resources-will keep your circus running more smoothly.

Labels: intermission, relaxation, stress reduction

One of the consequences of attempting to "juggle elephants" is that we end up doing some of our tasks half way or that we deliver a product or service that is "half baked." More than ever, poor performance is a result of having too much to do and not enough time and focus to deliver.

Lord Chesterfield said, "Whatever you do, do it to the purpose; do it thoroughly, not superficially. Go to the bottom of things. Any thing half done, or half known, is in my mind, neither done nor known at all. Nay, worse, for it often misleads."

Take that little extra time to be thorough. Remove other "acts" from your "circus" to make sure you are delivering a quality performance.

Labels: excellence, planning, priorities