#94: By when?

This Thursday holds one of the last official sessions I will have with a wonderful life coach I've had the last six months. Looking back on this journey with her, I realized one of the most powerful acts/habits she inspired me to undertake was to attach specific dates to ALL of my goals. Every time I completed a form stating my upcoming goals, and every time we closed out our calls with next steps moving forward, I had to be sure I included the intended date for completion of my next planned goal(s). For example, "I am able to get 4-5 productive workouts in per week by January 1st, 2019." Or "I am able to speak much more kindly to myself by December 15, 2018." Or, "By our next call, I will have taken two relaxing day trips!" My life coach always helped me exercise the muscle of accountability with practice with tying dates to everything. My goals became far more real doing so. Thank you Sasha for reminding me of what I find to be a truly significant and meaningful practice. 

- Amanda 

Sasha Dichter      sdichter@acumen.org 

By when?

Behaviors around time and deadlines are some of the most important unspoken elements of your team culture

Do we ship?

Or do we delay?

Do we let plans and projects float around without deadlines?

And when we say the due date, what does everyone understand? Is it real or will we “do our best” to hit it? (or know that we’ll blow right past it?)

These elements of your culture can be seen in the most micro of interactions. As in:

The email you receive says, “Could you give this a quick read and get it back to me?”

Or, “Looking forward to receiving your thoughts.”

Or, “I’m slammed right now, can you please review this for me?”

As the recipient of these sorts of messages, you empower yourself and strengthen your culture of shipping by asking, each and every time, “by when?”

“By when” says you will hold yourself accountable to that date.

“By when” reinforces clarity for both of you.

“By when” is the first step towards making, and keeping, a promise.

And “by when” communicates (to you, to your colleague) that you have your own priority list, that your work is important, that the simple fact that someone senior to you (or not) needs something doesn’t mean it’s automatically at the top of your list too–unless they and you put it there.

Yes, be flexible, and create a culture of support, pitching in, and having each others’ backs. But your culture of hitting deadlines is only possible when we talk about time and managing priorities in all our interactions, and handle that precious time with intention.

Oh, and if you care about this sort of thing and want to strengthen your team’s culture of shipping, you must get everyone a copy of Seth Godin’s Ship It Journal. Download a free copy here, or buy a beautiful journal version from MOO.com.

The post By when? appeared first on Sasha Dichter's Blog.

Sasha's first-person bio:

As Acumen’s Chief Innovation Officer, I oversee Acumen’s three fastest-growing verticals: Lean Data, which brings customer voice into impact measurement; the Acumen Fellows Programs, with more than 400 Fellows globally; and +Acumen, the World’s School for Social change. I’ve also been blogging since 2008 and have written more than 1,000 blog posts on generosity, philanthropy and social change. I was the instigator behind Generosity Day and, frustrated with how nonprofits approach fundraising, I wrote the Manifesto for Nonprofit CEOs, a free resource that has been shared with thousands of nonprofit CEOs and Boards who care about making a difference.      I find I get the most joy from my work when I see someone around me change and grow.