All posts filed under: Gratitude

10 Tactics to Better Manage Your Energy and Time 

Published by Colin Nanka

On Monday I talked about better managing your energy.  Below are my top 10 Tactical Ways I manage Energy and Time.  “Einstein is reported to have said that if he only had one hour to solve a problem he would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and the remaining 5 minutes solving it routinely.” Each Saturday morning for an HOUR (it’s a time I tend to be freshest) I re-organize my calendar for the next weeks ahead and ask myself:  Does this meeting serve my top 5 priorities this month, my team (direct team, boss and partner teams)?  How many mentor meetings do I have in the calendar? Optimal 2 per week.  How many peer collaboration meetings that provide me inspiration? Optimal 2-3 per week  I write a “Focus for the week” email to my team outlining our top 4-5 priorities for the week. They tell me it helps keep them on track and is a check for me against my responsibilities as a team leader.  I put my own oxygen mask on first. Starting …

You are overwhelmed, anxious and can’t get everything done

Published by Colin Nanka

Problem: You are overwhelmed, anxious and can’t fathom how you are possibly going to get everything done in the week, including reading and returning all your emails! Many people ask me how I manage time effectively? Solution: Read this old gem I wrote on Managing your energy and not your time, and… Answer these four questions: When am I at my best? If I look back at my best days, what has been consistent in all of them? Who do I lean on for positivity when I get anxious or overwhelmed? What is the best way I recharge my soul? Stay tuned Wednesday for tactical answers on how to better manage your energy and your time. Defeating Average Colin

Even Broadway performers have the yips

Published by Colin Nanka

It’s not how you start, but its how you finish! As my wife Blake tells me, people are only going to remember 1-2 things from a talk or a performance. Perhaps the opening, a compelling story in the middle and a strong close. What happens if you have a slow start? We’ve all been there. Lock it in and crush those 1-2 moments that people are going to remember long after it’s done! We were at a cabaret performance on a cruise through the Greek Islands on holidays and we had some world class Broadway performers put on shows each night. Most of them perform scenes or songs in well-known shows and do it over and over again at the world-class level. We are talking Tony nominee and award winners. They are not as used to stringing a number of unconnected songs or routines together for a cabaret. As they got settled into the one-hour performance, a couple had slow starts. You could tell they were getting their grounding in the routine. I noticed something …

Thank You For Showing Up

Published by Colin Nanka

Your pursuit may be individual but how you get there always has roots in a team. In my 1st year at Salesforce, we had a bunch of like-minded sales guys and gals who did a lot together. Worked hard, sold software had fun and found time to give back to our community. One thing we also did together that summer was meet one to two times per week at 6 am in a local park for a workout. Our friend Paul played high-level basketball and he ran us through some paces he did in his camps. Push ups, sit ups, carry bricks up and down hills and line runs. We were exhausted every time! We were also building the blocks or bricks of accountability. Just making that mental decision to get out of bed after 5 am to make it on time built our mental muscle. Once we were there, we always had a blast…and grabbed breakfast together after with a lot of laughs. We had many reasons not get out of bed or show …

How can you achieve staggering growth?

Published by Colin Nanka

  I believe that a commitment to a deliberate practice of leaning into discomfort just 1-2 % daily can produce incremental and staggering growth in capacity.   In my first professional 10 years, I wasted energy, I was inconsistent and kept needing to restart from zero every year and left a lot of opportunity on the table.  I was of a fixed mindset and let failure derail me instead of embracing it as a learning opportunity.    In my second career, I embraced failure as tuition to success. I realized by pushing towards my boundaries daily and leveraging the momentum of consistent effort and compound benefits, I could attain my true untapped potential.   It’s never too late to write the best chapters of your life.   Defeat Average this week.   Colin

Start by hitting it down the fairway

Published by Colin Nanka

Even for one of the best golfers of all time, that was the advice he followed on the first hole. If you can hit it down the center of the fairway to start the final round, it makes everything else easier. He last won a major golf championship (of the years 4 big tournaments) over 10 years ago! This will go down as one of the greatest comebacks in sports history! Two things said about his performance: “I did all the small things right today. Small things lead to big things.” He used “controlled aggression in his approach.” Not too risky but leaning on his competitors. A couple of good lessons useful for all phases of performance. Defeat Average this week. Colin

Perform like a champion

Published by Colin Nanka

“Success is often gained by not doing battle, the strategy is as much in knowing what not to do as it is in knowing what to do.” – Sun-Tzu Excerpt from the “The Way of the Champion by Jerry Lynch” NCAA Championship Coach and Sports Psychologist. “An accomplished jazz musician once told me that truly good music is the result of the space between the notes. The pause makes it what it is. Musical pauses are not a lack of action; they are an integral part of the action. So it is with your training and work schedule. Getting in good shape, being at your best regardless of your sport or career, is the result of the rest (pause) or space between the intervals of work. Your cellular structure is fragile and requires periods of rest. Like a champion, you need to learn how to massage your mind and body into shape as opposed to excessively forcing or pushing it there.” Find your time to battle, not battle and enjoy the pauses between the notes. …

Clear is kind, unclear is unkind

Published by Colin Nanka

Tough conversations are critical to your success as a leader. It’s a combination of empathy, aligning on values and being courageous on a conversation. Brene Brown spoke to our company earlier this month and as she shared “Clear is kind, unclear is unkind.”  We often sugarcoat or give people half truths to make ourselves feel better when giving feedback. “Not getting clear with a colleague about your expectations because it feels too hard, yet holding them accountable or blaming them for not delivering is unkind.” Of course, you need to invest in the relationship and build trust to earn the right to give feedback. Be Clear. Highly recommend Brene Brown’s new book, Dare to Lead. Defeating the Average within. Colin

When your odds are 42 to 1…you should just go home

Published by Colin Nanka

On Feb 11, 1990, Buster Douglas went to Tokyo, Japan a 42 to 1 underdog against Mike Tyson for the boxing heavyweight championship of the world. I was a big Tyson fan when I was younger, most of my friends were. There was just something about his awesome power in the ring and the show he put on. I remember where I was and the moment I realized Tyson was in trouble. Most people don’t know Douglas’ back story and that his father was an ironclad contender in the middleweight division. Buster lived in the shadow of his father’s legend in the ring for much of his life. His mother was his rock. On this night, he lived up and came out of his shadow. ESPN and the 30 for 30 sports franchise just released the unknown story of Buster Douglas in 42 to 1. If you have ever felt like you haven’t quite lived up to your potential (spoiler, we all do) or there is a championship sequel that you need to write, this …

Five things I learned prepping for company kickoff

Published by Colin Nanka

“Does everyone know how to properly use a handheld microphone”, Angela on my team asked? One hour before we were presenting in front of 300 people. The good thing was most of our people had presented in front of large audiences before, but a couple had not! Presenting in front of hundreds of people with a large team is like coordinating a stage production. You need to know where everyone is going to be at all times, with the right words, singing along to the same theme song and making it a unique experience for each person in the audience. For those of you in the chorus, behind the scenes or is in your future plans…some considerations: The Visuals – Get your messaging right and make sure it ties to your theme throughout. Have an objective 3rd party not in the show give you feedback can be helpful. The Choreography – Know who is coming onto the stage, when and what they are going to perform and who they hand off too. You can never …