“Stop treating slow days as throwaways and shift your mindset,” says Leadership Expert and President of LearnToLead, Dave Anderson. On this episode of Lessons in Leadership, Anderson covers his sixth commandment of organizational peak performance, which centers on making every day your masterpiece.
According to Anderson, dwelling on “yesterday” costs leaders their ability to act. Similarly, bracing for tomorrow does the same. He says that both pull focus away from the moment in front of them.
"I don't get to borrow credibility from what I did once upon a time, or cash royalty checks from who I was way back when."
Anderson pushes back on the idea that early-week or early-month days matter less. Often, leaders assume there’s still time to catch up later, but that mindset, he says, treats the day as a throwaway rather than an opportunity.
Anderson describes the discipline as being where your feet are. Specifically, it means mastering the moment right in front of you. That’s different from getting pulled into yesterday, or into what might happen weeks from now. Beyond that, he says the same discipline applies to how leaders structure their teams’ days, not just their own.
The goal isn’t just getting through the day. Instead, Anderson wants leaders to build structure into each day so their people get something from it, not just pass it. Ultimately, there are no redos and today isn’t a dress rehearsal, he says.
Moreover, that mindset means showing up to prove yourself again daily, regardless of what happened the night before. Anderson describes it as going all in on the things that matter most. It also means cutting the minor tasks that pull focus away from them.
By consistently planting the right seeds, he says, the results follow. Leaders who focus on doing the right things each day will see results show up on their own. Over time, that happens naturally, not by directly chasing results.
It’s more than a mantra, he says. Rather, it’s a mindset that applies beyond the workplace. He says it shapes how people approach their lives outside of it too.
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