Write your wishlist today: #1 advice for Leaders & Followers

There can never be better collation of thoughts than to write about 'wishlists' on birthday. :)

In dictionaries worldwide wishlist are defined as 'a list of desired things or occurrences.' This is something that has ability to sum up all expectations - from now to then, from present to future, even for the future so distant that no one has ever seen before.

Writing a true wishlist requires clarity and purity in thoughts, it requires courage and confidence to publish it to the world and sometimes it may take years to strike off each item after fulfilment.

The reason to emphasize on writing a wishlist is simple - unless there is a wishlist, there is a little chance of clarity on the goal to achieve or destination to reach. Without a wishlist leader cannot guide and follower cannot follow the path. A CEO will surely miss the mission and Project Manager will keep crying foul on scope creep :)

Wishlist published at the beginning of the project will keep teams on precise path during execution and sponsors delighted at the closure. In my opinion managing the wishlist is all what 'project management' is all about.

I encourage to screw around vigorously (Way # 108 S.A.V from The little big things by Tom Peters)  to get your reporting staff, your manager, your leadership, your CEO, your board, even your wife & kids to write true wishlists and publish it to you. Begin by asking - what is it that you truly desire ? Ask this question openly in townhalls, in your quarterly reviews, or weekly meetings or simply whenever you meet next.

Once wishlists are written and published - there is zero confusion on scope, expectation, the destination or the goal forever. Next steps become simple to take and that too on correct path - from the wishlists leaders & followers both know - whether to take the road less travelled or just keep treading on the beaten path.

Getting wishlists written becomes the forward step to take after Next Natural Step of Start with Why (preceding post). It settles dust & confusion, and is capable of getting everybody sign up for team.

Wishlists are important tool for everybody - from CEOs to Employees, from Head of the family to junior of the family, Wishlists have the ability to make or break a relationship.

In the chapter of humanity - relationship is all that matters - it's beyond the contract.

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This post was first published on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/write-your-wishlist-today-1-advice-leaders-followers-hirdesh-gupta

One thing at a time

It may sound very simple to do 'one thing at a time', however it's not, at least not in complex work spaces and organizations of our time. Reason: Our mind is a wonderful object, it can focus and it can split focus at the same time.

Over the period of years I have seen, that almost all the time, myself and people around me have benefited by adhering religiously to this simple principle. The advantage of not getting knocked down by noise in the environment by multi-tasking weighs huge in favour.

We can argue about pros & cons and many other things, however the point I want to illustrate is how to actually do and implement this principle. While I was preparing to write, I came across a interesting post of Mark Forster with the same title on his blog 'Get Everything done'. You can read the post here.

In very simple words, he has spilled the secret sauce. The method is to list down everything (slotted already into tasks) in descending order of urgency ( not in order of importance - 'coz if they are not important, why they are on your list ;). [ This is just like AGILE methods, writing down user stories, prioritizing them, adding dog points and then allocating resources to complete the user stories. ]

Once you are done with the list, start putting an end date to each of the task after allocating 100% (or whatever % available) of yourself to the task. Once done, do S.A.V (Screw Around Vigorously - do it 'coz it fixes) and finish. No excuses to CYA (Cover Your Ass)

If you cannot finish on time, revisit the estimates and update all dates. remember not to skip to reduce the count of task at hand. Follow this principle and thy soul be rewarded in both long & short run with peace and comfort.