Effective leaders develop a toolbox. I thought it was worth sharing what’s in my toolbox. These get used over and over.
80/20 thinking – iterative and fractal
S-curve recognition
Mindmaps to clarify messy thinking
Imaginative pre-mortems, then after-action reviews
Rolling work forecasts for team planning
Force diagrams to design change-shaping work
Effective 1:1 and staff meetings
Delegation
Feedback to improve future performance
System causal loop diagrams
Portfolio management tactics
Calendar management and controlling time/effort allocation
Assumption testing
Stepping up and out, observing without absorbing
Prewiring strategic decisions with stakeholders
Frameworks for effective updates (verbal, written)
Mantras and preaching-to-self tactics
Change-shaping strategies
Rhythms of work and recovery (multiple scales)
Budgets: building and managing
Strategic networking
Negotiation
Queries to get to root causes and below-the-waterline issues
The apprentice model
“Getting Things Done” next-step capture, execution, and reviews
Scenario planning
Exploiting ideas from other disciplines and industries
Breathing tactics for managing emotional situations
Interviewing and onboarding strategies
Distinguishing reversible and non-reversible decisions
Project oversight: Who does what task by when?
De-risking project work
It’s the *combination* of these tools which creates the extraordinary. Also, a tool isn’t useful until it is used.
What’s in your toolbox? What do you need to add? Which tools require more practice for you?
