How to Create Effective Leader Standard Work with Paul Dunlop | 111

How to Create Effective Leader Standard Work with Paul Dunlop | 111

Welcome to Lean Leadership for Ops Managers, the podcast for leaders in Ops Management who want to spark improvement, foster engagement, and boost problem solving – AND still get their day job done. Here’s your host, Leadership Trainer, Lean Enthusiast, and Spy Thriller Junkie, Jamie V. Parker.
Welcome to Lean leadership Leadership for Ops Managers, the podcast for leaders in Ops management who want to spark improvement, foster engagement and boost problem solving and still get their day job done. Here’s your host leadership trainer, Lean enthusiast and spy thriller junkie. Jamie V. Parker.

As a leader, do you find too much of your time is spent in chaos and firefighting? Would you prefer to spend your energy moving your team toward an improved culture with better business results?

Leader standard work isn’t just something you do because you read it in a book. Side note that’s exactly why I messed up with it the first time about a decade ago. You can hear more about that total failure in episode number 30 Leader standard work on Raw. But you don’t just do leader standard work because you’re supposed to. Leader standard work helps you cut through the chaos and create a stable environment ripe for continuous improvement.

Last week, Tracy O’Rourke started this conversation with us about the power of leader routines. And this week we’re digging deeper into the topic and tactics of Leader standard work with our guest, Paul Dunlop. Now, Paul Dunlop, owner of Dunlop Consulting out of Melbourne, Australia, helps businesses go from chaos to calm. Paul leverages his 20 years of experience in management and manufacturing and incorporates elements of the Toyota production systems into his consulting practice. His focus on people, process, play and profit helps companies become more effective while enriching people’s work lives.

Now, although Paul and I have been following each other’s journeys on LinkedIn for years, today’s episode is actually the first time that Paul and I had a chance to talk one on one, and he brings so much great advice and learnings to the table. If you’re not connected with Paul on LinkedIn yet, go do it like right now. You can find his LinkedIn profile in our show notes at process plus results forward slash podcast.

Now, every week, Paul shares videos with real world improvement examples, lessons and advice, giving away a ton of value. And that’s why I want you to connect with him. All right. With that, let’s dive in to today’s dialog.

Jamie: [00:02:37] Hi, Paul. Welcome to the show today.

Paul: [00:02:40] Hi, Jamie. How are you?

Jamie: [00:02:42] Oh, I’m so good. And it’s so good to be talking with you. I know we have had this kind of relationship via LinkedIn where we’ve kind of seen each other’s work and commented on each other’s work. But is our first time really getting to talk and get to know each other more? So this is exciting.

Paul: [00:02:57] Yeah, absolutely. Not not about time, but I appreciate you asking me onto the podcast. Fantastic.

Jamie: [00:03:03] Yeah. Well, let’s jump in and have our listeners get to know you a little bit more. Tell us a little bit about the work you do. Who do you help solve? What problem?

Paul: [00:03:11] I’m a lane management consultant and based in Melbourne, Australia. I guess I work to help client businesses improve systems, processes, people, culture and leadership individually and collectively. And I think really what I do and I work predominantly in the manufacturing space, but really work to build structures that facilitate sustainable cultures of learning and improvement. So that’s sort of the approach.

My business tagline is taking businesses from chaos to Calm, which always gets a laugh, but that’s sort of from from their mouth, not mine. And, you know, I think we’re going to talk a little bit about that today, but really trying to help people get out of chaos and fire fighting and reactive behavior and getting to a place where, you know, things are stable and relatively smooth and calm most days.

Jamie: [00:04:05] Yeah, Full disclosure, when I have read that or heard you say that in some of your posts, I’m like, Oh, that is brilliant. That makes so good because that’s what I hear too, right? It’s like, Oh, we’re in living in this constant chaos. We just want to get out of this chaos. And so I think you’re on to something with that for sure.

Paul: [00:04:23] Yeah, I think so. You can you can see it, you can feel it, you can hear it. And it’s, you know, within within a couple of minutes in most organizations, you’ve got it pretty worked out, you know, where they’re at. And I think the more I talk to people globally, you know, it’s not certainly not a local problem here in Australia. It’s it’s everywhere and everyone has those challenges. And I guess today, you know, we talk about the middle managers probably being the people who suffer the most. And latest standard work is a really great tool to help cut through that chaos.

Jamie: [00:04:57] Yeah, well, I can’t wait to dive into that. Just so we know a little bit about your perspective from a leadership standpoint. Can you share with us a a value, a mantra, a principle, a quote, something that kind of embodies your beliefs about leadership?

Paul: [00:05:13] So probably a couple is one sort of the overriding thing for me and again, a daily conversation is really leader as coach and leader as servant and probably again is going to touch on the leader standard work is that too many leaders are always use sporting analogies and so the leaders are sort of running around chasing the ball with everybody else and really should be above it or on the sidelines watching what’s what’s going on.

So I think that’s really important. And again, the service part the service part isn’t doing the work for people. It’s giving them an enabling them and giving them the tools that they require and the guidance that they require in terms of a quote, a bit of a read, a bit of stoic philosophy, a lot of stoicism. So I had to be a Marcus Aurelius quote. So from Marcus Aurelius, it is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.

Jamie: [00:06:17] Yeah, I feel like I just I just want to dive into that. We could scrap leader standard work. Let’s spend 30 minutes.

Paul: [00:06:26] Yeah, there’s a lot in that one.

Jamie: [00:06:27] There is so much to unpack. And I know it’s actually I had a text message, actually from a manager at a client organization last night and just continuing a conversation. He was reflecting on some conversations we’ve had. And this was kind of this thing of this. He’s like, What?

But isn’t this this is what we talked about. We wanted to do and this is better now. We’re kind of settling for this down here. And I don’t understand why we changed our strategy. And but part of it is like, okay, yeah, like this is ideal and where we wanted to go, but it’s not what you got right now. So we can.

Paul: [00:07:00] Yeah, yeah.

Jamie: [00:07:01] You know, let’s, let’s work with, with the hand worked out right now.

Paul: [00:07:05] Yeah, absolutely. And I think the thing is, with continuous improvement in general, we it’s okay for it to be messy and imperfect because it is most of the time. And I think we, you know, we have a bit of shiny object syndrome and we want things to be a certain way, but it’s okay if it’s not. And again, we’re talking about better not perfect. And I think that’s that’s a really important lesson. Yeah because it never is perfect and yeah so yes again Leader standard work is one of those things.

Jamie: [00:07:37] Yeah. Well let’s jump in. So Leader standard work, I know I’ve heard quite a few different types of definitions and descriptions and what it’s all about, so let’s hear it from your perspective. How would you describe what Leader standard work is?

Paul: [00:07:50] Yeah, and I think that’s a fair point. I mean, even with the stuff that I put out there, people will have have an opinion, of course. And I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way to do it, but I think there’s some sort of underlying principles and it’s really understanding what the purpose is behind it. But I’d describe it as a is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point contribution lies and then making execution effortless.

So for me, Leader standard work, it was a tool that I used throughout my production management career, and I knew it was useful. I saw the value and the benefits from doing it, but it’s really not even until the last few years. As a consultant, I really understand the power of the tool and it’s very much a foundational tool. So if we’re looking at the house of Toyota, what what’s it about at the foundational level, it’s standardization and stability. So if we’re going to improve our culture and our processes, we need our leaders to be stable.

We need our leaders to be focused on the right things and managing managing their time, managing themselves appropriately to to be effective. And I see, I guess, a lot of leaders working excessively hard. I heard, you know, Tracy and Ernie Richardson were on Patrick’s podcast and and he said, you know, are you working for the process or is the process working for you? And I think a lot of leaders spend their time particularly closer to the front lines, compensating for the gaps or the missing parts of processes.

Paul: [00:09:35] And it’s it’s very difficult to watch. And really I talk a lot about choice and that in a world of, again, that chaos, chaos and fire fighting, there’s no choice. It’s just you have to work longer. You have to work harder, faster, more to still do the things that you need to do. And people ultimately start to pay a price and the organization pays a price as a result of that.

So, you know, I sort of made a few notes just in terms of what I think Leader standard work is. And I think it’s it’s many things. And again, I think there’s misconceptions around that. But at a fundamental level, it’s a checklist. It’s really nothing more than that’s a simple checklist.

It’s a it’s a time slash self-management tool. I think it’s a strategic alignment tool because it’s ensuring that we’re spending our time, our energy, our effort, that skills on the right things to contribute to the bigger picture, certainly as a virtue of it being a routine that we’re practicing every day, it’s developing habits. And so much of continuous improvement is about, you know, establishing and developing those habits. It’s a clarity and prioritization tool. It standardizes roles and responsibilities is all too often the role is unwritten.

Jamie: [00:11:00] Oh, all the talking.

Paul: [00:11:03] Yeah. And so, you know, someone goes on holiday or someone leaves the organization and they’re like, Hey, what did that person do? And we spend a lot of time figuring that out often, you know, and we might talk about that. They’re not even clear on what their role is. They’re making assumptions and everyone’s making assumptions. It’s a coaching and development tool.

So, you know, I again, I really work a lot with my clients on, you know, a reflective practice and a learning practice through the standard works. And of course, like any continuous improvement tool, it should drive continuous improvement. It should make us better every day and it should highlight and expose opportunities for improvement. So and there’s probably other things, but really for me, that’s the the guts of it.

Jamie: [00:11:53] Yeah, it’s like you just kind of named benefit after benefit and like use after use and how this can have an impact. And I think that sometimes we just think it’s the thing to do, right? This thing that we got to check off the box and it’s the next thing on our journey or whatever. But now you’re saying, hey, gosh, you know what? This can actually really help you step out of some of that firefighting and impact in so many ways.

So it would be fun to dive into some of that for sure. So let me ask you, when you think then about Leader standard work and, you know, we’ve got definitely operations leaders that are tuning in to this. What are some of the routines or activities that you think are really important for operations leaders to incorporate in their Leader standard work? Like, let’s just kind of help.

We’re going to just kind of build this out and let people get some different looks into what this might look like. Where do you what have you seen is like, Oh, these are some things that are important to to be there.

Paul: [00:12:49] Sure. It’s probably more general than specific advice around this, but I think the Leader standard work tool is really about clarity, prioritization and exposure. I think they’re they’re the sort of key things for me. I think like you touched on all too often, it’s utilized as a compliance tool which starts to feel like it’s, you know, it’s a bit micromanaging. It’s it’s those sorts of things. It’s like a five se checklist that can be a bit tick and flick.

And I’ve seen plenty of that, and I’m sure you have. So I guess depending on where you are as a leader in the organization, the composition of your standard work will differ. You know, a frontline manager to a senior manager. So it’s going to be a mix of operational, tactical and strategic. And so there’s there’s certainly a blend there. And obviously, the closer to the action you are, the more prescriptive your standard work is going to be because you’re tied to a process or type closer to a process.

Ultimately, I think it’s it’s just getting people’s routine and their time in a calm, structured and organized way. So I think the key elements for me are always going to revolve, particularly around communication. So things like the daily management system and tiered meetings, communication structures, Gemba walks, I guess the critical functions of the role that only the leader in that position could or should do and generally focus on value adding behavior in a sequential and logical flow.

Paul: [00:14:33] I think the other thing that’s important is that there has to be some when you start with standard work, there has to be a reality check because we can sit there and we can document the perfect day. And that’s that’s great. But the starting point is not that reality. And so you’re almost it’s sort of peg and a square hole type stuff. You’re trying to force this this perfect day into a really messy, chaotic day and it doesn’t work. And I think that’s really where a lot of stress starts to come quickly and where people give up because, hang on, this, this doesn’t work.

So I guess you have to have understand where you’re starting at that starting point. You have to allocate time for the unplanned and reactive behavior. And I think you always need to do that and you all always need to, I guess, allocate time for the proactive behavior too.

So the day to day follow up and your more strategic work, whether you’re working on an A3 or something like that. So you you have to put that time in and plan for that time. That’s really, really important. But again, I think it’s just the key functions of the role and obviously people and process focus. So managing and controlling and and improving.

Jamie: [00:16:01] Yeah, I love that, you know, idea that you shared about, you know, what are those, you know, critical functions that really only that leader, you know, could or should do and driving some of that people leadership people the communication some of these pieces is that that’s where you look to first. Where do I start? We’ll start and start with some of that. Right. Where should you spend your time? What what are the some of the high value things that you can do?

And but then there was also like a little warning there because I think that what you’re saying is you’ve probably seen some of this too, when I’ve seen is that so typically it’s top down and the boss comes in and says, Hey, you guys need to be doing leader standard work.

And sometimes the boss will give it to them and say, This is your leader standard work, which I think is probably not the way we want to do that, right? But then even if it’s even if it is a lot like, okay, so now the mid-level managers get to figure out, okay, what is their leader standard work is that they try to do it all at once. Like, here’s that perfect day that you were alluding to, right?

Or describing, here’s this perfect day, but their day is so unstructured and so reactionary right now that they can’t move from their current state to this perfect day in like one big jump. And that’s what it sounded like you were. You are you’ve experienced or seen as well.

Paul: [00:17:19] Yeah, every single time. And it’s I think people think it’s just quite an obvious easy tool, but it’s probably one of the hardest. You know, in some ways it’s like and I equate at 25 s it’s like five single day. Yeah, you do your decluttering and organizing and all, all of that sort of stuff. So five. S Yeah, it sounds relatively simple and easy. It’s not.

We know that leader Standard works the same and leader Standard. I see people, most of the leaders in my clients will take three, six, often 12 months to really come to terms with it, and there’ll be a penny dropping moment where they go, Oh, I get it. And I can now see the benefits and I have all these people that are loving their standard work, but at the beginning they really struggle with, right?

And it’s this ongoing conversation and, you know, I’m consistent and persevere and coach them through that process because I know where that takes them. And, you know, again, you touch on the fact that, you know, when it’s top down and when it’s prescriptive and given to people, it’s like going to an operator on a production line floor and giving them their standard work. It doesn’t work that way. And people are generally going to resist. People aren’t going to see the value of the benefit in the tool because it’s being forced upon them.

Paul: [00:18:44] Again, we don’t do continuous improvement to people. So yeah, there’s there’s a lot of watch outs there, I think, in terms of actually developing the standard work. So it probably leads on to that is that leaders should develop their own standard work within a template. And I’m I think a lot of the time with my consulting, I let things diverge and it can be non standardized and all of that. And then we can come back to a place of standardization.

I think for me, Leader standard work starts with a good quality position description. I think a lot of my work early on is looking at a structure. Is is a structure conducive to what we’re trying to achieve? Are the roles in that structure clearly defined? Have we got the right people? Have we got the right people and the right places? But all too often when you ask that question, have you got a position description?

Do you understand what you know constitutes your role? Most people will say, Well, I think I do these these assumptions and their boss thinks one thing, their team thinks another thing. So there’s all of this perhaps confusion and gray areas around that. And I know position descriptions aren’t perfect. However, we have to define that way.

Paul: [00:20:08] And then really for me, Leader standard work is a derivation of the position description, but we’re just distilling it down into the key components, and that’s really the starting point. And I’ll work with leaders to then go, okay, if you list out everything that you do, categorize it into, must do, should do, nice to do and start start with the masters.

So they’re the, you know, the things that are going to keep you up at night if you if you don’t do them or you know the things we drive halfway home and forgot to do that. So it’s getting those things down. It’s understanding. Okay, what are they how long do they take, When should I do them? And really starting to paint a visual picture. So again, it’s a visual. It should be a visual tool. It should be something that is tangible that we touch and feel every day.

So I think that in itself just starts to highlight, you know, we’re looking at the capacity. So whatever, you know, what’s the whatever the nominal number of hours in your week are, the must do activities already populating that. So I’m seeing how much capacity is being utilized off the bat. So I think that’s extremely powerful. I’m sure you hear the word I’m too busy. I don’t have time.

Jamie: [00:21:27] That’s only every single day.

Paul: [00:21:30] Yeah. Once or twice. So it’s. It’s this and. I would say that maybe 5% of people is it? Perhaps there’s some people that are legitimately asked to do too much. Their demands are too big. But most people for me, that’s it’s just an excuse or it’s just a deflection. And so, again, it’s really looking at the key components of the role and then we can start to to go from there. So that’s really the starting point for me.

The other part of that is I think it’s it’s an awareness tool. It’s like mindfulness for your job. So the starting point should be just creating awareness around how how you’re spending your time. What is the composition of reactive to plan? Because like we talked about earlier, if you’re if you’re starting at a point where it’s 80% of your day is reactive and 20% is planned, well, how can you then I always talk about being 80% planned as as the goal, how can you force 80% into 20%?

It doesn’t work. And so you’re almost setting yourself up for failure to to begin with. So let’s be realistic about what the capacity is. And if it is 20%, it’s 20%. So what are the key things that you put into that 20%? And then let’s understand what the composition of the reactive behavior is, and then we can start to to problem solve and improve from back to that.

Jamie: [00:23:01] That’s what I always love about leaders here. Work in the failing air, quoting failing and leader standard work is that what it’s really doing is it’s showing you race, making problems visual, and it’s showing you where the opportunities are and where we do need to do some problem solving because otherwise, like if I don’t do that, if I don’t say, Oh, look at this great information, I just found out and we just discovered by doing this and now we get to go problem solve it, then we’re just going to keep doing it. We’re going to be six months or 12 months down the road and we’re going to look back and we’re going to be doing the same thing, right?

Paul: [00:23:31] Yeah. Yeah. No, exactly right. And again, it’s it’s helping people to understand the difference between busy work and adding work in that role. And, you know, anyone can be busy. But unfortunately, culturally to we see busyness as a way of showing value. And you know, the the the the white horse the not on the white horse analogy, I’m going to come in and solve the same problem day in, day out. And people think I’m wonderful and I’m rewarded for that behavior.

And we’re also conditioned certainly, you know, in the West, you know, as soon as we go into our first part time jobs and employment, you’re told to look busy, to be busy, to be seen, to be busy. And that’s that’s very problematic. And we have to think differently about that.

Jamie: [00:24:26] Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Okay. So you gave us kind of the starting point and we’re going to, you know, figure out our our must do’s and our should do’s and are nice to do’s. And I’m going to figure out what the composition is of reactive and plan. And you also said that, you know, this can be, you know, this 12 month process.

So like, what happens? What are you doing with clients over that time period? Because what I think might happen is I think people might start and then get stuck when they don’t have someone like you helping them. And then it’s just like, Oh, that didn’t work. I’m going to put it on the shelf. Right? So what what are some of those next pieces that come to be able to continue through with it?

Paul: [00:25:06] So again, there’s probably a couple of things is really I want people, when they’re using the standard really like I said to to to use it to be I really like I know it can be done digitally or through kamishibai or all sorts of things, but it’s really a printed sheet every day on a clipboard and they’re literally ticking things off as they go.

Obviously, it doesn’t matter if every box is ticked. I don’t really care about that, but really what I want them to do is to actually log how they’re actually spending the time log all of the the interruptions and that fire fighting and reactive behavior. So they start to see it. So that’s that’s certainly part of it. So again, it’s about creating awareness for them. The other part of that is really building part of the standard work is reflective practice. So every day, again, we’re practicing PDCA.

So we’re we’re spending time deliberately and intentionally every day to look at, okay, what was my plan for the day, What actually happened, what went well, what didn’t, what do I need to do differently and improve on? And that could be 5 minutes. But at least going through that at the start or the end of the day, I’d really recommend that.

Paul: [00:26:21] Then we’re putting a structure around. So obviously me as a consultant pop in every month and there’s a coaching conversation. But I think Leader standard work becomes part of the performance review conversation. So I would certainly recommend that, you know, a leader is meeting with their one up probably on a fortnightly basis to just sit down and look at that. And again, there’s a there’s a great feedback loop and learning that can can come from from that.

So that’s probably a couple of the things there. Again, I try to give leaders, you know, a high degree of flexibility and ownership over their standard work. I’m not I can suggest a bunch of things. I’m not going to prescribe anything that they have to go on that journey themselves. And sometimes that, yeah, they’re going to find it hard. They’ll be resistance, they’ll get lost, they’ll they’ll stop doing their standard work and then they’ll they’ll come back to it. And it’s just keeping that conversation going and being consistent around that. So not not not pushing. They have to find a way themselves.

Jamie: [00:27:28] Right?

Paul: [00:27:29] So I’m not sure if that answers the question, but I think they’re just putting some structure in place around that and it has to be part of the overall continuous improvement structure in any organization that it is layered to. So everyone in a leadership role has to have standard work from the frontline through to the CEO. It’s because they all again, if they’re looking at a sporting analogy, everyone has that position to play, everybody has a role to play individually, and those roles link together collectively to achieve the results we’re after.

Jamie: [00:28:05] Yeah, it was definitely a shift that, you know, I made from over the years through all of my mistakes. You guys know that there’s like a whole episode of me talking about Leader standard work gone wrong, so I’ll will link that in the show notes. Folks can go and listen to that. But this idea that like it’s I think certainly I think the power in Leader standard work really almost is the journey that the leader goes through.

Like it’s it’s not even it’s really not the checklist, you know, I mean, like that’s the that is the avenue through which they go through discovery and problem solving and all of those things. And they and Claire getting clarity and and all of that happens through that process. And so so me I’m like, you know, I want to short circuit that right because I just want to get to the answer. Let’s get you a perfect checklist ready And but like by doing that, I’m robbing them of the opportunity to actually do that discovery for themselves, which is just so much greater.

And that’s why, you know, like sustainability becomes hard when I say, Hey, here’s your leader standard work just doesn’t work the same. That’s not what it is right now. I can give a starting point because people have been in your role before and say, Hey, here’s some here’s how other people have done this role successfully and whatever. So learn from what people have done and that can create more clarity about your role. But there is still a process for folks to go through on their own.

Paul: [00:29:20] Yeah, absolutely. And sort of it’s been interesting to talk to people who’ve come out the other side. And the thing that I think keeps coming through and obviously, you know, you do a lot of leadership coaching is the self-awareness that it creates because it helps them to step out and almost disconnect in many respects.

And I always say to people, What advice would you give yourself? And they’d say, Oh, well, I need to stop running around solving other people’s problems and I need to stop being interrupted all the time and, you know, whatever. So I think there’s there’s a self awareness component. The other part is I think letting go is another big one. And that’s a broad conversation that can be letting go of, particularly as people rise through an organization, they still hold on to a lot of tasks.

People control and micromanage people, you know, get involved in lots of things that they shouldn’t. Yeah, a whole plethora of things. But they’re the sort of things that are important. And I think the leader standard work ultimately, because I think you use the word standard and people, you know, immediately think, Well, I’m going to be constrained by this thing.

It’s rigid and it’s micromanaging and all of these sort of things where I’ll actually say, well, I think I think the standard actually liberates you. It frees you. And again, it’s making it very easy for you to see what you should be doing and what you’re actually doing. And it’s not there’s no judgment there. It’s just it is what it is.

Jamie: [00:30:53] Yeah. So we’re going to wrap up in just a moment. Before we do, I know we kind of touched on this a little bit, but I just want to bring you back for the for the person who’s out there listening who says, you know what, Like I, I think that this could be good. I see the value in it, you know, conceptually.

But I just I am overwhelmed. I’m in that I’m in that, you know, 80% reactionary world. And I just don’t see how I can do this. Like, this feels like doing more and there’s just no way I could do it. There’s I can never plan my day like that because bye bye minute for of the day my plan is shot. So for that person that’s out there, you know what? What would you say to them?

Paul: [00:31:31] Yeah. And that’s everyone. Again, it’s just being realistic. I think that’s the that’s the key thing and understanding that this is an investment over the long term and it’s not going to be a quick fix. It’s certainly not going to be a magic wand. So that’s okay. And like I said earlier, it’s don’t don’t set yourself up for failure. Just be realistic.

If it’s three things that you need to achieve in the day, well, it’s three things. But the important thing is you understand what all of the other stuff. What are the blockers and roadblocks and interruptions and things. Start to analyze that and look at how you can start to eliminate or reduce those things. And over time. So like I said, it comes down to choice. Choice is the operative word. So fire fighting, no choice. Standard work, lots of choice and lots of freedom. And I think day to day it’s are we making the right choices?

Because a lot of these we accept or we create ourselves and we we allow and we accept and whatever else. So I always talk about running things through a filter. So, you know, looking at all of the stuff, can you eliminate the thing? Can you delegate it, Can you automate it, Can you procrastinate because not everything’s urgent and can you escalate things Because often we we sit with things too long or set the things that we shouldn’t take responsibility for, things that we shouldn’t. So there’s a bunch of stuff there.

Again, I think it’s all about just creating awareness of what’s what’s really going on and then just working through that. So and again, that’s where the sort of compliance thing doesn’t work because people, you know, there’s this pressure and expectation placed on them and this is really more of a self discovery journey with with coaching and guidance, if anything.

Jamie: [00:33:36] Yes, I love it also. Well, Paul, thank you so much. As we wrap up today, what words of encouragement or advice would you leave our listeners with?

Paul: [00:33:46] Oh, I think it’s it’s definitely to be patient and persevere, because with Leader standard work, it will be worth it. And again, it depends on your starting point. But if it takes 12 months, it takes 12 months. That’s okay. But you’re going to be in an infinitely better place. And yeah, so I think that’s it. I think you touched on before it. It feels like it’s going to be more work. It’s certainly going to challenge you and there’ll be a lot of resistance. But again, it’s going to give you choice. It will create time and space and get you to that calm place.

Jamie: [00:34:28] Yes. Awesome. I love it. Well, thank you so much for joining and sharing your experience today with our listeners.

Paul: [00:34:36] No, thank you, Jamie. That was awesome. An absolute pleasure.

Jamie: [00:34:43] Two of the most common missteps I see leaders make. And by the way, missteps that I have made myself are, number one, trying to do leader standard work to other people. And number two, trying to overhaul their entire day in one shot. Paul gave us some great tips to help leaders avoid those mistakes and also just to bring greater effectiveness and value to their leader standard work. But he didn’t mince words. He acknowledged that it’s a process that takes time.

Now, in the episode, Paul shared some different steps. You can take some different tips, and we just want to summarize some next steps for you. Number one, identify habitual behaviors you believe will add value through your role as a coach. Number two categorize your current work activities into must do. Should do. Nice to do. And make sure you focus on must do work as your priority.

And when you think about this, don’t just think about it in terms of what do I need to do to hit some deadlines or get things checked off my list? Think about it in terms of value value for today and value in the future.

Jamie: [00:36:05] Number three, get honest about your capacity and pull in only as many new activities as your current day will allow. And number four, reflect and adjust how you allocate your time. Tons of value. Right. And there’s even more value at our show notes. So head over to process plus results dot com forward slash podcast and then find episode number 111. You can go to our show notes and there you are going to see some pictures of real life Leader standard work examples.

Remember that there isn’t one way to tactically execute Leader standard work. We want to provide different examples to help spark your own ideas and creativity. There. You are also going to find links to all of our other episodes on Leader standard work so that you can dive deeper into this topic.

One of my absolute all time favorites is the episode on Leader standard work with Mike Wroblewski. It is short and quick, but it let me tell you, it is loaded with some gems. So head on over to process plus results dot com forward slash podcast and then find episode number 111. Until next time.