Lessons from Leadership

Give yourself the founder's clear start

You know the profile. A founder rises before dawn, exercises, reads and reaches the first meeting with a clear mind. The photograph shows a glass of water and an empty table. You look at your own table and see yesterday’s lunch container.

There is a useful lesson here, and you do not need to set your alarm any earlier to use it.

Prepare the space you have

Wash the container tonight. Put it beside your bag. Choose the clothes you need and leave your keys in one place. These are small decisions, but they count as decisions, and tomorrow you will have fewer of them.

The profile begins when the founder wakes. Your preparation begins when you finish the washing up. It is the same commitment to a clear start, approached from the time available to you.

Give the work a name

When someone asks about your evening, you may find yourself saying that you did nothing. Yet your hands have packed, washed and laid out a working morning. Try calling it preparation. The tasks remain the same, but you have a more accurate description of your contribution.

A leadership profile gives ordinary habits a place in a larger story. You can offer yourself that courtesy too.

Before you turn in, dry your hands and put the cloth where it belongs. The table is ready. Tomorrow’s photograph, if you had time to take one, would begin here.