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If it needs to be done, why aren’t you getting it done?

We all have projects and tasks that we can’t wait to dig into. We tackle them with vengeance and immerse ourselves in their complexity. We are truly in our element and feeding our desire to reach our full potential. You know exactly the projects and tasks I’m referring to because they play to our strong points. For me, it’s digging into the inner workings of an organization and discovering what makes it tick and addressing what factors may be holding it back. I love to teach workshops that focus on leadership thinking and behavior. I love speaking to large audiences and touching their hearts and minds with my leadership message and business concepts. (OK, I get a kick out of entertaining my audiences, too.) And, I love to coach leaders.

On the flip side, I am a business owner and leader. With that comes a host of accountabilities, many of which I love and willingly engage in. And then there’s that pesky little list of accountabilities I loathe. I’m talking about those accountabilities that I have become super-proficient at maneuvering around or finding other completely non-priority tasks that are just “begging” for my attention. If you think about it, it’s actually humorous how we leaders invent things to distract and divert ourselves from things that really need to be done. Foolishly, we try to convince ourselves that doing the stuff we’re really good at will overshadow or cloak the stuff we avoid. It won’t. It can’t. It never will. Period.

What’s on your pesky list of accountabilities you loathe? How about numbers, budgets, confrontation, following your own rules, reports, planning, sticking to a schedule, performance reviews, keeping commitments, terminating employees, tough decisions, and holding others accountable? Take a few moments to step back and examine your list. Is there really anything on it that you can’t do? Maybe you’re not the best at it, but the truth is that you know you can do it. In fact, you know that if you start checking off those tasks, you would feel a weight lifted from your shoulders. I bet you would feel as good - if not better than - when you engage in and complete any of the stuff you love to do. I know I do.

It’s all about conquering and breaking through your leadership blockages. It’s about racking up victories. It’s about getting that stuff you loathe off your plate so you can spend more time doing the stuff you love. I’m not suggesting that you channel enormous energy and precious time trying to find peace and happiness doing things you don’t like. I am suggesting that all leaders acknowledge that there will always be projects and tasks on their plates that need to get done - that are simply part of the job. More importantly, the longer that little collection of stuff sits waiting for your attention, the more of a chance it will become a bigger problem that will pull you away from the fun stuff.

Just so you know, I write these Monday Morning Wake-Ups for me, too. Now that I wrote about them, I’m going to conquer and break through some of that stuff that’s been waiting for me. No Compromise.

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Please share your thoughts with me about today’s Monday Morning Wake-Up. Click below to comment.

Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies and author of No-Compromise Leadership

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