Starting signals

Coffee. Chat. More coffee. Emails. More coffee. Bit of social media.

How do you tend to start your work day?

I have a natural tendency to fall into the pattern above unless I make a conscious decision. It's a gentle way into the day that needs no effort.

But as founders and leaders, what we choose to do first has more significance.

How we start each day shows what is actually important to us, over and above what we say is important.

It shows our priorities and values to our inner selves, and radiates them to our teams.

That's why I send this newsletter right at the start of the day, at the start of the week — so we start the week thinking about the very high level design of our business and our style of leadership.

It’s shows ourselves what's important, setting the tone for the day and the week.

What else do you want to design into the start of each day to signal its value and importance in the agency and the leader you want to become? Thinking? Learning? 'Radiating' communications on your purpose, culture and strategy? Something else?

Having a design for the first part of the morning (no, not like getting up at 5am and going to benchpress a small car before eating only a protein shake and posting a selfie on instagram — just about doing the valuable things for your life and your leadership role) gives the starting signals for the day, and enables you to get the important things in before the noisy tasks take over.

It's also a key part of becoming more proactive as a leader, rather than being reactive all the time, just tackling whatever the day throws at you.

So this week, give some thought to your starting signals.