In this episode, Marcus dives into the principles of effective leadership, emphasizing the importance of actions over words. As a TEDx speaker, bestselling author, veteran, and leadership coach, Marcus guides listeners through insightful strategies employed by successful leaders to transform adversity into victory. This episode focuses on self-leadership and introduces the ‘power list,’ a tool for prioritizing tasks to optimize decision-making and maintain progress. Additionally, Marcus shares wisdom from Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, renowned leadership coach, outlining daily questions to drive purposeful efforts. Whether you’re a CEO, entrepreneur, or leader, discover how to stay fully engaged, set clear goals, and achieve meaningful progress every day.
Episode Highlights:
01:23 The Power of Self-Leadership
02:47 The Power List: A Tool for Effective Leadership
04:00 Implementing the Power List
08:25 Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s Six Questions
10:39 Adapting Goldsmith’s Questions for Personal Use
Episode Transcript:
00:44
I’m Marcus Aurelius Anderson and this is another installment ofActa Non Verba’s Warrior Wisdom. In these shorter solo episodes, I’ll highlight lessons from warriors past and present in all kinds of settings from the battlefields of Italy, Greece, Japan, and the Middle East to more modern-day warfare including tactics seen today in business, society, and culture. I’ll also be sharing leadership lessons based on my own teachings and experiences. The reality is this. The world is a battlefield.
01:14
And to not use these lessons leaves you grossly ill-prepared for the adversity that you will inevitably face in the future. If you’re a founder, CEO, or leader of any kind, you likely get overwhelmed from time to time. Trying to build and grow the business along with maintaining quality relationships with your family and taking the time necessary to work out and keep yourself physically healthy can be daunting. Lots of times it feels like there’s just simply aren’t enough hours in the day.
01:43
This lesson is about leadership, specifically self-leadership, with questions that make leaders as effective as possible. As a leader or entrepreneur, you’re well aware that the time that you have is precious because it’s limited. Most leaders are at their freshest and do their best quality work within the first three hours at the office. Because afternoon, our capacity to make the best decisions and the least amount of time begins to wane quickly due to decision fatigue.
02:11
The average person makes about 35,000 decisions in a single day from what they’re going to wear to what they’re gonna have for breakfast to what they’re gonna listen to on the way to work. Each decision, regardless of how or important or arbitrary, creates more decision fatigue which slowly drains our mental energy. If you waste the first 30 minutes of your day just trying to figure out what the priority should be for that day, you’ve only have two and a half hours of peak mental time left.
02:39
Because the leaders that are making lots of decisions that are very important, they should be very selective about the ones that they answer and execute on first. That’s why having a power list of their priorities done at the end of the previous day is key to being the most effective leader possible. The power list is something that was created by first-form founder and Arte Cineca co-founder, Andy Frisella, and Andy actually learned it from his father. And he calls it the power list because if he gets everything done on that list that day,
03:10
He knows that he moved the needle and made progress not only in his business, but in his life. In fact, if he does only those top three priorities by 10 a.m., he can effectively take the rest of the day off if he’d like. And on days when you’re sick or have a family emergency, having the ability to focus on only three things that will count as a win for that day are the ways to maintain momentum, even while dealing with the adversity of everyday life.
03:36
And yes, you can buy a PowerList journal online, but all you really need to make a PowerList is a piece of paper, any paper will do. And just to clarify, you make your Wednesday PowerList before you leave the office at the end of the day Tuesday. You make your Monday PowerList at the end of the day Friday before you leave. Your day isn’t complete until you’ve written down your PowerList for the following work day. Now, on this list, you’ll write down the three most important things that need to be done the next day.
04:06
If you complete those three items before you go to bed, you can call that day a win and put a great big W on the top corner of that page. If you don’t complete those top three priorities before you go to bed, be honest with yourself and give yourself an L at the top of the corner. This makes it very easy to see the progress that you’ve made throughout the weeks and months to come. You’ll also notice that the more W’s that you get consistently, the more momentum that you will create in your business and in your life. This will also help you stay accountable.
04:36
And if you’re not making the kind of progress that you want, the power list will absolutely reveal this. And you go back and see a bunch of L’s on the books. Or if you simply choose to not use it anymore because you can’t handle being accountable again, and this way the power list is very telling. So how do you know what things that need to be done on the list? What are the top three things? You can usually look at the day that you just finished in order to figure out what begins the list for tomorrow. So why only three things on the list?
05:05
Honestly, I mean, you could have dozens, if not a hundred things on that list. But if you’re not focused on the ones that actually create the most progress through your goals, that actually move the needle, then you’re just wasting your time is human nature to take the path of least resistance and having a list of dozens of things on a quote unquote to do list means you will probably pick and choose the ones that seem the easiest to accomplish, which means the most important priorities are likely left undone.
05:33
sometimes for weeks or even months at a time. Also, by having a list of multiple tasks to potentially execute on means that you’re creating more decision fatigue and wasting precious mental energy in the process, like we covered at the beginning of this lesson. That’s why the top three things are the priority. If you finish those things and wanna keep going on other items after you’ve accomplished the top three things, great. If you complete your Powerless early and wanna go out to check on your employees, drive to see a customer or even a work site,
06:03
You now have the time to do so, and you’ll also be able to do so by being completely present because you’re not worried about needing to get your critical tasks done for that day. This will absolutely help your business and relationships in the process. The Power List is also great because leaders are constantly putting out fires. Having the list in front of you helps you stay on track. So when you get off of that 45-minute phone call to solve a problem that came up out of the blue, you can now simply look back on your list and say, that’s where I was, and get back to work on the most important tasks.
06:32
without wasting any more time or energy in the process. Yes, I understand some tasks on the list will not be so simple. Many require you to send an email, make a phone call or a Zoom meeting just to get the necessary intel to make the additional decisions. This often means you’ll only be able to do so much before you have to wait for a response. So the way to attack these tasks is to do everything that you possibly can on your end so that now the ball is in the other person’s court.
07:01
And if you haven’t heard anything from this desired timeframe, now you simply put to follow up as a task on your future power list. Knowing this allows you to not simply write on your power list to close a $10 million deal today, but it helps you break down the steps necessary to help you reach this desired goal. To close a $10 million deal, who would you need to call? What sort of relationship would you need to have or strengthen? Who would you need to become as a leader to make that happen?
07:30
And how could you continue to work on other aspects of your business and leadership in the meantime, while you hurry up and wait for the additional information to move forward to the next logical step? This gives you the ability to break this huge goal into multiple smaller ones that you can ship away one day at a time. Remember, a goal is only as attainable as it is specific. Make the top three priorities on your list as specific as possible with metrics and deadlines.
07:58
so you can honestly tell if you won or lost that day. Then accept the reality and move on from there. Now that I’ve outlined how to create specific and definitive tasks with the ability to know if you’re actually making progress or not, I’ll next give you some overarching questions that will help you outline how you operate in your day. This next part comes directly from my first book, The Gift of Adversity, and I’m starting on page 154 here. It’s called Three of Six.
08:25
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is in a class all of his own. Known as the number one leadership and CEO coach in the world, this New York Times bestselling author has created massive positive change in multiple Fortune 500 companies. He charges a quarter of a million dollars for his service and has a money back guarantee. By the way, nobody’s ever asked for their money back, which tells you how good he is at his job. And as an aside, Dr. Goldsmith has since retired and created his top 100 coaches mentorship.
08:54
which is incredible. And we’ll talk more about that in a future episode. In Goldsmith’s incredible book, Triggers, he has a list of questions that he believes every CEO should ask himself every day as a form of self-monitoring. Here are Dr. Goldsmith’s six questions. Number one, did I do my best to set clear goals? Number two, did I do my best to make progress towards those goals? Number three, did I do my best to build positive relationships?
09:24
Number four, did I do my best to find meaning? Number five, did I do my best to be happy? Number six, did I do my best to be fully engaged? And as an additional aside, when I heard another interview with Dr. Goldsmith, he mentioned that he has this and a few other questions that he has somebody call him every day and ask him to keep him accountable because as a CEO and as a leader,
09:52
He has to have somebody to be accountable to. And in this case, it’s that voice on the phone that asks him if he’s done these things. By having these questions fresh in mind, they help keep you purpose-driven with your time. Remember, these questions are meant to keep you focused on effort, not necessarily on the result of these said efforts. While these questions are a great way to stay mentally focused, for some, they can be overwhelming. The questions cover a large amount of ground.
10:20
that requires a tremendous amount of time and mental energy. And as we talked about before, we wanna maintain that mental energy to the best of our capacity. While these questions are incredibly thorough, they can seem daunting, especially when the answer to many of these questions, if we’re being honest, are a resounding no. So this is what I’ve done for a lot of my clients. If being aware of all these questions seems too daunting at first, you can modify them to be more user-friendly.
10:49
Think of these modifications as training wheels if you would like, or maybe you’ll like this condensed version much more than the original six questions from Dr. Goldsmith. You may even create your own modified version. The key is to find what works best for you that you can utilize consistently and continue to move forward from there. First, instead of thinking of these as simple yes or no questions, I ask you to think of them as statements that can be used to encourage you to focus your thoughts throughout the day as a leader.
11:19
Instead of asking, did I do my best to set clear goals today? You can simply say, set clear goals today, or turn it into a statement that says, I will set clear goals today, which I’ve already talked about that earlier with the Power List. It allows you to be very intentional about what that looks like for you. Remember, if we are honest, the answer will be no most of the time to these questions that Dr. Goldsmith asks us. But that’s why the questions are in place. There’s a difference between achieving
11:49
and trying. We won’t always achieve the desired yes, but we can always try to improve. And that’s the real goal. Another way to start implementing this protocol is to reduce the number of statements used. For example, the three of six questions that will help you cover most of the ground and perhaps even answer the rest of the questions are as follows. Look at the following as statements. As I said earlier, I will set clear goals for today.
12:16
I will focus on working towards those goals today, and I will stay fully engaged and present. Notice again that these are the original questions that are put into a statement form. These thoughts become your mantra throughout the day. By having only three things to concentrate on, it allows for greater focus to make them happen. And again, because we have the power list in play with these first two statements of setting clear goals and working towards those goals, those first two steps are already taken care of.
12:46
which leaves you only with this idea of staying fully engaged and present. But what about the other three questions? Are they less important? Well, no, they’re very important. But the other three questions or statements will be addressed indirectly. The other three questions left off from Dr. Goldsmith are, did I do my best to build positive relationships? Did I do my best to find meaning? Did I do my best to be happy? How do we answer these important questions indirectly?
13:14
By staying focused on addressing the first three statements, the last three questions take care of themselves, incidentally. When we set clear goals, focus on achieving those goals, and stay fully engaged and present, these things lead to building positive relationships, finding meaning, and being happy. And if these three questions or statements seem like too much to handle, feel free to narrow them down to two that need to be immediately approved upon, and that mean the most to you.
13:42
And even if you can only focus on one, that’s still progress. For example, if simply focusing on staying fully engaged and present is what you need to work on the most, then start there. After you’ve been conditioned to use this one principle, slowly add the others in as you see fit. Utilize the 80-20 principle to make Dr. Goldsmith’s wisdom work for you. Your after action items. Number one, start making your power list for tomorrow, today, and keep track of your wins and losses.
14:12
Be very honest about what the three most critical tasks are for that day. Also be able to adapt on the fly if something else gets you off track so that you can come back and finish your power list and get your W for the day. Number two, while keeping your critical tasks from your power list in mind, remind yourself to stay fully present and engaged in every task that you undertake. This single step alone will help you answer yes to most of the six question posed by Dr. Goldsmith that I referred to earlier in the lesson.
14:42
Thus endeth the lesson. If you like what I read from my first book, The Gifts of Adversity, you can grab your copies at Amazon and Kindle. And if you’re an Audible fan, I also narrate it for you as well. Thank you for listening. If you’ve enjoyed this or any of the other 200 episodes, I recommend going back throughout the entire Octa Non-Verbi Catalog and checking out my deep dive interviews as well as other shorter warrior wisdom episodes like this. They’re all available for free, so go download those now while you can.
15:09
While you’re there, hit subscribe and tell us what you think about this episode in a review on iTunes or wherever you listen. This helps us attract more listeners and spread the Octa Non-verbal message to others. If this lesson is valuable, share it on social media and with anyone that you know that would benefit from this wisdom. To learn more about the Octa Non-verbal movement, go to Marc and subscribe to the Octa Non-Verba’s free inner circle.
15:35
For more exclusive content and updates about the Okta Non-Verba apparel line that’s about to drop, the release date of my new book, Okta Non-Verba, feature speaking engagements and live events, and more surprises. Until next time, live a life of actions and not words. Live a life of Okta Non-Verba. Thank you for listening to this episode of Acta Non Verba.
