As you look at last year, do you ever feel like there wasn't enough time in the day? Did entire afternoons...and sometimes days...slip by without your even noticing? Were you "too" busy? And when you look ahead this year, does it feel like you might relive that?

It's not an uncommon sensation. But, it's very familiarity creates a trap ' it often stops my clients from taking control of their time to set themselves up for the deliberate actions their future success requires.

When I suggest setting aside committed time for managing success, some folks look at me like a deer in the headlights ' frozen! Last week one of my clients asked, sincerely, "Really? You want me to meet with my direct reports weekly?"

I insisted. (We consultants and coaches get to do that!) And this week he reported back a discovery he'd made.

"It was amazing how much we got accomplished in 30 to 45 minutes. I realized that I've resisted holding meetings for the past 20 years because of how boring and useless they felt when I was a young lawyer and I was made to sit through meetings."

In that 45 minutes he sorted out a work flow breakdown that had frustrated him no end and stopped forward progress... for the past 6 weeks!

Is it possible to be a successful business owner or leader without having and using management skills? Not really.

Calculate for yourself how much might have been accomplished with that one weekly meeting in the last 18 years... in your own firm or department. How much greater success went missing?

Never mind. What's passed is past.

Now for going forward: I developed a system for managing the challenges that have you stalled, and I'd like to share it with you. It's not only efficient, it's easy!

"Shift" Your Attention - The first secret to getting un-stalled is to shift your focus away from the breakdown itself. Do you have a colleague who isn't following through on a commitment? A staff member who just never does a thorough job? Or too many choices for how to proceed? Are you having fun stewing about it? Carry On!

Or, declare that the way you've been dodging dealing with it isn't letting you make headway.

Start fresh by shifting your attention off of what is stymied right now, back to the larger picture - the goal. Ask yourself what the purpose of the project, effort, or work task is. Notice I said "Is" and not "Was."

Don't assume that this effort was kicked-off well in the first place. Take a fresh look at what you now want to accomplish. What specific, measurable, observable result is all the effort supposed to be targeting? Write it down in plain language that anyone could understand.

One of my attorney clients, "Mike" has been frustrated at the gaps in thinking one of the junior attorneys has produced. His words to me were "I asked for his recommendation. He's not backing up his recommendation thoroughly enough, so I have to do too much re-work." After I probed further, he was able to list 15 steps he wants to know have been researched, thought through, analyzed, challenged, and so on before that recommendation is brought to him for review. That's the result he wants, not the 'recommendation' he told his new attorney when he gave him the assignment.

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