A few rookie mistakes and a lot of lessons learned.

Why I am writing this race report… for me – in case, one day the crazy idea or doing this race again or a different 100 miler creeps into my head, for my kids to read someday, for other runners who what some info on the Sinister 7 race or just want to know what it can be like to run 100 miles in the mountains, for those armchair athletes who may never have an opportunity to run in the mountains but would like to know what it’s like and finally for those people who are concerned they won’t have enough energy eating a plant-based diet.

Goals:  

• #1 Finish with a smile under the 30 hour cut off
• #2 Finish under 24 hours
• #3 Finish under 22 hours and in the top 10 overall

On July 6th & 7^th, 2019 I ran the Sinister 7, a 100-mile ultramarathon trail race in Crowsnest Pass in southern Alberta. The race is made up of 7 legs and includes over 20,000 ft of elevation gain and loss. 

I signed up for the race looking for a new adventure, a mental and physical challenge that would push me to my limits. From my past experience, I knew I could somewhat comfortably finish marathons, Ironman triathlons, and a 50-mile ultramarathon, but 100 miles would be new territory for me.

“The greatest learning happens on the edge of your comfort zone.”

I have always been intrigued about learning how far I can push myself mentally and physically and, in this race, I was in for some learning. I was looking for an epic challenge and I got my money’s worth.

Ultramarathons also appeal to me at this stage in my life because, unlike my previous hobby and career, mountaineering, there are fewer risks in supported ultramarathons. I am not going to fall in a crevasse or die of exposure and medical help is never too far away.

However, even though it was as risky of a race, for the first time in a long time I was going to start a race I didn’t know if I could even finish.

The 100-mile Sinister course, one of the most challenging 100 mile runs in North America (this is how tough the course is), would be double the longest distance I have ever run and, as it turned out, 20 hours longer than I had ever run.

I had a good (not great and certainly not perfect) winter of training given my other life commitments, the flat terrain around my home in Ottawa and challenging winter weather.

Race Lead Up

I completed a Sulphur Springs 50 mile ‘warm-up’ race 6 weeks before Sinister to test out my winter training, equipment, and nutrition. At the time I didn’t realize that wet conditions and shin-deep mud on the course would also provide good practice conditions for Sinister.

The race went very well, almost exactly to plan. I finished in 8-hours 15 min which is right around where I hoped to finish. This gave me a good confidence boost going into my final prep for Sinister.

After returning to running after recovering from the 50-mile race, I developed a case of patella knee pain, common with many runners and something I have dealt with in the past, probably because came back to running too hard too soon. A year ago, a 50-mile race felt monumental as it was the longest, I had ever run at the time and I took weeks off to recover after the race. It’s funny how the mind works because this year I treated the 50-mile race as ‘warm-up’, a minor speed bump of a race on my way to my 100-mile race. In retrospect, I should have done a better job recovering from the 50-mile race which would have allowed me to avoid the patella knee injury I was now dealing with.

In the last 4 weeks leading up to the race, the knee pain would come and go, mostly because I kept testing it, which is another mistake many athletes make. There were days I contemplated dropping out of the race before I started. The last thing I wanted was to travel all the way to the race only to drop out 3 hours into the run because of my knee.

The one good thing about the injury was that it forced me to have more of a taper than I would have otherwise allowed myself. Realistically I logged hours of heavy training for this race all winter and that last 4 weeks of training was going to do little to further increase my endurance. Still, the lack of quality long runs leading up to the race was playing with my head and had me thinking I wouldn’t be ready for the race. In all races, your mental health is just as important as your physical health, especially at the 100-mile distance.

Going into the race I tried to do as much research as I could without ever stepping on the course to see what it was like in person. Living in Ontario and with the race taking place in Alberta, training on the course was not a possibility. Instead, I read about a dozen race reports from runners from previous years and watched most of the YouTube footage of the race. I talked with 3 previous winners of the race and a coach who has been coaching athletes in the race for a few years. I reviewed the course map and route description countless times.

With all of this, I still found it hard to commit all the detail of the 100 miles to memory and once I started running, I found that much of the information became a little blurry in my head. Good thing I ran into several runners of the course who had run the race before and could answer my questions about the next sections. However, comments like “leg 3 can be brutal and the worst part about leg 4 is that it comes after leg 3” didn’t make things any easier on my legs.

The coach I spoke with before the race said that of the 7 legs in the race, legs 1-4 (the first 80 km) was mostly runnable and should be treated as a warmup as the race really starts on leg 5 and I knew that leg 6 was being rated 7 out of 7 on the difficulty scale as the hardest of the course. So, this was my expectation…

The Race

Leg 1

The race started at 7 am on the main street in Blairmore, and headed east along the highway, through Franks Slide (look it up) for about 8 km’s. A few km in I started chatting with a runner named Mikael Herrman from Finland. We ran together for a couple of hours and had a great chat. Once I learned his last race was his second attempt at the Barkley Marathon I knew I was running with a very experienced, semi-elite runner. I learned we had similar, ideal-conditions finish time goals. I also learned that Mikael is an engineer who also coaches ultra-runners and has an ultra-running podcast in Finland.

Knowing all this about Mikael, and since I was a 100-mile rookie I should have stayed with him as long as I could but shortly after the end of leg one, I lost him when he stopped to fill up on water and I kept going since I was carrying a 1.5-liter bladder in my running vest.

Leg 2

Leg 2 started out with a very long gradual climb that was runnable, but I was second-guessing myself most of the way up, wondering if I should have been running it. Most likely if the hill was toward the end of the race, I would not be running it. In ultramarathons, there is a saying, “if everyone around you is walking this hill, then you should probably be walking.” In this case, everyone around me seemed to be running, albeit slowly.

Toward the top of the climb I had been running with several women, I wondered if these were the leaders of the race as they seemed very strong but learned that most of them were relay runners. It’s possible that only the relay runners were running this section, but it is here that I went ahead of my very experienced new friend Mikael.

While there was 239 solo (sold out), 100-mile runners who started the race, there were also well over 200 teams on the course most of which have one runner complete each leg of the race. While I like the energy and the amount of people relays bring out to trail races I also like when everyone I am passing and those who are passing me are in the same race. This was not a looped course, which I loved about the race, so every solo runner you were running with had covered the same amount of terrain as you had to that point.

Discovering the people around me at the top of the climb were relay runners was the first time the race started to play with my head.  

Halfway through leg 2, about 3 hours into the race was the first time I felt my patella knee pain. This concerned me but I had resigned myself to the fact I may have to run in some pain the rest of the race and or take an Advil. I wasn’t keen on taking pain medication so early in the race, so I carried on with the dull pain in my knee. It bothered me more on the downhills which seemed to be a fraction of the time I spent on the uphill’s, ah one positive for the hills mountains we had to climb.

Towards the end of leg 2 we ended up on some signal track trails that were stupid steep and almost silly to be in a running race. I was thinking, “why would they bring the course up this trail, it is not even close to runnable”. It was almost more of a scramble up and the way down was just as steep, at times I was wishing I had a handline to hang on to going down. I later figured out this terrain was pretty common in big mountain ultra-running. Welcome back to the Rockies, Shawn! The nice thing the steep trail gave us was our first incredible view of the surrounding mountains.

Running into TA 2, I felt like a downhill skier crossing the finish line in a world cup with the way it was set up there seemed to be people cheering on three sides and it was a little overwhelming. For this race, I didn’t have an official crew, but I did have some friends and family at most TAs to help me out. Experienced 100 milers typically get into and out of a TA like a race car driver in the pits. They know what they want, what needs to happen and express gratitude to anyone helping them and get out of there as fast as they can.

In my case, I felt a little like a deer in the headlights. My friends Kim and Heather came over to the solo runner tent to help me out along with at least one or two volunteers who were ready to tend to my every need. They asked me what I needed, and my first reaction was to say, I don’t know, what should I need? I knew I needed to switch out my nutrition (gels and Clif blocks) from my TA 2 drop bag that I had prepared ahead of time.  Truthfully that’s all I needed to do at this point but with all the attention I almost felt like I should need something else. Once I had my nutrition loaded up in my race vest, I headed over to the TA 2 food table and what a spread it was. There must have been 10 or 15 different options of food. I was on my nutrition plan of consuming 200 + calories an hour from the food I was carrying and didn’t really need anything, but I felt obligated to take something. I took a dill pickle a handful of pretzels and a few Oreo’s.

Leg 3

Leg 3, the second hardest leg of the race is referred to as Satins Sack because of the furnace-like conditions in a warm year. Luckily, for the runners on section 3, this year turned out to be a wet year and not a hot year. In fact, the race director called it the wettest conditions in the race’s 12-year history. We would pay for that on other legs of the race.

Going into leg 3 I was prepared for warm conditions but having heard that the section was mostly runnable I was not prepared for the hills of this leg. The leg started off with running straight up a ski hill, no switchbacks, straight up. It seemed to go on and on and I started getting frustrated that I wasn’t running more. This was the first time I started to let my attitude slide… downhill. After walking for what seemed to be about 45 min I was cursing the never-ending hills and was becoming more agitated by all the runners passing me. Even though I knew most of them were fresh relay runners running a different race, in my semi, exhausted state it still pissed me off. In just about all the running races I have done over the past 25 years, after the first km or so people sort themselves out and I rarely get passed by multiple runners at a time. This experience helped my attitude sink even lower. Soon I was having a full-on pity party in my head. If there was a Wambulance nearby it would have surely picked me up.

I even had thoughts of all the whiny students I have taught on leg on expeditions over the years, especially during the first few days of a trip when their body is in shock from lugging around a heavy backpack. I wondered, is this how they felt, if so, perhaps I should have been more compassionate at the time. When you run for so many hours alone in an exhaustive state your mind can take you crazy places. At one point a kid passed me, I asked him how old he was, and he responded that he was 16 and thankfully was on a relay team. Normally I would have been pumping him up and cheering him on, but I couldn’t muster the energy. He asked if I was a solo (100 mile) runner and when I responded Yes, he said he hoped to run the race solo one day when he “grows up”. Again, I would have normally been encouraging here but I could hardly muster an eye roll before he was out of sight.

About 500 meters past the last Check Point, CP (each leg usually had 2 CP’s which were basic aid stations about 7 km apart with a couple of types of food, water and electrolyte drinks) I ran out of water in my water bladder. I liked the bladder because it is easy to drink out of and you can carry a lot more water than in a bottle, but the downfall is not knowing exactly how much fluid you have left because the bladder is stuffed in the back of your running vest, out of sight, and most bottles are carried in hand or in a pocket in front of your vest.

This may have been the start to my dehydration phase…. There was no way I was going back to the CP to fill up, so I started looking for creeks along the side of the logging road I was traveling at this point. I was pretty high up in the mountains, so I wasn’t too concerned about contaminated water. I was carrying a little foldable cup with me so I used that to drink some water running out of one culvert and a couple of streams along the road before I could fill up at the next CP.

As leg 3 came to a close, in my increasingly dehydrated state, I was becoming very frustrated with the course and how it was different from my expectations, (what was I expecting, a flat path next to a river??) and the pity party in my head was in full effect. Much of leg 3 I ran by myself as I started to slow compared to most runners, especially the relay runners cruising by. I need to be able to run by myself and keep a positive attitude, but it is sure easy to get inside your head and tell yourself negative stories when there is no one around to chat with and distract you.  

For the most part, I did stick on my nutrition plan of 200 calories an hour through gels and Clif Blocks with a little more food at the CP like pretzels and dill pickles.

At the height of my inter-head whining, I was stumbling down the ski hill coming into TA 3 to fill up on water and reload my nutrition, I was quickly snapped out of my bad mood when I spotted my sister and brother-in-law and their three kids. They were holding up a large painted GO SHAWN GO sign. I had thought I may see them along the course during the day, but I was shocked by the sign and it was just what I needed to be snapped out of my funk. I became pretty emotional at this point in my fragile mental state and started tearing up under my sunglasses. The thought of dropping out had not entered my mind at this point but I knew I was in for a tough battle to get through the course.

At TA 3 I feel like I spent most of my time whining to Kim and Heather about the course. This is not like me and looking back was a useless waste of energy and was disrespectful to Kim and Heather who were just trying to help me out. Sorry ladies, I would like to blame it on the dehydration setting in…. I remember saying to them this race kind of feels like a mid-life crisis for me and the always quick-witted Heather responded, “well it’s better than having you sleep with the secretary”. I appreciated her attempt to lift my spirits, but I am not sure I mustered the energy to crack a smile. I wish I could have my time back to express some gratitude to my friends at this time, but my pity party wouldn’t allow it.

At TA 3 I was happy to see that Kim had gotten some trekking poles for me. After leg 2 I mentioned to her that I thought they could be helpful. I did think about using them in the race but in the weeks leading up to the race a few experienced ultra-runners suggested I didn’t use them because “they only slow you down”. Well at this point I felt I couldn’t get much slower and my knees could really use the support on the steep downhills. I was a little concerned using the poles running in a race for the first time as I had not practiced with them at all something I would have down if I was going to use them in a race. Luckily, I had used poles while leading expeditions for years and the feeling came right back to me and it wasn’t an issue at all. The poles gave me the spring in my step I needed to adjust my attitude starting leg 4.

LEG 4

“The worst part of leg 4 is the fact it comes after leg 3,” said one experience Sinner at the end of leg 3.

Leg 4 started out well, the trail was a single track cruiser mountain bike trail that was nicely shaded in the forest and actually had a switchback instead of the route that took us straight up the ski hill at the beginning of leg 3. The first half of leg 4 I felt like I was keeping up a good pace but continued to get annoyed by being passed by relay runners. At this point in the race, I fell like I had been holding off spasms in my quads for hours. In a marathon, if your leg spasms once your race could be over (or at least any hope for a fast time). In a 100 mile race, I learned that you will experience these approaching spasms for hours as it’s the body’s way of telling you to slow down. Your quads will feel smashed and you just needed to manage the pain and run through it, but you can’t run when your muscles are spasming. As one runner told me, “a 100 miles race is just a game of pain management”.

At one point I had to have a poop in the woods, which is a good thing but with seemingly every muscle in my legs cramping up as I tried to assume my position it had to be the most difficulty poops of my life.

As leg 4 dragged on, my stomach started to become unsettled. I was losing any desire to eat, especially the gels and blocks, which was essentially straight sugar I had been eating for the last 12 hours. Feeling nauseated I even slowed down my water intake, which was a big mistake, but I didn’t want to vomit. I had read many horror stories about people vomiting up all their calories in an ultra and having to drop out of the race or, at best, having a miserable race.

At the last CP in leg 4 I was tired and weak enough that I sat in a chair for a while to try and regroup. No runners sat down at CP’s, so I thought this had to be another bad sign. After a few minutes, I got moving again and the last 7 km to TA 4 became what felt like a death march. It was a long slow shuffle down a gentle sloping logging road, some of the best terrain to run on this course. For me, it turned into just putting one foot in front of the other. Over this last hour of leg 4, I gradually talked myself into dropping out of the race at TA 4. In my weakened, calorie depleted and dehydrated state I just couldn’t fathom any way I could possibly go on. In fact, when it started to rain during that last hour, I came very close to curling up in a ball on the side of the trail and asking some other runners to get help for me. The only thing that kept me going was thinking I could be there for hours before someone came to pick me up and I could get this over within 30 minutes or so if I could just keep shuffling.

I had justified things in my mind so much that I wanted to take a video of myself explaining my drop out so I could look back on it in the future. I made up all kinds of stories in my head, you just can’t train for this mountain race in Ottawa, 100 milers are just not my distance and I am better suited for 50 milers (of which I have done two very successfully), if I eat one more thing I am going to vomit all my nutrition up, etc.

The hardest story I had to come up with was what I was going to tell Alexandra (my wife) and kids. I knew Alexandra would think in a few days I would be disappointed in my race and want to sign up for another 100 miler to redeem myself soon. This would require a time commitment she would not be happy about. After over 20 years of running races I drop out of my first race ever, a 100 km, last year in Vermont because of dehydration from a stomach bug I picked up just before the race, my kids reminded me not to get dehydrated in this race and dropout. What I was going to tell them, I had not thought of yet. Since they were too young to fathom distance, at 10 km or 100 miles, dropping out of a race is all the same to them and I knew it would almost kill me to tell them I had to drop out of a race again.

Pulling into TA 4 I grabbed a seat in the transition tent and as my friends came over, I told them I was done before they got to say a word. I explained how my body felt and they were very encouraging. The medic came over and took one look at me and said, “you don’t look very good”. I told her I didn’t want her to take my vitals because I knew they wouldn’t be very good, and I was afraid they would send me off to hospital as they did last summer in Vermont that caused a whole number of logistical issues. I felt with just a little rest and some fluids I would feel well enough to go back to the campground and have a good night sleep.

Kim had to leave right away as she was a relay runner and she needed to get to the location where her leg would be starting. Seeing that I was dropping out she asked if she could take the trekking poles with her which was fine by me. I took a moment to text my family to tell them I was ok but that I would be dropping out of the race.

In order to officially DNF (did not finish) these races, you need to hand over your race number to a race official. Once I caught my breath and talked to my friends about how I was feeling I unpinned my race number from my shorts and tried to pass it to the volunteer who was checking on me and now supplying me with bowls of veggie broth. To my surprise he wouldn’t take my number, he said: “I’m not taking that from you until you until you walk out of this tent”. He then said that I still have 5.5 hours until the cut off time at that TA and why don’t I take some time to rest and get some fluids in. In hindsight, I will be forever thankful for his suggestion

Comfortable in the chair and off my feet, I wasn’t in a rush to go anywhere. At this point it was about 8:30 pm and I had been on the move for over 13 hours without stopping for more than a few minutes at a time. I went about washing the mud off my legs and changing my socks and shoes, not because it would help me feel fresh on the next leg of the race as its intended use, but I thought I would be getting into someone’s car soon to drive back to my campsite and I couldn’t get in a car covered in mud like this.  

At one point Katherine said to me, “you have done amazing even if you don’t go a single step further, we are so proud of you, come home with us and have a hot bath and a big dinner and a warm bed.” Looking back, it is hard to believe I passed this offer up at this time, but I didn’t want to be any more trouble to Katherine and her awesome family. I just wanted to get back to my tent and continue my pity party. I told Katherine to go on home as I felt bad causing her to have her kids up so late because of me.

After one bowl of broth went down so well, I had another and another and bowl of chips and finally a bowl of perogies over an approximately 90 minute period. I was in awe of other solo runners coming into the TA is high spirits, going about their business and continuing with their race. I was perplexed about how they could feel so good.

Once all the broth made it through my system, I eventually had to go pee and, much to my surprise, when I stood up, I actually felt pretty good. Shockingly there was minimal stiffness in my legs and with the help of a change of clothes I almost felt, dare I say fresh. My urine was even almost clear which was a massive improvement to my last pee which was a dark orange dribble.

I did a few deep knee bends to confirm my legs were really ok and then the crazy idea slowly came into my head that I may actually be alright to continue on with the race. I then ran around in a circle a few times and miraculously I actually felt pretty good. Before I confirmed my decision to continue on, I check with the volunteer Scott Rattray (my new hero for not taking my number, not rushing me to get out of the transition and tending to any need I had) to see if I could be picked up at the next CP, 7 km away if I decided I just couldn’t go on. At this point, if I was to continue, I would need to just focus on running to the next CP and not think about the finish as I still had almost 80 km and half the race ahead of me. A few minutes later Scott did confirm that they could get a car into the next CP to get me out if I need to drop out then.

Now that I was going to continue, I knew that I would need a new nutrition strategy as I couldn’t possibly stomach another gel or Cliff Block. I decided I would load up on the electrolyte drink Tailwind, which was provided at each CP, to get not only my hydration but my calories. At least until I felt I could get some gels into my system.

It was a good thing I packed a couple of caffeine pills as I was planning to get my overnight caffeine from caffeinated gels I had saved to start consuming after 8 pm. Now all those were useless to me.

Before heading out of TA 4 to continue my race I sent a text to my family again, this time telling them I wasn’t going to drop out and that I would be continuing on. I layered up with some warm clothes, put my headlamp on and connected with a buddy. I remember I was told by an experienced ultra-runner that it is wise to try to run with someone, especially in the latter stages of the race to help take your mind away from the pain and sometimes boredom of these extreme distance races. I connect with a runner that was about to head out the same time I was. I explained my situation and asked if I could run with him for a bit to make sure I was feeling alright.

Leg 5

We set out running a flat 5 km section at dusk and shockingly I felt great and kept feeling stronger the further I went. My new friend wanted to add some walk breaks which I agreed to, not wanting to be overzealous and not wanting to leave him as he started to struggle. Eventually, we cruised through the first checkpoint and continued up the section of leg 5 that had it renamed to Lake 5. The route took us up a gradually inclining old gravel road that had enormous 10-15-meter wide puddles, many of them the deep and had thick vegetation growing in on either side. Most of the puddles we tried to skirt our way around the edge, holding on to the bushes and trees but the mud underfoot often caused us to slip back into the puddle.

Eventually, I left my new friend when I saw he was moving with another guy similar to his speed. I was feeling great and had some catching up to do. One by one I set my eyes on the runners ahead of me with the aim of passing them. At this point, I started not only passing 100-mile solo runners but relay runners as well. The further I went the stronger I got.

By fluke, I bumped into Kim at the last CP in leg 5 as the CP is also the last one on leg 6, the section she was running. I totally confused her when I noticed her and said hi. Last she knew, I was committed to dropping out of the race. For a moment she thought that I decided to volunteer at this CP seeing my race was over. I briefly explained to her my turnaround and off she went to finish her leg while I stuck around for another minute to grab some more food. I was kicking myself for not asking her if I could use her poles for the next section as I was missing them with the constant muddy terrain.

When I arrive at TA 5 and retrieved my drop bag, I was relieved to see that Kim had indeed left her poles for me. Thanks again, Kim! I was excited to get to TA 5 in good spirits and spent a little more time there than planned but I wanted to be sure I got some more of the magic broth in me before setting out on leg 6, the hardest leg of the race, a 7 out of 7 on the toughness scale.

Leg 6

One great bonus to being much slower than I expected was that I was able to reach the high point of the trail over the mountain right at sunrise. It was a magical moment. I stopped to take in all the beauty around me and sent a short video message to my kids to let them know I was thinking about them and that I would be done soon.

Unfortunately, the route had us running only a short distance in the alpine, which is my favorite area to travel in the mountains before we dropped down the backside of the mountain. Leaving the highpoint, an exciting feeling washed over me as I knew I still had some work ahead of me, but I would finish this race.   

Leg 7

I had a quick transition in TA 6, and I set off on the last leg, a 10 km run into town which still had some significant climbs and decent. Nothing was going to stop me now as I continued to catch people. Finally reaching pavement in the town of Coleman 1 km from the finish I could start to hear the crowd gathered at the finish line. I picked up my pace for those final meters into the finishing shoot and as I crossed the line let out a loud YES! as I experienced pure elation that I had actually finished this race, after all, I had been through. My finish time was 28:00:40, two hours before the 30 hour cut off.

In the end, only 28% of the solo 100-mile runners finished the race, which is a little lower than average, but I can now see why. 100 miles in no joke and can be very tricky to trail for properly.

There are so many lessons I will take away from this experience and someday perhaps I will pull them out and list them but right now I am exhausted reliving this experience and need a break from thinking about it.

After any major race or adventure such as this people often ask, “What’s next?” Well, I have committed to not running another race until my next book on Leadership is published. The manuscript is finished, and I am in the layout phase, so I hope to have it in my hand sometime in late fall.

Once again, I want to thank Kim Young, Katherine and Jim Russell, Heather Wicksted and Matt Daw for supporting on race day and cheering me on and of course Alexandra and my girls for putting up with my training and letting this race hijack me from our vacation for a few days.  

Thanks for making it this far, well done! I hope you can take away something from my story that you can relate to in your own life, even if it is just – take a break and regroup when faced with a difficult decision; time can give you a different perspective.

“It wouldn’t be an adventure if you knew the ending” and this was certainly an adventure!

Let me know what your next adventure is, it doesn’t have to be running an ultramarathon, it just needs to get you excited and to have an unknown ending.

Shawn Stratton is an international leadership and team building consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author, endurance athlete, and a dad.

Click here to learn more about how Shawn can help your organization.

© 2019 Shawn Stratton. All rights reserved

In the TEDx talk that I gave, I highlighted the power of teamwork during a recounted expedition that I led deep in the Indian Himalayas. On day 24 of the mountain expedition, a client fell down one of the slopes and suffered an open fracture of his lower leg. For 19 hours while we waited for help to arrive, we fought to save the patient’s leg.

I firmly believe that our team thrived during this period because of the proactive leadership our team of instructors displayed on the expedition up to that point. I was brought to tears with pride for our team once help finally did arrive in the form of a massive Indian military rescue helicopter. We had selflessly pulled together to manage the intense situation in a hostile environment. 

You can use these types of situations as a learning experience. While carrying out your duties as a leader, there are a few questions to ask about your performance to determine whether you spend most of your time in a reactive or proactive role.

As a leader do you…

• Find yourself putting out fires most of the day?
• Dread Mondays because you have no idea what mess you are about to walk in on?
• Feel like you are losing the respect of your team members?
• Get behind in writing or conducting performance reviews?
• Only think about doing a team building event when your team is not working well together or because you just haven’t done one in a while?

If you answered yes to any of these questions you probably spend more leadership time in a reactionary mode than you should. Leaders can end up dealing with either a major crisis or a thousand tiny crises that affect business on a daily basis such as late shipments, unhappy customers, missed deadlines or dysfunctional teams. In order to manage these situations in the most effective way, you should avoid both reactive thinking and reactive actions in the day-to-day management of your team.

You need to lead proactively to equip your team members with the resiliency, drive, and determination to manage crises. Proactive behavior refers to behavior that is anticipatory, self-initiated and often change-oriented. This means that you are able to anticipate needs in the future and to act on them today, as opposed to waiting and then reacting when they occur. It is about controlling the situation rather than being controlled by it.

“Quality leaders are proactive leaders!”

As a leader, there will always be crises to manage, but as a proactive leader, many of these crises will be mere bumps in the road on your team’s journey.

In order to become a proactive leader, you need to:

1. Prepare for Change: You need to effectively anticipate changes or crisis situations to lead effectively and create plans to meet the challenges that change often brings.

2. Meet One-On-One with Team Members Regularly: Everyone has different needs and desires. The best way to gauge the mood and anticipate brewing issues within the team is through regular individual meetings with your team members.

3. Execute Regular Team Building Events: Get the team together on at least a quarterly basis for some sort of activity in which the focus is team development. The more often you hold the events, the shorter and simpler they can be.

4. Express Appropriate Appreciation: Understand your team members’ Appreciation Language and show appreciation according to their preferences.

5. Set Clear Expectations: Each individual needs to clearly know what is expected of them at all times.

6. Create and Revisit a Team Charter: The creation of a charter is facilitated by the leader but has input from the whole team. The charter is posted for everyone to see and is revisited at least once a quarter. For an example check out my Team Recipe example.

7. Weed Their Garden Early: As the saying goes, “slow to hire, quick to fire.” Remove destructive team members as soon as it becomes clear that they are having a detrimental effect on the team.

8. Be Inspiring: Leading by example is to continually role model behaviors beyond what you expect from others.

9. Keep Small Problems Small: You Do not avoid or let unproductive conflicts fester. You have a system for managing conflict that adequately addresses the issue, develops a plan and allows the team to move forward.

10. Embrace Feedback: You Do not be afraid to change your behaviors and leadership style to be a more effective leader for your team.

11. Conduct Stay Interviews: One-on-one interviews with a manager and a valued employee. Its aim, quite simply, is to learn what makes employees want to keep working for you.

12. Encourage Professional Development: Support and suggest professional development opportunities for your team members that will enhance your skills.

13. Take Responsibility: When things don’t work out as planned, you take responsibility for both your actions and those of your team. You seek advice and help when required.

14. Get Personal: You Get to know your team members on a personal level. This can include their personal history, things in common, their strengths and their passions.

15. Never Stop Learning: Proactive leaders are continually seeking refinement in their own leadership skills through personal and professional development opportunities.

The best leaders spend their time thinking about how to manage their team and increase their team’s performance. Once they reach a high level of performance, they don’t coast. They keep close contact with team members, are constantly monitoring any bumps in the road and present opportunities to help them to continue to excel.

Action: In the next seven days incorporate one trait of a proactive leader into your leadership style that you are not currently doing.   

LiveMore Mastermind 

Do you have goals you deeply want to achieve but feel you aren’t making enough progress on?
 
Check out our LiveMore Mastermind – where you, me and the other group members will meet bi-weekly (roughly twice a month) to share resources, discuss personal and professional challenges, and celebrate our wins. Group meetings will typically include an accountability goal sharing session, a hot seat, as well as other relevant discussions and teaching–all aimed at helping you get to the next level while building relationships that could last a lifetime.

                               LEARN MORE

—

Shawn Stratton is an international leadership and team building consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author, endurance athlete, and a dad.

Click here to learn more about how Shawn can help your organization.

© 2018 Shawn Stratton. All rights reserved

As I prepare for Mondays much anticipate launch of the LiveMore Mastermind program, this week I wanted to lighten up the blog a little by sharing with you a recent challenging (and comical in retrospect) flying experience and a few lessons I am sure many of you can relate. 

—

Four weeks before Christmas we decided to bring our family of five to my hometown of St. John’s, Newfoundland from Ottawa because of some extenuating family circumstances. This was not our original plan as my wife, was due to be working from December 27-30. The plan was to have the whole family fly to St. John’s on December 22nd and my wife would leave early on the evening of the 25th to give herself a day of flexibility in case there were weather delays. It was a good thing that Alexandra built in flex time as her flight was canceled and it took her 24 hours to get out of St. John’s. She arrived home at 3:30 a.m. in time to start her on-call shift at 8 a.m. That’s not exactly how you want to start four days of being on call.

Once Alexandra left I would be parenting solo on our flight home scheduled for December 30th with our three girls (Aspen, 5 months; Trinity, 4; Sierra, 6). Our itinerary from St. John’s to Ottawa had us take two 2-hour flights with an hour-and-a-half stopover. We were flying in the mid-afternoon so at least it wasn’t a super early flight or a red eye. I honestly hadn’t given flying solo with the girl’s much thought until a couple days before when my mother, half joking, suggested she come with me to help out on the flight.

The day of the 3 pm flight my parents took the two older girls for most of the day so I could pack. I kept the baby with the hope she would have a couple of nice long naps before the flight and allow me the time and space needed to pack. As you can see in the photo the long naps didn’t really work out and packing was a little chaotic trying to track down all the kids’ clothes and Christmas gifts around my parents’ house. I ended up forgetting a bunch of the girls’ clothes as I forgot to check the closet and a dresser drawer in the room they were sleeping. Oh well, nothing was lost and no one was hurt…

Packing up! Notice Aspen letting me know she is hungry.

We arrived at the airport with time to spare and the check-in went relatively smooth until the ticket agent asked for an ID for my five-month-old. I said, “REALLY an ID to fly within Canada for an infant?” She actually has a passport but we didn’t bring it as we were flying within Canada. She said it was to prove that she was less than two years old to get the free flight. I held five-month-old Aspen up in the air and said, “She is clearly under two!” Fortunately, she accepted her health card which I had a picture of on my phone.

Once we were checked in we had time to take a couple of photos before heading to security….and then the real mayhem was about to begin.

Mayhem Starts…

We went through security relatively smoothly while wearing the baby on my chest. Of course, I was selected for secondary screening and got poked and prodded while the other two girls asked what they were doing to me. I was just thankful they didn’t want me to take off my boots. Then, as we were getting settled into our seats at the gate I heard a page over the airport intercom saying that there was a laptop computer left in security. I immediately knew it was mine, as I didn’t remember putting it back in my backpack. I told the kids to stay in the play area and watch our other carry-on bags as I ran off to fetch my computer.

Traveling Tip
– Always put your computer in the basket before your computer bag- not afterward. I believe I left my computer because I was distracted by the kids and pat down. When I was finished I grabbed my bags and left and didn’t look back to see if anything was on the belt.

At the gate waiting area I struck up a conversation with a nice lady who was reading a book that I love. We had a nice chat until I heard the pre-boarding call. If there was ever a time I needed pre-boarding then this was it and I didn’t want to miss my chance! I hustled the kids over to the ticket counter to show our boarding passes and we were off down the bridge to the plane…. until my third step when I realized I didn’t have my computer bag with not only my computer but my iPad, kids’ headphones, food and diaper bag supplies. I told the kids to stay there as the line started to grow behind them and I quickly ran back to grab my bag from the seat I had laid it on. The girls were so excited to finally board the plane that Trinity, the four-year-old, took off sprinting down the bridge in her winter boots and promptly tripped herself to end up doing a face plant. At this point I am still wearing the baby and a loaded backpack, dragging a wheelie carry-on bag and Trinity’s carry-on in my arms. I picked her up as she was screaming that her lip and hip hurt. I looked behind me and see the rest of the passengers calmly waiting for us to move along onto the plane.

View from the gate. Snow is falling heavily.

On The Plane

We got seated on the plane with Trinity and Sierra sitting in two seats on one side of the aisle while Aspen and I were sitting across from them in the aisle seat. I was really hoping to have a friendly parent or grandparent sitting next to me to help out with the kids as needed but my dreams were quickly dashed when a six-year-old boy jumped into the seat next to me. The rest of his family was sitting behind us.

Once we were situated on the plane, the captain announced that there would be at least a 30-minute delay leaving because it was snowing too much to even begin the de-icing process. During the wait, I decided it would be a good time to change Aspen’s diaper. I gathered my supplies and headed to the bathroom when the flight attendant told me I could not use it because they were locked for take-off. She also informed me that the bathrooms don’t actually have a change table. I asked her what she suggests I do and then she said I would have to change her in my seat! I had a little chuckle when I got back to my seat toward the back of the plane once I noticed that the last two seats were empty as they are often the seats that the flight attendants sit in during the flight. I decided that would be a perfect place to change a VERY dirty diaper.

We ended up sitting on the tarmac for about two hours before the wheels left the ground. While waiting, the kids seemed to eat just about all the food I had packed for our five-and-a-half hour journey (including the layover). A key element of eating a vegan diet is to bring your own food when you travel and I was almost out of supplies. The airline we were traveling on did not even have food to purchase although they did give us free bags of chips, heavily salted almonds and cookies….oh, and even free booze.

For a moment, I had almost justified taking advantage of all the free booze so that it could help me get through the flight. My rational side prevailed and I declined, as I knew it would just make me need to pee…

Most of the time that we were on the ground the seatbelt sign was lit. As soon as we got to our cruising altitude and the seatbelt sign was turned off, the girls and I, as well as about fifteen others, were bursting to pee and jumped up to head to the one tiny bathroom up front. I asked the father of the boy sitting next to me if he would hold Aspen while I ‘quickly’ ran up to the bathroom with Sierra and Trinity. We patiently waited our turn for ten long minutes. It was just about our turn when the flight attendant came up and asked us to move back because the pilot really had to pee and needed to go next. I thought, of course, he needs to go RIGHT NOW. I guess pilots need to pee as well. All this time, with the girls bouncing around, I was a little surprised that no one offered for us to go in front of them.

Usually, when Trinity goes to the bathroom on the plane she doesn’t lock the door and I stand right outside in case she needs help. For some reason, she decided to lock the door this time…. and of course, she could not get it open when she was finished. I could hear her inside screaming as she rattled the door in desperation. I was trying to tell her how to open the door but it was futile. Eventually, we had to push the call button for the flight attendant to come up and open the door for her. Distraught and with tears running down her cheek she jumped into my arms.

While we were waiting for the bathroom I kept trying to look to our seats in the back to see how Aspen was doing with the stranger holding her. We were far enough away I couldn’t hear or really see anything. As we headed back to our seats, I passed the flight attendant who said to me, “Oh she’s not happy.” As I approached our seats I could now hear Aspen screaming her head off and see the man doing all that he can to help calm her down. Our ‘quick’ trip to the bathroom must have taken us fifteen minutes. At this point, I was sure the entire plane knew that the Stratton’s were on the flight and that I had my hands full. We were not even thirty minutes into our first of two, 2-hour flights!

Thankfully, I was able to get Aspen into the Babybjörn carrier and get her to sleep on my chest. Sierra and Trinity were set up with some downloaded Netflix shows on my iPad and the rest of the flight went much more smoothly. I am pretty sure that for the first time ever there weren’t even any spilled drinks!

Once we were halfway through the first flight it became clear that due to the delay leaving St. John’s we would most likely miss our connecting flight in Halifax, which would take us home to Ottawa. I calmly played out all of the potential scenarios in my head of what could happen in Halifax. First, for some reason, the plane would be delayed in Halifax and we would be able to make it on board. The second scenario was that we miss the connecting flight and have to spend hours in the airport waiting for another flight. Third, there were no more flights to Ottawa for the evening and we would have to spend the night in a hotel. Given the first part of our journey, scenario two and three would have been too epic for me to even to contemplate at this point. Shortly after I began playing out the scenarios in my head, I was relieved to hear the flight attendant announce that half of our plane would be connecting to Ottawa as they had decided to hold the plane for us in Halifax until we could make the transfer. HALLELUJAH!!!

The rushed transfer happened relatively smoothly given the circumstances. I was relieved to see the gate for our next flight was next to the gate we exited. The last thing I wanted to do now was to sprint through the airport with my four carry-ons and three kids in tow. The second flight went relatively smoothly other than a mini-meltdown by Trinity because she wanted to eat her third bag of chips before finishing the few carrot sticks I had packed for her (this airline gives them out for free). Trinity and Aspen fell asleep on the plane and I even managed to listen to a couple of podcasts.

Thankfully, Alexandra was able to leave work that evening and she was at the airport to greet us upon arrival. I think I will wait ten years for my next solo flight, or at least until everyone is out of diapers…

Home at last with three very tired kids and one delirious adult.

Lessons when flying solo with young kids

Be Prepared
Anytime you fly with young kids there is a good chance the unexpected will happen. The more prepared you are to deal with the situation ahead of time means the better the chance that things will go smoothly when it does happen. Selecting good seats as well as packing adequate food, entertainment, diapers, and clothes will go a long way to set you up for a good flight.

Minimize Distractions
Going it alone means you do not have the typical backup your spouse would offer. I allowed myself to become distracted too easily at the airport and it almost cost me- big time. You cannot rely on your memory or strangers to help you out. It didn’t help that I had too much carryon luggage, which included my two bags, a diaper bag and inevitably the kids’ bags as well. I became distracted when chatting it up with strangers at the gate while the kids ran around the kid zone.

Take Offers of Help
The fiasco at the bathroom would have been much worse if I had had the baby in my arms the entire time. The fight attendant offering to help me take off the Babybjörn during take-off was critical to keeping Aspen asleep as well. If I had taken Aspen out of the carrier myself she would have woken up and who knows what would have happened in rest of the flight with a potentially screaming baby.

Its times like this that think of all those single parents out there managing kids on their own, day in day out, or that I salute you!! 

The Mastermind doesn’t officially launch until Monday but if you have gotten to the end of this blog you deserve to get early access to the details of the mastermind and have an opportunity submit an application early before the limited number of spots fill up. Check it out here. http://www.shawnstratton.ca/livemoremastermind/ 

Until next time… Embrace the Adventure

Shawn

Shawn Stratton is an international leadership and team building consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author, and Ironman competitor.

Click here to learn more about how Shawn can help your organization.

© 2018 Shawn Stratton. All rights reserved

Several years ago I was asked to do a 3-hour seminar on leadership for a group of 12 senior executives who ran companies with revenue ranging from 10 – 100 million dollars. I was 35 at the time and their average age was 62.

I had been vetted for almost 6 months from the organization who hired me to deliver the seminar to be absolutely sure I was a good fit and wouldn’t waste their precious time. I had been prepped that this group had extremely high expectations for their presenters and could be quite intimidating.

Several days before the event, the organizer asked me if I was nervous about my upcoming session. My reactionary response was, “Nooo, I got this.” In actual fact, I was extremely nervous. I thought, “Who am I to present to these successful senior leaders about leadership?” I was suffering from a case of the dreaded Imposter Syndrome (IS) and it almost held me back from taking on this outstanding opportunity. 

What is Imposter Syndrome?

IS is an all too common feeling amongst public speakers and leaders in new positions. “It is an overriding feeling that you are not worthy of the job you have been asked to do based on your skill, experience or expertise. It is based on intense, secret feelings of fraudulence in the face of success and achievement. If you suffer from IS, you believe that you don’t deserve your success; you’re a phony who has somehow ‘gotten away with it’” (Harvey, 1984, p. 3).

Syndrome may be too strong a term, but many of us experience these feelings with varying strengths and frequencies.

Feelings Associated with Imposter Syndrome

According to the Centre for Teaching Excellence at Waterloo University here are 5 Feelings associated with IS:

• Feelings of phoniness and self-doubt (“I am not as smart as they think.”)
• Fear of being “found out” (“It’s only a matter of time before people realize I don’t belong here.”)
• Difficulty taking credit for one’s accomplishments (“I don’t deserve to win this award.”)
• Frustration with inability to meet self-set standards (“I’ll never be as good as I want to be, so why bother trying?”)
• Lack of confidence, fear of making mistakes (“I don’t think I have what it takes to be a scholar.”)

It is not uncommon for leaders to internally question their own competencies, abilities, and accomplishments in the areas they are leading. In other words, many leaders have moments when they feel like imposters in their position.

5 Strategies for Managing IS symptoms:

1. Break the silence: Speak out about your feelings. Speak with a mentor (even a mentee), a coach or a trusted friend about your feelings. Knowing there is a name for these feelings and that other people suffer from them can be very reassuring. The first time I was introduced to the term IS I was listing to a veteran professional speaker I respected and was shocked but comforted to know at times she still suffers from IS
2. Separate feelings from fact: Everyone feels inadequate from time to time. Just because you feel it doesn’t mean you are. Don’t feel like you always need to know the correct answer. Recognize that you have just as much right as the next person to make a mistake or ask for help. That fact is, you have the experience and skill to be in the position you are in; draw confidence from your expertise. Don’t glorify failure, but don’t let it make you feel like you’re not a real contender either.
3. Keep a file of people saying nice things about you. I still have a file of letters going back over 20 years from students and clients on past expeditions telling me how great their trip was and my impact on it. Now I keep a file on my computer of positive feedback forms and testimonials I receive after presentations.
4. Remember: being wrong doesn’t make you a fake. The best basketball players miss most of the shots they take. The best traders lose money on most trades. Presidents are wrong about stuff ALL THE TIME. The best football teams inevitably lose. Rewrite your mental script from “I am an imposter” to “I may not know all the answers but I am smart enough to figure it out.”
5. Realize that nobody knows what they’re doing all the time. Most start-up’s fail. Even the ones that you hear about raising millions of dollars. Executives ask team leaders and
   front-line employees how companies can be more productive because they don’t always know. There are many people who will tell you they know the answers. These people are liars.

“Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas.” Paula Poundstone

There’s no good reason for you to be reading what I’m writing. There are world-class leadership experts out there who have led more, written more, and taught much more than me such as John Maxwell and Marshall Goldsmith. But I write this blog, facilitate masterminds, do public presentations and webinars because I think I have something to offer. Actually, when I look at the consistent feedback I receive from these avenues of expression I have proof that I have something to offer and you do as well.

When I arrived at the location for my presentation, I sat in the car for a moment and reminded myself that they invited me and my experience has me deserving to be here. Once the presentation started, all the nerves dissipated and I delivered my material in the same effective way I had hundreds of times before to less financially powerful audiences. The seminar was a success and led to follow up work with the organization. Had I let the IS take hold of me, I would never have walked into the building.

Remember, you’re not a fraud, you’re just you!

Action: The next time you feel consumed by Imposter Syndrome, reach out to a mentor or trusted friend to share your feelings. Once these negative feelings are on the table you can wipe them away and get on with being the real you.

LiveMore Mastermind Update: 

Interest has been growing for the launch of LiveMore Leadership Mastermind, where a select small group of highly motivated individuals work together on bi-weekly calls toward a higher level of achievement and performance. I am starting interviews this week. If you are interested in more details and to set up an intake call email info@livemoregroup.com with MASTERMIND in the subject heading.

Until next time… Embrace the Adventure

Shawn

Shawn Stratton is an international leadership and team building consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author, and Ironman competitor.

Click here to learn more about how Shawn can help your organization.

© 2018 Shawn Stratton. All rights reserved

—

Harvey, J.C. & Katz, C. (1984). If I’m So Successful, Why do I Feel Like A Fake?Random House: New York.

https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/planning-courses/tips-teaching-assistants/impostor-phenomenon-and

Hi folks, I am back to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and provide you with a tool to kick-start your success in 2018.

I have had a productive few weeks off from writing my regular blog. I have been able to find some help to free up time and develop systems for me to be the best version of Shawn as a father, husband, business consultant and athlete. My next book manuscript is now oh-so-close to being finished and I have been developing a few very exciting projects that will launch in the New Year to bring more value to YOU, my faithful blog reader.

One of the projects I will be launching is an exclusive small group Mastermind focused on accountability, personal growth, and leadership development. You will hear more about this in a few weeks. If you know you are interested in joining this type of group just send me an email at info@livemoregroup.com with “INTERESTED IN THE MASTERMIND” as the subject title and I will be sure you receive the registration information.

This past week I was working on my 2018 list of goals. This is something I do every December but as I was writing them I was thinking how each year it seems harder and harder to set realistic yearly goals with the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) method of goal setting. In my current state of rapid change with family, personal and business interests and demands it is difficult to set accurate goals a year out. Too often, elements in my world change throughout the year making many of my yearly goals set a few months earlier, obsolete.

Every year in December when I look back at the previous 12 months, I repeatedly could not have predicted the many wonderful, exciting, and challenging events that would shape my year. I feel my yearly goals have turned into more of a bucket list of things it would be nice to accomplish in the next year.

A bucket list is just a list of goals without at plan and a goal without a plan is just hope and hope is not a strategy to accomplish anything.

 This brings me to planning for the first 90 days of the New Year, a length of time I feel I can plan for much more accurately. To plan and set goals for this first 90 days (and the next 90 days after that) I utilize a simple 90-Day Action Planner Spreadsheet.

This form only allows you to select 3 goals to accomplish, and for each goal you must include Action Steps and Date Completed By. Additional columns have you fill in the Criteria of Success and lastly a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that will keep you on track for goal achievement.

You can download a copy of this the 90-Day Action Plan spreadsheet here – http://www.shawnstratton.ca/90dayactionplanner/.

Action: Let me know when you have filled in your 90 Day Action Planner!

From my family to your’s, I wish all the best in the coming New Year! 

Shawn

Shawn Stratton is an international leadership and team building consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author, and Ironman competitor.

Click here to learn more about how Shawn can help your organization.

© 2017 Shawn Stratton. All rights reserved

I am going to stop blogging on a regular basis for the next couple months. I know I don’t need to justify my personal actions to you but I thought that by explaining them, you may learn something or look at your own life from a different perspective.

In his outstanding book, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, author, and real estate giant Gary Keller encourages the reader to think of work-life balance not as being balanced at all. He would rather think of your time and attention sitting on a pendulum moving back and forth. For a while, you really need to focus on one area of your life, i.e. family, and then there will be a time your family life is stable and you can really focus on another aspect, i.e. starting a new business project, training for a marathon or in my case right now, completing a book. I have been two weeks from finishing my next book since June because I haven’t made it my One Thing.

My personal view of balance is an object suspended in time, not moving at all. When things aren’t moving at all, they usually get run over and besides if you are in perfect balance, you are not moving forward and for me, I always want to be moving forward. This is also the reason why Lance Armstrong called his hugely popular podcast The Forward.

This is not acceptable to me. For me to be at my best, I want to be riding the wave or at least climbing near the top of it.

I may not have a history of producing ‘extraordinary results’ but I do pride myself on the things I have accomplished over the last few years. And as Keller describes in his book, these results usually come from exceptional focus on ‘the one thing’. When I look back at the accomplishments I am proud of competing in the last 8 years (finishing two Ironman triathlons, 5 marathons, writing and publishing a book, completing a masters degree, and facilitating 3 family moves to 3 new cities in the last 3 years), all of these would not have been possible without laser focus on ‘the one thing’ at the time.

Right now, I find myself focused on 20 things, not one thing, and that is causing me to feel as if I am slowly drowning and not thriving as I am used to and want to be. Some of this is because of our latest move to Ottawa in August and lack of patience with myself in achieving results. Despite all the moves, I still underestimate the time it takes to settle into a new home and way of life.

On top of this, it has been 4 years since we had a baby in the house and again I underestimated the time and attention they need along with the sleep deprivation they bring. Our third daughter, Aspen, is only 4 months old and requires more time and attention right now than I am giving her when many of my thoughts and desires are focused on moving my business forward.

Let’s not even talk about my personal fitness. I had a goal of running an ultra marathon this fall. Then I scaled that back to running a 20km trail race, neither of which happened. I am currently not getting the regular stress relief and confidence boost that I crave from endurance training, which is integral to making me happier and a better person to be around.

In the last couple of weeks, I discussed these internal challenges with my wife (who has also just started a new, very demanding job), accountability partner and mastermind group. I have come to the realization that I am not coming close to focusing on ‘the one thing’ right now. I have come to the realization that I need to clear my plate a little and re-examine my priorities.

Having tried to look at my situation from the outside, it is clear to me I need to focus on the family and completing my next book now. I am not dropping my business commitments, just taking a step back by taking a break from blogging and not pursuing any new business ideas (which I have many of and will get to when the pendulum swings back) for the next couple months.

I will still be here to answer your questions but I may not get back to you right away.

I hope this post wasn’t too personal for you and I look forward to be back blogging consistently in the next couple months.

Action: Find the One Thing that needs your attention most right now and focus on that each day before attending to your other commitments and desires.

P.S. I wrote this after coming off a night of sleep training my 4-month old so perhaps after I get a little more sleep I may have a different perspective on life

Shawn

Shawn Stratton is an international leadership and team building consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author, and Ironman competitor.

Click here to learn more about how Shawn can help your organization.

© 2017 Shawn Stratton. All rights reserved

How to prevent your meeting from going off the rails

The purpose of meetings is not to talk – the purpose is to arrive at ideas, solutions, plans, and decisions.

Before I discuss meeting agendas, I want you to think long and hard about the next meeting you are organizing. Ask yourself these 3 questions

1. Is this meeting absolutely needing?
2. Is there another way to accomplish the meeting purpose?
3. What will happen if the meeting doesn’t take place?

If at all possible, cancel the meeting!

We’ve all been in meetings where participants are unprepared, people veer off-track, and the topics discussed are a waste of the team’s time. These problems, and others like it, stem from poor agenda design. An effective agenda helps set you up to run a successful meeting for all participants.

Last week, I had the privilege of delivering a webinar to 1000 project managers from around the world. When I asked in a poll “what is your greatest pain point in meetings”, the number one answer by far was “lack of quality agenda and direction”. At the end of the session, several of the audience questions were about creating effective agendas so I have decided to write this post to help you develop and execute an effective agenda for your next meeting.

According to a study conducted by Verizon Business, meetings are the #1 time waster in the workplace. They are often unorganized, have no purpose and go off-topic and end with decisions or action items. It’s no mistake that most of these meetings are missing a clear meeting agenda. Creating a concise agenda is the first step toward having a productive business meeting.

Follow these steps when crafting your next meeting agenda:

1. Create Your Agenda Early: Clearly, define your meeting objective. Seek input from team members who have a stake in the meeting outcome. Inform members on how to prepare for the meeting.
2. Don’t Inform Too Far In Advance: 2 to 3 days is just right. Sending a memo in advance ensures that attendees have ample time to prepare or read through any notes they will need before the meeting and raises flags if the objective doesn’t match their expectations.
3. Have A Decision-Making Method: State the process for addressing an item. When you reach that item during the meeting, explain the process and seek agreement.
4. Be Specific: Include everything you plan to cover in the meeting. This helps attendees form some views and look up facts and figures in advance.
5. Create a Detailed Timeline: Allow adequate time for each agenda item. Leaders typically underestimate the amount of time needed. The purpose of listing the time is not to stop discussion when the time has elapsed. The purpose is to get better at allocating enough time for the team to effectively and efficiently answer the questions before it. If you are concerned about having time to address every item, eliminate some agenda items and narrow the scope of the meeting.
6. List Key Points: Break down agenda topics into key points. List agenda topics as questions the team needs to answer.
7. State Action Items: Make time in the agenda at the end of the meeting to have participants share all the action items and who is accountable for each one.

Well-run meetings can be valuable if run effectively and in turn, eliminate miscommunication and wasted time making group plans and decisions.

Action: In the next 4 weeks, cancel a meeting that is not REALLY necessary.

Note: You can download a sample agenda and view the full list of my ‘7-Steps for Meetings That Actually Add Value’ here.

Until next time… Embrace the Adventure

Shawn

Shawn Stratton is an international leadership and team building consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author, and Ironman competitor.

Click here to learn more about how Shawn can help your organization.

© 2017 Shawn Stratton. All rights reserved

Do you have a good friend at work? Chances are if you work in a team environment and enjoy your job, you work with someone you would consider a good friend. It doesn’t matter if you are an introvert or extrovert, humans are social animals and having work friends is important to your overall happiness

Research by Gallup suggests the development of trusting relationships is a significant emotional compensation for employees in today’s marketplace. Too often, millennials are criticized for blurring the lines between work relationships and personal relationships. Given the always tuned on social media and always in pocket smart phone world that they have grown up in it increases the challenge for them to compartmentalize their relationships… and that’s a good thing.

While companies often pay significant attention to satisfaction surveys, including loyalty toward the organization, the best employers recognize that loyalty also exists among employees toward one another. Based on their research, Gallup believes “The best managers in the world observe that the quality and depth of employees’ relationships is a critical component of employee loyalty.”

So, how is a manager supposed to go about creating best friends forever (BFF) among their workforce? Certainly, a close friendship can never be formed from a forced experience.

Most quality friendships develop organically, as people invest little-premeditated thought in the process. When you think about your close friends today, for most of them, you didn’t set out with a focus on becoming their friend.

The good news is there are several things managers can do to help foster significant relationship building without making it feel contrived and forced.

One way to help facilitate close friendship building is to implement social interactions throughout the day. Do not frown upon water cooler chitchat. When I worked in an office (yes, I have spent some time in cubical office land), it would drive me nuts when people in the office would talk about last night’s show.

Other than a little distraction for me, what they were doing was actually a good thing for the workplace. They were developing a friendship through this social interaction. Now, if employees sitting nearby are constantly distracted by the water cooler chat, you may need to move the water cooler.

Perhaps some of these negative feelings I had heard this chitchat about last night’s show was a little resentment that I didn’t have anyone on the team I considered a close friend and could chat about my interests with.

Other ways to encourage relationship building is to share one thing you are proud of this week or perhaps use one of the questions on my list of 100 Questions to Spark Authenticity. Finding commonalities in your life, learning a person’s history and ultimately the willingness to be vulnerable, forms quality friendships quicker.

Asking these questions creates an atmosphere for these interactions to occur. The more we understand each other, the more we are likely to help each other out at work. This exercise also works for people working on virtual teams.

I once had a co-worker take away all the garbage and recycling bins from everyone’s cubical to create a more social environment. Having single centralized garbage and recycling bin forces everyone to get up from their desks to deposit their waste, which often creates the proverbial water cooler chitchat.

These are just a few of the countless little things you can do to create social interactions at work. Be creative and true to your personality as you look for the right activities for your group. The best ideas are often a Google search away.

In today’s rapid-fire change, reorganization, layoffs, mergers, and acquisitions, having best friends at work may be the true key to effective change integration and adaptation not just for millennials but for everyone!

Action: In the next week, create at least one opportunity for non-work social interaction within your team.

Until next time… Embrace the Adventure

Shawn

Shawn Stratton is an international leadership and team building consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author, and Ironman competitor.

Click here to learn more about how Shawn can help your organization.

© 2017 Shawn Stratton. All rights reserved

Gallop Research: http://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/511/item-10-best-friend-work.aspx

100 Questions to Spark Authenticity: 

http://www.shawnstratton.ca/authenticity/

“Commitment means staying loyal to what you said you would do long after the mood you said it in has left you” unknown

Some day I will climb this mountain. ©Shawn Stratton

Have you have ever had the same goal month after month, year after year? I know, there are a few that I have. Hit a sales target, achieve a promotion, lose weight, get more sleep, go on an epic vacation, run an ultramarathon etc. Why is this? If it is an important goal, why are you not achieving it?

To experience growth and move forward in life your goals need to be evolving. Even if you have the same massive or BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) goal every year, i.e. win the championship, become #1 in your field, etc., your actions need to change because with our evolving world “what got you there this year won’t get you there next year”. In the rare case that you are successful and things to stay the same, there is a good chance you will end up bored, burnt out and not growing as a person.

I found myself in this situation the last few years I was leading expeditions. I had been successful with running life impacting adventures and educational expeditions. I had honed a formula over the years that worked well. But this lack of evolving goals in my job eventually led me to complacency and burnout.  

Sea of Cortez, Baja MX ©Shawn Stratton

Contrary to popular belief, the key to goal achievement is not writing it down or telling someone, although it can help. The key really is taking action. Furthermore, it’s about making a commitment to sacrifice.

I am interested in your goals but I am more interested in what you are willing to sacrifice to make the comment needed to achieve your goal. If you are not willing or ready to make the sacrifice need to achieve the goal, be honest with yourself and acknowledge this particular goal really isn’t as important as the others you have.

Activity

Here is a goal setting activity to do with your team. It may not be too popular at first but can be effective.

• Have the group write down three important goals for them to achieve in the next 6 months. It could be personal or professional, depending on the context of your group.
• After giving them enough time to think about and document their goals ask them if they had ever had any of these goals before.
• Next, ask them to tear up the paper they just wrote their goals on and throw it into the recycling bin you pass around. This typically causes some anger and confusion but it will help make a point.
• Tell your team that if their goals are truly important, they will certainly remember them. What I am interested in is your commitment to achieving those goals. I want to know what you are committed to doing and sacrificing in the next 6 months to achieve your goal.
• Have them write down all the things they are willing to commit to achieving all the goals they wrote down. This is the paper that needs to be posted in a visible place they will see often.

This activity allows people to gain a clear perspective on how badly they actually want to achieve their goal.

Action: Take yourself and your team through this activity in the next 4 weeks. Don’t wait until January where most goals are set and forgotten about.

Goal Achievement = Commitment + Sacrifice

Until next time… Embrace the Adventure

Shawn

Shawn Stratton is an international leadership and team building consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author, and Ironman competitor.

Click here to learn more about how Shawn can help your organization.

© 2017 Shawn Stratton. All rights reserved

(Quick update – After leaving England at the end of July, the Strattons spent the next 5 weeks visiting family and friends throughout Canada and are now set up in Ottawa for the foreseeable future. LiveMore HQ is now up and running and I am back to providing you with regular quality original leadership content here on my blog.)

At Work, Are You Leading A Family Or A Sports Team?

You often hear people refer to their work teams as a family. Is this what you really want? Have you taken a close look at your family and your feelings about each person?If you are like me, you love everyone in your family unconditionally. Through all the childhood (and adult) fights, your pet peeves with them, your differences, the advice they didn’t take, the advice they didn’t give until it was too late, and the mistakes they have made, and through all the trials and tribulations that life throws at them, I will still love them because…well, they are family. I love them and always will. With family, there is no bottom-line.

A competitive sports team, on the other hand, most certainly has a bottom-line. In the past, I have written about the importance for leaders to love their team but not unconditionally. Sure, love them and also do everything in your power to have them performing at a high level to achieve your common goal but hold them to a high level of accountability at the same time. If a player on the sports team repeatedly makes mistakes, doesn’t show up on time, or calls out other players in the media, he/she may be benched, fined, or even dropped from the team, i.e. fired. You’re not going to fire a family member from your life, at least not in the same way you would a team player at work.

In extreme cases, you hear of family members who have not spoken for years. While this is terribly sad, I bet the family member who initiated breaking off the contact gave the other member a second, third, and maybe a tenth chance to redeem themselves.

In a high stakes, high-pressure work environment people are lucky if they get a second chance.

Too many teams have failed because their leader treated them like ‘family’. They were given too many chances and there was little accountability.

Action: As a leader, demand the same level of accountability and deliver timely consequence as you would expect from a high performing sports team, not your family.

Until next time… Embrace the Adventure

Shawn

Shawn Stratton is an international leadership and team building consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author and Ironman competitor.

Click here to learn more about how Shawn can help your organization.

© 2017 Shawn Stratton. All rights reserved