Shandel Sutherland 00:05
Welcome to Lead For Clarity where we help you, your team and your organization focus on what matters. My name is Shandel Sutherland. And I'm here with my lovely friend, partner in this adventure of clarity. Melanie Montgomery.
Melanie Montgomery 00:24
Hello, Shandel. How are you today?
Shandel Sutherland 00:26
Good, good break, I can't believe we are already headed headlong into our next webinar that we're going to be offering. We have so much fun with the delegation. One, I'm looking forward to our time mastery one. And I know for me at the end of the year, when there's graduations, and everything seems like it's just a big whirlwind rush before summer, that I don't think this could be better plan for me. And I'm sure a bunch of other people as well. So Melanie, what do you have for us? What is your brainchild for this webinar.
Melanie Montgomery 01:03
And I'm really excited for this webinar as well, to really help people gain tools to avoid burnout and to avoid frustration, and I'm feeling like they just don't have time to do all the things that they want to do. This is something that I have to consistently work on. And I've had to work very hard on trying to develop that framework for myself. So the webinar is going to contain a few different pieces. Of course, we always approach different leadership topics with what is our mindset? And how do we get to a positive growth mindset where we're really taking control and able to influence things. So first, we're gonna look at how do we change that mindset? And really look at what's important to us, what do we want to be spending our time on? And how do we then facilitate that so that we are balanced and ready to go and feeling good about what we have going on in our lives?
Shandel Sutherland 01:55
That's good. That's a lot that give me an example from a client that is really put this tool into action? And what was what was their ROI? What was the return on the investment? Because they did
Melanie Montgomery 02:09
one coaching client comes to mind with that question Shandel. She came to me feeling really overwhelmed. She really needed to focus on prioritizing her tasks and understanding how can she get everything done, because she was constantly feeling like she wasn't able to get through her to do list that she was dropping balls. So we really started looking at what is important to you. Where are you spending your time? And where are we spending time that is not helpful, or that doesn't serve us? And so we really dug into not only what matters most and where do you want to be spending your time? But also looking at where are we wasting time? And how do we recuperate that? Where are we investing a lot of energy that's just draining to us. And then we're not able to complete other tasks. And so, by the end of our time together, which we were together for a few months working through these pieces, she was so much better about getting her deadlines done, she was accomplishing things, she had really made some big changes in her life to help her to be more successful and focus on the things that were really mattering to her. And I believe she almost completed her thesis, which was this last step to one of her programs as she was working through. Wow,
Shandel Sutherland 03:25
that is great. I know, I doesn't matter how many times I revisit the subject, I always learn more I or or just completely and utterly reminded of what I know to be true and not executing. We always say we are educated, far above the level of execution, like we know what to do and not do it. So I'm excited to revisit some of this. So one of the things that we always start people on is what we call kind of our baseline exercise. And if you're watching on the YouTube channel, I'm sharing my screen so we can all follow along. And if not, we will make sure that you have an example of this at our website at Shandel group.com. So what we're looking at right now is a wheel and on each one of these wheels is a category of your life. And also a score. Melanie, do you want to kind of walk us through this wheel a little bit? Yeah,
Melanie Montgomery 04:26
so we have eight different categories that all reflect important components of somebody's life. And if you're going through this, and there's one that isn't on here that is important to you know, this can definitely be edited. But the ones that we have that are really basic and we feel like integral to most people, our friends, work, finances, body, mind, future spiritual and family. And this might mean something different to each person, but this is a really good time to really reflect in on a score of one One to five. How good do I feel about each of these categories? You know where I am with my friendships, how my finances, look, all these different pieces and really reflect on how do I feel within each category. And I want to just quickly remind everyone that there is no good or bad, there is no right or wrong, it's just really a snapshot in time so that we can know where we are. And then where we want to go where we want to spend our time and develop. I
Shandel Sutherland 05:28
love this exercise because you you somewhat do some highlighting and outlining and to look at the balance. And I think it's great, like the one that we have on the screen right now the future is the one that has the most emphasis and like, if I think about it, if I'm always focusing on the future, okay, my future may be bright, but my presence sucks, you know, my, my present friends, my spiritual life, my body, my finances, there in the toilet, but man, do I have clarity and excited about the future? I think that might be almost every entrepreneur I know, you know, is very clear on that. And so that's wonderful that we have clarity for the future, but at what cost is how we can look at the rest of the wheel and see it. Because what happens is when you're excelling in one area of life, it really will take in his taking away from another area of life. That's where we go on. Let's as coaches we know better we know that that is not the recipe for success. Now. On the other hand, there's always seasons, we go through seasons, where we have to be a little out of whack. But we need to know that this is just a season versus a lifestyle. And boy do I know the difference between having it be a season or a lifestyle?
Melanie Montgomery 06:53
Yeah, for many years, I was very lopsided when it came to my life. I was so focused on my career. And that was the number one thing that I was really pushing for and striving for I had really big goals and I want to accomplish them all. But I had a moment where I started reflecting on where I was spending my time and what I was planning for. And I realized that these other pieces that are so important to me, I was not making a priority like my family, like looking at spending time with my friends, I was constantly reading going to the gym, that's about all I did in my life was work gym audiobooks. But that was really a good awareness opportunity for me to say, my family is the most important thing to me, and I'm not actively making time for them. And so I started planning for every single week, you're gonna get together with at least one family member, at least one time, create that space where you all can get together and that you can actually lean into something that does matter. Even though if you were to look at my life from the outside, it wouldn't look like it mattered. Ooh,
Shandel Sutherland 07:56
that's really good. We always know what matters when we look at our calendar, our checkbook, you know, and what we've been doing, because our time this is why time mastery is so important to us. Not only is for us, but it really demonstrates to other people, what are our priorities, what do we value and what's most important, and it definitely changes through the different seasons of life. I was reflecting on this, Melanie, you being a millennial and me being a Gen X er, and just, you know, being in this business for now, almost half my life not quite, but almost. It is amazing to me how I have always been busy. Like I'm always busy. I have been busy since I think I was 11 years old, you know, and, and how now more than ever. I'm understanding that rest margin, all those pieces really bring the fulfillment of the future and the career and the finances on all of that. And I'd note it in my head from the beginning, you know, you know, be a come life coach and not know this right? But really understanding. Okay, I'm going to have more I'm gonna go, how do I say it? I go faster with doing less when I'm focused on this rest. So oh, maybe that kind of rhymes. I'll have to think about that time. You can want to talk and
Melanie Montgomery 09:33
one thing that really hit me hard when I was first learning this framework quite a few years ago, I was always busy. I was working so much and this was during the pandemic we were short staffed, I always felt like I had to be there for the team. So I was working doubles multiple times a week. I was really burning the candle at both ends. But in my mind, I was like I have to do this. I have to support my team. And I was at this leadership development Then program where someone was telling me that people are going to emulate what you put out there. And so if you are working 12 hours a day, your team will now think that that is the expectation and they will work to do the same. And it was just like a hit me like a ton of bricks. I was like, Oh, my goodness, I'm constantly telling my team, like, go home, you've been here too long, you know, all these different things. But then what I was saying what I was doing are two different things. And I started noticing that they were working long hours, and that they really felt like they needed to be there when they didn't, and I didn't. And so I really had to reframe that of when I was a workaholic, I was like, well, it's just me, it's only affecting me. And that's okay. You know, I can take these consequences. But then I started realizing how much me being a workaholic was actually affecting every single person on my team, because they wanted to do me proud. So they thought that by doing what I was doing, that would make me happy with them, or that they were meeting this expectation. And that is never what I wanted. And so that was a big reframe, for me, of when you do things, when you put too much emphasis on one category. It affects so much more than you even realize.
Shandel Sutherland 11:19
So I had a client, Melanie has a same similar story. And she was a supervisor at the railroad and high up and they told her like, Hey, listen, HR told her you can't send emails, only in these hours. And you can't talk to people accepting these hours. And it was because she was working so hard that no one wanted her job. And so she couldn't move up, and no one wanted her job. And they were saying this is not going to work for us long term. That was so shocking to me, because I knew she worked really hard. We were always trying to work balance. But it wasn't until her company got involved, that she was actually able to succeed in what we had been trying to do is in coaching. So I think that fits right in there with your story and why as leaders, we have to protect our people. And you know, so often, the reward of good work is more work, right.
Melanie Montgomery 12:19
And it's so important to create a culture of we don't overwork a culture of we care about other things, you know, in the hospitality and gaming industry. That wasn't the culture at all. We all worked hard, it was a 24 hour business, not to say that other people didn't work hard, but it was a 24 hour business. So if you were there late, it wasn't a red flag. It wasn't like oh, outside of normal business hours. And so we had this idea that we always had to be on, we always had to be available, there might always be a crisis. And that culture just wasn't there. Or maybe I just didn't see it. But we all just, we were just go go go. And I think it's so important to make that shift to say, you know, when you taking time off winning and taking vacation, you know, you've been here too long. I do know my boss used to come into my office and be like, What are you still doing here? I'm like, you know, I need to be here. And he would encourage me to go home sometimes. But it was just, it's hard to get out of that cycle.
Shandel Sutherland 13:21
Yeah, yeah. And I think that that's what this time masterclass is going to be on. It's going to be how can we set people up for tools where they don't burn out personally, but also how do they protect their team, and really some really good tools, practical tools that we can use. And so I think we should land this plane, because otherwise we're not using our time wisely, Melanie. So what is one thing you really want our people to take away from this podcast today?
Melanie Montgomery 13:53
Yeah, that's something we didn't talk too much in depth about yet. But I just want to plant the seed of when we look at our lives, we can determine what's important to us by what we're spending time on. And in order to spend time on the things that are important. We have to plan for all aspects of our lives. For so long. I just had a to do list for my work and my school. And then I realized that because I didn't have that same list. And I wasn't actively planning for friends and family. I wasn't doing it. So we really have to have that priority, not only in our mindset, but also in how we plan how we go about what success looks like,
Shandel Sutherland 14:36
Oh, that's so good. Yeah. And I would say my takeaway is just no matter how much you have heard this, you always need to hear it again. I need to hear it again. And I have actually come a long way in the last few years and I want to keep going. So I would encourage people who are in that near burnout stage. To listen up, but also people who have heard this 1000 times that we can revisit this again and gain even more. So we would encourage you to sign up, it will be in the show notes or you can go to our website Shandel group.com. And by the way, we gave our website a little facelift so we would encourage any feedback you have for us as well. And I would say be the best you can be today and have a great day.
Melanie Montgomery 15:26
Goodbye.
