How Leaders Use Hump Day
Give yourself 10 minutes for reflection before tackling today’s challenges.
You’ve been so busy solving urgencies and pressing into future goals that you haven’t taken time reflect, prepare, and give feedback.
#1 – Reflect on yourself
With the first of the week in mind, ask yourself:
- What makes me joyful? Thankful?
- What did I do that makes me proud?
- How did I energize the team?
- Where did I get distracted from priorities? Why?
- What have I learned?
- What frustrates me?
- What would I like to do more of?
#2 – Reflect on others
With the first of the week in mind, ask yourself:
- Who enriched the work environment?
- Who dragged others down? Leaders look for energy drainers.
- Who performed at their peek?
- Who was under-utilized?
- Who needs encouragement, direction, or correction?
- Who spun their wheels?
- What questions were people asking?
#3 – Prepare for Friday
With the end of the week in mind:
- What must be completed by Friday? Does the team know?
- What course adjustments should I make now?
- What awkward issues should be addressed today?
- Who should be reassigned?
- What projects are behind schedule?
- What or who concerns you?
#4 – Give feedback
You give too little feedback.
Get the most out of hump day by making it feedback day. Connect with your team and share practical, specific feedback that’s based on reflections about yourself, them, and Friday.
Feedback is always about the future, even though it starts in the past.
- Tell teammates how they are doing.
- Ask them how you are doing with specific projects or behaviors in mind.
- Clarify objectives.
- Point out progress.
- Create urgency.
- Refocus on purpose.
- Energize high performers.
Bonus: Say thank you.
Double bonus: Be brief.
What questions for reflection would you add?
What tip about giving feedback can you share?
Dan, there is only right here, right now.
My daily plan is simple and as effective for others as it is for me.
Two Thoughts!
Happy Now
Vision for the Future
At the end of the day I answer three questions.
Today did I
Live?
Love?
Matter?
That is IT! The simple Daily Plan to an Epic Daily Experience!!!
I give it to you freely as it was given to me.
If you practice 21 days in a row your life will never be the same.
Only one way to know.
Do it 21 days and get back to me.
SP
EA
Thanks Scott. Great questions.
Yeah, somebody did not like um!!!!
Lol
How is that even possible??
The thoughts are cool too Dan, I AM ridiculously HAPPY!!
Guess I left out a real important part…take what you like and leave the rest!!!
Back to Ridiculously Happy Now!!!!
SP
EA
I’m living “hump day” this week working from home with some kind of flu/fever – not my normal day.
My thoughts this morning were mostly thankfulness. My boss, my EA, and the managers reporting to me are competent and motivated, so they will step into the breach. Yes, I’ll have my computer, VPN, and BlackBerry, but I have no concerns about their competence or engagement.
It is fun to be part of a high-performing team of good people.
My thoughts today are therefore, “I’m thankful to be the leader of such a great team of wonderful people”.
Thanks Marc. Get well and get back to work!! 😉
Being surround by people you can trust is beautiful. No wonder you are thankful.
These are good. Too often we, I, use to do lists. This is better
Thanks Rajiv. In some ways, maybe this is a “to be” list. There are to dos. But, I believe Who comes before How or What.
Exactly, and this is what makes it different. Most “to do” lists, are lists of tasks
Dear Dan,
What I learned, and who dragged others down are two important concepts here. We learned from many things. One way to learn is to learning by doing. In the way, we may fail but learn something. Other way to learn is to learn from our sweet spot. Where people use your weak point and try to defeat you in all the possible ways. Why I say so, recently, my newly made friend developed trust with me. I used to share everything with him. After few months, I came to know through someone that he tried to expose by weaknesses by all means. People were very angry at him, but I was quite. I felt pity and forgave him. I never repent, but I learned in the process.
It is even more important to know about the people who dragged others. Such people are everywhere, but knowing them is important to position oneself. But one thing is very clear, all these people who engage into dragging others down are incompetent in some or others ways. Incompetent in knowledge, values, belief etc. They are most fearful people and that is why they apply this tactics to make their position safe.
I think, feed back should be real, timely and on the face. Sources or medium should be avoided to provide any feedback. At the same time, it is very important to ensure that people do not get discouraged in case of negative feed back. They should feel to work harder without feeling of being isolated.
Thanks Ajay. I enjoyed reading your story about the relationship with a friend. Relationships and people are messy. We are messy. 🙂
The last 5 words of your comment really hit me… “without feeling of being isolated.” So powerful. Successful leaders help people feel like they belong, have a place, and make a contribution.
As a kid I remember pedaling my bike to a speed where the bike was outrunning the contribution of more pedaling! My calendar sometimes feels the same – this post is a helpful checkpoint – thanks!
Thanks Ken. Great illustration! I know exactly what you are talking about.
Dear Dan,
Liked the contents of your post.
Setting priorities based on their importance for the week on Monday is a normal practice adopted by me. A brief progress review and assigning specific tasks to individual team members keep the ball rolling in the right way.
I remain sincere and committed with self-control and creativity at work. This way, I remain satisfied and energetic to work on new challenges. As regards others, I keep them inspired and motivated by practicing fairness, transparent and keeping their respect with dignity.
It’s more of good involvement, collective commitment to deliver and celebrate every success in a novel way steer our way of working for the organization without any selfish interest or jealousy. We work like a family.
Thanks Dr. Asher. There’s something powerful about the idea of “collective commitment.” Individual commitment is easy to monitor. Collective commitment. suggests things like, how are we working together, what are we doing to support each other, how siloed are we? Cheers
I love this. Another entry for the Rockwall. 😃 (But I always thought hump day was Thursday.)
Thanks Steven. I think Thursday is hump day if you work 7 days a week! 😉 But, if you are a high performer, maybe you don’t even have a hump day.
Noon on Thursday always seems like the place I need to get past.
Love this post. Most of all, I love that you stated clearly that you are not giving enough feedback. I would love to see a future post about HOW to give good feedback. We say, “good job” too much and “when you ____, you effectively ____” too little.
More reflection questions:
-What felt important?
-What do I need to make right?
-Where is there potential for growth?
Thanks rdkaye. Great add. I like all your questions. But, I especially like, “Where is the potential for growth.”
There’s good research that says the majority of employees want more feedback. Cheers
Dan,
Great post for the mid-week opportunity we have before us, purposeful reflection and heading into the home stretch of the week at a winning pace.
Two things I purposefully do on Wednesdays: I have chosen to elevate “hump day” to #SummitDay. Thought here is that if the high-point of your week is a hump, maybe you should turn it up a notch or two. I use the #SummitDay hashtag to encourage and hopefully inspire others on Wednesdays.
I share similar inspiration on Wednesdays and during the week to encourage and elevate our attitude and gratitude with through my #ServeStrong posts. This started from heart-felt thoughts that come to mind and surprisingly has grown to people sharing them and telling me that they are looking forward to posts.
Your Leadership Freak blog is definitely the way in which you #ServeStrong. I appreciate the insight and thought provoking posts you consistently share with us.
Happy #SummitDay. Best to you.
Jim
Thanks Jim. I have to say that #summitday sure has a different feel to it. So glad you stopped in. Best
“Hump” day could be viewed as the hurdle that has to be overcome or . . . I like to picture it as the top of a hill where Monday and Tuesday were the first 2 days of the climb and the last 2 days after Wednesday are the trip back down.
Your post has made the next steps very clear. Take a moment on Wednesday to look at where you are. (stop and smell the roses, enjoy the view! 🙂 ) Where did Monday and Tuesday take you? How did you get there? Where do you want to be by Friday? What is the best route to get you there?
. . . the journey. I love it!
Thanks Dianna. Love the positive feel to your comment. When you add “smell the roses” to stop and see where you are, it lifts the spirit as well as reminds me of the responsibility to assess progress.
Hey Dan
List’s #1 through #4 are great reminders to have on hand for those times you have a few quiet moments to reflect. I think to sum up what you’ve said is, “the leaders who strives and perseveres to be the best Leader/Person they can be constantly evavuate and re-evaluate their effectiveness”. Self reflection keeps us all from growing stale and ineffective. But it takes a willingness to be brutally honest with yourself while concidering helpful critiqueing from trusted confidants. Being your best doesn’t happen by accident, it takes practice. “They say practice makes perfect, I DISAGREE.” I’ve watched many take a lackluster approach at ‘practicing’ their trade, with lackluster results. I submit the saying should go, “perfect practice makes perfect”!!!!!
Cheers Dan
Thanks SGT. So many encouraging and insightful ideas. “Being your best doesn’t happen by accident” — KaPow
Dan, I really enjoyed this posting. I have printed it off and left it on my diary as a reminder. Thank you! 🙂
Thanks Maria. You have my best wishes for the journey. I appreciate that you took time to be an encouragement.
Thanks Dan, Additional questions that my team and myself include is
What’s not my responsibility?
So easy to get sucked into situations, concerns or issues that really aren’t ours to work with or solve..
Who’s responsibility is it?
Move it to the most appropriate person or place for action.
The magic behind Hump day is that it doesn’t really exist. It is only a label. The days of the week are only relative measurements of time. Each day is just a day filled with specific activities. You will either continue to live to see the next day or you will not, either way the next day will come. Enjoy the day you are in, do not focus on the time of week for you will continue to be slave to the cycle of weekday to weekend……still a wonderful article though Dan – BEAST