Rob and Steve Shallenberger, Founder and CEO of Becoming Your Best Global Leadership, are devoted to helping individuals and organizations achieve their maximum potential. Steve has successfully led companies in four different industries and has a keen understanding of how to thrive in business. Rob has trained and coached hundreds of companies around the world, including many Fortune 500 organizations, in leadership, planning and time-management. Their new book is “Do What Matters Most: Lead with a Vision, Manage with a Plan, Prioritize Your Time“.
Rob and Steve recently spoke with YoungUpstarts and shared insights on how to do what matters most.
Describe your professional backgrounds and how they led to launching your leadership consulting and coaching firm.
Rob: After flying F-16s for 11 years, I was surrounded by high performance — from the people to the jets themselves. I was fascinated with high performance and what that looked like at an organizational level. Ironically, while I was flying F-16s, my father had been researching great leaders and high performers to identify what set them apart from everyone else.
After leaving the Air Force, my father and I joined forces to start Becoming Your Best Global Leadership, a company focused on leadership, time-management and productivity. It seemed to be the perfect relationship, with my fighter background and his business and research background.
During the last 11 years, we’ve been blessed with the opportunity to meet with, train, and coach some of the most influential leaders and organizations around the world, including the Dallas Cowboys, Hensel Phelps, Charles Schwab, and the President of Rwanda (to name a few).
How did the concept for Do What Matters Most emerge?
In our research of 1,260 managers from more than 108 different global organizations, 68% of them felt like their #1 challenge was how to prioritize their time (time-management). Yet, at the same time, 80% didn’t have a time-management process (outside of sticky notes or to-do lists) to schedule their priorities and do what matters most.
Our new book, “Do What Matters Most“, shares three high-performance habits that will empower people to take control of their schedule, prioritize their time and increase productivity by at least 30-50%.
The implementation of these habits translates into better leadership, increased sales, higher productivity, higher profitability and improved culture. On the personal side, it translates into increased life balance, improved mental and physical health, less stress, better relationships and a laser-like focus on your priorities.
There are few things in the world that you can “guarantee” will make a difference. But, in this case, we can guarantee that nearly every area of your life will improve when you apply the Do What Matters Most habits.
What are the three transformational high-performance habits that you’ve identified?
The three Do What Matters Most habits are:
Habit #1: A written personal vision
Habit #2: Roles and Goals®
Habit #3: Pre-week Planning®
Interestingly, vision and goals are talked about often but rarely done — especially in a way that aligns a person and sets him or her up for success. Only 1% of people have a written personal vision, personal and professional goals, and do some form of pre-week planning. When done in unison, these three habits create a chemistry of excellence and will empower someone to lead a life by design rather than live a life by default.
People often ask which is the most important habit. While that answer varies by person, it has been our experience that Pre-Week Planning is the most crucial habit a person can develop. It’s the machine that drives everything we do on a daily and weekly level.
Why are the three Do What Matters Most habits important and tell us a bit about each one?
With the first, developing a written personal vision, your personal vision becomes your internal compass, north star, purpose, or fire that burns within. It’s what drives your goals and pre-week planning towards what matters most. We invite people to look at the 5–7 roles that matter most to them and develop a vision for each role (parent, spouse, manager, etc.). Ask yourself what the very best version of you in that role looks like, and then use words such as I am to describe it. Your personal vision doesn’t have to change the world; it just has to change your world.
Imagine how powerful it would be to have an entire team of people whose personal vision aligns with their role and what they are doing in the company — that’s one of the keys to creating engagement!
Set Roles and Goals® is one of those things that’s talked about often but rarely done. Our research revealed that only 10% of people have written personal and professional goals.
Just like your vision, we invite you to consider your different roles and identify the 1–4 goals that matter most to you this year in each role. Think of it this way: how would you measure success this year in each of your roles? Your answer to that question becomes the foundation for your goals. Like anything else, this is a skill set, and people and teams need to learn how to word their goals in a way that sets them up for success. For example, never use the words more or better, and avoid using daily goals (pre-week planning takes care of that). Instead, your goals should be the specific milestones this year towards making your vision a reality.
You can find a free Roles and Goals template at BYBgoals.com.
We consider Pre-Week Planning® the most important habit a person can develop. Pre-week planning is the process that empowers people to schedule their priorities rather than prioritize their schedules.
Time is our most precious resource. A leader who is first leading his or her life will be a far more effective leader in the professional environment. This single habit will increase productivity by at least 30–50% and help a person accomplish at least 800–1000 additional important things this year…all with less stress!
A wise leader once said, “no success in business can compensate for failure in the home.” When a person starts pre-week planning, they will start doing things that previously slipped through the cracks. It becomes exponentially more powerful when combined with your personal vision and goals.
What’s your response to people who say they don’t have time to implement a new skillset?
It’s very simple: you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by reading our Do What Matters Most book and testing the habits for yourself. Among the common responses from people who implement the big three habits is that they found time they didn’t know existed or that they’re doing things now that never seemed to happen before.
Share an example of how the implementation of these habits impacted a person’s life.
These are two comments I’ve heard this week:
“I read the book and put these habits into practice six weeks ago. Since then, I’ve lost 40 pounds, come off three medications, started scheduling family activities that rarely happened before, and started interacting with my employees in a way I never did previously.”
“These three habits have transformed my entire life. I finished my vision and goals and have been doing pre-week planning for almost a year now. I’m putting all of my employees through the Do What Matters Most training because of the impact I saw this training have in my own personal and professional life!”
To take a free personal productivity assessment, get an objective score on your life, and do what matters most, you can visit BYBasessment.com.
