Monk Mode Leadership From Former CEO Of Intel Corporation

Coming up in today’s edition:

1. One quick win: to overcome the mind-reading fallacy

2. One proven system: to scale your team effectively

3. One million-dollar question: to achieve your priority goals

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1. BEWARE OF THE MIND-READING FALLACY

Assuming that your team can anticipate your thoughts, desires and preferences is a surefire way to create an enormous amount of unnecessary frustration.

Playwright and Political Activist, George Bernard Shaw, knew this better than anyone 👇

This is one of the lessons I’ve learned the hard way.

People don’t have direct access to your mind so it’s imperative to overcommunicate your objectives, team priorities and preferences.

The more responsibility you have and the bigger your team(s), the more important it is to express your thoughts and desires clearly and consistently.

Beware of the mind-reading fallacy.

This principle is also a good rule of thumb for daily life.

It can improve the quality of your relationships with:

• Loves ones

• Friends

• Co-workers

• Suppliers

• Freelancers

• Your gym spotter

Never expect others to have a perfect understanding of what you need or want, no matter how long you’ve known them.

Take full accountability this week for expressing your thoughts and feelings so that it becomes easy for others to interact with you in a productive and beneficial way.

2. MONK MODE MANAGERIAL LEVERAGE

The title of this section put a smile on my face.

I’m not talking about a Zen Yoga system but more one that can help you scale your output as a team without you being the bottleneck as the manager.

The most frequently asked question I receive is “How much time should I spend setting an example as an individual contributor (IC) vs acting as a strategic leader (SL)?”

Leaders with high IC time work quicker and get more done BUT their day is usually back to back causing stress and anxiety. It can feel like a never-ending treadmill of to-do tasks.

Leaders who focus more of their time on SL have more focused working time BUT can quickly become too far removed from the day-to-day reality and activities that their team are doing.

Before we go any further, give yourself a current ratio split. What do your weeks look like?

• 90% (IC) : 10% (SL)

• 30% (IC) : 70% (SL)

To create the right guardrails for your team, try the concept of “managerial leverage” from Andy Grove’s classic book - High Output Management.

These are pieces of training or business infrastructure that will create a big impact across your whole team or business, yet take you a similar amount of time to you doing an individual contributor task.

Spending time each week creating high-leverage activities (HLAs as Grove named them) is the best way to move your time spent from individual contributor mode to leadership mode.

Example HLAs:

• Template Sales Deck: Design a compelling, structured sales deck that your sales team can use to pitch to clients. This ensures messaging is consistent and effective across the board.

• Scalable Onboarding Process: Develop a standardised onboarding program that ensures new hires can contribute quickly. This saves time and ensures consistency across departments.

• Customer Feedback Loop: Create a system for collecting, analysing, and acting on customer feedback. This ensures your product evolves with the needs of your market, boosting customer satisfaction and retention.

Think of HLAs as the operating manual for the team to follow across all areas of the business.

Delegation becomes much easier as they have a step-by-step process to follow.

The best question to ask yourself as a leader is:

When these foundational systems are missing or not defined well, your team will tend to adopt new ways of working.

This creates inconsistent methods and outputs and varied standards of delivery across the team.

Your job as a leader is to clearly communicate expectations and give everyone the tools they need to meet them.

This is where Monk Mode comes in.

• Pick a time each week to dial into Monk Mode to complete your HLAs.

• Every Tuesday and Friday morning until 11:00 (or whatever time works for you).

• Intentionally cutting out distractions—such as unnecessary meetings and emails.

• Prioritise only the HLAs and tasks that will create significant impact on your business.

Once the HLAs are set up, 80% of your team’s time should be spent autonomously within the guardrails you’ve created. 20% of their time should be spent with you in a 1 on 1 meetings or feedback sessions where you can coach them on how to go from good to great on that specific task.

This practice not only enhances productivity but also ensures that you are consistently working on the most important elements that move the needle, rather than getting caught up in daily firefighting or reactive tasks.

3. WHAT WOULD A STRANGER SAY ARE YOUR PRIORITIES IF THEY OBSERVED YOU FOR A WEEK?

Write them down in your notes on your phone.

Then write underneath what your actual top 3x priorities are for the month.

Do they align with each other or do they tell a different story?​

What are the areas and priorities where you seem to be cutting corners?

We tend to have two sets of priorities in life:

1. The priorities your words say you have.

2. The priorities your actions show you have.

The most successful high-performers have a strong alignment of intention and action.

So, keep this question in mind throughout your week:

• What do your actions say about your priorities?

• What changes will close the gap between intention and action?

Have a great week 🤝

MY TOP FINDS OF THE WEEK 🔍

For your performance:

• Floyd Mayweather 🥊 what it takes to reach the top of your field - “I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer” (Link)

For your team:

• NFL Running Back 🏈 Saquon Barkley's viral video this week demonstrates the true meaning of selfless leadership - would you do it for your team? (Link)

For your health:

• Dr Patrick Flynn 🗣️ why scientifically women need more sleep than men to perform at their best (Link)

Hope you enjoyed this week’s tactics. I’ll be back next Sunday with a new lineup 👋 - Alex 

P.S. Did you get something useful from this email? Do me a solid by sharing this link with 1 newsletter pal… 🙏

P.P.S. If you want some one-on-one time to apply some of the concepts to specific challenges you are having with your own team, please get in touch.