I read an article recently that contained a simple quote that stopped me in my tracks. The author said, “If you want to be fit and healthy, you pretty much have to exercise really hard for an hour, five days a week, for the rest of your life!” Three hundred minutes a week, it’s a simple concept, but of course not easy to do. So many ‘experts’ tend to recommend about half of that, and others even less; we’ve all heard it, “just 30 minutes, three times a week”. I don’t buy it. “300 Minutes” has become a new mantra for me, a valuable mantra I can use.
Most of us are familiar with the “10,000-hour” rule that Malcolm Gladwell made famous in Outliers. It’s been widely accepted that ten thousand hours is what it takes for functional mastery … essentially five years working full-time at something to just earn the chance to gain a significant level of expertise. And, that’s if the game doesn’t change much within those five years. Let’s face it, for most of us a five-year horizon is a difficult vision to maintain. It’s a long ways off. It’s hard to maintain enthusiasm, let alone any consistency of application over a 72-month time-frame. 10,000 hours is a ‘nice to know’. 300 minutes is a useful tool. Let me tell you what I mean by that.
Being healthy, strong, fit … playing a musical instrument of any kind … playing tennis or golf, exploring a hobby such as birding, photography or gardening, I think we can all agree that any of the above would take a righteous 300-minutes every week to get the rewards we’re after. Then what about effective leadership?
If you’re reading this, most likely you are in a leading role somewhere – formal supervision, informal leadership, or the highest levels of management – effective influence matters to you. So, how much time and attention do you give it every week? How many minutes do you dedicate to learning and practicing the concepts of facilitating performance and engagement for your organization? Do you give interactional fitness a good 300 minutes a week … one hour every day … one eighth of every work week? Will you give it that investment – for the rest of your leadership career?
Let’s do something different – we can’t help but get better:
- Learn your craft – online, in print, via audio, podcast or video. Study, articulate and reflect upon the simple truths of effective influence.
- Apply the skills – this isn’t done alone. Invest the time it takes actually interacting with those you depend upon … with those who depend upon you.
If it matters to you, give it 300-minutes. Don’t worry about 10,000 hours … just focus on five.
-Don Brown
don@donbrown.org
Don Brown dedicates his career to ‘helping people with people’ in leadership, sales and customer service. Bilingual and experienced at the executive and line-level alike, you see the results of his work across dozens of industries, including brewing, automotive, airline, banking and medical equipment.
Speaking, writing, coaching and selling to the best – Ford Motor Company, Anheuser-Busch, United Airlines, Harley-Davidson, Jaguar Cars, Hilton Hotels and many, many more – Don takes great pride in long-standing customer relationships (some running well over twenty years).
