Just Stop Already | Jon Kidwell

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by an endless list of tasks, unsure which to tackle first? In this episode of the Lead Well podcast, I share a personal experience with an executive team that was drowning in too many responsibilities. We'll talk about the vital practice of pruning less critical activities to focus on what truly matters, guided by insights from Henry Cloud's book, "Necessary Endings." I'll also open up about my own journey in cutting down my commitments, such as stepping back from multiple board positions, to better align with my primary goals and boost productivity.

In the latter part of our discussion, we delve into the crucial process of deciding what to stop doing, both in our professional and personal lives. We'll discuss assessing tasks based on their mission and profitability, and the necessity of shedding low-impact, low-profit activities. This episode underscores the immense power of learning to say "no" and creating space for impactful work. Plus, we highlight the importance of building a supportive network to encourage and assist each other in this endeavor. Tune in to discover strategies for eliminating the unnecessary and focusing on what truly drives success.

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Order your copy of Jon's book at RedefineYourServantLeadership.com, and don't forget to utilize the additional resources, or purchase access to the Workbook and Coaching Videos.

Send your Leadership and Business questions to Jon at [e-mail].

For more information visit https://leadwell.com

The Leadwell Podcast gives mission-driven leaders principled and practical advice to do just that, lead well.

In each episode, your host Jon Kidwell, interviews leaders with great stories, to share strategies that help leaders navigate complex, confusing, and often down-right challenging leadership, personal growth, business, and workplace culture situations.

Jon is a nonprofit executive turned coach, speaker, author, and CEO of a leadership development company. In working with nonprofits and businesses, big and small, he realized the unique challenges leaders face when they are committed to keeping the mission and people the top priority. Those leaders’ commitment to their principles and the people they lead, plus seeing the need for more leaders who strive to do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons, is what inspired Jon to start a leadership development company dedicated to the success of mission-driven leaders and their organiza...

Episode Transcript

Jon Kidwell (00:08):
One of the most important decisions you're going
to make isn't what you're goingto do, it's what you're not
going to do.
Welcome to the Lead Wellpodcast, the podcast for
mission-driven leaders, where wedive into what's most important
for you to lead your businessand your people well.
Do you ever get the feelinglike there's just a lot of

(00:28):
activity to keep everythinggoing, to make sure that
everything gets done?
I even saw just the other dayit was an advertisement,
couldn't think of the word is anadvertisement on social media
that had an AI piece that justmoved all the tasks around and
it took this overloaded 60 hourwork week and just like fumbled

(00:49):
it and jumbled it into 32 hours.
I mean, that's actually not howthings work.
Like sometimes we just have totake stuff off the table and yet
we don't want to.
I get it.
It's so hard.
This has been something thatI've been thinking about with
our business, with my own life,of what has to come off the
table, and it kind of came to ahead.
I'm sitting here and I got totell you the story of sitting

(01:10):
with an executive team andthey're talking about not having
enough resources.
They're talking about nothaving enough time.
They're talking about nothaving the engagement, and so
they're talking about projectsand what's important and what's
not important and these type ofthings, and you can almost get a
sense that they're starting todo some of the prioritization.
But there's also just a lot ofsideways movement and trying to

(01:33):
negotiate and move.
And well, we could just do thisand we can add this thing.
And if we put this in there and, like so many of us, it's just
add, add, add, rearrange, movethis chess piece over here.
See if we can just likecontinue to rearrange the puzzle
.
And as I'm sitting thereletting them work through this,
I'm just bubbling up inside.
I'm just ready to be like juststop.

(01:54):
Already those three words werejust ready to come out, so
finally had to come and justsaid add, if you had a magic
wand and you could takesomething off this table, what
would it be?
And all of a sudden we startedtalking about the things that
didn't really matter.
And then we started talkingabout the things that did really

(02:16):
matter and it made me think andjust reinforce some of the
things we have to stop, becausethey're actually an impediment
to the impact we're trying tomake.
They're an anchor on theactivities that we are trying to
do, that are most important tous, and it made me think about
sometimes we just need to stopalready, and that stopping
actually frees us up to diveinto what is most important.

(02:40):
So there's this book.
Henry Cloud wrote NecessaryEndings.
I want to share this with you.
It's a quote from the book.
Without the ability to endthings, people stay stuck, never
becoming who they are meant tobe, never accomplishing all that
their talents and abilitiesshould afford them the ability

(03:02):
to do.
What a powerful reminder onjust stopping and what that does
for us, for what we can do,what we should do, and that's
personal.
But look at it as a businessand all that we do.
That isn't exactly the workthat we uniquely do in the niche

(03:23):
that we uniquely want to serve,on the mission that we are
fully pointed our way on and howsometimes we have to stop.
That it took me back to a timewhen I had to do this, when
there were so many things and Icould no longer rearrange all
the things, I could no longercarry it on my back.
There was some delegation thathad to happen, but there was

(03:45):
just some stopping as well.
It was a Saturday morning kindof you know what I mean like a
teetering on that edge of notjust being tired but like
emotionally spent, actualburnout, the emotional fatigue
and disconnect of I just can'tdo this anymore.
I'm starting to buildresentment.
That's about where I was and Ilooked at all of the things and

(04:08):
I could not rearrange it intothe calendar, into the life,
into everything.
It was taking me away from mynew daughter.
It was taking away from my wife.
It was taking me away from theactivities that I knew were
important at work.
But the busyness meant that Iwas actually doing things and I
just I had to stop and I'd madea list and I started was
actually doing things and I justhad to stop and I made a list

(04:28):
and I started delegating somethings.
I'd write people's names downto it, but shifting that just
kind of shifted things.
There were also items that Ijust had to get really clear on
and stop in that same seasonReally hard, not saying that
their stuff's not important.
It just wasn't aligning withthe work that was most important
to me and it was no longerprofitable returning anything to

(04:51):
what I was trying to do throughour work in that and I actually
ended up pulling myself off ofsix different boards which, like
now saying it, it's like, well,yeah, that's ridiculous, right,
and I brought it down into twothat were most important for
life, for work, for things Icare about, causes, but also for
that connection and thepartnership collaboration that

(05:13):
we needed for work.
Again, looking back, being like, oh, I was on eight and I
pulled out of six of them, likegreat, but then we also stopped
doing programs and in a business, that's hard, right, you look
at it and you're like, well,that's a 5,000, 50,000, $5
million reduction that we aregoing to do.
But what a great reminder thatplaces like Netflix have kind of

(05:38):
cannibalized themselves andcreated new revenue streams that
Apple showed us when Steve Jobscame back, that they actually
brought it down into like fourproducts from 50, some odd
products, and then theyballooned out on the other side,
and so we have examples.
But that fear at least my fearis what keeps us from going from
.
That is, but can we do that?
And the problem that I foundwith making fear-based decisions

(06:01):
, especially with keeping thingsgoing, is that it only leads to
future frustrations, and sothere are things that we need to
stop, and it doesn't mean thatwe don't care.
It doesn't mean that they'renot important for others and for
somebody else to maybe pick up.
It just means that it's notours to do in this season and
that we need to say no and stopsome of the programs, some of

(06:25):
the events, some of theactivities that are no longer
producing what we hope that theyproduce.
So how can we go about doingthis?
Well, here's just a little kindof framework idea that I think
about, and it's just an up anddown and across matrix, right?
So if you take a piece of paperand you draw a line up and down
and at the top you say hi,mission, right, this is directly

(06:47):
connected with why the businessexists, or what I am aiming at
in my life and then all the waydown, at the bottom of that same
line, you draw a low mission orwrite out low mission and then
draw one that goes across.
So you got a nice plus signaxes.
And on the left-hand side youdraw and write low profitability
and in terms of business, yeah,money, but also just, is it

(07:11):
return?
Is it profitable, is it good?
Is it returning things to yourlife or is it not returning
things to work and to what ithopes to do.
Money is a piece of it, butprofitable really is good and
health and thriving.
And so you got lowprofitability.
Then you have highprofitability.
So low profitability, highprofitability, high mission, low
mission.
And then start thinking aboutwhat quadrant things fall into.

(07:35):
And if it is low mission, lowprofitability and you place it
in there, that is an immediatesign that it's time to release.
That.
Stopping could look like juststopping it altogether.
It's a Friday, we're done, nolonger doing that, and sometimes
that's not the healthiest andmost caring way to stop.

(07:57):
Sometimes it is, sometimes it'snot.
Sometimes that looks likebuilding a plan to stop that
gradually over the next week,month, three months, whatever
that might be.
Sometimes it actually lookslike releasing that to another
individual through delegationand in handing that
responsibility to them or toanother organization.
Like how wonderful to releasesomething and partner with

(08:18):
somebody else to make sure thatthat work gets done, but knowing
it's no longer ours to do so.
Just like I'm stepping intosaying what are some of the
things that I need to stop inlife, just stop already in life
and in work and saying what dowe need to focus on most so we
can be most impactful for thepeople we serve, the leaders
that we help.

(08:39):
I invite you to just stopalready with me and look at.
Is it high mission, low mission, low profitability.
High profitability and it islow, low.
Let's stop.
Let's support each other inthat, because one of the most
important decisions any of uscan make isn't what we're going
to do, it's what we're not goingto do, and when we eliminate

(09:02):
what is not important, weactually create the space, the
room that we need to be able tofocus on the most important
things that do produce thatadvance, the mission that give
opportunities to people, producethat advance, the mission that
give opportunities to people andthat will allow us to create
even greater profit, money andotherwise on those things that
we are meant to impact the most.

(09:23):
So I wish you the best instopping.
Reach out to me and tell me howit's going.
Text me if you need support.
Drop it on social media andtake this and share it with a
friend so that you can buildthat network of stopping support
that you need around you.
Go, stop something today andwhen you do, be well, god bless

(09:44):
and lead on.