STOP and think strategically every month

- [Clinton] So I would suggest the most important thing for personal effectiveness for most of us is to get our arms around what we're trying to do, where we spend our time on a daily basis, and who is holding us accountable to improve our performance. So we've come up with this acronym, and this is talked quite a bit and I discuss this quite a bit in the new book "The Successful Career Survival Guide." I want you to think about, Pete, when I tell you this word, what's your reaction? Pete, stop, all right? What would you do if I said, "Pete, I want you to stop." What would you do? - [Pete] I would be motionless (laughs) and look at you. - [Clinton] Okay, good. And you'd say, "Clinton, what are you saying?" All right, so good. You would cease moving, if you will. - [Pete] Yes. - [Clinton] All right, so now here's what we find. If people are moving too quickly and rushing, most of the things that lead to high performance don't come naturally to most of us, so we have to make a conscious effort to engage in certain things if we're going to be successful and more successful, and if we are going to be awesome at our jobs. So I want to give you an acronym that goes along with the word stop, and it goes like this. STOP, sit, think, optimize, perform. Sit, think, optimize, perform. Now, here's what we're talking about. Strategically, depending on how busy your job is, how much variances in your job, how challenging your job is, you might need to have a strategic stop once a month. And in a strategic stop each month, you think, what results am I going to get at? What activities are going to get me there? Who do I need to connect with? What resource application do I really need to be careful with, including my time? How am I going to measure performance, and who's going to help hold me accountable this performance period? So I have to sit down. Here's what research shows. When people sit and are still, we open up different pathways to the brain and we have to reprogram our brains to think more clearly so that if we sit and we're quiet, in a quiet space, now we can think. We think about the issues that we need to deliver in the next performance period, albeit a month, albeit a quarter. All right, now, once I've done that, I need to make decisions to optimize my performance before I head off to work and perform. So a strategic stop is to create an umbrella where you and your boss are on the exact same page with regards to the goals you're trying to achieve, the results you need to deliver, and the activities you need to engage in.