Steph's 3 Things | Leadership lessons from Branson, an app to help you read more and... ball pits for busy people?
Steph's 3 Things #4 - 4 December 2017
Welcome to Steph's 3 Things
Each week I'll bring you three bites of content to help you in your journey to level up your leadership, learning and life.
Leadership Something to watch & do
I'm a big fan of Richard Branson's authentic style of leadership. His latest book, Finding My Virginity has countless examples of him making big decisions based on his values.
In this video and article he shares the circles technique he uses to make sure he's acting and living in the way he wants to. Importantly Branson starts with himself - getting his mental and physical wellbeing in place before he moves outwards to the other people he impacts.
"If all neighbours drew circles around themselves and their homes soon many would overlap and the elderly, the lonely, and people more generally would feel connected, loved and cared for."
Learning Something to read
Reading is a habit I frequently hear people don't have time for.
Lucky for you there's Blinkist.
Blinkist summarises over 2,000 non-fiction books into short summaries (or 'blinks') for you to read on the go. I've used the app to get the key concepts from 20 different books ranging from Stephen Covey to Arianna Huffington.
In some cases this has given me enough on a topic to build into courses I'm designing and other times it's given me the impetus to read the full book for deeper knowledge.
Also, with most 'blinks' taking less than 15 minutes to read, it's perfect for a commute (plus you'll turn up to work with something interesting to talk about).
Life Something to ponder
Are you too busy to have fun?
I'm not one for fuzzy videos but this clip of Mark Gagnon inviting busy-busy business people into a ball pit made my stony heart happy.
As we get to the end of the year (and possibly the end of your tether) make space for having some fun.
You won't regret it.