When I was kid I loved to maximize every opportunity. By “opportunity” I mean, when my parents would let me pour my own Dr. Pepper. My goal was to pour it right to the brink of spilling. One bump on the cabinet would cause a spill, but, if the environment stayed absolutely perfect, I could pour it to where it looked like the DP was actually above the edge of the glass. Thus, I maximized the opportunity to enjoy a good beverage. 

Last Thursday, I was making the perfect French press coffee and I found myself doing the same thing. I wanted to maximize the coffee and when you pour too much water into the French press, two things can happen:
1)    You can water down what could be great
2)    You can quickly spill when completing the “press” 

That’s when it hit me. I still have some growth to do … It’s natural for me to try and maximize the hours in a day with coaching appointments, facilitations and business development meetings. I love meeting and helping the leader we serve and have a hard time not accepting the meeting even when I’m starting to fill every slot on my calendar. I want to maximize the opportunity to help everyone. 

But then it happens ... With no margin in the glass the coffee will spill. With no margin in my calendar something will lose quality or “spill”. 

In my world that looks like:

• trying to do email or wrap-up team calls instead of coaching soccer practice. 

• staying up late to work after dinner and not spending that quality time with family and not resting to reset

• losing sight of what’s most important because I’m so focused on what’s right in front

The inevitable outcome of never leaving margin and trying to maximize every opportunity is that instead of maximizing every opportunity, we miss the most important aspects of our leadership role and life. This leads to stress, burnout, exhaustion and mistakes. 

With no margin we have no strategic thinking.
With no margin we have no time to coach our team.
With no margin we force others to sacrifice because we don’t have time.

While it’s fun to see how much we can pour into a glass ... and while it’s fun to maximize profit and opportunity in a week ... It’s never fun to water down great coffee and spill a sip. 

Take a look at your calendar and see if there are some areas of margin? If there is no margin work diligently to find it. 

Here are three tips:

1. Move meetings to 30-45 minute instead of 60 and start gaining 15 minutes extra every hour.

2. Look at your meeting list and empower others to go to meetings you don’t need to be in.

3. Look at your task list and determine what you need to let go of so you can focus on what you need to focus on.

Bonus Tip: Set up a coaching session to truly take your leadership to the next level.