Dear leaders, I wanted to share something I have been doing for over a decade that I know will add value to your weeks.
I call it the one slot, one shot per week, it is one one hour slot booked out in my calendar per week for random (yes random) meetings. This can be for ‘coffee walk and talk’, for a video call or for a meeting in person.
Yes, before you ask - you could tweak it to one per month.
Why the name?
One slot is simple and one shot is if you could drink one shot of espresso (plus milk I’m a latte person) in the meeting.
Why do I do this?
When I was working through what I wanted to do around ten years ago, I was often reached out to on LinkedIn or asked to be introduced to someone by a friend or old colleague.
Some of the best relationships, the best work opportunities and the smartest people I have met and kept in contact with is from the one slot meetings. It’s something I openly look forward to and actually when there is a chance I take a meeting to help someone who has reached out.
I am not the only person who offers this sort of calendar slot. Professor BJ Fogg (Tiny Habits is a must-read/listen) who I have written about offers this for 15 minutes and only ever has one meeting per person, it is usually someone pitching an idea and he says whether it will work or not and what they could do. Get in line for that shot as he has taught James Clear, the Instagram co-founders and many other prominent leaders.
Recently I took a 30-minute chat with someone who is looking to develop in their role and they were super smart, ambitious and looking to see if they were on the right track, they took notes, asked smart questions and followed up quickly with a nice note of thanks, some notes from the call and a clever question, which to be honest is something that rarely happens.
I know many of us are pushed for time however making 30 minutes a month to have a conversation away from your current work and often not requiring too much thought could be something you look forward to and actively develop an impressive network over the next year ahead.
Have a think about how you can develop your network or your own concept to connect. I bet you could recommend this to one of your fellow leaders and they find value in it…and yes it could be internal but making it forced removes some of the beauty of this exercise.
Thanks and have a great week ahead,
Danny Denhard
Three Resources To Read This Week