Are You in the Groove-- or Stuck in a Rut? (Challenge #71)

I’ve been thinking a lot about routines this week, because changes have made my routines a bit wacky. We moved house a little over a week ago. and we’re still figuring out things like the best drawer for the rolling pins and which light switch controls what. In addition, between burning off some vacation days and some post-semester doctor appointments, I’ve also barely been in the office this week. So although this week has been a bit unsettling, it’s also forced me to lean back and take stock of what is and isn’t working in my routines, and ensure that I’m getting (and staying) in the groove, not stuck in a rut. And today, I’ll walk you through how you can do the same in your personal and professional life as a leader. 

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Welcome to the Kind Leadership Challenge, the podcast that empowers leaders to heal their organizations in ten minutes! I’m Dr. Sarah Clark, founder of the Kind Leadership Guild, where I use my PhD in Higher ed leadership and nearly 2 decades of experience in academic libraries to coach a community of educational and library leaders who are working to build a better world without burning out. 

Kind Leaders aren’t perfect, which is actually as it should be. In our unique ways, we make tough decisions without becoming jerks. We create impactful and burnout-proof systems for our organizations. And we know that once we stop controlling and start collaborating, even the most ambitious vision can become effortless. Kind Leadership’s pretty simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. So if you’re up for a challenge, stick around as I teach you how to create a resilient, thriving legacy that will strengthen your community long after you’re gone.

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The second kind leadership skill, managing effectively, is all about creating systems and processes that allow you and your team to get the best results possible out of your limited time, money, information, and influence. By automating or systematizing outcomes that need to be repeated, you’re not reinventing the wheel and can get more done. A good example of that is this podcast, actually. I use a pretty straightforward outline for these episodes that doesn’t change much, except when I want to change my wording a bit in the intro or outro. The same goes for the recording and editing workflow. I have things set up how I like, and it’s mostly a matter of swinging over my microphone stand, turning on some lights, and hitting record. Right now I’m in a little bit of flux as I dial in the lighting and sound in my new studio space, but I’m more or less in the groove.

However, there is a fine line between a groove and a rut. Think about when a team, or an organization, or maybe you, stuck with a familiar routine that maybe didn’t work as smoothly as it once did, because other factors have changed. But it’s good enough, and it’s the way you’ve always done it, so why fix what ain’t broken?

Well, that’s ok in the short term. Finished is better than fabulous after all, as I discussed waaay back in episode 1. Keeping everything you do perfectly optimized all the time has diminishing returns. However, if you let things stagnate to the point that things are inefficient or just stale—well, that way lies dragons. And even if you get away with systems that make less sense for your current situation, you’re just gonna get bored and lose touch with the creativity that makes you a good leader. Or at least I get bored and lose touch with the creativity that makes me a good leader. So, if your systems have gotten a bit clunky, or are just leaving you a bit uninspired, here’s how you can use the kind leadership skill of managing effectively to get out of your rut and back into the groove. 

Let’s use my notetaking as an example. If I don’t write stuff down it doesn’t happen, so over the years I’ve tried everything from index cards to an ipad pro. Back when covid hit, I shifted my notetaking onto my computer. Since my work, my side hustle, and my personal life were all playing out in the same space, and to a large degree the same screen, it was simplest to just tab between documents. As the pandemic eased and I started having more face to face meetings but also had more kind leadership stuff to manage, I realized that I needed to go back to paper, but with a twist. Since around the start of 2022, I’ve had two running notebooks, one for day job stuff, and the other for personal life and kind leadership stuff. And that’s mostly worked. 

Except for the times I had the wrong notebook with me and had to transfer stuff back and forth. 

Or the day I left my shopping list on the counter and had to try to remember whether we needed more tomatoes or not. 

Or I needed to verify something I wrote down a couple weeks ago, or maybe last month, I’m not sure, and I have like 12 pages of meeting notes to hunt through because although the battery never runs dry on paper, control-f isn’t terribly useful either. 

So, I’m shifting. Right now I’m wrapping up the first phase of managing effectively, where I’m paying attention to what I want to keep from my current system, and what isn’t working or just could work more smoothly. I’m starting to shift to the second phase, where I’ll identify other options for my information capture systems, and consider the time, money, and other resources needed and available to migrate. On one hand, fancy project management apps like Notion and Trello and such are all the rage, but most of them just give me a headache. That said, I have missed the search and OCR options of using a digital notetaker, if not the joy of my apple pencil running out of juice in the middle of a meeting. 

When I enter the third phase of managing effectively and actually start implementing my new notetaking process, my plan is to test drive boring old Apple Notes for my non-work stuff since it can sync across all my devices, and stick to paper at the office. I may test a digital option of some sort at work, likely something like a basic e-ink tablet I saw a colleague using a couple months back, which allowed her to take notes, mark up documents, and search the contents of her tablet, but not much else. We’ll see if it’s worth the money.

With all that in mind, here’s your Kind Leadership Challenge for this week. Where are you stuck in a rut right now? It could be your notetaking system like me, or unproductive meetings or some random clunky workflow.  All I want you to do right now is identify that process or system, and observe it for a little while. Don’t go charging in and turning everything on its head, just watch for a bit and identify what works and what doesn’t. Then, figure out what resources you have and are willing to commit to changing, and start experimenting. And if you’re scared to get out of your rut and try something unknown, remember that none of this is written on stone tablets, and you can always go back if need be.   

Thanks as always for listening to the kind leadership challenge. Before you go, here’s a quick way you can spread the word of kind leadership. I’d like you to take a moment to think of one friend or colleague who could most benefit from this week’s challenge. Got their name in your head? Good. Open your app or head over to kindleadershipchallenge.com/71 and share this episode with them. Add a friendly note as well. Never doubt that day by day, you’re building a better world, even if you can't see it yet. So until next time, stay kind now.