3 Step Process For Maximizing Your Effectiveness

You don’t need a 48 hour day.

You really don’t need a full 24 hour day.

When you start a process of maximizing your effectiveness, as a leader this should be possible to do in 8-12 hours a day? Right? Well, not so much.

Why do you feel like you can’t get everything done? You likely struggle to balance the demands on your time when you combine work, family, exercise, spiritual life, sleep, etc. If you don’t, please tell me your secret to maximizing your effectiveness.

We all battle the tyranny of the urgent. We have limitations on our time on a daily basis. But you can do something about it.

3 Step Process for Maximizing Your Effectiveness

If you want to reinvigorate your career, ministry, or general life plan, try following this 3 step process from Dr. Aubrey Malphurs’ book Maximizing Your Effectiveness. (available at Amazon and all other major book sellers).

maximizing your effectiveness

Admittedly, a 3 step process grossly oversimplifies the complexity of maximizing your effectiveness. But these three steps will provide you with what I call “mental hooks.” They help you to organization the information you know about yourself, where you are going, and how you will get there.

(The Kindle version of this book sells for $9.99 at Amazon.com)

1) Design

Most people know more about themselves than anyone else knows about them. At the same time, I find that every leader misses blind spots. I certainly do as well.

Take time to intentionally learn more about who you are, how God has created you, and what makes you unique. Organizationally, we would be remiss to not assess what makes a business or church unique. Personally, the same applies for you to better understand your unique design.

Intentionally learn more about yourself, how God has created you, and what makes you unique. Click To Tweet

2) Direction

Malphurs reference to direction here describes the trajectory of one’s life, the mission, or the overall description of what success looks like. If you don’t define what success looks like, you will likely come up short each time (my usage of the word “success” here does not necessarily imply finacial or positional success, althought it could).

Malphurs wisely challenges everyone to be clear about not only what makes them unique as a leader and what makes their church unique, but to also work towards clarity of direction. When you define where you are going, the process of crafting a plan to get there gains increasing clarity as well.

3) Development

Early in life, we think we have it all together. During the middle portion of our life, we are so busy that we forget to focus on development. Then towards our later years, we’ve get in such a groove that development seems unnecessary or too late. So why develop?

If you are like most people, you would like to achieve better results, improve your relationships, or grow your financial bottom line. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results not only results in more of the same, it is the definition many people give for insanity.

Try something different if you would like to get different results. Click To Tweet

We recommend getting assessments. Find a mentor, a coach, or a colleague who won’t attempt to define you by your assessments. Ask them if they could help you understand the data and its implications for how you need to develop. A good leadership coach (we have multiple on our team…contact us) trained to ask developmental questions can provide a tremendous opportunity for growth in this context.

Which of the three areas do you need to focus on most? Design? Direction? Development? All three?

A few years ago, I first read Maximizing Your Effectiveness. Honestly, at first it felt a little “pie in the sky” and impossible due to my lack of self-awareness. Since then, I’ve become much more aware of my weaknesses (and there are many), tendencies, strengths, and the details of my design, direction, and development. It makes sense now.

You, like me, will journey through life gradually learning more about each of these areas. But why wait until later in life to understand your design, direction, and development?

Your design, direction, and development provide a roadmap to identity, mission, and process. You only have 24 hours in a day. At least a third of your day is spent sleeping. If you clarify your identity, mission, and process, you will increase the likelihood that you will be able to maximize your effectiveness in the few hours you have left. What if your leadership development process helped each volunteer, leader, or executive in your organization to assess and clarify their unique design, direction, and development?

To maximize your effectiveness, you must know who you are, where you are going, and how you will get there. Be clear.

Get started.

  • Start reading Dr. Malphurs’ book Maximizing Your Effectiveness. (buy here)
  • Retain a leadership coach to help you navigate the process.
  • Write down Design, Direction, and Development on a napkin or in the notes app on your iPhone and fill in the information.

Don’t get bogged down in analysis. Take action and begin maximizing your effectiveness.