The 7 Minute Leadership Handbook

By Paul Falavolito

Leadership is the essential trait that is needed in virtually every situation. When things go wrong, we need leadership. When things go right, we celebrate leadership. It does not matter if you are a veteran CEO, in a middle management position, running your household or your very first job - there is something for everyone in this book. Leadership begins with and ends with YOU. Teamwork, commitment, dedication and accountability are all great traits as a leader, but do you know what the most important thing is that you must get right as a leader? It is YOU and that is what this book focuses on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tablo Publishing
• Release date: Sep 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9781922309778

Paul Falavolito

Paul Falavolito is the Chief of White Oak EMS and the Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator for the Borough of White Oak, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His 7 Minute Leadership Podcast series and now companion book, The 7 Minute Leadership Handbook details lessons learned from a twenty-plus year career in public safety.

Book preview

The 7 Minute Leadership Handbook

Each day, pick one of the items from this list to focus on for seven minutes. When you get to the end of the list, add some areas to focus on that are not mentioned that are specific to you, and repeat. That's the daily 7 Minute Leadership Challenge.

Look in the Mirror

Meditation

Grooming and Attire

Nutrition or Meal Planning

Rehearsing

Study Other Businesses That Inspire You

Study Other Leaders That Inspire You

Study Leadership

Brainstorming

Stop Procrastinating

Relaxation

Find Your Inspiration

Balance Your Life

Inspire Someone

Remember the Job

Read the News

Get Control of Your Workflow

Goals, Goals, Goals

Measure Your Success and Failures

Think Things Through

Celebrate Your Employees

Make Time for Your Employees

Be Kind

Go to the Gym in Your Mind

Be Prepared

Don't Waste Your Time

Stand Out from the Pack

Monitor Social Media

Be Prepared to Take Some Shots

Never Stop Training

Define Your Success

The 7 Minute Leadership Handbook is meant to expand upon the lessons learned in the 7 Minute Leadership Podcast series. These are the small things that matter that will help you not only as a person, but also as a leader. While the list is not all-encompassing, it is a great place to start to develop your inner leader. Take a picture of this page with your cell phone and use this to help you remember to take a few minutes each day for the small things that matter.

Challenge 1 (Look in the Mirror)

I am a firm believer that if you create a plan and stick to your plan, you can be successful at anything. Leadership is no different. You have to start somewhere. So let's start slow. Let's take day one of the journey and dedicate seven minutes to looking in the mirror. Go ahead – take a look in the mirror. What do you see? How do you feel about the person you see? While you are looking at yourself in the mirror, I want you to imagine the things you want to be successful with in life. Picture yourself celebrating that success, getting that degree that you've always wanted, or getting the promotion you have worked so hard to earn. How do you look in that moment? Trust me – it matters, and I will make my point soon enough. Now I want you to imagine you are someone else meeting you for the first time, and what they see right now is who you are looking at in the mirror. 

How is your body language, your smile, and your posture? Do you look approachable, pleasant, or inviting? Would you want to meet you? Would you feel comfortable walking up to that person and introducing yourself to them for the first time? Or would you feel intimidated by what you saw, or perhaps even frightened? So the point is obviously this: leadership is all about you. It begins with you and ends with you.  

As a leader, you are accountable for everything and you have to be the role model for the desired results you want. You can't be late and expect your people to be on time. They are going to mimic your actions all the time. Trust me, I have lived in a world of watching leaders be late for work and then try to write someone else up for being late. All that does is create so much animosity from the employee towards the manager that they quickly become the punchline to every joke around the office. So it all begins with that first look in the mirror, the first impression. Make sure you constantly re-visit this skill often. Consider this your visual check-up. It keeps you accountable to the most important person you have to be accountable to – you.  

Make notes of what you see the first time you do this skill. Make a list of what you like and what you don't like with what you see. You have the power to change everything that you dislike. If you take this action plan seriously, then the next time you do this particular skill, make sure you re-visit your notes and see what has changed. If you have moved things off of your dislike list and now you have more items on the like list, then celebrate your achievements. You have just mastered the art of setting goals and achieving them. 

Congratulations, you may not have realized it, but setting goals is one of the fundamental core concepts for all leaders. 

Later on, I will tell you the story of how Garth Brooks inspired my love for photography. He also inspired my love of music and achieving my personal goal of learning to play the guitar. I didn't like the person I saw when I looked in the mirror back then and needed an inspiration. I was out of shape and suffered from chronic back pain and had no real motivation to do anything. I purchased my first acoustic guitar almost immediately following my first Garth concert in 1997. I didn't even know how to hold the guitar properly. My EMT partner at the ambulance base was a professional musician and had the musical gift. He could sing, write, and play guitar like you couldn't believe. I can remember the day when I walked into the ambulance station carrying my guitar and showing it to him. He said, What are you planning on doing with that thing? I laughed and said, You are going to teach me how to play it. We both had a few minutes of laughter and then he broke the bad news to me: I can show you the basics, but you are going to suck for two years. That wasn't the news I wanted to hear, but it was true. I would spend the next two years plucking strings, hacking, and beating on this guitar. It was hard. In fact, it was painful at times. I started to pick up certain strumming patterns and became steadily more comfortable. We would write parody songs that were specific to EMS and play them for our fellow first responders. We had some great times playing and creating music during some very difficult shifts together. Somewhere around year three of my guitar lessons, we thought it would be a great idea to go to a recording studio and record a few of the EMS songs just for fun. I got busy on the phones trying to find a place that would accommodate us. After a week or so, I found a studio and we saved up our money and went to our first recording session. We had no hopes and dreams of hitting it big or doing anything other than just laying some tracks on a CD for our friends and family. The guy who owned the recording studio was a pretty famous musician here in Pittsburgh. In fact, he was part of a band that had written songs for Kenny Rogers, Hank Williams, Jr., and Alabama. He was the real deal! 

We had a lot of fun and learned a ton during that first recording session. At one point, the producer said to us: You guys are really good. Did you ever think about putting a band together and playing out? I said, No and my partner said, Yes, that he had been in bands in Hawaii and didn't really have a desire to go down that path again. On the way home, he explained to me all the typical band horror stories and I could tell he didn't have any interest in pursuing this any further. Over the next year or so, he introduced me to some of his original songs that were just brilliant, and I kept telling him that it would be a crime if we didn’t get back to the studio and record them. We wrote a few songs together and a short time later, we were back in the studio recording our original music. Over the years, we would finally assemble a band called Shades. We did the whole club circuit locally and even opened for a few national acts at a music festival in Ohio. The goal that I had never dreamed of was not only recording one music CD, but two of them. They are still available on iTunes today! 

I could write an entire book on the band years because we had so much fun, as well as many struggles, and I finally understood why my partner didn't want to go down that path again musically. Nevertheless, we set small goals for ourselves and accomplished all of them. Before I knew it, I liked the person I saw when I looked in the mirror.

Challenge 2 (Meditation)

Step away from the mirror and take some time to reflect on what you just saw. Most people have different ideas and styles of meditation. For me, I need to be in total darkness with no distractions. It is probably why I never open my curtains or open windows. I like darkness and silence. It helps me think better and answer myself when I have those internal conversations with myself throughout the day and evening. I also like to say, Alexa, play spa music. If you have one, try it. You won't regret it if that's your kind of thing. I am telling you, nothing beats creating a few minutes for yourself and just being alone in silence. It is something that has always helped me stay on track or be more focused on the things I need to do or the deadlines I need to meet. In silence, I come face to face with me, and in my line of work, it's just me that I can truly rely on. Sure, I could pick up the phone and call up the chain of command for help or answers, but honestly, when I do that I usually find myself venting or complaining to someone else and when I hang up, all that I have accomplished is venting or complaining. I don't feel better and nine times out of ten, I didn't get my problem solved or my questions answered. So create those moments of silence for yourself. Get lost within you. 

In the mornings before work, I love to just lie in bed and close my eyes and visualize my day. Your support network isn't your hundreds of friends on Facebook. It's you. Don't waste your time on social media crying the blues and looking for validation. I often tell people at work not to vent laterally because those people in your same job position cannot fix your issue. You have to vent up the chain of command when you have problems at work and you want them solved. If that doesn't work, then write your problems down on a piece of paper and then throw it out. Tell God and keep it to yourself. If you want more stress in your life, vent on Facebook. 

Spend time with yourself in your mind, because it is only going to be you who is going to make the choices you need to make in life. You may be familiar with the saying, I had a gut feeling. That’s right; listen to it. Our bodies are designed to heal and speak to us when we need them to. No one’s gut feeling is going to say, Get on Facebook and air your problems to the world. If you're looking for fifty thumbs up and smiley face icons, then do that. If you are looking for real definitive action, solutions, and answers, it is going to come from what you discover within you when you make the time to meditate. 

Challenge 3 (Grooming and Attire)

I have never been a real fashionable kind of guy. Pretty much my entire life, I have been in some kind of uniform. When I am off work, I love to dress down and when I am at work, it's some kind of uniform. The fundamental facts support that there are societal standards we sometimes have to live by, especially in the business world. In my field, if we have facial hair, that means that our gas mask isn't going to seal properly in the event that we are deployed into an area where that life-saving equipment cannot fail. No facial hair, or properly groomed facial hair, in the business world means they want you to look professional and not like Grizzly Adams, because the aesthetic might not be right for their brand. Either way, grooming is something we have to pay attention to and commit time to doing. If we are going to do it, let's do it right, and no, I am not saying go out and buy thousand-dollar Gucci suits or Coach purses, but I am saying there are small things that matter. This is where that attention to detail thing becomes so important for leaders. 

I realize everyone reading this book may not wear a professional uniform. The same one, the same look, day after day, but the same grooming rules apply. If you are that person that has the food stain on every shirt, jacket, and hoodie that you wear, then you obviously realize that isn't a good look, right? It is definitely not the look of a leader. I am not above getting the occasional food stain on my shirt, but I am prepared for it if and when it does happen. This leads me to this point. 

Make an emergency kit for what you're wearing – Tide pens, Tide wipes, or whatever we are calling them these days, but have something so you can quickly fix it. If you have the luxury of having a locker or closet in your office, keep a spare shirt handy because there will come a time when you need it. Can we jump to shoes really quick? If you wear shoes that are meant to have a shine to them, then shine them. I see too many people walking around that look like they shined their shoes with a Hershey bar. It looks horrible, it looks sloppy, and more importantly, it looks like they just gave up. Certainly not the quality I look for in leaders.  

If you wear clothing that is meant to be ironed or dry-cleaned, then by all means, make sure you treat your articles of clothing to that luxury. Nothing beats the look of a well-ironed shirt or blouse or the crisp look of a dry-cleaned pair of pants or jacket. The wrinkled, just-slept-in look usually works best for college students or reporters that live inside the media van fourteen hours a day. Did you know there is a magical thing called wrinkle release? It’s another great addition to your clothing emergency kit that you're going to make.  

Do you carry scissors or a small Swiss Army knife? If you don't have one or carry them in your purse or pocket, do yourself the favor and grab one of those items. Those little strings that appear on your clothes out of nowhere, yeah, those things, we have to get rid of them as soon as they appear. Don't just pull on them – cut them. Some people have even burned them off, but I prefer the cut method. In the military, we referred to those little strings as Irish pennants. Don't ask me why; that's just what I grew up knowing them as. They are like the weeds that grow on clothing, and they are one of my biggest pet peeves. Before I put anything on, I look for the Irish pennants and I get rid of them immediately. 

Again, the head-to-toe once-over of what you are going to wear for the day should take no longer