Developing the Ben Franklin way...

Writing The Little Book of Leadership was one of the best things that I have ever done, and I would recommend it to all. It would also appear to be a gift that keeps on giving...not just to the charity that benefits from the profits, but in terms of the self-satisfaction received from the messages thanking me for occasionally helping someone in their personal leadership journey.

One of the methodologies that has received a lot of positive comments has been Ben Franklin’s five-hour rule. With that in mind, and with a fresh smile from the last comment that dropped into my inbox about 30 minutes ago, I thought I would copy a few paragraphs that I wrote in Chapter Six with the hope that some others might also get a little value from this technique.

"In terms of self-value creation, many managers and leaders follow the five-hour rule (whether they realise it or not). This was born from Ben Franklin’s belief in never-ending self-development. To facilitate the process, he reserved five hours a week for self-improvement. This meant he began each working day by reading for an hour, followed by time reflecting on the text, then embarking on his day whilst looking for ways to apply relevant aspects of what he had read.

While most people generally appear intrigued when they first hear of this technique, some feel compelled to validate themselves by claiming they don’t have five spare hours a week in their diary. My answer to that is self-improvement is not a ‘spare’ activity, it is fundamental to your very core. People then usually agree it is not a time issue, but a failure to prioritise what is important.

It is a surprise to most when they learn that Barack Obama credits the five-hour rule with surviving his presidency. Gates, Musk, Oprah, and Buffett also attribute their successes (in part) to the rule. Interestingly, although application has obviously changed since Franklin’s time, there are three constants to which all successful advocates stay true: read, reflect and experiment:

Read: In terms of the availability of information, we are fortunate to live in the time we do. Online journals, webinars, research papers and/or (good old) print are available to almost all of us. Personally, I bookmark my favourite sources and spend 15 minutes in the morning (with a coffee) and a further 15 minutes in the afternoon (with a decaf) scrolling through them.

Reflect: The difference between the person I am today, and the student that I once was, is the realisation that learning has nothing to do with memorising information, and everything to 128 do with the interpretation of meaning. For that reason, I add another five minutes to each 15 minutes of reading so that I can reflect, digest, and truly understand the content.

Experiment: This is a key principle in learning and development, and ultimately woven into our DNA as a species. Not only is this intensely interesting, but it is only by the application of ideas that we can truly declare that something ‘works’. However, caution must be exercised, as experimentation (by its nature) means that we must stretch beyond the ‘known’ status quo.

...and then there is my own addition to Franklin’s rule, and where my articles come from...

Sharing: This takes up the remaining 20 minutes a day and is both cathartic and rewarding. In my experience, there are many within the world of work (particularly in early career stages) that confuse becoming better at their work as self-improvement. By falling into this trap, we risk developing an imbalance between personal and professional characters, which can result in someone who is great in the office but lost outside it (a depressingly common outcome)".

You can buy your own copy of The Little Book of Leadership here. If you do buy the book, I would really appreciate it if you could please take the time to let me know what you enjoyed the most and least. All of the valuable feedback will be put to good use when I am writing the next one!!! :-)