Most people that I know just hate Mondays.  You don’t even have to take a survey to confirm this point.  Just watch people in their cars on the way to work or take a look around the faces buried in newspapers on the train.

If my wife was reading this, she would be rolling her eyes and describing how odd that I am.  Hey, she never asked me if I wasn’t “odd” before we got married, so that was her mistake.  No guilt here.

Here’s the short-list of why Mondays can be your best friend:

  • Adopt the right frame of mind and a healthy perspective on Monday makes the end of the weekend a non-issue.  Too much fun, frivolity, good food and good drink is not healthy for you anyways.
  • If you are in a leadership role, getting back to work means getting back into the game.  Effective leaders reflect on where they went wrong the prior week and walk in the door resolved to improve their performance in the new week. If you get better every single week, well, there’s not telling how great you might be by the end of March!
  • Whether you are in leadership or not, A players always want to be in the game.  You’re not accomplishing your goals by hanging out on the weekend.
  • I’ve never met a top sales professional that didn’t look forward to the starter’s pistol being fired every week.  There are very few proposals being delivered and orders being signed on Saturday or Sunday.  Let the hunt begin!
  • Most people require a lengthy Monday morning boot up…and sometime around 11 or maybe right after lunch, they become human and productive again.  Savvy people exploit this office time warp to get a lot accomplished.  For goodness sake, don’t call a big cross functional meeting until the post weekend haze has cleared.
  • My advice.  Lay out your week’s goals before you leave on Friday.  Update them Sunday night, set the alarm clock ½ hour early on Monday and get out there.  Do this a few times and you’ll join the few and the smiling..those of us that love Mondays.

Other Thoughts on this Monday Morning:

Somewhere President Lincoln and Dr. King are smiling.  Other than Reagan’s ascension to the presidency, I don’t recall the palpable feeling of excitement and universal hope that has accompanied an inauguration.  (Too young to remember Kennedy.) A good colleague on Twitter said it best: “President Obama, I want my children and their children to be reading about your inaugural address years from now.”

I will post my first podcast this week…The Management Excellence podcast.  While I’m not exactly on the cutting edge of technology here, I like the idea of changing the medium and giving your eyes a break.  I’ve worked hard to create what I hope is interesting and useful content and keep it between 7 and 9 minutes in length.

It is a bit horrifying to hear your own voice coming back at you.  I love public speaking, but I’m still not used to hearing myself talk.  I also find it hard to talk to dead air.  I love the energy and engagement that you create with an audience.  I look forward to leveraging this new platform to interview some interesting professionals in the near future.

Oh well, good, bad or ugly, my adventure in podcasting is moving forward. I do expect that I will improve over time and I look forward to any thoughts you have on making the Management Excellence podcast the most valuable 10 minutes of your day.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Enjoy your Monday and enjoy this unique moment in history.