Think As Inc

KEEP YOUR LUNCH DATES

January 5, 2010 on 5:18 pm | In career coaching, life coaching | No Comments

Last week, I had a lunch date with a colleague who like myself is a busy working mom.  We work in the same department but in different roles, so lunching is mostly for fun but also a chance to learn about what is happening around the department and trade work/life tips.  About five minutes before our appointed meeting time, she was hovering outside my office trying to get my attention.  Extreme punctuality?  Actually, she was canceling at the last-minute.  She had an all-morning meeting and came back to a stack of emails, so surely she couldn’t lunch. 

This colleague always cancels last-minute.  She thinks that the hour she saves by skipping lunch keeps her from getting overwhelmed.  Actually it is just the opposite.  I keep one or two lunches a week open for last-minute additions – e.g., a professional meeting that has to be over lunch, a personal errand that is time-sensitive.  But I typically have my lunch hours booked two to three weeks in advance.  I try to balance my lunches between internal appointments (current colleagues in my department and in different departments) and external (colleagues in the industry, colleagues from a former company, informational interviews).  I also try to balance my lunches between current goals, future goals, and fun.  Lunch is time for myself – for sustenance, career reflection, career promotion, and catching up with old friends.  Rather than overwhelming myself, planning my lunches in such a way provides a substantive break in the day.  It helps my long-term career management.  I don’t just react to the stack of messages that come in.  I have plans.

Of course, the benefit of lunch dates only works if you keep them.  The strategy is common sense (how else can you get to know your colleagues) but the execution is key.  How many busy executives feel like they are being too reactive in their careers and yet cannot plan and keep their lunch hour?  Before you make grandiose plans about the next promotion, building a side business, or looking for your dream job, practice taking your lunch hour.  You’ll get a midday burst of inspiration and welcome practice in follow-through.