“There are no redos, and today is not a dress rehearsal.” That’s the message from Leadership Expert Dave Anderson on the latest episode of Lessons in Leadership, where he breaks down the sixth commandment in his “15 Commandments for Organizational Peak Performance” program, “Make each day your masterpiece.”
During today’s lesson, Anderson argues that leaders and their teams lose effectiveness when they spend too much energy replaying what already happened or worrying about what comes next. According to Anderson, making each day a masterpiece comes down to being where your feet are and mastering the moment directly in front of you rather than treating certain days as throwaways simply because of where they fall on the calendar.
Structure the day
Anderson notes that even though a Tuesday early in the month can feel disposable when three more weeks remain to hit a target, that mindset can actually undermine peak performance. Therefore, he pushes leaders to ask a sharper question of themselves and their teams, such as, “How can I have highly structured days for my people so they’re just not going through the motions and getting through it, but they’re getting from it?”
“I’ve got to make the most of each day because there are no redos, and today is not a dress rehearsal.”
That distinction, he contends, separates teams that stay engaged in the work from those that merely endure it.
No do-overs
During the conversation, Anderson frames the stakes bluntly, stating, “I don’t get to borrow credibility from what I did once upon a time or cash royalty checks from who I was way back when,” he said, adding that the mindset requires proving himself again each day regardless of whether the previous day went well or poorly.
He also advocates full commitment to the moment at hand, prioritizing the tasks that drive results over minor distractions that pull focus away from them. Anderson said that discipline, planting the right seeds and doing the right things consistently, produces results over time.
“Make each day your masterpiece” isn’t just a mantra for the workplace, either. Anderson describes it as a mindset that applies to life as much as it does to leadership.
