Ashlee Kleinert
London-born author and lecturer Greg McKeown, who’s written a best-selling book called “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less,” has talked to the employees of cutting-edge companies ranging from Google and Apple to Pixar and Facebook. So it’s fitting that McKeown was selected to keynote the annual Book & Breakfast event on Friday, February 13 for Ashlee and Chris Kleinert’s Executives in Action group, which dispatches senior executives to work pro bono with nonprofits.
Dallas Country Club ballroom for Books and Breakfast
Shelly Slater and Clay Huffstutter
Among the 400 guests at the Dallas Country Club, after all, were some of this area’s most innovative and fascinating executive leaders. Among them: Brent Christopher of Communities Foundation of Texas, Clint McDonnough of EY, Colleen Affeldt of RGT Financial Advisors, independent movie producer Gary Cogill with wife Hayley Hamilton Cogill, Terry Flowers of St. Philip’s School,Katie Pedigo of New Friends New Life, WFAA Channel 8’s Shelly Slater with husband Clay Huffstutter and Minerva Consulting’s sisters Jesse Ihde and Ashley Elsey with Jan Osborn, Robin Bagwell. Against the back wall was seated a host of folks social media posting on laptops.
Jesse Ihde, Robin Bagwell, Jan Osborn and Ashley Elsey
Gary Cogill and Greg McKeown
Following an entertaining introduction by Cogill, McKeown jumped right into the morning’s topic, explaining and criticizing the “you-can-have-it-all,” “say-yes-to-everything” attitudes so many of us have at home and work. Instead, like a grown up version of Harry Potter, he advised, we need to “start saying no a lot,” in order to make the best and highest use of our time.
We can start doing that by stripping away all the “non-essentials,” McKeown said, and prioritizing the important things that are left. “If you don’t prioritize your life,” he added, “somebody else will.”
One “priority” we could do without, he said as an example, is receiving email on our smartphones. “It is not a productivity tool,” McKeown said of monitoring email 24/7. In fact it’s the opposite, he suggested–detracting from our ability to reflect and think deeply about what’s really important.
When it was over, one executive in the audience said he related to McKeown’s talk in a big way. “I think it’s a great message … and makes tons of sense,” said Stewart Slack of KDC. “He talked about not focusing on the right things, and I’m the king of that.”
After the dust settle, Executives in Action reported that they netted $43,564 “to impact services grants for EIA’s non-profit partners!” Love net results!