Find Your Linchpin

Most people try to improve too many things at once. You don’t need to improve everything to make today better or to have a better week. You just need to improve the part that has the highest payoff. Think of this as your linchpin.

A linchpin is the one element that holds the rest together and has an outsized influence on how things go. Strengthen it, and everything around it improves.

In your personal life, it might be your morning routine. It could be getting to bed on time. It might be reconnecting with someone who lifts you up. Maybe less time on social media. A slower-paced meal. One small strengthening affects everything else and raises the quality of your day.

The same is true at work. Most teams or organizations don’t need ten new priorities. They need the one improvement that creates better outcomes. In customer-facing teams, that almost always involves strengthening the customer experience and improving engagement.

If you lead a team, your linchpin might be five more minutes of intentional coaching. If you work with customers, your linchpin might be slowing down enough to notice what someone actually needs. Stronger engagement improves experience, strengthens conversion, and lifts morale. It’s often the shift that drives better results across the board.

So, here’s your opportunity for the week: find your linchpin. Don’t overthink it. Ask yourself, What’s the one area that, if I made a small improvement, would have the biggest impact on my day, my team, or the people I serve?

What if this week you identified the single linchpin that could unlock a better day and better results?