doug smith training

Tackle that feeling of overwhelm using a practice, simple tool.

Situation:
Overloaded with tasks. Getting delegated to from multiple sources and you suspect someone may be overloading you.

Bonus:
Helps you prioritize based on who assigned the workAllows you to add and identify what you own because you assigned it (to yourself OR to others)How it works: Add a column for "Per" for the person who assigned you the task.
For example:

Priority Scale: A = Urgent, important, and due today B = Important but not urgent C = Not due soon, more tactical than strategic D = Delegate or delete these
Additional Uses: A way to show the people who assign you work how much they assign you and also what else you are working on.Makes you assign a realistic priority value instead of calling everything an A (urgent AND important.)When deployed among your team you can see if the distribution of work is optimal or needs adjusting.
-- doug smith

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live at a different time? Do you ever long for old times when things seamed simpler?

Of course, none of us has any choice in the matter of time. The time is now. What we have is now.

And there's good news. Now is the best time (to think any other way is to cause yourself unnecessary grief.)

We each live in a time and place designed to bring out our best.

Let's smile, roll up our sleeves, and get moving.

-- doug smith

Leadership Call to Action
Just for fun, and a little easy motivation, draw a smiling face in today's place in your calendar or planner. If you don't use one you can draw in, insert an emoji. Smile. Today's for you!

High performance leaders are also coaches. There is no avoiding the need to give your team members feedback. The most robust way to develop a culture of feedback in your team is to coach - not just a little - but constantly. Coach, coach, coach! Lead with inspiration of course, and also lead with coaching by sharing deep conversations with your people about performance. Appreciate the good work. Redirect the sloppy work. Fine tune the vast amount of work that fits somewhere in-between.

It's good for your team, and it's good for you. There are so many benefits to coaching, including:

Better performanceMore comfort at giving AND receiving feedbackStronger relationshipsMore effective communicationFaster response time on urgent team needsA closer, more cooperative team You can probably think of even more benefits to coaching.
Any time we coach another we are also coaching ourselves -- and that is enough of a benefit to keep coaching no matter what. When you help others improve, yo…

What makes it so hard sometimes to tell the truth? Maybe because people will react, and then we have to be ready for that reaction. But if the reaction you want is trust, understanding, and belief, then keep on telling the truth.

Before you give your honest answer, make sure it IS your honest answer. Someone might believe you.

-- doug smith

Purpose:
To provide a fast-paced review of a topic (such as Leadership or Project Management).

Materials:
One deck of cards for each small group (about one deck for up to six people)
Plastic spoons (one for every person in each small group, minus one spoon)

A deck of cards for each small group (about one deck of cards for each four or five people.)   One plastic spoon for each person in each group, minus one spoon. (For each group there is one less spoon than the number of people.)Place the spoons in the center.Deal six cards to each personThe person to the left of the dealer begins by drawing a card from the center. They either keep that card or discard it to the person on the left, or discard another card from their deckto the person on their left.The object is to gather six cards in the same suite.When you have six cards all in the same suite, grab a spoon.Once a spoon has been grabbed, any one else can grab a spoon until there are no more spoons. This will leave one person without a…

Maybe you've heard someone say this, "I never get the training that I need..." or "There isn't enough time to learn what I need to learn..."

Hearing it is rough enough, but living it is too limiting. We're all challenged. We're all taxed. We're all over-whelmed. Still, the need to keep learning never goes away and the more we ignore it the more we become overwhelmed.

You don't ever have to wait for someone else to improve for you to improve. It's up to you.

Keep learning.

-- doug smith

Leadership Call to Action: Check your action plan for a goal that requires a skill that you're still learning. Do something to help increase your learning at that skill today.

Training is a process, not an event. If you've attended one or more of our workshops or teleclasses, we'd like to help you extend the learning with our group coaching calls.

For a limited time, it's a free benefit to our workshop and teleclass participants. Attendance is limited to ten people so be sure to register early.

When: Fridays at 12:00pm ET

Sign up here:


Schedule Appointment

I suppose that if a problem is easy to solve that it isn't even a problem. Just solve it and be done with it. A problem like that is more like a decision than a problem.

We all have bigger problems than that, though. We all struggle at times to solve what feels like an unsolvable problems. Some problems truly can't be solved, and must then be managed. How can we tell the difference?

We need to ponder the possibilities. We need to change the problem into a goal and figure out how to bring that about. The difficulty is like a framework for building something we haven't thought of before. The problem stands there, a form waiting to redirect our notions of what is possible.

Tough or not, solvable or not, a problem creates a space for traction.

A problem you can't solve is give you room to grow.

Grow.

-- doug smith

Leadership Call to Action Create a list of three problems you have not been able to solve.

Next to each problem, write the one leadership skill or strength that…

Leaders don't usually ask for the problems they are confronted with, and yet there they are. Busy lives lead to a kind of numbing busyness that can detract focus from what is most important. For front line leaders, what is most important is solving problems and achieving goals.

Avoiding problems keeps them growing. To solve a problem we must first be willing. That takes time. Time to stop, breathe, and analyze the problem. Time to gather the will and resources need to first convert that negative problem into a positive goal and then to get busy solving it.

Solving a problem is mostly showing willingness to solve the problem. Are you willing?


-- doug smith


Call to Action:
Write down three problems you've been avoidingCircle the one that troubles you the mostConvert that problem into a goal: what do you want instead of that problem?Get started solving it For more help in a process for solving problems:
Follow the links in the Leadership Toolbox on Solving ProblemsAttend (you can …

Think about the best leader you've ever worked with. Now, think about what it sounded like and felt like when that leader laughed.

I'm thinking that the best leader you can think of laughed often. Wouldn't you think that a great leader would be happy in their work? And wouldn't you think that happy leaders laugh a lot?

That was true about the best leaders that I've worked with -- they all had hearty and ready laughs. They took work seriously, of course -- AND were completely capable of laughing at themselves when they caught themselves taking things too seriously.

Laugh. And when you make a mistake, learn from it fast so that you can laugh at that, too. It'll be a good story someday, and a good laugh, too.

If you can't laugh at your own mistakes you're missing the best laughs.

-- Doug Smith