doug smith training

It may be a few less than 21 rules, because he does lose count, but the ones that he shares are pure gold and highly recommended for managing remote teams. It's longer than most videos we watch (just over 21 minutes) but if you manage virtual teams you will likely benefit from this advice. Many are familiar, but I learned a few, such as: The most important order of communication priority is: video, audio, chat, email Keep a chat window open all the time Set up a meeting rhythm -- a regular meeting time when everyone on the team MUST attend virtually (using a program like Zoom or GoToMeeting) Take advantage of overlapping hot zones of time -- convenient times to meet no matter what time zone a team member is in Test potential employees with short term work before hiring them for long term work (what TimeDoctor does is hire two party time team members expecting to choose the best of the two to become full time) Meet in person - a least annually schedule an all team in p...

A short video from one of my top influences in leadership development, Tom Peters.

How do you get people to change? Are there ways to increase and improve your influence? The book Switch, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath is all about influencing others. It's nicely summarized in this video from The Productivity Game, a reliable source of some of my favorite videos.

From Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Executive Coach, comes this is a great way to share fast, low risk coaching with a number of people. The three steps are simple and easy: Write down an area you'd like to improve that would have a big impact for you Ask for 2 positive suggestions for the future that would help with that area Repeat getting positive suggestions from others in the group There are two simple roles for the process: No talking about the past No judging or critiquing ideas Here's Dr. Goldsmith describing the process in one of his highly useful videos: I found this article and video from one of my favorite sources of leadership advice, GetLighthouse.com, here .

I gain much from watching these brief videos from Business Made Simple featuring Don Miller. If you enjoy them to you can subscribe. This one features some quick advice on how to get your boss to like you.

From Don Miller, author of StoryBrand, who shares brief, useful videos he calls Business Made Simple Daily. I find the insights so useful that I recommend subscribing. Most are only a couple of minutes long and can get your day off to great, ambitious, energetic start. This video is about gaining respect. One fast way is to deal more effectively with drama. Too often a situation is overly dramatized and while that can get attention, it can also lose respect. The fast way to gain respect? De-escalate drama and tension. Remain calm, pull away slightly, and imagine the least dramatic solution to the problem.

Fascinating video on the impact of feedback on performance and how our expectations are often deceived. Is positive feedback more effective, or is negative feedback a higher impact to performance? Refection Questions What do you think? If regression to the mean (falling back or rising up to the average) is to be expected, which type of feedback do you think is more effective - negative or positive?  Why is that?

In this brief video, Tom Peters explains two key ideas: 18 seconds (the average time before a doctor interrupts a patient) and four words (a powerful way to keep you listening.)

I do recommend reading the book. It will help you handle conversations that feel like confrontations and to do it in ways that honor everyone in the conversation. In the meantime, watching this quick summary video from The Productivity Game will give you immediately useful tips on navigating those crucial conversations.

As a bonus, I finally learned how to pronounce this author's name. As a practical use of 8 minutes this is hard to beat - a great video with fascinating visuals and an easy to understand summary of a book that's not an easy read. I'm sharing it so of course I can remember to watch it again later. It's also time to read the book again. Here's the video: Four Important Factors: Focus Freedom Feedback Four % Challenge It's well worth checking out the other quality material available at The Productivity Game .

This video uses a similar process to one that I share in my workshops. The video is around 12 minutes long but can save you hours of toil and trouble in your future problem solving sessions. I like that they call it a jam. As a musician, I can relate to the collaborative tools used, even though much of it is in silence (which, incidentally, gives your quiet and reflective team members equal footing.) Each of the steps is described in writing, and there's another link to the video here . You'll need lots of sticky notes, whiteboard space, dots (two sizes) and markers. Always have extra markers whenever you use dry-erase markers because you don't want to run dry. I recommend reaching agreements at the beginning on moving forward without taking anything personally, respecting each other, and following directions from the facilitator because this is a rapid process and any hurt feelings or excited debate will just slow you down.  There's a great use of one of m...

Entrepreneur Magazine frequently offers useful time management tips. Here are 10 that are helpful. Don't worry too much about the revolutionary declaration that most time management advice is useless -- that would make THIS advice useless, too. It's not. It all depends on how you apply it, particularly with the discipline that you apply it. All time management tips depend on people DOING them with the discipline to say NO to distractions and low-payoff items. Focus first (and most) on the HIGH PAYOFF items and you are likely to be happy with the results. Here are the tips for additional review and application: Carry a schedule and track all of your activities, conversations, actions, and even thoughts  - for a week. Identify your productive vs. non-productive times. Assign time for your important activities. Put it in your schedule! Plan to spend at least 50% of your time in the activities and actions that produce most of your results. Schedule time for interrupt...

Do you ever find yourself wanting to be creative but stuck for where to begin? I like to work with random prompts sometimes just to get my creative flow started. Here's one I captured on video while taking my morning walk. Two things occur to me - 1. It's a great way to identify what medium to start your idea in, and 2. I should shave before filming a video. Your spinning wheel doesn't have to be elaborate. It's just a way to get the start of an idea started. You could also substitute the types of creative works for something else random. If your creative works are solely focused on painting, put different styles on the wheel. Or colors to use.  Mix it up. Add an element of chance. And then get started. What's your best creative notion today? -- Doug Smith

You hear it all the time: fake it 'til you make it. What do you think? Here's my humble take on the concept: And yes, it might occur to you that I am faking it as a videographer. No, not faking it -- it's quick, it's cheap, it's my creative notion for the day. -- Doug Smith

When you're being creative, should you go for quality or quantity? That's my question today in my morning walk Creative Notion. What do you think? -- Doug Smith

What creative project are you working on this weekend? Here's a little video written and directed by Daniel Vaughn that I acted in a little while ago. Oh yeah, we made it over a weekend. Create a fabulous, inspirational day! -- doug smith

When you make videos with your mobile device, how do you hold the device? Vertical (portrait) or horizontal (landscape). Here's my thought on that: I know the production values on this video are sketchy but that's not the point. It's part of a series of quick creative musings designed to get you going creatively. Now. Enjoy one wonderful creative and inspirational day! -- Doug Smith

Make a video! That's my creative notion. You already know how easy it is. But make one very short video each day to spark your creativity. Here's what I offered during my afternoon walk: Have a fabulous, creative, inspirational day! -- Doug Smith