In today's fast-paced world, it's easy to get caught up in a constant cycle of reactivity and back-to-back meetings, leaving little room for personal growth and reflection. But it doesn't have to be this way. By taking intentional steps to carve out dedicated time for ourselves, we can break free from the chaos and make space for what's truly important. In this blog post, we will delve into various strategies to reclaim your time, including deep dives, sprints, creating a "not to do" list, and setting meaningful goals for the future. So, let's embark on this journey together and discover how to prioritize our time and create a life that aligns with our deepest values and aspirations. Now, let's dive in and explore these transformative strategies for reclaiming your time and living a more intentional life.
We’reat the beginning of rolling out a global leadership development curriculum for a Financial Services client and the senior leaders astutely asked how I thought they could best support their leaders as they go through this process in the coming months. It occurred to me that capturing the list of recommendations might be helpful for some of our partners in organizational development and learning. In response, I compiled this list and I hope you’ll add your thoughts in the comments if you feel I missed something. Feel free to share this with your leaders at the beginning of your next training rollout.
Today we're diving headfirst into a competency that can be a game-changer in the work life of a leader, Emotional Agility. In fact, the skills required to be emotionally agile are very similar to those we prescribe for teams that want to be more agile: discover, recognize and take action. Rinse, repeat. To build stronger teams and thrive in our roles as leaders and managers, we need to bring these skills into our daily consciousness. How does your mindset impact how you show up? And how do you recognize when you should shift your mindset and when you should not? And even when you know you should, how do you fight your natural instincts?
Have you experienced any recent changes in your life? Perhaps you've taken on a new position at work, welcomed a new team member, or updated your software. And if you're a parent, you understand how children are constantly growing and changing.
In a world that is constantly changing, one thing remains certain: every individual responds to change in their own unique way. Whether you embrace change with open arms or feel a sense of panic at the mere mention of it, there is a valuable tool that can help you understand the different behaviors that emerge during these transitions.
I recently moved into a new house and found myself evaluating a room that's needs painting. "Is the color close enough to avoid a primer? It would save time to jump right to a coat of the new stuff. But would it really if I had to add a second coat because the old color showed through? Ok, time for a base coat of primer!"
That same day I found myself teaching our Influencing class to a group of front line managers and it occurred to me that the same conversation applied. You cannot skip the base coat! All the fancy influencing approaches fall flat if you haven't checked the boxes on these top five fundamentals of influencing:
During Times of Change, Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
The flight was just about to take off, when abruptly it turned around and headed back to the gate. The pilot told us it was a mechanical problem and that they'd get back to us. And then they didn't. For the next 15 minutes I watched people begin to spiral into a panic. Should we call customer service? Should we get off the flight? What kind mechanical? Any time estimates?
So, you just got Microsoft Teams...now what? It’s just another Skype, right? Not really.
We've all heard it by now. The low-pitched "ding" that comes through your speakers, usually accompanied by a concurrent purple pop-up window. It can mean lots of things - a response to a question that you have been needing to get answered, more work that you need to complete - or random chatter from a distribution list that you have never signed up for. But dig a little deeper, and things can start to get messy. There's a flurry of IMs coming through, and you can't keep up. Or you've been added to channels than you don’t even recognize, and you don’t know why. Or you get notified any time a file or tab gets added to a team, and you have no idea if you should ignore it or if you are suddenly missing something important that you need to be diligently checking.
So, the big question becomes: Is Microsoft Teams a productivity goldmine or a reactivity trap?
I've been coaching and working with Senior Leaders across many industries lately, and keep hearing the same concern when we talk about delivering on the strategies they have worked so hard to develop and communicate across their organizations. Lack of accountability is hurting our ability to execute.
If you've noticed this creeping into your team or organization, it may require some focused attention before it's too late. Let's review six techniques that can help stem the tide and turn your team into an executing machine!
The votes are in for 2019 most popular blog! This blog is full of tips for taking your work relationships to a new level of success. Be sure to take advantage of the download "Know Your Colleagues"!
I was coaching a client last week and asked about his progress since he went to our WorkingSm@rt class. He said, "Well, I'm more organized and more focused but I haven't solved the one issue that takes up more time than almost anything else -- the people stuff!”.
I knew he was saying it tongue in cheek, but he winced a little as he said it and I knew there was more truth there than he was comfortable with. I wish I could say it was the first time I've heard this complaint, but it's not. It's impossible to focus on people's productivity without consistently running into the challenging people issues that can take up significant chunks of our day.
So, without ado, I thought I’d outline three people areas that waste significant time in our workplaces with a few solutions that can make a significant impact: