When I get ready for a training or a speech, the first thing I do is outline content in PowerPoint slides. It helps me frame my thoughts and gauge for flow of material. Then I go back and provide content for a supporting document like a handout. And I’m lucky, I hand it off to someone else to make it all look pretty, cohesive, and professional before it ever goes live. I’m working on a pitch now for some seed funding, and my first thought is how do I organize the pitch through PowerPoint slides. The information on guidelines for
I often glance at what people take note of when they are a part of one of our training sessions. Not the notes or handout questions we make them fill in, but the notes where they turn over to a blank handout page or pull out their own notebook and jot things down. The notes people take because they want to make sure they remember something. The times when people say, “Can you go back to that slide for a minute please?” And then they start furiously writing. We also get feedback from all participants at the end of each
One of the first things we teach in our personal leadership course is the concept of DWYSYWD- Do What You Say You Will Do. It involves committing to what you can do, or as Covey would put it, committing to your circle of influence and focusing on being accountable with what you can do instead of worrying about things that you cannot do something about. For example, I cannot do anything about whether or not a stay at home order is extended or relaxed this week in my state, but I can wash my hands, not touch my face,
My 13-year-old came to me last week and said “Mom, we are living through history. In five to ten years, kids will learn about this pandemic in history class and I’ll be able to say ‘yeah, I was there’!” And he’s right. Students will hear about how our world came together to fight COVID-19. They will be amazed by the fact that we quarantined, that so many businesses had to close their doors, but hopefully, they’ll be inspired by the way we innovated to overcome this pandemic and support those in the front lines. I don’t know that we ever
We are still in the midst of an unprecedented time in our country and world, with so many unknowns related to COVID-19 and its impact on quite literally everything. Last week, I wrote about 4 things leaders do in times of crisis based on my observations of leaders in action. Well, we’ve been on this train of crisis for over a week now locally, and just like there are observations about how to behave as a leader, I’ve been exposed to how not to behave as a leader during times of distress. Through further observations, here are three things leaders