Birthing Babies and Running Races: Pushing Past Your Breaking Point with Positive Feedback

We were excited to be featured as guest blogger on the awesome Fistful of Talent this past weekend. Now, we’re sharing this blog with you!  — I’m in labor. One nurse is holding one foot; another is holding the other. There’s a doctor in-between my legs, and my husband is at my side. (He was instructed under no uncertain circumstances to go below my knees.) It’s time to push. I, of course, am drugged with an epidural. They have to tell me when to push because I luckily can’t feel a thing. I don’t know the results of my efforts,

Leaders Kill two Birds with One Stone through Delegation

Leaders constantly face demands on their time, and discerning what to do, how to do it and when can be a challenge. Delegation provides: An effective means for managing time wisely and An effective way to develop others. Leaders make more leaders, and are also good at killing two birds with one stone.   So how to delegate?   Delegation Steps and Levels: What needs to be delegated? All your responsibilities should be put in to one of three buckets: 1. Don’t do it- get rid of the task or responsibility 2. Do it yourself. 3. Delegate it. Take time

Want to be a millionaire? A Good Leader? Manage Your Time First

Want to be a good leader? How about a millionaire? Manage yourself and your time first. What does it take to think like a millionaire? In reading The Millionaire Mind, I was struck by what seemed to first be a contradiction. Based on the study of almost 1000 millionaires, it was obvious these individuals as a group managed their expenses just as wisely, if not more, than their revenue generation. Most bought at discount retailers and had very small or non-existent mortgages by buying older homes that retained or appreciated in value. Keeping costs low is a priority in the

6 Steps for Maximizing Feedback Through Feedforward

Described by Marshall Goldsmith in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, feedforward is a process to solicit help in improving your performance once you’ve gotten feedback on what you need to improve upon. In our coaching process, and in many others, this is done through a 360° feedback assessment. (If you want other tips on how to solicit feedback yourself, Goldsmith’s book has a methods you can employ, or you can read ideas we recommend here.   How to do it: Once you get feedback, you then follow the feedforward process as Goldsmith describes by: What

Looking for a Magic Wand in 2014?

Are you a leader with a talent management problem like turnover, absenteeism, employee engagement, etc.? What if I gave you a magic wand in 2014 and it could wipe your problem out? One way to do this is to see yourself as a key driver of organizational strategy and results and then use this mindset to drive talent management process improvements that connect back to bottom line results. This mindset is your magic wand. Wait a minute you say! It can’t be that easy. Just thinking strategically can’t eliminate (insert your problem here). Recently, I described a process to a