This week’s post is actually a paraphrased email to someone who juggles lots of tasks, wondering how it was possible.
In the interest of sharing one way of looking at it, I shared my (loosely held-to) scheme of priorities:
Organization
How to put ideas from a conference into action:
We’re entering a time of year when lots of people have professional development and conference opportunities. Lots of time when attending such an event, you get lots of ideas from the exhibit hall, from networking, from breakout sessions, and from keynote speakers and plenary sessions. You come home with lots of materials, then life happens, … Read more
Effective leaders value clarity
Few things are more energizing than leaving a productive meeting with your team, set ablaze with fresh ideas that will set the wheels in motion. You’re ready to go. Your team is ready to go. You’ve established MT goals and are ready to tackle the world.
It’s a great feeling. Until something, somewhere, gets a little hazy.
Be smart about SMART goals (shortcut included)
Last week’s blog talked about the value of vision as a leader. With vision, you have a clear destination; a clear destination can aid in motivating your team.
But with vision, comes goals. Goals serve as checkpoints on the way to your vision. But how do you know you have a goal worth pursuing?
Effective Leaders Overcommunicate
An email I received yesterday: I would be interested in your thoughts about too much communication. It has been happening that with all the communication outlets, Facebook, Twitter, text, email, that keeping track of getting the word out is becoming overkill. I have some members that say they only check Twitter or Facebook and … Read more
Why do student leadership?
About a third of my work in leadership training is with youth organizations, with an emphasis on true empowerment of youth leaders to contribute to the organization’s work. It takes effort, so I was recently asked “Is it worth all the effort to have student leadership?”
I said yes, and here is my full answer:
Many would agree that it isn’t worth the hassle if the only thing you gain is some better role-modeling or extra worker bees. If, though, you actually train and empower students for the below three purposes, then you’ll have less stress, more productivity, and you’ve provided a developmental opportunity (think “differentiation”) that will benefit them later in life.
Effective Leaders Stay Organized (part two)
Part two of two (read part one here)
My daily list fits into the narrow confines of the column on the left hand side of each day’s page in my planner.
But – sometimes life becomes so hectic, and the to-do list gets so long, that it’s time to switch methods.
Effective Leaders Stay Organized (part one)
If we are effective, we are probably quite busy.
Many of us have tried different ways to stay organized, including electronic gadgets, pen and paper planners, whiteboards, etc.
I’d like to share two ways that have worked for me. I’m sharing them here, because others who have adopted them have found quite useful.
Both of them go the pen and paper route, so if you’re looking for ways to incorporate Outlook or Evernote or iCal or GoogleSomething, then check out another blog, like the awesome lifehacker.com.
Each of my two methods has a time and place.
The first is for when life is normal, and the second is for when it’s overwhelming.
When things are at their normal level of hectic, I use a technique based on the Franklin Covey system: