Triumph Distractions

Wow, I’m amazed! Congratulations on making it to the END of the 10 Part Challenge To Better Leadership.

You should be REALLY proud of yourself. You’ve accomplished a TON, both personally and as a team.

Today it’s time to put the final puzzle piece into place. It’s time to create your team ACTION plan.

You’ve already identified your mission and goals, as well as prepared for any roadblocks.

Now it’s time to determine specific actions that your team will take in order to achieve their goals.

This is an extremely powerful exercise because it forces you to move from simply having ideas to actually taking action.

I think you’ll find it really helpful. So, get to it!

You’re almost finished! You should be really proud of yourself and your team.

Today you’re going to be identifying ANYTHING that will keep your team from achieving the ONE goal that you selected last week.

This is such an effective exercise because it prepares you for any unexpected challenges you might encounter.

If you’re prepared for roadblocks, you can break through them.

So, get to it!

Figure out EXACTLY how you’re going to smash through any roadblocks you may encounter.

It’s time for the 8th challenge of the Better Leadership Challenge!

After setting goals with your team, do you have a clearer vision for the future? Are you starting to feel excited?

You’re going to take things a step further today.

You’re going to identify the ONE team goal that will make the biggest difference.

This is the goal that will receive almost ALL of your focus in the coming weeks.

This is a powerful exercise because it forces you to determine what will move the needle most for your team.

Ready?

Last week, you and your team worked hard to determine your team’s mission. I can imagine that was a really rewarding experience.

But today it’s time to take things a step further.

You won’t achieve your mission if you don’t translate it into goals.

That’s what today’s challenge is all about.

You and your team are going to work together to determine the MOST important goals your team needs to achieve.

This could be a really significant moment for you and your team.

So, take the challenge and then let me know your thoughts. Were you able to easily translate your mission into clear goals? Did you run into any challenges?

This is the 6th Challenge of the Better Leadership Challenge.

It’s time to transition from your personal leadership to leading your TEAM in the MOST effective way possible.

There is one KEY ingredient that, if you don’t have it, will sabotage even your team’s BEST efforts.

• I’m talking about clarity.

Today, you and your team are going to get ultra-clear on your mission.

This clarity is absolutely ESSENTIAL for your success (I can’t state this strongly enough!).

So, don’t wait any longer. Take the challenge and get some clarity!

It’s time to take everything you’ve done over the past few weeks…

...and put it into ACTION.

After all, goals and plans are nothing if you don’t make real progress, right?

Today we’re going to create a SOLID action plan for you - a plan that will get you moving on your most important goals.

Ready to dive in?

Let’s get to some action!

It’s the 4th challenge of the Better Leadership Challenge! You’ve already made some SERIOUS progress.

You’ve identified your personal mission, set clear goals, and identified any potential roadblocks.

Now it’s time to get your LASER focus on.

Because here’s the deal. You can’t accomplish everything at one time. And some goals have a bigger impact than others.

Today you’re going to narrow...narrow...narrow your focus, until you’ve got ONE primary thing you’re working on DONE!

This is a really powerful exercise that will supercharge your productivity.

So, get to it!

I bet that after you set your goals last week, you felt pretty excited about the future. I know I did!

But it’s not enough to simply set goals.

You need to be ready to conquer all the potential roadblocks that will keep you from achieving your goals.

Today you’re going to identify anything and everything that could keep you from accomplishing EVERYTHING you want to achieve.

Then you’re going to make a plan for how to blow those roadblocks to pieces.

Ready? Listen now!

It’s time for the second challenge of the Better Leadership Challenge!

Today’s exercise is simple, yet profound.

In the first challenge, you experienced the clarification that comes when you determine your personal mission.

Today you’re going to get even MORE clarity on your purpose in life.

Here’s what I want you to do: complete today’s challenge and then leave me a message on how this went. 

Did you find today’s challenge difficult in any way? Did you have any “Ah ha!” moments?

It’s Challenge #1 of the Better Leadership Challenge. I’m really glad that you’re part of this challenge. All of us can grow in being more effective leaders, and I think this challenge is really going to help you.

Today we’re starting with something that is absolutely FOUNDATIONAL to effective leadership.

If this isn’t in place, you simply can’t be an effective leader. I know, sounds dramatic. But it’s true.

Today’s challenge is like the bottom button of a shirt. If you get this one wrong, then all the other buttons will also be wrong.

Intriguing, right?

Get into the challenge!

Do you need CLARITY as a leader? Do you want to be a BETTER leader? Well, if so, this is for you!

Welcome to the Makings of a Great Leader, a 10-week Series where each week presents a challenge with specific action steps to take. 

By the end of the challenge, you will be transformed into a better leader. You will achieve significant growth as a leader, to the point where your team will be amazed by the transformation. 

Putting the challenges into action has the potential to significantly enhance both your personal life and your career!

If you've ever taken a personality assessment test, you either...

• Denied the whole thing, saying it's not true
• Cried because you finally understand some things about yourself
• Agreed with some of it, and disagreed with some of it. 

You are not alone...today, we talk about how you can use personality assessments or strengths tests to help improve team communication and help you better communicate with your coworkers. 

Here are some that we use with our customers, individuals, and teams:

An Adobe study shows that we spend an average of 20 weeks a year on emails. WOW! that is a lot!

How many emails do you have in your inbox? How many folders do you have? How hard is it to find an important email? Not so long ago, I had thousands of emails in my inbox and thousands more sorted in hundreds of folders. I was spending so much time reading and re-reading email, but I was never quite done with them. Then I learned this simple hack that has saved my email sanity!

In today's podcast, I share a simple solution to stop the email madness and get back 4 or more weeks every year!

What if you could run highly efficient meetings that produced results?

Do you have people who...

• show up late
• don't show up at all
• have sidebar conversations
• constantly check their phone
• bring their breakfast to a non-food meeting

Do you run meetings that don't produce any results other than taking up precious time or resulting in just scheduling another meeting?

Listen in as we provide some rules of engagement so you can hold results-oriented meetings your staff will love. 

Maikel Shares Why He Started Coaching

Coming from a dark place, Maikel shares how a coach helped him triumph. That is when he knew that we wanted to pay it forward. He continues to help others work through their struggles to reach their goals, with passion and conviction. 

Get to know Danielle as she shares why she loves helping others succeed. 

In this bonus episode, Danielle shares her passion for helping others, why she wanted to do this podcast series and how she hopes to help others reach their goals and fulfill their dreams. 

Continuing on the question of "How do I motivate my team to reach their goals?"

First, it is important to be crystal clear on the company objectives so that you can communicate those to your team. Once your company objectives are clear, work with your team to set and agree on team goals. 

Second, this has been around for a long time, but make sure your goals are SMART. 

Third, create milestones to create accountability.

This process puts your team in control of outcomes, it is proactive and puts the corporate objectives in action at the team level.

Ask yourself this: on a scale of 1-10 how much do you buy into goals?

This episode pegs Maikel against Danielle in a debate about goals...

Maikel takes the position that goals are bad and Danielle takes the position that goals are good. Listen in as they debate whether you should or should not have team goals!

We challenge you to have a debate with your team on the value and benefits of having team goals and individual goals!

Let us know what you find - you can call in a leave us a voice mail with your results, comments or questions!

Thank you for listening!

Exploring "what you want" goals. 

Deciding which goals to pursue requires clarity...In this episode, we explore how to pick your goals and why it's important to define your "why". 

The "Why do you want to reach each goal" greatly determines your chances of success. 

Leave us a voice mail with your question or share how this episode has helped you!

What the heck should my goals be?

Does that mean you have too many goals or you have none? Maikel and Danielle explore the difference between Duty goals and what you want goals.

We discuss how this one simple, yet powerful goal can create muscle memory where you become a goal-setting and goal-achieving machine. We reinforce it with a fun and visual way to stick to your new goal by turning it into a game. 

Listen in to this episode if you want to become that person that you can rely on, that person who follows through on their goals!

Creating a balanced life without being hard on yourself is possible. 

We explore what a balanced life looks like and if a balanced life can be accomplished. 

Is there a contradiction in motivations, where balance is good and being hard on yourself is bad? The confusion comes from:

• Really showing up versus rushing it
• Quality time versus quashing time
• Things that delight our soul versus things that drain our soul

As we try to create a balanced life, it is easy to forget to take the time to enjoy the moment, to slow down, and take a breath. In the end, we both agree that taking responsibility is a critical part of creating balance. 

Must do's:

• Stop treating yourself like hired help...or another way to look at this is to stop sweeping the floor when you should be doing something else.
• Stop beating yourself up for what you are not and for what you did or did not do. 
• Create "rules for beating yourself up"
• The absolute best thing you can do right now is to give yourself permission to be happy, give yourself permission to enjoy life. 

The solution:

1. Clarify what you want by making a list of 3 things that will bring you joy today. Write them down and tell a friend. 
2. Schedule those 3 things in your calendar and do them no matter what. 
3. Answer this at the end of every day: What brought me joy today? and What can I do to bring more of that tomorrow. 

The question of the week is: "How do I stop feeling overwhelmed?"

Executive Coaches Danielle and Maikel talk about what it means to feel overwhelmed and provide tips on how to move out of the "feeling Overwhelmed" to "feeling calm and focus". 

Let's define what it means to feel overwhelmed: it is defined as being overcome or overpowered by force or numbers by thought or feelings. This feeling bubbles over us and we feel crushed under the pressure. But it does not have to be that way. Life will always get in the way. Learn how you can create a habit of moving quickly from feeling overwhelmed to feeling calm and focused. You can start immediately and experience a new way to pursue your goals. 

The first tip is so counterintuitive, you won't believe it...until you try it for yourself! Imagine an athlete in a biathlon whose goal is to not only win the race, but she must also stop and shot at a target. She can't continue racing until she has hit the target, only to move on to the next target where she has to stop again. Your instinct would be to hurry, to go as fast as you can so you can win the race. But, you must slow down, you must slow your breathing so you can take the shot. The same thing happens for your goals. When you are racing to the next thing. It might be worth trying to slow down, to slow your breathing so you can take the shot. Applying this technique when you feel overwhelmed is a game changer!

There are four things you can do immediately to help get out of the habit of feeling overwhelmed.

1. Slow down and breathe
2. Reach out to a friend
3. Create a list of 3 things you can do today to move you towards your goals - your "mine" list
4. Write and read a simple statement that keeps you grounded - your big Why!