Leaders love to see progress. But growth brings a whole new set of problems. You may find yourself stuck in reaction mode, feeling more like a fireman than a leader. Dealing with problems all day can drain your mental energy. After awhile, you may have no bandwidth left for vision and strategy.
Archives: Episodes
Podcast Episodes
How to Create More Margin in Your Personal Life
Every leader needs a full and balanced life to be fully effective. But when you leave work, it can feel like you’re going to your second job—home. Managing a household takes a ton of energy. It can leave you with no gas in the tank for personal interests or actually spending time with your family.
Productivity by Enneagram Type (Part 2)
Leaders all want to achieve. But sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. Either we’re too perfectionistic, or too much of a people pleaser, or so much of a conflict avoider that we have trouble getting things done. It’s frustrating and discouraging to fall into the same old traps over and over.
Productivity by Enneagram Type (Part 1)
Leaders all want to achieve. But sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. Either we’re too perfectionistic, or too much of a people pleaser, or so much of a conflict avoider that we have trouble getting things done. It’s frustrating and discouraging to fall into the same old traps over and over.
How to Delegate for Perfect Results Every Time
To scale yourself, you need to delegate your work to others. But delegating tasks isn’t as easy as it sounds. No matter how hard you try, the results often don’t meet your expectation. It’s frustrating, and it can feel like a waste of time.
How to Hire a World-Class Assistant
“Sure, I’d love to have an executive assistant. But I can’t afford one!” You’ve probably said that before. Or maybe you don’t know where to find one. Or you’ve had a bad experience with an assistant and are reluctant to try again. In the meantime, you’re stuck in multitask-mode, essentially doing the work of two people.
There’s got to be a way to find and hire a top-notch executive assistant, doesn’t there?
How to Leverage a World-Class Assistant
Every leader needs an assistant to manage low-leverage tasks so they can focus on driving results. A world-class assistant can easily remove 15 or 20 hours’ work from your plate every week. But many executives aren’t used to the daily rhythm of working with a right-hand person. Others have tried it before and had a bad experience.
You may wonder if really need an assistant—or feel unsure about how to leverage one fully.
Michael Answers Your Questions
Leaders are problem solvers, and that means coming up with the right answers. The problem is that you may have nowhere to ask your own questions. Sometimes you just need a little feedback.
The longer we’re in leadership, the more we’re convinced that asking the right questions is far more important than always having an answer in your hip pocket.
Feeling Overwhelmed? Here’s Your Action Plan
Leaders thrive on getting things done. The problem is that there’s more to be done than any one person can accomplish. That can leave you feeling overwhelmed, even paralyzed. Ever found yourself procrastinating because you couldn’t decide what to do next?
There’s a better way.
Next-Level Strategies for Weekly Planning
Leaders like to plan their work and work their plan. The problem is that real-life gets in the way. Interruptions, distractions, and unforeseen problems can make a trainwreck of your week even before it leaves the station. By Friday, you can feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and wonder, “What did I really accomplish?” There’s got to be a better way to plan your week.
Bonus Episode: Start Using Your New Planner Now!
As a high-performing leader, we know you love using productivity products like the Full Focus Planner™. But any new system can seem overwhelming at first. Honestly, our planner can seem that way at first. With so many features built in, it’s hard to know where to start. You may wonder if you’re actually getting the full value from this amazing product.
Tired of Making No Progress on Goals? Try This
Leaders are driven to achieve. The problem is that our intense drive can backfire. We sometimes set unrealistic goals or timetables, which are impossible to meet. Not that we don’t kill ourselves trying!
When that happens, it’s easy to feel exhausted and discouraged. Why does everybody else seem to make rapid progress? Is there a way to get unstuck?
The Upside of an Experimental Mindset
Leaders create change. The problem is that not everybody wants change. You’ve probably faced the frustration of having your team be less than enthusiastic about a new initiative. That’s when you hear all the familiar lines: “We tried that before.” “It’ll cost too much.” “Why do we need this, anyway?”
It’s exhausting. But there is hope! Here's an easy way to get people onboard with a new initiative. It’s so simple, you’ll wonder you you haven’t thought of it before now.
How to Fail Better
Leaders are achievers. But nobody bats 1.000. We all experience failure eventually. That can be discouraging—even humiliating! That’s why most of us react in one of two ways. Either we globalize our failure by thinking we won’t ever succeed. Or we sweep the loss away quickly and forget it.
But what if there was a better way to fail?
3 Habits of Wise Leaders
Good leaders want to do the right thing. But sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. Have you ever made a really unwise choice that cost you a relationship or an opportunity?
It’s so discouraging to realize you’ve made an avoidable mistake. It can even make you question your decision making ability.
But you can recover.
5 Steps to Avoid Investing in the Wrong People
What do you do when you have a customer you just can’t seem to satisfy? Or a team member who seems resistant to coaching? What about someone in a personal relationship who seems to suck the life out of you?
Sometimes it seems feels like the people who demand the most of your time and energy offer the least in return. What can you do about it?
Encore Episode: 4 Rituals That Make You Super Productive
We all want to be more productive. But you know how it goes—a little late getting started, a quick task you just remembered, and then it’s non-stop interruptions all day long. Where does the day go?
Encore Episode: The 3×3 Goal Achievement Strategy
As a leader, you probably have a huge goal in mind. It’s the heartbeat of your ambition, the reason you get out of bed in the morning. Chances are good that you’ve thought about it long and hard, and you may even have a timetable and specific objectives for reaching it.
The problem is that distractions, interruptions, and “business as usual” cause us to loose sight of our goals. Before long, another month, another quarter, maybe even another year has gone by with no progress. It’s disheartening. We know. We’ve been there.
But there’s hope!
Encore Episode: The Power of Personality
Leaders must motivate people. The problem is that everybody’s different, so what inspires one team member may demotivate another. It can be confusing to lead a diverse team. But personality is not an unsolvable puzzle. And we’ve got three powerful tools to help you put it all together.
Encore Episode: 4 Steps to Communicating Vision
Every leader is motivated by a compelling vision for the future. There’s something you want to achieve. You know where you’re headed. The problem is that it’s hard to keep that vision real for your team. They’re busy and easily distracted. Before long, another quarter has slipped by and you haven’t made real progress on the big outcome you’re after.
That can be incredibly discouraging.
But there’s hope. We’ve got a compelling formula for communicating your vision to every single member of your team.