Undervalued Skills That Make a Big Impact

When you think of skills that are important to list in your CV or resume, you probably think of hard skills.  That is, quantifiable or measurable accomplishments.

Hard skills are important when it comes to tasks where we do not rely on others.

But in team environments and as leaders, soft skills may even prove more important.

You can do all the budgeting you want or data analysis, but if y...

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What Do They REALLY Want?

When we first start a conversation with our team member, they may say they want to solve a certain problem.

But if we allow them the ability to think things through, sometimes the original problem is not the REAL problem.

In other words, what they say they want is not what they REALLY want.

This is a powerful realization, and can mean the difference between having a conversation which resu...

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Humility Is Empowerment

Are you humble?

And if you say you're humble---does that make you not humble?

We may think we are being humble with our teams.

But many aid worker leaders (myself included) have come to define our validity as leaders with the ability to tell our teams what to do.  

Our ego is tied to our ability to provide the answers.

We are not being humble enough to admit our way is not the only way.

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Doing It Wrong to Do It Right

Have you ever learned a new skill and did it perfectly the first time?

Probably not... at least if it's a skill like learning a language, riding a bike or delegating to your team.

Even though it is almost impossible to do something perfectly the first time, many of us still think we can do so.

I see it in my coaching students - the desire to do coaching perfectly the first time they try it...

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How to Gain Control Over Your Time - Part Two

Last week we looked at how to become aware of how we are using our time through conducting a Time Audit 2.0 (looking at both activities and energy level). 

Now that you know how you currently use your time, we can start to decide if that is how we want to use our time.  The series of questions in this episode will help you decide how much control you have over your time, where your current a...

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How to Gain Control Over Your Time - Part One

"Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become." - James Clear, Atomic Habits

This quote captures the topic of today perfectly.  That is, if you compound your actions on a daily or weekly basis, where will they lead you in a year, or even three?  

Are you going in the direction you want to go, or are you going in a direction someone else wants you to go?

Will you achieve ...

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How to Become a Better Problem Solver

Our entire career as a leader - and in fact, our entire personal life as well - is a measure of how well we solve problems.

The better we are at solving problems, the more we advance.  The more we are able to learn and overcome.  And through the failure along the way, we also grow stronger.

So it's not hard to imagine why learning how to solve problems better is a very valuable skill.  Toda...

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When to Ask "How Can I Help?"

Asking your team "how can I help?" is a great way to show your support.

But knowing when to ask this question can make it more helpful to your team member - and ultimately to you as a leader too.

In this episode I explore the best way to ask "how can I help you?" as a supervisor in order to empower your team and not keep them from growing.

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Best Practices When Using Coaching for Development Planning

The more you empower your team to come up with their own Development Plans, the more likely they are to take action.  And that is really the whole point, right?

In this episode I share four powerful questions you can ask during a Development Plan Coaching conversation to help your direct reports determine what skills to learn, how to learn them, how to plan for unforeseen challenges and also p...

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Finding Time for Developing Your Team

You have a lot on your to do list.  Between all the meetings, email and your everyday obligations, things get busy fast!

And yet, one of our most important priorities as supervisors can be one of the ones we delay doing the most - that is developing our team.

How can you find time to develop your team while also keeping your other priorities?

Listen to this episode to find out!

Resources me...

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