Monday Morning Business Coach, Author at Carpenter Smith Consulting, LLC

Your Holiday Leadership

December 15, 2014

For the past couple of weeks, our clients have come to meetings looking a little worse for wear. They are running hard at work—where many are at fiscal year end—while also trying to prepare for the holidays. They are attending the plays and shows that their kids are in, going to office and personal holiday parties, participating in religious services or activities, and trying to figure out great gifts for hard-to-buy-for family members. Many report that they both love and…

Becoming More Creative and Innovative

December 8, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

Everywhere you look there are articles and books about becoming more creative, expanding your organization’s culture to become more innovative, and leading change rather than reacting to it. We’re all for greater creativity and innovation. Unfortunately, the current approach of many individuals and organizations leaves them disappointed and in a state of constant reactivity. Often, leaders treat creativity and innovation like they are either a box to check on a to-do list or something to do once a year at…

Delegating Well Isn’t Micromanaging

December 1, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

We heard from several of you over the past two weeks that you were concerned that if you use our 3 steps to delegate effectively, it would be experienced by others as micromanaging. Delegation, as we described a couple of weeks ago, is about providing Context, Content, and Connection so that the individual who is assigned the activity can organize their thinking and their tactics to accomplish the delegated task. When you provide the three ‘C’s of delegation, you are…

The Voyage Back… to You

November 24, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

If it’s true that life is a journey, then the most important voyage we know of is the one that takes you back to you. This holiday season, we want to encourage you to take time for yourself. Yes, there is a lot of pressure to spend time with family and with friends, but as your coaches we strongly recommend that you plan some time for yourself that is unencumbered by the demands of life. Time to relax, reflect, work…

3 Steps to Effective Delegation

November 17, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

As coaches and consultants, we find that people regularly struggle with delegation and they tend to feel uncomfortable admitting it because they believe they should know how to do it. In our experience, delegating is a challenging skill; one that few of us are taught. People are frequently told they should “just delegate that” but when they try, they don’t get the results they hoped for so they give up delegating and just heap it onto their already full plate…

Feeling Proud at the End of Your Day

November 10, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

We were recently at a meeting where the presenter asked these questions: Who in the room has read an article on time management? Everyone raised their hand. Who has taken a class or webinar on getting more things done? Almost everyone raised their hand. Who feels great about their ability to prioritize their key imperatives and get them done in an efficient and timely manner? Only about 11 people raised their hands. Despite all of the reading and classes, it’s…

The Leader in You and Empathy

November 3, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

Those of you who know us know that we believe that leaders exist at all levels of an organization and in all walks of life. We believe that leadership is a way of being in the world. It requires a willingness to influence the world (not stand on the sidelines and complain) and to be influenced by the world (not stand impervious to the events and lives playing out around you.) We are passionate about finding the key nuggets of…

The Power of Career Coaching

November 3, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

At a local professional meeting, we ran into a man we’ve known for some time who reported that he’d recently had his first appointment with Jill Banks, our Director of Career Services. He said that he had been thinking about calling for a while, but just wasn’t sure he was a good candidate for career coaching. (With career coaching being a relatively new field, many people don’t really understand what it’s about.) Our friend started to share his experience and…

“Where Are We Going?”

October 27, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

Recently, while hiking with a wonderful 6-year-old, she asked a question that highlighted the importance of creating a shared vision. That morning, one of her parents had asked a group of us, “Who wants to go on a hike?” A small number decided that a hike sounded like fun, and so we each grabbed our hiking shoes, a bottle of water and a small snack. When we were no more than 10 steps into our hike, this youngest member of…

Nourishing Your Spirit is Important to Your Leadership

October 20, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

There are a lot of reasons why it’s important to nourish your spirit, but the most important reason is so you will have more of yourself as you navigate the opportunities and challenges in your life. In our leadership model, The Leader in You: Three Steps to Claiming Your Power, Influence, and Impact, the second step focuses on knowing yourself. This includes: Knowing the kinds of things you fear and how you show up when you are at your best…