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

Having “Difficult” Conversations

March 17, 2014

We were recently asked, “What can a new manager do when they need to have a difficult conversation?” As we thought about this, we were struck by how we’d all like to think that it’s just new managers who struggle with this, but in fact, people from seasoned CEOs to soccer coaches to spouses and kids all struggle with having difficult conversations and, as a result, often avoid the important conversations that can contribute to creating greater connection, development of…

What to do When Meetings Derail

March 10, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

Two weeks ago, we talked about Creating Effective Meetings and last week we shared the contributions of one of our readers in Beyond Effective Meetings. We trust that you are starting to think more deeply about the meetings that you initiate and the meetings you are in. It is critical to ensure that your meetings are moving your teams forward so that they can create success vs. impeding success. Once you have paused to reflect on the meetings you are…

Beyond Effective Meetings

March 3, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

Last week our focus was on Creating Effective Meetings. We heard from a lot of members of our community who said that the post was tremendously helpful and one of our readers provided some excellent ideas to consider. Bill S. in Illinois sent this note: Great ideas on meetings! Let me offer another suggestion: group all meetings in the morning or afternoon to leave large blocks of time available to actually work. I work in Information Technology and it is…

Creating Effective Meetings

February 24, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

As consultants, we hear a lot of complaints about meetings. We hear that there are too many, they eat up the bulk of the workweek, and most of them are ineffective. From our perspective, the only reason to get 3 to 5 or even 10 or more people in a room is so that when they leave, they are able to be more effective. They leave with information that creates confidence, they leave feeling they have influenced decisions that are…

To Hire the Best, Consider Your Story

February 17, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

You may have noticed that more and more companies are telling you their stories. Understanding a company’s story allows you to identify with the meaning and purpose that shapes a company, and it builds a personal relationship to them – which translates into greater loyalty. In this same way, if you are looking to hire great people and great leaders, you need to share your organization’s story. You need to tell potential employees why your company was started, what the…

Getting a Good Night’s Sleep is NOT a Luxury

February 10, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

Last week we talked about the power of distractions to derail you as you try to move forward in your day and your life. One of the things we mentioned as important in combatting the impact of distractions was sleep. We know we bug you about this stuff with some regularity and we don’t want to be a broken record but there is some new data on the importance of sleep that is critical to understand if you are committed…

Don’t Let Distractions Get in Your Way

February 3, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

One of the most common concerns that we hear from our clients is that there is too much to do in too little time. There is much truth to that concern – many of us have more on our plates than we can possibly do in the time allotted. At the same time, there is increasing research that if we are not aggressively managing our distractions, we can be spending a significant portion of the little time we do have…

Be Fearless in Your Vision

January 27, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

In Martin Luther King’s vision of the future, he was described a life that was far better than he believed was actually possible in his own lifetime. He was fearless in his description of a better life for his children and the generations to come. He had no idea how the vision was going to come to life, but because he believed that a better future was possible, he committed to taking the small steps each day to get him…

Let Them Know How Their Input was Used

January 20, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

Today is our last post on how to use The Engagement Spiral©. For those of you just joining us, here is a list of the previous posts, click on the link to read those you have missed: The Engagement Spiral© Overview Step 1: Tell Them They Matter Step 2: Teach People How to Provide Input Step 3: Take Input to the Relevant Decision-Makers Step 4: Use the Input and Perspective They Provide. In our years of coaching, we have seen…

Input: Use It!

January 13, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

We hate to keep giving those of you who are already members of our community a recap but we’ve had a lot of people joining our online coaching community in recent weeks and we want them to be able to successfully follow the process in this series. As you will recall, in our December 9th post we gave you an overview of The Engagement Spiral© that we created to help leaders in organizations, communities, and even families create engagement and alignment…