They asked readers how they do it and I loved the top three responses so wanted to share them… I’m going to try the first one.  How do YOU handle difficult situations?

1.  THE QUELL JAR

Instead of worrying over or dwelling on a situation, I take a few deep breaths and do what I can to solve it.  If it’s something that is really bothering me, I write it down on a piece of paper and put it in a jar.  I’ve recognized and acknowledged it, but I feel as if I am move on from it.

2.  TAKING THE LONG VIEW

I imagine how my reaction will affect me in an hour, a week, a year or even 10 years.  It helps me to put into perspective the current crisis – whether it’s a run in my stockings or my cell phone falling into a puddle.  Most daily stresses tend to be irrelevant and won’t even matter in the end.

3.  CLEAR THE AIR

At work, I have a pocket-size spray bottle that’s filled with water and five drops of lavendar essential oil.  When I start to feel overtaxed, I spritz the air in front of me and breathe deeply.  The combination of lavendar and deep brathing gives me a much-welcome moment of calm.

Here’s to a calm last week of May….

I work with individuals to create stronger systems so that their teams can work more effectively and ultimately the entire company is affected and runs smoother (and makes more money).  I have a simple model that I follow based on The Productivity Puzzle.  This is very, very effective so when I found this fantastic article on INC around keeping your team in sync, I was delighted that the ideas and suggestions and tools I help companies put in place are the same that this article lists… it’s a quick read and might help you gain insight around YOUR team or company. 

Here also is the full article:

If you run a start-up, you know a whole new definition of “busy.” In the time I’ve been leading the worldwide crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo, I’ve learned the importance of doing what needs to be done rather than trying to accomplish everything on my to-do list all at once. As Bill Gross, the founder of Idealabs, recently proclaimed at a TEDx event in Southern California, the key is “focus, focus, focus.” Now, that’s something not too tricky to accomplish as an individual, but what about creating the idea of focus within a fast-growing team of employees?

The goal of my company, IndieGoGo, is to provide a way for anyone to raise money for anything, anywhere in the world. It’s working: We have grown from five to 18 employees in the last six months. Along the way, we’ve learned an important lesson: Once your company is made up of more than 10 people, it is both harder and more important to have everyone on the team “singing the same song.” At a start-up, it is important to continually review plans since tactics and personnel can change very quickly and incorrect assumptions can be made.

Meetings Can Be Your Friend

At IndieGoGo, we used to rely on e-mail and periodic meetings or phone calls to make decisions. Given coworkers’ busy schedules, it was often difficult to ensure everyone is on the same page. Today we are shifting to a culture of consistency and proactive planning—instead of always reacting. This includes a fluid set of meetings for sharing and decision-making: quarterly board meetings, bi-weekly initiative status gatherings, weekly management talks, and daily team kick-off meetings. I’ve really come to believe that communicating your core messages clearly (and often!) is the key to keeping everyone on track.

Communicate Your Values Effectively

Keeping your team on track starts with values—the principles that guide an organization’s internal conduct as well as its relationship with its stakeholders. This might seem fluffy, but the first step to building a solid infrastructure is setting a strong foundation. Having clear values will help in recruiting, executing project, and when making the tough decisions. As a founder, you also need to ensure your team understands your business model and how to execute against the long-term plans. The plan implemented to generate revenue and make a profit from operations in the start-up world can of course be fluid. Some companies change their models every quarter, while others never even focus on it. Changing directions to accommodate company focus or shifts in your industry happen. Just always maintain a clear understanding of the company’s business model. This includes both knowing what the business model is and also what it is not—for example, IndieGoGo’s business model is to charge a marketplace fee on transaction volume, not charge consulting fees for one-off development.

Prioritize Goals

Finally, keeping focus requires having a way to prioritize. It is important to let your business decisions and goals drive your priorities—as opposed to listening to the loudest person in the room. If time allows, you can use a criteria model to score each decision. Keep in mind such models are only as good as the input you put in. Do not doubt your instinct.

Consider the points above to be a baseline recipe for setting your team on a path to success. But, of course, all substitutes and creative changes are welcome, based on your team’s unique experience or philosophy. Let us know in the comments if you have other tips on communicating and keeping your team focused.

~ Epicurus (Greek Philosopher)

Knowledge is power and when you educate yourself on anything, you instantly become more empowered.  Yesterday I watched a group of intelligent, successful, smart women become empowered through our collaborative expertise. 

I spoke on paper, document and workspace organization and discussed document retention at length.  Kelly (from Broadview) spoke about how to go paperless and document management and Dannell (from Mission Wealth) spoke about budgets, tracking of expenses, how to manage your portfolio through the decades and why treating your portfolio as your employer when you retire is super smart. 

The local news team showed up and yes, we were on the evening news last night!  (I will be securing that footage and share with you soon).  The Noozhawk also showed up and did quite a writeup on the event.  You can read it by clicking HERE.

I cannot recommend my colleagues high enough so please do yourself a favor and if you are looking to refinance or become more educated about interest rates or buying/selling a home, then Kelly at Broadview is your gal.  If you are looking to invest money, need insurance, education around your finances or want to get a holistic and clear look at your portfolio through the eyes of experienced, caring and knowledgeable individuals, then call Dannell at Mission Wealth.  And, of course if you have any organizational needs, then you know who to call for that. 

After speaking at the Finances event, I then spoke at the Professional Women’s Association Conference on the UCSB campus in the afternoon.  Whew, it was a long day, but I felt so blessed to be continuing to do this amazing work and connect with such incredible people through these topics.  One last reminder… your last chance to sign up for the Time Management course on Saturday is now, so if you have been thinking about it then in the wise words of Nike… JUST DO IT and click HERE! 

Happy Thursday!

Leadership is one of those words that means everything and nothing all at once so I have really been forced to examine what productivity is in the context of leadership.  I, of course went to google and searched for top characteristics of a good leader.  While reading through these lists, the themes were around communication, being orderly, being driven, positive attitude and of course being decisive.  It became clear that in order to be a strong leader, one needs to own some of these characteristics, hence my hour long talk and subsequently my powerpoint quickly came together. 

Given that leadership is such a hot topic and of course we all love hearing all we can about productivity (right?)    I thought I would share one of the best lists I found in regards to leaders and productivity.  Can you draw your own parallels to your life or to your leadership qualities?  This list was extracted from the website http://www.bizmanualz.com/ 

1. Self-respect and respect for others. If you don’t have a healthy self-respect, you won’t respect others. If you don’t respect others, they will not respect you. You can’t lead people who don’t respect you.

2. The ability to communicate effectively. Leaders say what they mean and mean exactly what they say. Effective communicators are far more persuasive than those who don’t communicate well.

3. Integrity and character. Leaders are not swayed by unsubstantiated opinions or unfounded rumors. Fame, power, or material gain don’t motivate them. Leaders have integrity, that strength of character that resists assault.

4. Having a vision, a mission (or a purpose), a sense of direction, and a clear set of goals. Moreover, they know that their job isn’t done when one set of goals is reached. Leaders know that life is a journey.

5. Being grounded. Leaders have a vision of what the world around them ought to be, but they are also pragmatic. Things will not always go smoothly, but leaders understand that and have the presence of mind to deal with that.

6. Courage. Fear is a powerful motivator; it causes many of us to turn away from our goals when our belief in ourselves and our cause isn’t strong. Leaders aren’t fearless — leaders make a conscious choice to act in spite of their fear.

7. Persistence, commitment, and dedication. It’s like they always say: “Winners don’t quit, and quitters don’t win.”  Nothing worth having comes easily. When setbacks crop up, leaders don’t flag because they always have their eyes on the prize.

8. Humility. Leaders aren’t self-promoting or self-aggrandizing. They don’t take all the credit. They give credit to others and refuse it for themselves.

9. A sense of responsibility. Leaders are willing to bear the ultimate responsibility for their undertakings. They don’t point the finger of blame when things go awry.

10. Decisiveness. When action is called for, real leaders don’t waffle. Knowing that a window of opportunity exists (“the time to act is now”), they act quickly and effectively, based on the best available information.

Most importantly, leaders have these characteristics in balance. Some may tell you there is one characteristic more important than the rest. They’ll say something like, “Oh, you have to have that ‘vision thing’ above all else.” Not true – people won’t follow someone who has vision without courage or humility, for example.

Time Management class is coming up – May 19th – come and join us!  Register HERE!

If there is one excuse that I hear more than any other as to why it’s impossible to get things done, it would be interruptions and distractions.   Most of us are constantly bombarded with interruptions and distractions all day long making it very hard to focus and clear off a to-do list.  They come from all directions: phones, emails, social media, urgent events, other people and even yourself!  It’s impossible to get top notch work done in this kind of environment, much less focus on a deeper task for any length of time.

I find it’s important to help my clients identify what exactly they are being interrupted and distracted by, thereby facilitating an increased awareness on why they are unable to get done what they need to get done, or maybe why it’s taking longer than maybe it should.  More importantly we can then identify strategies to take back control.  Many times their distractions and interruptions have become so ingrained in their routine and environment that they don’t even realize how much energy they are taking from our productivity and how much they have begun to control their life.

For clarity, distractions and interruptions are not the same.  Interruptions are things that happen TO you from something outside of yourself external.  For example a team member coming through your door wanting to talk to you or having your phone ring.

Distractions are those things that YOU allow to take you off course.  For example, checking your email, phone or Facebook account repeatedly throughout the day or shopping online aimlessly.  Distracting yourself isn’t necessarily a bad thing and, believe it or not, you actually need a bit of this in your workday to help keep you from getting bored.  But could those distractions be getting in the way of your work and productivity??

So what are your interruptions and distractions?  Here’s a quick exercise that might help answer that question: take out a sheet of paper and make two columns.  Write Interruptions on the left side and Distractions on the right side.  Now, take a few minutes to really think this through.  Be honest and on point when it comes to being clear about what takes you off-course throughout the day.  Look at the two columns when you are done… Are you truly interrupted as much as you “think” you are or do you use it as an excuse?  Are distractions something you can control more?  Then look at each item and consider a strategy to help remedy the issue.

For example; if you identify that an interruption happens every time you walk down to the copy machine (Read: the co-worker who’s desk is nearby always stops you to ask about a new policy or how to order office supplies again), then maybe it’s better to combine your copy jobs together so that you will stopped fewer times.  Or maybe the colleague who is asking the questions needs more training on a particular issue and time invested in growing them will pay dividends later.

As you begin to question your own interruptions and distractions, realize that this might bring up other questions.  Are you not challenged enough at work?  Are you bored?  Are you just “over” your job?  Or maybe you have just let the distractions get out of control? (Quite possible in these techie times, eh?!)   If you are only checking Facebook for 5 minutes or perhaps a quick game of Angry Birds… that can’t be that bad can it?  Do it once or twice a day and the answer is no.  Do it 10 to 20 times a day and now you have found that missing hour or more to go work-out, learn a language, read a book, or look for a new job.