If you were asked what made your job harder, would you answer that there’s never enough time?

This is a common theme we hear. Leaders within organizations are constantly faced with the challenge of managing their time. Pulled between the responsibility of producing and helping support those they lead; leaders often look up at their clocks and realize the day is almost over, and they haven’t checked one thing off their to-do list.

This is not just frustrating, it burns people out.

So what is there to do?

First, make your to-do list manageable. In the Fierce Delegation Model, we make it simple by creating a Five Things To Do check-list. Write down five things that you need to do, not everything on your plate, just five. Aim to have them completed by noon and if they’re not, don’t go home until there all checked off. Write down your next five things before you leave for the night, so you’re focused when you come in.

Second step is to make time to complete your list! I mean physically block time out  on your calendar. If your goal is to have your items finished by noon, don’t accept appointments from 10-12. Learn to say no. Give yourself permission to own your time and use it effectively. This will make you a stronger leader because when you’re in meetings with others you won’t be thinking about everything else you need to get done! Effective time management helps you practice the Fierce tip of the week: be here, prepared to be nowhere else.

Thirdly, recruit help from others. You are not the only leader whose time is being eaten up by putting out fires, or overloading yourself with too many things on your checklist. Like trying anything new, having a buddy helps keep you on track. You help hold each other able.

Lastly, spread the wealth. If you have too much on your plate – delegate. Delegate to develop those around you, not just to get the things you don’t want to do  off your plate. This will ensure  delegating and dispersing responsibilities will be eagerly welcomed by your team.

Time is precious, and there will always be more to do. Being an effective leader requires you to take charge of your calendar and use every moment the best way possible. Your sanity and your team will thank you for it.

Is time management an issue for you as a leader?

This week when you engage with others try to focus only on the people in front of you and let go of the distractions around you.

Think about what makes a conversation rewarding. For me, there is nothing quite like an attentive listener.

What Fierce principle can you practice to become more attentive? Be here, prepared to be nowhere else.

People can tell when you really stop listening. When your mind leaves the conversation at hand and begins to run through a to-do list or drifts to a looming deadline, that lack of presence manifests itself physically.

It’s obvious when you do this, and if done repeatedly, it can send the message that you don’t care enough about what others are saying to stop being distracted.

Don’t put yourself or those you communicate with in the position to make these kinds of assumptions. The last thing you want is for others to end a conversation with you wondering: did they really listen or care about what I had to say?

Instead, when you engage in a conversation focus on being present. Then practice staying present by being mindful of when your mind wonders away from the person in front of you.

Those around you will notice!

Fierce, Inc. had the pleasure of both presenting and exhibiting at this year’s 2012 American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) International Conference and Expo.

Thank you to all those who attended the conference and stopped by our booth.

We had a great time meeting everyone and engaging in great conversations. We were revitalized by the ideas and learning taking place around us – particularly, the Jim Collins keynote that kicked off the conference.

His message was inspiring and thought-provoking, and provided a great insight about what it means to truly be “great”.

The Fierce Tip of the Week we set out to honor at the conference was to let silence do the heavy lifting. Our team really strove to listen and have some silence exist in our  conversations.

Rather than rushing to fill the void, when so many people were processing the information, we worked to give them space. This especially was true in our Fierce Coaching and Fierce Confrontation sessions, where we were grateful to have the rooms filled to capacity with people excited to learn.

Our reward, for letting silence do the heavy lifting, was some really amazing conversations that happened in a short amount of time!

Fierce was moved by how dedicated the attendees of the conference were to professional learning and training of their employees. We can’t thank you enough for allowing us to share in your passion.

If you attended the conference, what was a highlight for you?

Fierce is excited to start a new blog series focusing on Fierce tips. Check in each week for a little food for thought!

This week Fierce is presenting and exhibiting at the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) 2012 International Conference and Expo.

We are excited to connect with others in our industry and learn more about the

Fierce, Inc. is excited to be heading to Denver, Colorado to exhibit and present at the 2012 American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) International Conference and Exposition, next week Monday, May 7th- Wednesday, May 9th.

If you are attending the conference please join us for our Fierce Coaching and Fierce Confrontation trainings, both highly effective and interactive sessions that will provide you with a skillset that you can immediately apply.

Come by our booth #644, and you can enter for a chance to win a Free Fierce Conversations Pilot.

Fierce Coaching:
Facilitated by Fierce President and CEO, Halley Bock
Monday May 7th at 2:15 pm to 3:30 pm, Room 112
Session #M21EXD.

Fierce Confrontation:
Facilitated by Fierce SVP of Training and Program Development,
Aimee Windmiller-Wood
Tuesday May 8th at 10:00 am to 11:15 am, Room 112
Session # T11EXD

For more information about Fierce’s presence at the conference click here.

We hope to see you in Denver!

Fierce is excited to share with you the first half of an article written by our Senior Vice President of Training and Product Development, Aimee Windmiller-Wood. The piece first appeared yesterday on the Training Magazine website, to read the full the article click here.

One learning and development professional’s journey as a trainer and tips on the importance of investing in your own learning and development.

I am a lifelong learner, as many of us drawn to the training profession are. When you are responsible for training and developing others, it is vital that you continue to invest in your own learning and development. In my journey as a trainer, I’ve continuously learned and honed many skills that have positively affected both my career and the careers of others.

When I landed my first job in training as manager of Stores Learning and Development at Macy’s Northwest, I knew I was “home.” I was certain this would be a fairly easy job for me and a natural fit. My wake-up call came during my second week on the job. I was asked to observe an outside vendor/trainer for experience. She ran out of content with two hours left to go and turned to me as she put the class on a 15-minute break, saying, “I am sure you can fill the remaining time with something wonderful.”

I had nothing. I was new. My bag of tricks was empty. This was the first time I realized how much I had to learn and how little I knew. I had 15 minutes to come up with two hours of content. I had to think fast.

That’s when I came up with a method I continue to use to this day. Out of desperation, I asked myself, “What would I want to have happen if I were a learner here? What have I been frustrated with in the past in courses I have taken? What would be a value add for my participants?” I put myself in the learner’s shoes. By answering these questions, I quickly decided to facilitate table discussions that aligned with the content provided earlier that day, followed with an exercise to create action plans for overcoming, fixing, or eliminating some of their identified issues. We filled the remaining two hours, and it was clear to me that not only had participants learned something, they had actively and meaningfully engaged those skills, cementing that knowledge. I also had learned something about myself—that I was capable of learning “on the fly” and putting still-evolving knowledge and skills to work in a positive way.

What did I learn in this first anxiety-ridden experience?

• People love sharing their experiences.
• Self-generated insight is not created by the facilitator doing all the talking.
• The best learning happens when people connect personal experiences directly to what is being taught.
• I don’t have to know everything in order to create a learning experience.

Because of this experience, I quickly got down to the business of learning about learning. Thankfully, there are ample resources available that help expand our knowledge, give us practical experience, and help us learn from each other. Many of those resources are free.

Have you ever said to yourself, “If they were different, my life would be better”?

Even if there is truth to the statement, where does it leave you?

When the power for change is outside of yourself, it doesn’t leave you with many productive options.

You could waste your whole life imagining how different things could be if a certain person changed the way he or she acted. However, when all is said and done, the only thing that you can change is you.

In Fierce Accountability, we explore the idea of falling into the victim cycle. We all dip our toe into the water of victimhood, it’s normal. However, immersing yourself in it can be destructive. Having an “It’s not me, it’s you” attitude is how many people get stuck living in victim.

When we place all of the blame and ownership outside of ourselves, it puts action out of reach. The first step in moving away from this attitude, and holding yourself capable of changing a situation, is to acknowledge you’re in the victim cycle.

Then, assuming you don’t like the results living in victim is producing, identify actions you can take to begin shifting the outcome. And then do it!

Is there a current situation in your life where the “It’s not me, it’s you” attitude is holding you hostage?

What steps can you take to change things for yourself?

We all have a few big conversations, both personally and professionally, that we have avoided having and regret to this day. Even though time has passed, our desire to connect with that person and share our version of the truth stays the same.

Why do we do this? Why do we avoid having the conversations that are so important to us?

One of the seven principles of a Fierce Conversation is to Tackle your Toughest Challenge today. While intellectually we may understand this, emotionally it can be far more difficult to do.

Usually the conversation is avoided because there is high emotion around the issue. It can be complicated and scary, and the outcome unclear.

Maybe the conversation is confrontational, maybe not. Either way by avoiding it, we risk losing the relationship.

So, where does this leave us?

It leaves us holding onto those conversations we haven’t had, while we watch the relationships involved move farther away from where we want them to be.

Take this moment to evaluate your relationships and explore if there are any major conversations you’re avoiding. If so, commit to tackling this tough challenge today, and move in a direction of rebuilding now.

There’s no day like the present!

Last week, I wrote a blog about how a leader needs room to fail and how providing that space, as an organization, can provide a company with leadership that truly innovates.

This week, I wanted to explore an area where leaders can begin to rise to this challenge.

As a leader, give yourself permission to question the status quo of your organization and invite your team to join in.

Organizations develop a status quo for many reasons. Those reasons range from leaders feeling pressured for time and the need to prioritize, all the way to a culture that has a “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mentality.

The problem is that companies and their cultures are living and breathing entities that change with the people that inhabit them. Policies that worked for one generation might fall on deaf ears to the next. Training that was successful for the employees of a mid-size company, might no longer be relevant once the organization grows to the size of a large corporation.

It’s leadership’s responsibility to have a forward thinking mindset – a mindset that doesn’t settle for a bare minimum attitude. And instead looks to who their current teams are now and sets out to support them with values, policies and ideas that are relevant to them.

A leader can’t create these things for their employees in a vacuum. By asking the perspectives of your team, you not only build emotional capital with your employees, you help build a more productive workforce.

Below are three easy steps to start having these conversations with your team organically.

1. Invite all Differing Perspectives

As a leader, you may think that certain training or policies are working because no one is saying differently. Have you ever really asked though? Change that now! Invite differing perspectives from within your organization to examine issues, and be thoughtful about whose perspective can really lend a fresh new point-of-view. The goal should be to get the  people who are affected by specific policies and training in the room. At Fierce, we use the Team Model to help companies have these types of conversations. You might be surprised by what you learn.

2. Ask More Questions

When an employee comes to you and has an issue with the current status quo, take this opportunity to get curious with them and ask questions about why it’s not working, and what they would do to fix it. Maybe a major overhaul isn’t even in order, and it’s a simple adjustment that can make everyone more engaged. These one-on-one opportunities with your team are great ways to, little by little, shift away from the current state of affairs towards something more meaningful.

3. Be Ready to Help the Change

If you don’t want to change a policy or training because it’s working or perhaps to change it is just unrealistic at this time, communicate this to your team. Don’t waste everyone’s energy getting feedback if you’re not going to do anything with the information. There is no quicker way to lower your emotional capital as a leader than to ask for new ideas and then ignore the input. Not only are you setting a false expectation, it might send the message that their ideas aren’t good enough. Both are outcomes that are much worse than sticking with whatever current policy you have now.

As a leader, do you think it’s your responsibility to challenge the status quo?

Each month, in partnership with Fierce in the Schools, the Learning Forward Blog will be publishing an exclusive blog for Fierce. Our guest writer is Stephanie Hirsh, the Executive Director of Learning Forward. To read more posts visit the  Learning Forward Blog, hosted by Education Week.

In my last post, I discussed Learning Forward’s board of trustees’ commitment to consensus decision-making. I got quite a bit of feedback on this topic and want to follow up from a little different angle.

Before I joined Learning Forward I was responsible for co-facilitating strategic planning in a school district. In fact, one of the deciding factors in my being hired at Learning Forward (which was then called NSDC) was my experience with strategic planning.

NSDC had just completed its first strategic plan, and the executive director and board believed it would be an advantage to have an individual who was experienced in the process.

During that first year on the job I facilitated many strategic plans for school improvement and/or professional development. The two and half day process always began with a grueling discussion of school beliefs. What were the beliefs to which we could all agree?

We were convinced it was important for each school team to have conversations about the underlying beliefs everyone had in common. We spent hours debating phrasing, like “all vs. each,” “each vs. every,” “learning vs. success,” and “achievement vs. learning.”

Years later I wrote a book on planning that also recommended beginning the process by detailing beliefs. I recalled the strategies we used to ensure we arrived at a consensus set of beliefs — because we were determined to settle on a list before we moved forward with action.

And yet over the years, I have found myself questioning the importance of this amount of time dedicated to an exercise that meant so much to so few.

When I compare all the belief statements I facilitated over the last two decades, I wonder if any school today could even locate their original beliefs that we developed together.

While I know the teams bonded over the experience, I wonder if there were more important issues for them to discuss.

Today I find myself wondering if strategic planners would be better served by bringing in a set of proposed beliefs, asking the group to identify those they can accept, and moving on to the more difficult challenges associated with making the beliefs come alive through the actions they adopt.

I wonder if spending time debating beliefs can be an excuse for failing to act. I wonder if that experience then separates rather than builds the team you want.

What are your thoughts? As a leader, is spending time getting consensus about beliefs the best use of time?