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

3 – 5 Rules

May 5, 2014

We are often in the role of providing guidance to those who provide direction to others—executive, managers, community leaders, parents and coaches—and we regularly find that they have many and varied expectations and “rules” for performance. We also find that the people they are directing often report that they are constantly guessing about whether they know the rule of the day. In over twenty years of coaching and consulting, we have found that people are most successful when they have…

Dealing with Bad News

April 28, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

There comes a time in each of our lives when we are the recipient of “bad news.” You know, the news that kicks you in the gut and for that moment, the world stands still. A few of the “bad news” topics that we have supported our clients through include: the loss of a valued employee, important client, respected boss, desired promotion and promising job; the loss of a marriage, the failure of a business, the death of a parent;…

Letting People Know They Matter

April 21, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

We were recently reading our local paper and came across an article about a small group of women who have established an after-school homework club—First Door*—to serve lower income kids in third through sixth grade. First Door provides a place for these kids, who often go home to an empty house with no support for homework and school success, to have a place to go for those transitional hours before a parent gets home and have support in this critical…

Fearless vs. Reckless

April 14, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

(Although we are talking about this in an organizational setting today, you will see the necessity for similar considerations in your family life, decisions about finances, and in roles in your community.) In today’s economy, there is a lot of pressure to take risks that will increase the company’s market share and bottom line. Recently, we heard the CEO of a large, conservative financial organization state that he wants his teams to “go for it and ask forgiveness later.” And,…

Fostering Curiosity

April 7, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

We live in a world where many things are said with great certainty, as a proclamation of “truth.” Yet, in our work, we find that people in all their various roles often have more power if they can show up as curious rather than certain. One of the things we ask of our clients is to engage with a spirit of curiosity instead of certainty. We know, staying curious when you are stressed or in a hurry is easier…

Karma

March 31, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

We saw a great bumper sticker recently: How people treat you is their karma, how you respond is yours. When something happens to us, particularly if it is something that is challenging or hurtful, it’s tempting to spend a great deal of our time and energy responding to it, over and over and over again in our thoughts and in our emotions. This bumper sticker is a helpful reminder that we cannot control what others do, say, or…

The Wisdom of Africa has Touched Many of You

March 24, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

On November 25, 2013, our post focused on The Wisdom of Africa. We reflected on a simple but powerful proverb: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. In our write-up, we noted that it doesn’t say that one way or the other is right; instead it suggests that the more you can make a conscious choice about how you move in the world, the more likely you are to get where…

Having “Difficult” Conversations

March 17, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

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…