Blog - Carpenter Smith Consulting, LLC

A Simple Trick To Create A Great Leadership Team

February 12, 2018

We’re currently working with a number of organizations with relatively new leadership teams. As is often the case, the people on these teams have made their way up the organizational ladder because they have succeeded in their department or in a specific area of expertise. While it makes sense that they would move up in leadership as their skills grow, the transition to higher levels of leadership requires a major shift in their approach and mindset. In particular, they need to…

Effective Delegation Is Not Micromanaging

February 5, 2018

Monday Morning Business Coach

This is the follow-up to the 3 Steps to Delegate Effectively which we re-shared last week; we thought this follow-up should be re-shared as well. We heard from several of you that you were concerned that if you used our 3 Steps to Delegate Effectively, it would be experienced by others as micromanaging. Delegation 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…

3 Steps to Effective Delegation

January 29, 2018

Monday Morning Business Coach

As coaches and consultants, we find that many 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 do, and they don’t get the results they hoped for, they give up and just heap the task onto…

Your Dream Team

January 22, 2018

Monday Morning Business Coach

One of the biggest frustrations we hear from people in leadership is that they have to be available to their teams “all the time” to answer questions and solve problems. They say that they read about dream teams that know how to move forward in the face of challenges but their team just doesn’t get it. When we ask them to share some examples of how this plays out, we often hear a long history of our client (as team…

Oprah

January 15, 2018

Monday Morning Business Coach

Today is Martin Luther King Jr, and to honor his work around civil rights, we want to share with you a present-day voice advocating for a better world. On January 7th at the Golden Globes, Oprah gave a powerful speech about the importance of speaking up. The speech she gave was moving, and the reaction of the audience was equally, if not more, moving. You see, as Oprah spoke, her words fueled their hopes and their conviction for a better…

Provide Powerful Input

January 8, 2018

Monday Morning Business Coach

There is a big difference between sharing your opinion and giving credible input and knowing that difference can have a powerful impact on your success. Giving relevant, useful input is an important skill that requires practice and thoughtfulness. Without a framework for giving input on a question or issue, many of us get anxious and then resort to giving our opinion. Yet, when decision-makers look to you for your expertise, they generally don’t want your opinion—they want useful input.…

Teach Others Who You Are

January 1, 2018

Monday Morning Business Coach

Welcome to 2018! We know that 2017 was a challenging year for many of you for various reasons and that you’re excited about the new year. Unfortunately, the change of date alone won’t provide a change in your life. BUT what will change your life is changing the way you go about leading your life and leading in your life. In our December 11th post, Take Small Steps, we offered you a simple tool to begin to think about the areas of your life…

The Gifts You Offer

December 25, 2017

Monday Morning Business Coach

It’s December 25th, defined as Christmas Day by much of the world. Some celebrate the religious meaning of Christmas, others celebrate family and friends, and some just think of the day as the 25th of December with no meaning attached. Whatever your relationship with December 25th, we wanted to take this opportunity to get you thinking about the gifts you bring to the world. You have your own unique gifts – the ways you love, lead, provide, support, enlighten, build,…

Starting Your Small Steps

December 18, 2017

Monday Morning Business Coach

In last week’s post, Take Small Steps, we invited you to take a few minutes to reflect on your vision for your life – what it would look like at a 10 – and how that vision compares with your actual life. We’ve heard from many of you that you found the exercise helpful yet are concerned that, despite the best of intentions, you won’t make the time to take the small steps that will lead you to a life…

Take Small Steps

December 11, 2017

Monday Morning Business Coach

Those of you who know us, know that we believe deeply that change occurs in small steps made consistently over time. As much as we all wish we could make one big leap into a new life, greater success, more money, etc., for most of us, true change is about taking small steps consistently over time toward creating a life and work that matters to you. Today we are celebrating 6 years of the Monday Morning Business Coach! That’s three…