Leadership preparedness is about anticipating. As I prepare for an upcoming canoe trip, I share four things that can help us all be better prepared to lead our teams on the next big adventure.

The post Leadership Preparedness: 4 Things to Keep in Mind on your Next New Adventure appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

A neighbor unexpectedly appeared at my door and wanted to come in. Was I ready? What if someone wanted to visit the teams we lead? What leadership messes would we want to get cleaned up?

The post Cleaning House: 5 Leadership Messes to Clean Up Before You Let the Neighbors In appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

“I will let your son burn the pancakes.” This is what I tell visiting parents who are trying to decide if their boy should join our Scout Troop. What I’m really telling them is that we do our best to empower the boys, and that the process can be messy. Here’s my thinking on that […]

The post Burning the Pancakes: 7 Steps to Empowerment appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

Being the leader is a challenge, but it can be even more challenging when you have new people join the team who don’t yet know how to contribute.  In the next two minutes I’m going to show you a way to pull the new guys on to the team and quickly turn them into productive […]

The post How to Train the New Guy appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

Have you ever been getting ready to do something important, then forgot to take care of one critical thing?  That almost happened to me a couple weeks ago.  Fortunately, there was a technique we used that saved us some embarrassment and helped make sure things went smoothly.  It’s called the Pre-execution Checklist, and today we’re […]

The post Get it Right with a Pre-Execution Checklist appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

  Have you ever been in a meeting when a tired topic comes up yet again, there’s discussion, then the topic changes, and you get that sinking feeling that at next week’s meeting the same thing will happen? It seems like you never get any closer to resolving the issue.  If so, it is quite […]

The post Avoid the BOGSAT and Make Your Meetings Productive appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

This video introduces the acronym SMART as a tool to help you take your vision or idea and turn it into a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Taking the time to establish clear goals is the critical first step in making them become real. By using SMART Goals you can be […]

The post How to set SMART Goals appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

Now that you see the true value of delegating well, and have a handle on the kinds of tasks that are best to delegate, we get down to the business of choosing someone to delegate to, and the process of how to delegate the task in a way that is structured, thorough, developmental, and practical. […]

The post Delegation, Part 3: Who, How to Delegate? appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

Knowing what to delegate makes all the difference in the world. The the thing is to remember that it’s not just about clearing your calendar so you can focus on those key leadership tasks, it’s also about choosing tasks that your teammates will be energized about doing and that will make your organization stronger by providing greater […]

The post Delegation, Part 2: What to Delegate? appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

Things don’t always turn out the way we plan.  Key people show up late, come down with the flu, miss the flight.  Suddenly there is a leadership vacuum.  People start to drift, time is lost, confusion and frustration set in.  Something needs to happen quickly to get things back on track.  Here’s a recent story […]

The post Surviving a Leadership Vacuum appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.