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Leaders Get Rid of the Crappy Stuff

Dan Butler Has a New Book Out: Permission to be Great

Leaders Get Rid of ‘The Crappy Stuff’

When CEO Mark Parker of Nike called Apple CEO Steve Jobs for advice, Jobs told him to “get rid of the crappy stuff.”

According to Forbes, When Parker asked for advice, Jobs said: “Well, just one thing. Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.”

Leaders make a difference in the lives of others and the world. They do what has not been done before. They take people to new places. Leaders create meaningful experiences. To accomplish this, however, leaders can’t be tenacious about everything; they must focus on what matters. Take Steve Jobs’s advice to heart: identify the crappy stuff and let it go. Focus on what will produce results. Focus on what matters. 

One of the most important things a leader must do is identify what they shouldn’t do. Don’t try to do everything. Learn to say, “No.” Be proud of what you do, but be prouder of what you didn’t do. There is much wisdom in these words. 

(The above is an excerpt from my book, Along Came a Leader.)

I just finished an interview with Dan Butler for my Wired Educator Podcast. (Dan and I were fortunate enough to present at Jeff Zoul’s What Great Educators Do Differently Conference in Texas.) Dan just published an awesome new book titled Permission to be Great. In the book he discusses six areas that cause mismatches between people and their work. These mismatches cause stress and burnout.

It’s a leader’s job to remove some obstacles, take something off the plate, or as Steve Jobs put it, “Get rid of the crappy stuff.”

My challenge to you: What are you going to eliminate?

Leaders and innovators frequently talk about what they are going to start, do and finish, but there is a finite amount of time and space in a day, week and year. Just like a coffee cup, if you keep adding things will eventually spill over.

As we make plans both personally and professionally, we will certainly be adding new initiatives and goals, but what are we willing to remove?

What needs to go?

I hope you will send me an email or leave a comment below about what you plan to reduce or eliminate.

I hope you will grab a copy of Dan’s new book. It is a great book for leaders wanting to improve their culture.

I loved our conversation. It will be going live next week on The Wired Educator Podcast.)

(I like how both our books have an arrow pointing at each other’s book.)

~Kelly

Kelly Croy is an author, speaker, and educator. Want to learn more? Send an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s other podcast The Wired Educator Podcast with over 200episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader a book on personal and professional leadership, and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

 

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Appreciation Isn’t a Day

I am certain few people forgot Mother’s Day this past Sunday.

I would imagine most people knew last week was Teacher Appreciation Week.

I’m guessing few knew, though, that Principals’ Day was the previous Saturday.

All incredibly deserving of our appreciation.

Appreciation can be challenging to sincerely express.

How on Earth can we truly show appreciation to our mother? Flowers?

How do we adequately show appreciation to teachers, especially in this year of ‘what’s behind door #3’ of learning environments? Food?

How do we let principals know we are thankful for their hours of service and putting out countless fires? Elbow bump?

Obviously the answer isn’t things. Things are tokens and symbols of our appreciation.

Our appreciation of course isn’t only on a single day or even a week.

Our appreciation for others is woven into our daily conversations and interactions. It should be genuine, frequent, and first.

‘First’ is probably the most important quality. Before we begin any work, a mutual acknowledgment of some sort should be felt. We don’t have to agree on everything and won’t. We can have differences of opinions and should. We may do jobs differently, but they need to be done effectively. I see your differences, and you see mine, but we engage in the appreciation of one another. We can feel it. We know.

I see you. I see the value you bring. I acknowledge both genuinely and frequently.

Everyone deserves to feel appreciated for the work they do and the impact they make. Some frown on ‘trophies for all’ and a part of me gets that, but the bigger part of me wants to point out that appreciation and trophies are two different things. Award excellence if you wish, but always show appreciation to others.

I find it odd that to watch a server at an expensive restaurant thanked and given a generous gratuity while a cashier at a fast food restaurant, working at a hectic pace, is given nothing and too frequently treated poorly.

No one should leave work nor end their day with the feeling they are not enough.

Everyone deserves to feel appreciated and valued. You don’t have to be the MVP, Mother of the Year, or Employee of the Month for appreciation.

A colleague shared her key to appreciation: understanding others’ love languages. Knowing how others feel appreciated. Not everyone feels appreciated the same way. For instance, some people feel appreciation with words of affirmation, others would internally prefer meaningful time with you, while others scream “Feed me!” and a few will gladly take that gift card. Personalized appreciation is probably the hardest to deliver, but the the most meaningful. (You can learn more from the book  The Five Love Languages.)

I have spoken at appreciation and recognition nights. Those are indeed special, and I say let’s keep the days and weeks as we have them, but let’s all try to show genuine kindness and appreciation to one another daily. A smile and a kind word is good fuel for the soul. Be first!

~Kelly

Kelly Croy is an author, speaker, and educator. Want to learn more? Send an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s other podcast The Wired Educator Podcast with over 197 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader a book on personal and professional leadership, and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

 


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Great Leaders Care for Themselves

Great leaders care for themselves.

Whether you are the leader of a Fortune 500 company, president of a university, an organizer in your community, or a leader of your home, there is one person that if neglected, will negatively impact all those you serve and lead; that person is you.

After facing a crisis, a challenge, a monumental setback, or a scare, the most common takeaway for those involved is that they will remember to always put their family first and take care of themselves. It’s the number one lesson reported. It’s also, almost always, short-lived.

I remember the promises I made when my father died, the commitment I made after our automobile accident, and the priorities I set during quarantine. I also remember, ever so slowly, drifting away from each over time and back to overworking and over stressing.

Whether you are the leader of a Fortune 500 company, president of a university, a leader in your community, or a leader of your home, there is one person that if neglected, will negatively impact all those you serve and lead; that person is you.

The truth is we almost always go back to our old ways. Our old habits re-emerge and take over once again. We overwork ourselves. We hyper-focus on things we shouldn’t. Our families slowly but surely start to get less of our time and certainly not the best of our time. The time we give ourselves and others soon becomes whatever we can fit in, if any at all, and in short bursts at best.

Our true priorities and values soon only receive whatever is left of our day. The workout isn’t scheduled but rather squeezed in somewhere. That activity that we found such value in, the one that made us feel alive, gave us purpose and fulfillment is reduced and undervalued. Playtime with the kids and quality time with your spouse becomes infrequent.

I hope I’m wrong. I fear I’m right.

Great leaders, great humans, the happiest of people, honor their values and prioritize taking care of themselves.

It’s not selfish. 

Would you want to work for someone who treated you as poorly as you most often treat yourself?  Would you want to work for someone who talked to you the way you talk to yourself? Probably not.

Don’t allow yourself to become a statistic.

How you treat yourself becomes the example you set for all those you lead, whether it be in your home, your company, community or organization. Let others know that self care is as important as how we treat others. Remind each other to set goals and push yourself, but equally treat yourself with kindness and care.

Work hard! Set goals! Get after it! Just do it in a way that builds you up, not tear yourself down, and possibly inspires others to live in a similar way.

~Kelly

Kelly Croy is an author, speaker, and educator. Want to learn more? Send an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s other podcast The Wired Educator Podcast with over 188 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader a book on personal and professional leadership, and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

 

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FFP 042: Three Ingredients to a Better Self

The Future Focused Podcast: Episode 042 "Three Ingredients to Your Better Self"

In this episode of The Future Focused Podcast, I discuss three important ingredients to your better self.

Getting better does not happen accidentally; it takes intention and some effort. Most people focus on dieting, lifting weights, reading books, budgeting, investing and other important areas, but overlook these very three “doable” daily actions. The results are immediate.

Click here to listen to this episode. 

Knowing the three is NOT enough. I want you to hear why you need them and how to put them to use.

Jump in this podcast 14 minute podcast. Lean into what I am sharing. Put it to use.

Show Notes:

This link will take you to ALL of my social media: https://linktr.ee/kellycroy (I love Link Tree.)

Want to give your child or a child you know the gift of confidence and tools to tackle worry and anxiety? Order my new book Unthink Before Bed. It is a children’s book on mindfulness. It’s the perfect gift and bedtime book. I am so proud of it! It is a very fun read.

Kelly Croy is an author, speaker, and educator. Want to learn more? Send an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s other podcast The Wired Educator Podcast with over 188 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader a book on personal and professional leadership, and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

 

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Consistency Happens by Choice Not Chance: Schedule it!

Consistency Happens by Choice Not Chance: Schedule it!

Three hundred and eleven days. That’s as far as it went. I missed a full-year streak of closing all three rings on my Apple Watch by 54 days.

What happened?

Well, I could make the excuse that it has been 24 degrees outside for the past three days. I could defend myself and tell you about all of the projects I have been working on and how busy I’ve been. I’m sure I could come up with a lot of legitimate reasons why I missed my goal of 365 days of closing all three rings on my Apple Watch. The bottom line, however, is this: I didn’t schedule my walk. It’s that plain and simple. I worked on a couple of projects, lost track of time, and the next thing I know it’s 12:12 AM and my Apple Watch says the exercise ring didn’t close. No going back in time. No do-overs. I missed a day.

There went my streak. There went my goal.

If something is important we need to schedule it. This is true in our personal life and our professional life.

When we decide something is important we must look at where is it going to fit in the year, each month, each day? When? Where? How do we hold it accountable?

As an educator I often hear a common response to new initiatives, that it is the proverbial, “one more thing.” Why? I think it is in large part not because they don’t believe it’s important, but rather they don’t feel it is important. They don’t feel it is important because no time was reserved for it. It feels like one more thing because it was added onto a busy day, week or year.

Examine any initiative in any organization, scrutinize any successful individual’s goal and you will find a common traits.

When time is reserved for it, real time, it feels different. It feels important.

When time is reserved for it, real time, it gets accomplished.

We can say anything is important, but that doesn’t make it so. Things become important when we put them on the calendar.

Personal goals, professional goals and organizational goals might be met if we talk about them, but that is truly just a matter of chance.

We we make the choice to add them to our calendar, schedule them in our day, they happen.

That is how we make things a priority. We schedule it.

Don’t wait to celebrate the big win at the end; celebrate every mile marker along the way.

Oh, and the Apple Watch Streak? I started over. Just 364 days to go.

#culturejourney

Kelly Croy is an author, speaker, and educator. Want to learn more? Send an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s other podcast The Wired Educator Podcast with over 187 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader a book on personal and professional leadership, and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

 

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What Are YOU Talking About? Improve Your Conversations to Improve Your Life!

What Are YOU Talking About?

Conversations are a key to life, both the conversations you have with others and the conversations going on in your head. 

Conversations are essential to any relationship. Even bad conversations are better than none because they keep the line of communication open. Want better relationships? Hoping to build trust? Have more frequent and better conversations. 

I converse with others because I love people and genuinely care to learn about others’ lives. Sometimes though I have to muster up some courage to start a conversation with someone who has been cold or perhaps even off-putting in the past. It’s not easy, but I know our relationship will only improve if one of us makes the effort to start. I’m not shy, so most often it’s me, and I never regret it. I never regret starting that conversation. Every single time the conversation is what needed to happen. 

Your conversation is also key to the culture of your home, where you work, and the organizations to which you belong. What are you talking about? It’s important to know. 

Have you ever noticed some people know just the person to go to in their family if they want the whole family to know? The same is true at work. People start to identify others based on the conversations they keep. We know how others react. We know what they like to talk about. 

It’s time to check our conversation. Seriously. What are we talking about? What are we constantly hearing?

Are our conversations friendly, positive, optimistic, and engaging? Are we offering assistance to others with our words? Are we celebrating and promoting the good things others are doing? Are we finding the positive?

Or are our conversations secretive and avoiding the ears of others? Are our conversations pessimistic and negative? Are we avoiding others or challenges at work? Are we often in the midst of gossip? Are we often talking ABOUT the same person? Are our conversations focused mostly on what is broken and not working?

These are important questions because they impact where we live, where we work, and the company we keep. They impact the way we think and feel. I believe they start to bake into our DNA and change who we really are and determine the person we will become.

I’m guilty. I take a walk almost every single day with my wife. Awhile back ago I realized I was starting the conversation on our walks with a similar negative focus. I was venting some frustrations, which would be fine but it was souring our walks. Truly! I had to change the focus. I had to change my tone. I needed to listen more and talk less.   My wife is a saint. I don’t want to waste that precious time of the day with her on negativity. That time is precious. When the conversation improves, our walks improve. I occasionally need a nudge. The same is true everywhere in life. Everywhere. 

The conversations we have with ourselves are even more important. Self-talk is real, and it’s powerful. I read James Loehr’s book The New Toughness Training for Sports. He studied Olympic athletes and found most self-talk was negative and had a detrimental impact on their performance. He further studied how athletes overcame it with great intention and practice crafting precise phrasings when making an error to maintain control, recover, and improve. 

Words have power and influence. We should choose them carefully for ourselves and when conversing with others.

I’m not suggesting that people never vent and authentically share frustration; I’m just recommending we don’t live there and make it our home.  

Some people see themselves as the person who points out what’s wrong. They think that this is their special gift to the world. Well, unless there is a solution accompanying it, then it is most likely less than helpful and could be becoming toxic with others.

I am always extra nice to clerks and attendants when I go out because I witness how others treat them. Write often it’s horrible. I cannot imagine being on the receiving end of everyone’s frustration, complaints, and even sighs. I try to make their day. 

It is our conversations that strengthen relationships, our jobs, our families, and our friendships. 

I encourage you to check your conversation. I’m doing just that. I’m turning the television off when the conversation has been on one topic for too long. I’m changing the conversation with family members when we get in the “what’s wrong with this world” trap. I change the conversation at work if it’s not helping us move in the direction we want to go, and believe me, others have to do it with me as well. 

Conversations are crucial to improving the world we live in, the happiness of our homes, and the culture of where we work. We are a part of each. We must help shape those conversations with intention, positivity, solution, and a fun attitude. 

#culturejourney

Kelly Croy is an author, speaker, and educator. Want to learn more? Send an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s other podcast The Wired Educator Podcast with over 186 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader a book on personal and professional leadership, and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

 

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FFP 041: It’s Not Time For That. Yet!

How to Stay Focused and Finish

In this episode of The Future Focused Podcast, I talk about how to deal with lots of ideas and projects competing for your time.

I have been working hard on the skill of finishing. I get a lot of creative ideas. I take on a lot of projects and responsibilities. While all of that is good, I must finish what I start to get the results I and others need. So how can you stay focused when your brain gets flooded with other cool ideas, or others request your time for their project? Well, it can be a challenge, but I have found a few strategies that help me, and I think they might help you too.

Hit play and take a listen to this ten-minute podcast.

Click here to listen to this episode.

Thank you for listening. I hope you will subscribe and leave a review.

Happy New Year!

Kelly

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This link will take you to ALL of my social media: https://linktr.ee/kellycroy (I love Link Tree.)

Want to give your child or a child you know the gift of confidence and tools to tackle worry and anxiety? Order my new book Unthink Before Bed. It is a children’s book on mindfulness. It’s the perfect gift and bedtime book. I am so proud of it! It is a very fun read.

Kelly Croy is an author, speaker, and educator. Want to learn more? Send an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s other podcast The Wired Educator Podcast with over 184 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader a book on personal and professional leadership, and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

 

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Join me Sunday, January 3, 2021 for Read-Aloud of Unthink Before Bed!

Join me this Sunday, January 3, 2021 for Read-Aloud of Unthink Before Bed!

My dog, Jedi, and I will be doing a read-aloud of our book, Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness this Sunday, January 21, at 7:00 PM on Facebook Live.

All you need to do is ‘like’ my Facebook page www.Facebook.com/kellyshawncroy. At 7:00 PM EST I will broadcast a live read aloud of our book, answer some questions, and you can even meet my dog. I might even draw a picture.

The entire broadcast will last just 30 minutes.

This is 100% free and 100% fun. I hope parents join with their children to start the first week back just right!

Thanks for considering.

Kelly

Want to give your child or a child you know the gift of confidence and tools to tackle worry and anxiety? Order my new book Unthink Before Bed. It is a children’s book on mindfulness. It’s the perfect gift and bedtime book. I am so proud of it! It is a very fun read.

Kelly Croy is an author, speaker, and educator. Want to learn more? Send an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s other podcast The Wired Educator Podcast with over 180 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader a book on personal and professional leadership, and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram