Tag Archives: keynote

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FFP 035: Leading in a Time of Crisis

“Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.” Wise words by American novelist, James Lane Allen, and words each of us should reflect on deeply during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, more than any other time in our lifetime, we need leadership. We not only need leadership; we need more leaders. We need more people to stand up, speak up, and take action.

This episode of The Future Focused Podcast is a live recording of a Facebook Live presentation I did earlier in the week. I focus on how to lead in a time of crisis. I review the six core elements of leadership as they apply to a crisis. I reflect on the importance of both our circle of focus and mindfulness. I offer my advice on how to lead yourself, your home, your business, and your community.

This recording has already made an impact when it went live. The comments I received immediately told me I needed to share it out in podcast form, so people could listen while they drive, do chores, and workout.

Thank you for taking the time to listen. Thank you for being a leader. I hope you will share this out and reach out to me.

Stay safe and healthy friends.

You are a leader. This is our time. Our best days are ahead of us, not behind us.

Kelly

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Future Focused Podcast.

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 148 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

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FFP 034: Innovation’s Greatest Challenge

Leaders are Innovators! What is innovation? How to Overcome Innovation's Greatest Challenge!

This episode of The Future Focused Podcast was recorded before most COVID-19 restrictions. I have been unable to post it due to work and family obligations from the COVID-19 pandemic. I am excited to share it with you now. I believe it is timely, but the intro oddly does not reference the current state of our global situation well.

This episode of The Future Focused Podcast is all about innovation. Innovation is a buzz word that quite often gets misused or tossed around without people fully understanding it. The purpose of this episode is to define what innovation really is, how it plays an important role in leadership, and I’ll identify innovation’s greatest challenge. By the end of the episode, you will fully understand what innovation is and will be excited to make it a part of your leadership style.

People admire innovators. People want to hire innovators. People want to become innovators.

Listen to this episode and learn what true innovation is, why it escapes so many, and what a leader can do to make innovation part of their organization’s culture.

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Future Focused Podcast.

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 148 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

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FFP 033: Leadership Agility

How agile are you as a leader? It’s important to know.

There are a lot of important leadership traits leaders need, but how is your leadership agility? Our current time and our future as a leader is demanding that leadership inside the home, community and within any organization be agile. Not sure what leadership agility is? You’re not only going to find out in this episode, but you’re also going to learn how to summon it and apply to get ahead.

One observation that I repeatedly reflect on as leaders share their goals, challenges, and success, is their necessity to be able to move from one challenge to another quickly and make solid leadership decisions. All shared the enormous variety of issues and responsibilities that a leader must tackle daily.

This ten-minute episode will help you improve as a leader in big ways.

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 148 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

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FFP 032: Basic Beats Sophisticated!

Crush Your Goals! Complete Your List! Get Results!

Are you tired of writing down the same goals every year? Listing the same to-do items on your list every day? Not making gains in the areas of life that mean the most to you? If you really want to make progress, this is the episode for you.

This episode of the Future Focused Podcast to help you level-up your leadership and design a more dynamic life.

We live in a time that can provide us with a vast amount of information instantly on any topic we choose! We can consume vasts amounts of information easily, quickly, readily. It really is an amazing time, but I caution you: Information only goes as far as our commitment to putting it into action. It’s our application of the information that increases productivity and success. That is what this podcast is all about!

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 148 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

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Plant the Flag! Leaders Celebrate Wins!

Great Leaders Celebrate and Promote The Accomplishments Within Their Organization. Big or Small!

One of the greatest actions you can take as a leader is to celebrate and promote the people within your organization and their wonderful accomplishments. Too often leaders move on to the next initiative, the next goal, the next task, or the next challenge, without planting the flag and saying, “We did it!”

People within your organization need to know that the work they did was good. If we don’t celebrate what we do from time to time, how will people know they are doing the right work? 

Everyone seeks feelings of purpose and fulfillment. When leaders take the time to celebrate an accomplishment they are sending an incredibly important message to everyone in the organization.

Planting the flag is celebrating an accomplishment within your organization. It is a very important type of communication. It tells everyone that they are: on the right track, doing good work, an important contributor to the organization, part of a team, they matter, noticed and recognized, needed, and appreciated.  

Good leaders celebrate big milestones and achievements. Great leaders also celebrate their accomplishments along the way too. Great celebrate the big and the small, the group and the individual. 

Planting the flag should be a crucial part of the culture journey of every organization. Even when you are clearly ‘not where you want to be’ leaders need to let people know they have made some progress, even the smallest percentage of improvement in the desired direction. Planting the flag is valuable feedback, a morale boost, and models excellent behavior in an organization. 

Planting the flag is the opposite of complaining and gossiping. It teaches everyone in your organization to work hard, have fun, and celebrate one another.  

Leadership Challenge: Make a list right where you needed to plant the flag. What accomplishments big or small should you be celebrating?

Here are 6 Ideas for Celebrating Others:

1) Take a “Themsie” and send it to them. There are a lot of selfies being taken, but I think you should take a themsie. Maybe I have coined a new term, but it’s an old school thought. Take a picture of someone, have it printed and mail it to them. Sure you can post it on social media too. That’s great, but there is something magical in a tangible photograph.  I have an app on my phone that allows me to send the picture to a printer, have it laminated and mailed via USPS, with a personal note from me. It’s awesome.

2) Mail them a newspaper clipping.  Yes, this is a really old school method.  I enjoy it when someone shares a post on social media, but getting a positive clipping in the mail is still really cool and classy. My real estate agent and financial advisor both send news clippings when I make the paper. I use to keep a bulletin board of clippings of my students’ successes and sent photocopies home from the paper. (Shares and retweets on social media are pretty awesome too. You can take a screenshot of something great and say, “I see you. Nice job,” in an email.)

3) Make your social media 3:1.  For everything positive post about yourself, post three about others.

4) Personal notes are the best! Everybody loves a handwritten note, or a phone call, or text message remembering them. Experiment with many ways to celebrate others.

5) Nominate them! Nominate people in your organization for their outstanding work. There are all sorts of recognitions and awards available, the truth is most people don’t look for them, and even fewer actually submit. Submit! Even if the person doesn’t win it, just think of how awesome they will feel that you took the time to nominate them. They will feel valued. You can always create your own award too. 

6) Conversation: It never ceases to surprise me how few conversations people have with others at work. Just sitting down with someone and asking a question and pointing out how awesome they do something is an incredible celebration and recognition. It is the most authentic form of celebration you can give.

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 148 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

Follow me on Twitter @kellycroy and my hashtag #LeadEveryDay.

 

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Authenticity is Essential for Leaders!

The Future Focused Podcast Episode 29

In this episode of the Future Focused Podcast, I explain why authenticity is essential to leadership and how we can build and keep our authenticity.

When asked what is the most important action a person can take to improve as a leader, I always answer with build trust. The best way to build sustainable trust is through authenticity, and the fastest way to destroy trust is to demonstrate a lack of authenticity.

One of the most important ways we can build trust is by living in authentic life. Authenticity is the glue that holds leadership together without it a leader falls apart.

Show me someone who has failed as a leader at an epic level whether on television, in the newspaper, in politics, or anywhere, and I’ll tell you someone who has a problem with authenticity. They simply lived one way but let others believe they were living another. Once people recognize you are not who you say you are, they will no longer allow themselves to be influenced or led by you.  

I’ve written about the six core elements of leadership and authenticity is the sixth. You could be super strong and all the other five but be weak and authenticity and the rest will crumble. 

You need to know your values. You need to proclaim your values. And most importantly you need to live your values. I find so many people who want to be great leaders and yet they do not do any of these three. They don’t truly know what they value. They don’t let people know what they value. And therefore they can’t what they value. They are all over the place.  Living our values is what other people see and that is how we build trust with them.

This episode will help you become a better leader.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy week to level-up your leadership and design a dynamic life.

You are awesome!

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 148 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

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FFP 027: Everyone Benefits from Coaching

Hosted by Kelly Croy, Featuring Zach Rondot

In this episode of The Future Focused Podcast, I delve deep into the possibilities of coaching. Too many people have a previously conceived negative mindset about coaching, or if interested have ruled out any possibility that coaching would be possible for their goal or their budget. I not only believe that everyone can benefit from coaching, I truly believe everyone should and can have a coach!

Everyone can have a coach, too!

I believe that most people never reach their maximum potential unless they are coached.

I also believe EVERYONE can have a coach!

On recent episodes of the Future Focused Podcast, I have talked about the 5 types of people everyone needs in their life. I shared that having these 5 people reduces stress, frustration and overwhelm, and leads to faster and greater success than imagined.

One of those five people needed is a coach.

This episode not only highlights the importance of a coach in your life but also illustrates how anyone, and I mean anyone, can get one, and why everyone should.

Someone reading this right now saying… I don’t need one. That person’s success will be stunted and limited. They’ll never reach their optimum potential.

Mentioned in this episode:

Sign-up for my free newsletter: To help you kick off the new year and to help you reach your goals and resolutions this year, I am giving away a free copy of my 64-page eBook, The Greatest Year of Your Life (2020 Edition) to everyone who signs up for my newsletter. Become more productive. Get things done. Level-up your leadership. Design a more dynamic life. All you have to do to receive the free copy is to sign-up for my free newsletter. Just click this link and enter your email. That’s it. It’s that simple. This eBook is available only until January 15, 2020.

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Coaching Application: Would you like to work with me to help you achieve your goal of publishing a book, building a website, hosting a podcast, starting a business, becoming a speaker, or achieving another awesome life goal? Complete the following application before January 15, 2020. One lucky applicant will win free coaching. Here is the application: https://forms.gle/762GxbJ8b5oD8xEK9 
Wishing you much success!
May your 2020 be filled with good health and happiness, peace and prosperity, much love and laughter.
Kelly
Looking for a dynamic speaker for your event? • Kelly Croy is an author, speaker and educator. Want to learn more? Send me an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s other podcast The Wired Educator Podcast with over 148 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

 

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Five Tools I Use for Note-Taking, Journaling and Organizing My Ideas

I have been journaling now for over 20 years. I use my journal to improve my life by taking notes, planning projects, reflecting on successes and failures, brainstorming ideas, planning books, writing speeches, capturing magical moments with my family and so much more.

My process has evolved over the years. The very first year I wrote things down in a spiral notebook just like the one you would use in a high school classroom. Now my notes sync electronically across all of my devices and a plan special projects in a leather Moleskine journal.

For day-to-day journaling, I use:

• Day One: Day One is an electronic journal that is on all of my devices. It is passcode and security protected. It prompts me each day to write an entry. I have multiple journals inside the app. One for my personal life, one for work, and a Kudos journal to inspire and improve my mindset. I really like Day One. It has a lot of advanced features and it is searchable. Easy to find what you are looking for with a quick search. You can include photos, sketches, text, voice and more. I highly recommend Day One. The best journal is the one you have with you, and Day One is on your iPhone, your Apple Watch, your iPad, and Your MacBook.

• Moleskine Journal: I like to use paper and pen sometimes to plan projects although my iPad and the Apple Pencil are replacing this need more frequently. The best physical journal is this Moleskine Journal: My journal of choice is: extra-large, softcover, Moleskine Carnet ligne’ lined 192 paged journal measuring 7 and 1/2 inches by 9 and 3/4 inches. I know because I have tried them all.

For Note-Taking and Sketch-noting: 

• GoodNotes: GoodNotes is the app I use with my iPad and Apple Pencil for note-taking. The ability to use the Apple Pencil and write with it makes it awesome! It’s searchable and versatile. You can create notebooks or quick notes. It has so many great features and lots of incredible templates. GoodNotes is the tool that is quickly replacing my Moleskine Journal for everything. It syncs with all of my devices so ALL of my notes are with me wherever I go. They are on my phone, iPad, and MacBook. They look great and it is perfect for sketch noting too. You can even search handwritten words and you can also convert handwriting to typed text. I take my iPad to meetings or work on my notes or review wherever I go.

• Procreate: Procreate is the best app for creating art. Boom! I said it. I have tried every art app imaginable. Procreate is fun, easy to use and powerful. I love Procreate. I do all of my art here now except for my painting, and even my paintings begin here as sketches. I sometimes use Procreate for Sketch-noting.

• Drafts: Drafts is an app I use to quickly capture and idea for a blog post or crudely capture a thought that enters my head while listening to a blog post. Everything inside my Drafts app is captured quickly, crudely, and is reviewed and put into one of my other tools later. I also store hashtags and other copy that I will tweet, or copy and paste into something else on a regular basis. Drafts is where I dump my brain. I really enjoy it.

I’ll share how I put these tools to work in a later post.

You can use these tools to level-up your journaling and note-taking game to become more productive and successful.

Reach out to me with any questions you may have.

Kelly

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Looking for a dynamic speaker for your event? • Kelly Croy is an author, speaker and educator. Want to learn more? Send me an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s other podcast The Wired Educator Podcast with over 150 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram