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Shawn Stratton works with organizations to strengthen leadership skills that translate into powerful teams. Founder of the LiveMore Group, an organization that helps people maximize their potential and productivity, Shawn has designed presentations and retreats for both small businesses and large corporations, offering teams of all sizes the inspiration and tools to flourish in this unpredictable, exciting economic environment.
What Do You Need?
This is my last post before the Christmas holidays and I take a little vacation with my family (Ireland here we come!!). I want to wish you the most happiest of holidays, whatever you celebrate! I hope you are able to spend time with family and friends and give back to those less fortunate. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to read my posts and share them with your colleagues. 2017 will bring many new exciting developments to LiveMore including launching LiveMore Masterminds for Project Managers and other leadership niches, details to follow in January. It is a privilege to serve you and I promise to continue delivering high-value content through this blog and other outlets. Are your needs being met? Several times in the last three months I have felt overwhelmed with all the things I WANTED to accomplish. At the time they sure felt like a NEED but in retrospect, just about everything I thought I needed was really a WANT. My world would have carried on if they weren’t accomplished or at least not perfectly. This list entailed business projects, house projects and family time. In this uneasy time, I was not completing my work to the best of my ability and I felt like I was being a poor parent, spouse, and leadership consultant. As a person who has high expectations for myself, this was a horrible feeling that I could not tolerate for long without something breaking down in my life. Many of us with ‘first world problems’ call this survival mode, where you boil down your priorities and focus on only the most...
3 Ways to Have Accountability on Virtual Team
What happens when you see a co-worker’s desk empty? I know from my brief time working in an office that I would think they are slacking off either in a meeting, at an out of office appointment, on vacation, or dealing with a family issue. I NEVER thought “wow, they must have important work to do and found a productive place to get it completed that worked for them”. Virtual teams are a hot topic that’s not going away anytime soon. In the last few weeks, I have given two webinars for two different associations to a total of 3300 people from around the world. This has been the greatest number of attendees I have had on a webinar to date. The level of interest blew me away. One of the questions that come up the most is “How do you hold virtual team members accountable”. This is understandable as unfortunately our corporate culture has been built on ‘being seen’ and perceived effort. We have been trained to believe if we can’t see someone sitting at their desk during the allotted time they are supposed to work there, they must not be getting any work completed. In many cases, this could not be further from the truth. To keep your virtual team members and frankly all your employees accountable, there are three keys elements you can implement: Identify Values And Behaviours:Create a set of work guidelines that outline expectations in terms of core hours, availability, communication, and project tracking. Getting clear on these behaviors will help get your virtual team on the same page. This doesn’t mean you should tell employees...
Looking Backwards to go Forwards
“Far more learning comes from failure than success.” Nobody wants to fail but learning from those who do may be the fastest and easiest way to achieve success. During my career leading mountaineering and backpacking expeditions around the world, one of my favourite publications that I used to read was Accidents in North American Mountaineering. The yearly journal, published by the American Alpine Club, gave an in-depth analysis of several mountaineering accidents that happened throughout the year. You may think what a depressing read that would be. I want to hear about the people who made it to the summit. When Was The Last Time You Bought A Book On Failures? Too often, we are lured into the glamour of success. You hear about a person who has achieved great success in a project, in business, or in sports and you wonder “What did they do to achieve that? Perhaps if I do what they did, I will reach the same level of achievement”. You listen to their interviews, read their articles and books and perhaps buy their products because if you do what they did, you may reach the same level of success. Early in my entrepreneurial days, I read dozens of books on entrepreneurship and subscribed to several entrepreneurial magazines. Looking back, it seems 85% of the books and 100% of the magazines I read were about entrepreneurial success, many of which seemed like overnight accomplishments. There was little talk about business failures and the learning that comes from them. As a young entrepreneur, I started believing this business thing was going to be fairly easy as...
Shawn Stratton, Leadership Motivational Speaker and Consultant
“His use of story telling, humor and photography delivered a powerful message on the importance of finding our true passion as an indicator of success. ” -Ian Shortall read more
