1 Sentence To Get Past Any Difficult Conversation With Honesty

You feel it but you don't want to say it.You might hurt them.You might say the wrong thing.

No matter what words you pick or what tone you use, whatever comes out of your mouth is going to be interpreted by the lens of the receiver.

You're allowed to try to get it right, but you're not allowed to belabor over the delivery.

Here's one easy sentence you can steal to precede difficult conversations:

"I care about you so much, I have to tell you this. I don't know if I'm using the right words so stick with me, I just have to make sure I am being totally honest with you because I respect you and you deserve no B.S."You can steal this and retool it for your own use, since many flavors of this work.

2 Minute Action

Pick someone in your life who needs a dosage of honesty.

• Your supervisor.
• Your direct report.
• A long-time friend.
• A salesperson you just met 2 seconds ago on the phone.

You can be honest and respectful at the same time. It's your responsibility to make sure you're both if you want to improve this planet.As always, it starts with you and it starts right now.

How To Know If Your Project Is Broken And 3 Ways To Fix It

When faced with a workload, there are basically 3 ways to address it.

You can slash tasks and agree to get less done.You can increase your capacity to do the tasks, which may mean hiring people and taking on overhead costs.You can automate and streamline processes to make work with existing resources get done faster.Thats it.

When facing crises, this might mean the stakes are high.

If that’s true, you may need to involve stakeholders to “pick your poison.”If you can’t hire more people and if you can’t decrease the workload, you’re going to have to increase speed or work extra hours to get it done.

This means your project might be broken!

If you’re working extra hours, something is broken.If your work requires heroism or martyrdom to get finished on a regular basis, your project is broken!

2 Minute Action

Take your pick of these three options. You may fine that a hybrid method works, too—using two or all three at the same time.Reply here with your hunch and let me know how you plan to execute!

Yes, Cheesy "Trust Falls" Help, But Not How You Think . . .

Have you ever done a "trust fall?"

It's the one where you close your eyes and fall backward.

The way it's supposed to work:

Your teammate catches you, even though you can't see them.

The way it works in business and life:

No one catches you. But you keep falling backward anyway.You keep falling backward until your teammates learn how to succeed.This is important, especially for entrepreneurs who are often wearing multiple hats in their work. By picking low-risk projects and letting our teams fail (without the fear of being fired), we empower them to take full responsibility for the outcomes.

The only trouble is that the first few times are not only difficult and scary, but we often get a little banged up.

This is normal.It's part of the "tax" we pay for passing on the baton so we can focus on other work.

2 Minute Action

Chris Ducker took action on this by creating what he calls his "3 Lists To Freedom" when he began outsourcing work from his business.

Create your 3 lists.

• 1st List: Things you don't like doing.
• 2nd List: Things you can't do.
• 3rd List: Things you shouldn't be doing.

These lists will help you organize and start delegating tasks to others.