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The ‘To Don’t’ List That Will Help Your ‘To Do’ List

Most of us are probably pretty good at listing our priorities for the day, week or even month.

How do you manage your 'To Do' list?

We might use a diary, notebook or MS Outlook’s Task app. Why is it then that all too often we get to the end of the day with so many of our ‘To Dos’ not done?

Interuptions and distractions come in many forms: chatty passers by, text messages, boss’s requests, over-running meetings, clients, traffic delays, conversations with team members, IT failures….

The Four Things That Make a Team Work

Watch our latest 10 minute video on the four things that make a team work.

The four things are:

1. What is a team?
2. Who should be in a team?
3. What do teams need?
4. What do the best teams do?

Do comment below if you think there are other things that we should add to the list.

Have a Nibble – For Free

We love chocolate here at Fresh Tracks (see our chocolate team building event to find out why) but too much at this time of year can be bad for our beach bodies. The good people at Graze.com have been sending us some tasty healthy alternatives and have generously offered to send our blog readers a free box. Just click here and tell graze what you love to nibble.

Try on for free by clicking on the link above

5 More Powerful Questions Every Leader Should Ask Their Team

After all the interest in our first 5 questions every leader should ask their team here are 5 more powerful questions that every leader should ask their team.

What questions would you ask your team?

…

Woodland Leadership – a unique leadership programme

When a client asked us to come up with a unique ending to their 6 month leadership programme, we decided to break with convention and exchange their hotel for a woodland habitat.

Despite the informal setting and the relaxed structure the resounding feedback was that this group feel significantly more confident as leaders.

This next generation of senior managers already spends much of their time in hotels. To conclude this programme in yet another hotel would dilute the impact and miss an opportunity to create lasting memories. Instead we began with breakfast and an intensive session exploring Insights Transformational Leadership before heading into the woods after lunch….

Free Team Building Activity – Superhero Feedback

This free fun and feel-good team building activity is great for the end of a team session or training day.

I wonder if they have checked their capes for feedback?

Overview

This is a fun and feel-good activity for the end of the session or close of the day. By encouraging feedback on individual skills it focuses on the positive aspects of the day and makes sure that everyone’s contribution is appreciated. …

You’ve got to laugh – 9 reasons why laughing is good for our health

Doctors can achieve greater success by getting to know their patients; similarly leaders will find their teams are more creative, productive and committed when they are given the freedom to have some fun.

Remember that laughing releases the body's natural opiates (beta-endorphins) and helps relieves pain.

The movie Patch Adams tells the true story of how a medical student introduces levity into a clinical profession that alienates patients from their caregivers. In the same way that doctors can achieve greater success by getting to know their patients, leaders will find their teams are more creative, productive and committed when they are given the freedom to have some fun. Furthermore there’s a wealth of scientific evidence that laughter keeps us healthy.

So here are 9 reasons why laughing is good for our health:…

5 Powerful Questions Every Leader Should Ask Their Team

Below are 5 powerful questions that every leader should ask their team.

What questions would you ask your team?

…

Make sure you use your brake before you break

Many of us are becoming accustomed to the three or four day weekend with Easter, May Day, Whitsun and Jubilee holidays falling so close together.  These enforced Bank Holidays should result in a more rested and energised work force but it seems most of us are using these long weekends not so much to take a break but instead to press lightly on the brakes, keep working and catch up on the back log.

Everybody has different ways of recharging, make sure you know your way and that you spend time doing it.

Hotels and holiday cottage owners are increasingly promoting ‘free wi-fi’ knowing that it’s a key attraction to potential guests.  Keeping in touch and being able to instantly research local restaurants or even suppliers for a forthcoming work project are high on our list of vacation priorities.  So much so that many holidaying executives report feeling anxiety when they find themselves ‘unplugged.’  And that anxiety only gets greater when they near the end of what should be a relaxing break, fearing the bulging inbox and a pile of unread papers….

Free Team Building Activity – Common Ground

This free team building activity is a light-hearted icebreaker which highlights the importance of communication.

Make sure you find time to find your team's common ground

Overview

A great icebreaker activity, this activity is best used at the beginning of the day to get participants communicating and finding out a bit more about each other. You simply ask each team/table to come up with a list as long as possible of things that all team members have in common….