Every day you are confronted thousands of decisions – often as many as 35,000. Everything that you do is a choice, but if you spent one second for every decision, then you'd spend almost 10 hours a day just making decisions. That doesn't even include the time it would take to actually accomplish the things you choose. Luckily, the human brain has the ability to eliminate thousands of those decisions through a very simple tool: habits.
Archives: Episodes
Podcast Episodes
How to Empower Your Employees to Win
Everybody likes to win. As a business leader, winning probably includes successfully guiding your team into a profitable quarter. Here at Full Focus, we believe in the Double Win where you win at work and succeed at life.
Fresh Start for a New Year
While it might seem cliche, the new year is a perfect opportunity to set goals both personally and professionally. This is due to something called the “Fresh Start Effect”. This idea might seem more intuitive than quantitative, but the reality is that there is a lot of data behind the effectiveness of the Fresh Start Effect. Understanding how to harness the new year could be the difference between a good year and a great year.
Setting Goals That Actually Work For You
Most people don't follow through on the goals that they set for themselves. This is common knowledge. But the more important question is: Why are people struggling to achieve their goals? It turns out that some of it has to do with how we structure our goals and some of it has to do with our motivation for choosing those goals in the first place.
Start with a List
If there's one thing that a leader is good at, then it's probably making lists. More often than not, it's a to-do list of tasks that you'll probably never finish and that makes you feel like you'll never catch up (because you always add more than you can check off). But what if there were lists that made you feel good?
Change the Frame to Win the Game
As a business leader, you undoubtedly have ideas and beliefs you put into practice every day as you seek to guide your organization into the future. No matter how certain you are of these guiding beliefs, it's important to question them: How accurate are they? If they're not accurate, then how might those beliefs be hurting your business?
5 Lessons Learned from a Heart Attack
Michael Hyatt returns to the podcast after a quadruple bypass surgery. He shares the story about what led him to call for an ambulance, encourages others to listen to their bodies, and talks directly about what he's learned throughout his recovery.
How to Finish Your Year Strong
There's one month left to close out the year. That's the good news. The bad news is that December is perhaps the most overwhelming month of the year. It is simply stuffed with commitments that need your attention. With all of the parties, holidays, and year-end festivities, how do you steer your organization toward its end-of-year goals while also maintaining sanity in your life?
Modeling Gratitude for Results | Chester Elton
Some people will look at the title of this episode and immediately think, Gratitude is a soft skill that has nothing to do with the productivity and profitability of my business. Those people are very, very wrong. Don't be like those people.
The Power of Feedback | Ayelet Fishbach
Providing effective feedback is one of the most important skills that a leader needs to possess. Throughout your day, whether you realize it or not, many of your interactions are going to be about providing the actionable feedback that others need to help grow the business.
Reset Your Expectations for Meetings
“Meetings are the worst.” We've all said that at one point in time. Perhaps you even own the “I survived another meeting” coffee mug! People's complaints usually center on the idea that meetings are long, boring, and not even that useful for you or your organization.
But what if meetings themselves are actually good?
Diverse Opinions for Effective Decisions | Wendy Smith
As a leader, you might find it overwhelming to have too many voices chiming in with their opinions on an important decision. You're in charge so you should be able to decide for yourself, right? Well, it turns out that there are good reasons to encourage your employees and stakeholders to actively and equitably participate in the brainstorming process.
The Hidden Half of Decisions | Eric Johnson
As a business owner, every time that you solve a problem it probably feels like you're doing your job. But what if you're actually undermining your business's long-term potential for growth?
The Pruning Principle
Botanists will tell you to have a vision for how you want a plant to look before you start pruning it. The same is true for your life and your business.
Whether you're talking about programs, processes, personal commitments, or even people, over time, they all tend to accumulate. You simply end up with more of everything. However, overgrowth impedes your ability to scale yourself and your business. In order to grow, you're going to have to prune.
6 Essential Ingredients for Effective Strategic Planning
It's that time of year again. The weather is changing, leaves are falling off the trees, and your favorite leadership podcast is talking about Strategic Planning again.
If there’s one thing that humans do well, it’s imagining the future. (We can do it badly, too, of course.) But the important thing is that we can create better outcomes for ourselves and our businesses when we do it intentionally. That's where Strategic Planning comes in.
How to Avoid Quiet Quitting in Your Business
“Quiet quitting” seems to be the hot topic of conversation in business and leadership circles right now. But what exactly is “quiet quitting”? How can you figure out if your employees are doing it? And, perhaps most importantly, how can you create an organizational culture where your team members will feel empowered in their job?
5 Mistakes Business Owners Make When Hiring an Assistant
You spend your days managing details, scheduling meetings, and replying to emails — by the time you start on the “real work,” the workday is half over. This ends up cutting into your personal life as you try to make up for lost time. It all leads to you feeling more tired, more stressed, and less productive at work and at home. If you heed our advice, you can minimize this pain. The advice is simple: hire an executive assistant!
4 Ingredients for a Thriving Company Culture
Last week we talked about the importance of a thriving company culture. Hopefully, Michael and Megan made the case that a company culture is both important and the responsibility of the leader. We're going to continue that conversation by talking about how businesses can actually cultivate a thriving company culture – no matter where they're starting from.
Why a Thriving Culture Is Essential
Anywhere you find a group of people, you'll find a culture. That's true for families, churches, cities, neighborhoods, and anything else you can think of that includes more than one person. This idea is especially true for businesses. Leaders need to have a vision for how they want their culture to look and feel. If they don't, they could find themselves surrounded by a toxic culture that not only hurts business but makes everyone miserable.
How to Maximize the Market Value of Your Business in 8 Steps
Your business is probably the largest single asset in your portfolio. You've invested time and money, and, one day, you may want to see a healthy return on those investments. If you want to maximize the value of your business, then you should start making plans today.