Posts in: Professional Development

A key part to being a successful leader is how you manage your margins.  Successful leaders make the best use of their time each and every day.  That means that when they have small blocks of time, (expected or unexpected) these leaders are prepared to use that time to accomplish something productive.  It could be […]

We’ve all heard the saying, “actions speak louder than words”. Most of us would agree that this statement is certainly true. What we DO says more about our priorities than what we SAY. Our actions represent our values. However, it is common for leaders to say one thing and do another. We may believe that […]

As an executive coach, I am always looking for tools and visuals that will resonate with the clients that I see. One particular visual that always seems to score is a chart that outlines tasks and priorities that are urgent and those that are important.   Urgent vs. Important While the conversations are focused on the […]

By Rick Melmer Leadership Coach I remember my days as a school administrator. We would schedule professional development days for our staff members and hope that the training sessions were helpful. However, we couldn’t escape the nicknames that always hurt but also seemed appropriate for our trainings. Labels like “one and done” or “sit and get” seemed to […]

By Rick Melmer – Leadership Coach I rarely “re-read” books. Most of the time, I take a “one and done” approach to most books I read. Recently I made an exception with Chip and Dan Heath’s book entitled SWITCH. This book is a tremendous resource for leaders who are interested in making changes in their organizations and are […]

By Rick Melmer – Leadership Coach As one of the directors of the Leadership South Dakota program, I get a chance to meet 40 dynamic people each year. We travel the state, learn about South Dakota and about each other. One activity that we conduct is to ask each class member to share about “a time when my […]

By Rick Melmer – Leadership Coach Our Leadership South Dakota group had the pleasure of hearing Chief Justice David Gilbertson speak. He is a humble leader who delivered an interesting session on the inner-workings of the South Dakota Supreme Court. As you can imagine, many in the class, including me, did not have a good understanding of […]